I note the title of this article: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=13580

This is the first time I’ve seen italics on OLO, as far as I can recall. Although they might have appeared in the text of articles here and there.

Twould be good if us lowly posters had them at our disposal…. along with bold and perhaps different font sizes and colours…. and emoticons!

I’d like to see OLO liven up a bit with all of these things.

But perhaps one at a time …… starting off with italics.

What do all you good OLO contributors reckon?

I very much agree however wish to under line the costs involved.
The site has been around a long time,I think we all know its a privately owned one.
Set up as most are to give us a forum to say as we wish.
Unlike many it has no long list of administrators, that path limits speech and in time destroys such sites.
I see such sites as surrounded by an exclusiveness.
I contribute to the site, those of us who can should.
I will, if needed, contribute for some who can not.
But we should understand GY has often said improvements are in the pipeline, when they can be afforded.
I thank you Ludwig/Mate for the opportunity to say, lets Gert a way of contributing to this site going.
And a PS
Lets get our silent readers involved.
New thoughts ideas threads and subjects.

Thanks Belly.

I can’t imagine that introducing italics would be complex or expensive, but I really don’t know what might be involved.

I think that a bit more variety – italics, bold type, coloured type and coloured background, different font types, emoticons, etc and perhaps the insertion of photos as per Facebook could only help improve the appeal of OLO.

There is nothing better than improving the popularity of this site to help Graham’s profit margin and secure a healthy future for OLO.

It has become highly competitive. Lots of forums. In fact, you can comment and debate stuff all over the place. So whatever can be done to help one of the first and still one of the best online commenting/debating sites should be carefully considered.

It may well have been at the time you had been traveling.
GY told us when funds became available we would get an update.
This included the ability if we wished to e mail one an other .
I would presume the ability to highlight would be part of that.
If we take in to consideration just the costs of our PC,and then remember the behind the scenes work that takes place to keep us here, I think some financial in put is not unreasonable.
I bad spelling and all, was a 5.000 post resident of a now dead political site.
It too was privately owned, and a very good one, its owner driven out by threats to sue, vandals and more.
A group formed around its replacement, twice,
The first was killed by deliberate use of a bug,second exists still.
But after many rebuilds and it is a failure, its moderation has strangled it.
OLO congrats GY, is let breath.
And in a changing world media is going to be online too .
We pay for daily news papers so how much is OLO worth?
Little things can grow.
I other debates, about this subject, some have even said I would not contribute until!
Until what? until the free speech we have here is taken away?
I do not propose we pay huge fees just that we contribute to the costs of the place.

You need to allow HTML in the forums. This opens the forum to spam which this forum is the only one where I've never seen spam in the comments ... excluding Arjay and UOG.

I'd rather have a spam free forum. So would you, I'm sure

Interesting posts, Belly and StG.

I have only been involved in one other forum and that was a totally foul experience, with the most amazing ganging up of a bunch of total rednecks, which were the core contributors to that site, willing to resort to all sorts of disgusting tactics against me and a couple of others.

I had been on OLO for about three years before that, so it came as a total shock, and has certainly reinforced the high quality of our forum.

I’ve looked at several other forums but haven’t been enticed to become a regular contributor.

Not sure why HTML would lead to more spam. OLO gets spam. Numerous times I’ve informed GY via the ‘Recommend this comment for deletion’ red cross and these posts disappear quickly.

If posters are not averse to hitting the red cross, and the administrators eliminate spam posts quickly then it won’t be a problem.

But hey, maybe simple is good. Afterall, OLO is working well, compared to other forums that I have looked, as far as I can tell.