Index discussion thread

squeaky

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd start you all off with a thread where authors (and readers) can talk about how you are getting on and... well anything to do with creating and keeping up an index really.

You're all going to find reading whole long pages full of thread titles on the Old Style forum quite an eye opener.

The number of repeats, thread titles, contents and so on don't really sink in, even for long standing members, until you start reading them with an eye to building your index.:)

You're also going to find that although you can do a dead simple link in about thirty seconds flat your actual average link per minute time is going to be a lot closer to three or five or even more minutes each because it's all too easy to open a thread to check it and then find yourself reading the whole thing!

You'll be able to bounce ideas off each other here too because I'm sure you'll end up nicking good ideas off each other's layouts

And no doubt a bit of help and support when you have grumpy days won't go amiss either


At the time of writing you are all now in the early stages, some of you have yet to pick your topics - and please pick one you are interested in - it makes the whole thing much more er, interesting and enjoyable (and is why I haven't "assigned" indexes to people). Some of you have yet to confirm with Pink by PM that you are still keen to do your chosen index, and some of you have already started your index collection post.

Those of you who I have been able to hand some sets of links to could take a brief time out now and browse the threads that you have to get a good idea of their range and content which in turn will give you some lead on just how you're going to sort or collect them into different groups and subheadings.

It's going to take me at least two more days of hard work to finish the tutorial and since the last part of it will be help and tips on layout and formatting that I've learned as time goes on need to be taken into consideration, so it would be worth your while waiting until it's done so that you don'thave to go back and do a re-write.


And finally...

We're all dead chuffed at the great response to our request and the enthusiasm and good will that you've all shown for the Old Style board. We all hope that you really enjoy yourselves.


Gingham, Pink & squeaky

CFC

Call me thick but I've followed the instructions in the step by step, I can copy and paste and the link works fine but I can't edit what it's called without editing the actual technical line that points where the browser should look, so it's always a long link and not a thread title!

Where am I going wrong???

Pink.

CFC,

You have a pm. If that doesn't sort it out, get in touch again and I'll help if I can.

Pink

clu

CFC wrote:

Call me thick but I've followed the instructions in the step by step, I can copy and paste and the link works fine but I can't edit what it's called without editing the actual technical line that points where the browser should look, so it's always a long link and not a thread title!

Where am I going wrong???

Youve done an excellent job so far !

MrsTinks

Squaky will you hurry up with the tutorial please! I need to steal it to start some indexes on the celebrations board :rotfl:

Well done all who have volunteered to help on the OS board to keep things easier to find and help the BGs kep things managable and tidy I for one certainly look forward to sticking all your indexes in my favourites hehehe

Tine

squeaky

tine wrote:

Squaky will you hurry up with the tutorial please! I need to steal it to start some indexes on the celebrations board :rotfl:

Well done all who have volunteered to help on the OS board to keep things easier to find and help the BGs kep things managable and tidy I for one certainly look forward to sticking all your indexes in my favourites hehehe

Tine

Bloomin' CHEEK!!

I'm just catching up with PM's right now, and then will be a little while catching up with getting the next batch of new collections set up with their authors, and then I'll be right on it boss. Honest boss.

For those of you who may not realise it - we BG's get an extra allowance for PM's to try and make sure that we always have room for queries from members. I emptied my PM box (of 100 PM's) twice yesterday and it's already half full now!

Thanks goodness Pink has taken over management of the list or I'd be totally swamped! Yay Pink!

squeaky

Hi all,

If you haven't already done it you'll find it helpful to start yourself a new folder in your Bookmarks (or Favourites) called something like:-

OS Indexing

There you could start off with links to:-

Volunteers needed.

How to write an index

Index authors discussion thread

(They won't always be stickies, in fact I'll probably unstick the discussion thread in a day or two now that you all know that we have one.)

Plus of course your own index collection and, if you are indexing a long single thread - a link to that too.

No doubt you'll end up adding a few other handy bits and pieces too as you go along

This one would be a good one:-

Unofficial A-Z (Look here first)




Good luck

MrsTinks

squeaky wrote:

Bloomin' CHEEK!!

I'm just catching up with PM's right now, and then will be a little while catching up with getting the next batch of new collections set up with their authors, and then I'll be right on it boss. Honest boss.

For those of you who may not realise it - we BG's get an extra allowance for PM's to try and make sure that we always have room for queries from members. I emptied my PM box (of 100 PM's) twice yesterday and it's already half full now!

Thanks goodness Pink has taken over management of the list or I'd be totally swamped! Yay Pink!

I suppose I ought to skulk off and tidy mine out a little LOL!!!! And you know I luv ya Squeaky!

Happy Hippopotamuses to all!

squeaky

I've decided to copyright it. It'll cost you a pint of beer for permission to use it.

MrsTinks

Glass of very nice rioja? Don't have any beer at the moment lol

Or how about a huge box of chocolates

squeaky

Hi everyone,

The tutorial is progressing and I'll be starting the section on formatting and layouts after I've written this post - so I thought now would be a good time to say...


I'm sure that you are all excited and dead keen to get started and I'm equally sure that you will come to cherish your own indexes and, rightly, feel pretty chuffed with yourselves as you see it grow.

It's all to easy to regard your own index as "my baby" and so you might feel hurt if someone later says that they find your index hard to read or hard to use. The thing to try and keep in mind is that while you are indeed the author - the whole purpose of your index is for other members to use. So if you feel upset - pop out into the garden and have a good swear at the nearest tree. Or kick the cat Try not to "shoot from the hip" or you'll write the best darned angry post that you'll ever regret.

It won't come up often, thank goodness, and I can tell you that the two editions of the MEGA Index have had more than 60,000 reads between them and I can count the number of people who have complained to me directly on the fingers of one hand.

There's a limit to what you can do, and you can't please everybody, unfortunately, but the next bits of the tutorial should give you a good idea on how to go about helping to make your index as user friendly as possible.

And before you tell me - not a single one of my early indexes complies in full with the advice I'll be giving there. I just haven't had time to track back and re-write them all - which is why you are all here.


We have a number of members who have some form of visual impairment, reading difficulties, dyslexia and even epilepsy. I asked a friend not long back to look over the older indexes to see how they could be improved and those comments are going to be included in the layout and formatting bit of the tutorial. I'd be pleased to hear from other members about these things here in this thread as we all get to grips with remodelling the admittedly chunky indexes that I first started out with.


Good luck everyone, and again, thanks a lot