Is Birmingham going downhill as a destination?....

[Athy]

18 minutes ago, WotEver said:

The fact that now you HAVE to, I guess. In the past it was easier to be lazy and say "post 63"

In what way does being precise and informative equate to being "lazy"?

To save you having to answer that yourself, in case you're feeling lazy, I'll tell you: in no way whatsoever.

[WotEver]

9 minutes ago, Athy said:

In what way does being precise and informative equate to being "lazy"?

To save you having to answer that yourself, in case you're feeling lazy, I'll tell you: in no way whatsoever.

But you are so wrong. 

Naming a number is lazier than copying and pasting a link thus:

 

[Athy]

Thank you for expressing your opinion, to which you are of course entitled.

[Jerra]

50 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I have nothing against post numbers but if they return and folk use them instead of the superior link functionality then I certainly shan't be trawling back through the thread looking for their number. 

Absolutely 

Without numbers to help me find the post to quote I wont be trawling back to find the post to quote I will merely be saying "as pointed out by somebody earlier".

[WotEver]

Just now, Jerra said:

Without numbers to help me find the post to quote I wont be trawling back to find the post to quote I will merely be saying "as pointed out by somebody earlier".

So how would numbers have made that any different? Do you have an eidetic memory of the number of every post? 

If you want to refer to an earlier post you first have to find it. Numbers don't make that any easier. Having now found it you can be lazy and say to yourself "Right, it's post number 63" or you can copy the link. Neither method makes finding the original post any easier. 

[Jerra]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

So how would numbers have made that any different? Do you have an eidetic memory of the number of every post? 

If you want to refer to an earlier post you first have to find it. Numbers don't make that any easier. Having now found it you can be lazy and say to yourself "Right, it's post number 63" or you can copy the link. Neither method makes finding the original post any easier. 

Because "as I said earlier in the thread"   I can generally remember that it was "in the region of 60 to 80" or "around 500" etc.  Without that memory I would have to trawl through tens of pages e.g. Brexit has 89 pages.

[WotEver]

2 minutes ago, Jerra said:

Because "as I said earlier in the thread"   I can generally remember that it was "in the region of 60 to 80" or "around 500" etc.  Without that memory I would have to trawl through tens of pages e.g. Brexit has 89 pages.

As there are 20 posts to a page, knowing it was in the region of 60 to 80 means it'll probably be on page 3 or 4, around 500 then page 25 - how is that any different with or without post numbers?

[Jerra]

15 minutes ago, WotEver said:

As there are 20 posts to a page, knowing it was in the region of 60 to 80 means it'll probably be on page 3 or 4, around 500 then page 25 - how is that any different with or without post numbers?

Two points firstly MtB says there are 25 posts to a page both of you cant be right.   Secondly with out the numbers I cant have the memory of what number post it was as it is just another post in among all the other pages and so don't know it will be on page 3 or 4.   Believe me (you probably wont) I have tried to find posts under the new system and have found it almost impossible.  perhaps it is just the way my brain works but the numbers do help me.

[Dave_P]

12 minutes ago, Jerra said:

Two points firstly MtB says there are 25 posts to a page both of you cant be right.   Secondly with out the numbers I cant have the memory of what number post it was as it is just another post in among all the other pages and so don't know it will be on page 3 or 4.   Believe me (you probably wont) I have tried to find posts under the new system and have found it almost impossible.  perhaps it is just the way my brain works but the numbers do help me.

I must admit I never realised that posters were reading through threads while remembering post numbers at the same time.  I am a little gobsmacked that people were doing this but can see why the loss of the numbers would be a problem in that case.

[WotEver]

13 minutes ago, Jerra said:

MtB says there are 25 posts to a page both of you cant be right.

MtB is right and I'm wrong. See, I've never been able to see post numbers on the mobile skin so I was going from memory of having counted them once. 

Same difference though, post 30 would be on page 2 and post 500 would be on page 19. 

[Dave_P]

p.s. it's 25 posts per page

[WotEver]

1 minute ago, Dave_P said:

I must admit I never realised that posters were reading through threads while remembering post numbers at the same time.  I am a little gobsmacked that people were doing this but can see why the loss of the numbers would be a problem in that case.

Well yes. I didn't know there were that many posters with eidetic memory. 

[Jerra]

Just now, WotEver said:

MtB is right and I'm wrong. See, I've never been able to see post numbers on the mobile skin so I was going from memory of having counted them once. 

Same difference though, post 30 would be on page 2 and post 500 would be on page 19. 

But as I pointed out I have no way (without numbers) of remembering roughly where I need to start to look.   When posts are are numbered I have a rough idea of where they were numerically.

I suspect we will just have to agree to disagree but I would say the presence of a post number should be no problem to those who dont want it/need it, yet a great help to those of us who do.

[Athy]

Could one of our more boffy members please explain the use of the word "skin" in this context? In a printing context, I have only met it as the term used for the blank sheet which is inserted in a typewriter for typing a document which will be duplicated using a Gestetner - a piece of equipment which I suspect is rarely encountered nowadays.

[WotEver]

8 minutes ago, Athy said:

Could one of our more boffy members please explain the use of the word "skin" in this context?

It's what we, the users, see and navigate with. It determines colour, layout etc and has no effect on the underlying mechanism by which the forum operates. 

Put differently, two different skins could appear quite different to each other but the basic underlying function of the site would be essentially identical. 

On the old site the mobile skin removed a lot of functionality (like post numbers, which is why I'm indifferent to them) but it was the same forum I was posting to. 

[Athy]

Thanks - I sort of understand!

So, it's like the skin on our bodies in that it covers the working parts which lie beneath it?

[WotEver]

26 minutes ago, Athy said:

Thanks - I sort of understand!

So, it's like the skin on our bodies in that it covers the working parts which lie beneath it?

Just so. We all look different but we all function (fundamentally) in the same way. 

[WotEver]

Another word or, rather, acronym you might come across is GUI. It stands for 'Graphical User Interface' and an example of it would be Microsoft Windows. We don't have to spend all our time typing 101101001 because the GUI gives us pretty pictures and ascii code that converts all that into something that yumans understand. 

[Athy]

Oooh, I was just mildly congratulating myself on making a breakthrough in my scientific understanding, and you go and baffle me again! But thank you anyway.

[Jess--]

16 hours ago, Athy said:

Does your house have a number? Do you not find that this makes it easier for people to find where you live?

an unusual one here...

No number on the house (although it is named) but to confuse things the road it is on has no name, so my address is "house name", "village name"
and of course to really confuse things the named village is 3 miles away.

generally our instructions for people trying to get here are "use satnav, then look for the aerial mast"

[WotEver]

8 minutes ago, Jess-- said:

an unusual one here...

No number on the house (although it is named) but to confuse things the road it is on has no name, so my address is "house name", "village name"
and of course to really confuse things the named village is 3 miles away.

generally our instructions for people trying to get here are "use satnav, then look for the aerial mast"

So if you could program their satnav with a wormhole direct to your house this would be good, yes?  Far better than a number (if you had one). 

[Athy]

13 minutes ago, Jess-- said:

an unusual one here...

No number on the house (although it is named) but to confuse things the road it is on has no name, so my address is "house name", "village name"

 

Yes, I had one of those for several years: The West Lodge, Pendell Court, Bletchingley, Surrey. The postman knew where it was but other people had more difficulty finding it!

Edited to add: no Satnavs in 1988!

[Wanderer Vagabond]

2 hours ago, Jerra said:

Without numbers to help me find the post to quote I wont be trawling back to find the post to quote I will merely be saying "as pointed out by somebody earlier".

In all honesty though, the difference between you saying "as pointed out by someone else" or giving a post number is largely academic. If you provide a link in your new post to the other post people will read it, if you just say "back on #526 on the Brexit thread" do you seriously think anyone else is going to be bothered to look for it?

[Jerra]

21 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

In all honesty though, the difference between you saying "as pointed out by someone else" or giving a post number is largely academic. If you provide a link in your new post to the other post people will read it, if you just say "back on #526 on the Brexit thread" do you seriously think anyone else is going to be bothered to look for it?

I can only judge by what I do which is yes I do follow it.  However you are missing the point.   With post numbers I (That may be me alone on the forum) can find the post to quote it, without the numbers I find it too much of a hassel.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

32 minutes ago, Jerra said:

I can only judge by what I do which is yes I do follow it.  However you are missing the point.   With post numbers I (That may be me alone on the forum) can find the post to quote it, without the numbers I find it too much of a hassel.

I have to say that I'm a bit indifferent to the post numbers but I'm not quite sure how finding the post to quote it is assisted by the number. You would have to have the number in the first place wouldn't you? I can see an argument for saying "on page 53 of the thread you said......." since that just gives me one page of postings to check but if for instance someone posted," in #1754 of the Brexit thread you said...." it would, I'm afraid fall into the CBA category