Messages for Moderators

14 posts · 7 participants · started Jul 6, 2016, 3:40 AM

1. M

   Moderator-2Moderator
   Jul 6, 2016, 3:40 AM

   Dear Forum Participants,

   This thread has been started by the Forum moderators in response to a request that they be more accessible and approachable to participants who want to ask questions, make suggestions, make constructive criticisms, or just tell us that we’re doing a reasonable job! So please feel free to express your queries, ideas, or concerns on this thread and we will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

   Just a reminder that we are volunteers and consequently we may not be able to respond to your ideas or requests as promptly as they deserve. Please exercise patience and tolerance towards us and we will strive to make your experience on the forums a fulfilling one!

   Happy reading and posting!

   The Moderators  

2. B

   BonitaParticipant
   Jul 6, 2016, 12:58 PM

   Do you have any idea what is going on with the search engine?  It has changed and it is terrible.  Really terrible.  It gives quotes in random order in the book and each quote is repeated twice within the same entry.  Also, each entry begins with three dots which makes you wonder if it’s the beginning of the quote or the middle, so to read each quote you have to click the link to the text, which is a pain.  Is it going to stay that way?  If so, I find it practically unusable and it had been my go-to search engine for years.  Please tell me it’s a work in progress.

    

3. NN

   Nigel NunnParticipant
   Jul 6, 2016, 4:00 PM

   Clearly changes are happening.  I was about to congratulate all concerned about the recent speed-up of the forum (at least for my version of Internet Explorer).  But my enthusiasm faded as I wrestled with the forum A.I. to try to recover my disappeared 3-part masterpiece (ps: currently being test-driven over at ubron.org).

   Nevertheless, given the long-term view, only a handful of us are experiencing these growing pains.  Over time more students will find their way here to discover and debate with Bonita, and by then the site will be robust, and responsive like that greased lightning

   Nigel

    

4. B

   BonitaParticipant
   Jul 6, 2016, 4:09 PM

   Nigel Nunn wrote: . . . debate with Bonita

   Despite what you might think, I am not here to debate.  In fact, I’m hardly here at all because I can’t find anyone who wants to study. But that’s fine. I’m cool.  No problem.
5. M

   MaraParticipant
   Jul 6, 2016, 7:29 PM

   Bonita wrote:

   Do you have any idea what is going on with the search engine?  It has changed and it is terrible.  Really terrible.  It gives quotes in random order in the book and each quote is repeated twice within the same entry.  Also, each entry begins with three dots which makes you wonder if it’s the beginning of the quote or the middle, so to read each quote you have to click the link to the text, which is a pain.  Is it going to stay that way?  If so, I find it practically unusable and it had been my go-to search engine for years.  Please tell me it’s a work in progress.

   The “Search the Urantia Book” thingy  on the home page takes you to this place which used to be a reliable place to look up words in the book, but now is no longer reliable.

   Search the UB

   I looked up the word “balanced” to find what came up and there were 26 hits.  As you say Bonita they are out of sequential order.  This is annoying.  But I went to the Urantia Foundation website to search the word “balanced” and I only found 12 hits!

   Urantia Foundation search

   Between the two websites, I prefer the one on this forum, as the Foundation’s one does not list all hits. So what’s the use of that one if a student wants to find every context in which a word appears?  But, the dots – … – are confusing and completely unnecessary in my opinion.  I wonder if anything can be done?  I am trying to be hopeful, but I admit to being a bit of a cynic on this point.

    

    

6. B

   BonitaParticipant
   Jul 6, 2016, 7:54 PM

   Thanks for speaking up Mara.  I’m sure it can be fixed if someone is willing.  I have no tech skills so I’m just a useless complainer, although I really, really wish I could fix it and be of use.  I do miss having a good search engine. Study without one is much more difficult.  Actually, there hasn’t been one for a while.  Although the last generation was better than this one, the last would not include derivatives of words, like adding an “s”, or “ed” when you enter the root word.  It is beyond frustrating.  I’ve been using my Kindle to search but that is even more annoying in that it won’t allow boolean searches.  Sigh.  Good thing I’ve read the book so many times now it doesn’t really matter, except that people like quotes when you post.

    

7. NN

   Nigel NunnParticipant
   Jul 6, 2016, 8:52 PM

   Hi Bonita – sorry to have said “debate”.  What I had in mind was that eventually more students will discover your work here, and start to frequent this forum to enjoy deep and vigorous study (in contrast to the trivial bickering that other UB forums seem to foster).

   As always, thanks for being here!

   Nigel

8. B

   BonitaParticipant
   Jul 6, 2016, 9:31 PM

   Nigel Nunn wrote:

   What I had in mind was that eventually more students will discover your work here, and start to frequent this forum to enjoy deep and vigorous study

   Oooh, wouldn’t I love that.  Actually, I think that will be part of the next dispensation. I’ll be dead by then, but thanks for your confidence.

9. M

   MaraParticipant
   Jul 7, 2016, 2:23 AM

   Bonita wrote:

   . . . people like quotes when you post.

   I’m one of those people.

   Mara wrote:

   I looked up the word “balanced” to find what came up and there were 26 hits.

   But I went to the Urantia Foundation website to search the word “balanced” and I only found 12 hits!

   Just now I looked up the hits again for the word “balanced” on Urantia Foundation’s website, but I looked it up on their concordance:

   Concordance of the UB

   and they list 18 hits!  I don’t mind researching.  I like to do the research.  From my point of view the “Search the Urantia Book” on this website is by far better that what is available on the UF website.  So even if it’s not fixed here, I’m going to continue to use the one on this forum.

    

10. M

    Moderator-2Moderator
    Jul 7, 2016, 3:03 AM

    Dear Bonita,

    Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We have passed it on to the website maintenance committee who are responsible for the handling of technical problems. Let’s hope this can be remedied as soon as possible. We will keep you informed.

    In loving service.

    The Moderators

11. B

    BonitaParticipant
    Jul 7, 2016, 11:08 AM

    Thank you moderators.  I appreciate your diligence and concern.

     

12. SO

    Susan OwenMember
    Jul 9, 2016, 2:54 PM

    Dear Forum Members,

    On behalf of the Website Management Committee, we wish to inform you the website search engine for The Urantia Book has been restored to its former functioning.  The problem occurred in trying to move the search engine to our new website hosting service.

    Thank you for your patience.

    Kindest Regards,

    Susan Owen, Website Management Committee

13. VA

    Van AmadonParticipant
    Jul 15, 2016, 1:22 PM

     

    Try this search tool. Returns are always in order.

    http://starspring.com/online/ubsearch/ubsearch.html

     

    You can search:

    1. Exact (word or phrase)

    2. Any

    3. All (enter more than one word, returns all sub-sections where out of order words occur in that sub-section)

     

    “Balanced” = 26 occurrences

     

    What I like most is if you enter an “exact” phrase and it fails on return, switch to “all” to get more results.

     

14. A

    AndréParticipant
    Sep 16, 2019, 6:37 PM

    Hi,

    I went in edit box of my profile. To entered in or get out of it, a message “warn me a script is holding futher processing” the system offer me to stop and pass over that script or continue. I do ckeck mark to stop it.

    Also, considering problems of “bolding” text in my post, whom seems relevant to my peers, in signature box in my edit profile, i  delite everything.

    André

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