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.

StG Ludwig yes to both posts.
I see now and again an ex poster in these pages, who shared with me posting in the your rights at work pages.
I had to leave no other choice,a lunatic began posting rewards to kill or capture an American visitor!
Warnings became truth after the page was miss used badly.
had a brief spell in Robos NSW trades hall site.
And a long stay in another now gone, I visited many.
NOTHING comes near this.
Some are extremely foul.
Some over moderated and unwelcoming.
BUT we while sailing along very well, would do no harm by contributing.
Changes can be made, that are safe.
I must however advise against e mails being exchanged with out due thought.
We have seen catastrophic results.
I truly would have hoped this thread would bring debate.
About funding the site, or contributing to it.
We all must have noted a refugee from other sites briefly coming and near flaming, in the mistaken view we are such here to.
I do not know if I should, have thought about it for years,but considering a thread about acceptable ways of talking.
Trash talk, even inferring men are females and sex with ones mother are seemingly acceptable in some cultures?
We are lucky here.

<< do not know if I should, have thought about it for years,but considering a thread about acceptable ways of talking. >>

Sounds like a good general thread to me, Belly.

Perhaps if italics is a bit difficult, we could have a limited range of different font sizes or types.

Surely there is something that can be implemented which is not complex or expensive, which can just add a little bit of variety to the presentation.

Little changes every so often, so that the site evolves rather than staying just the same year after year, would be good to see.

-Ludwig- *I have found ways to show* highlighting*
Yes ok but this is private property,
Who pays?
Not saying we should not change just asking why not help?
A reasonable fee for service would not kill me,and I could pay fees for another who could not afford them.
BUT only if both he/she and me never knew who

Belly

I completely don’t know what might be involved in introducing a minor additional feature such as italics,

or what the financial situation is with OLO…

or what the value of my financial contribution (if I were to make one) to this site would be.

I would like to think that I am helping OLO by being a regular (long term and frequent) poster like you, and that this is worth much more than a small monetary contribution.

Indeed, the amount of time you and I spend contributing to OLO is really quite huge. It is the equivalent of a large financial contribution if we value our time at ?20$ and hour for argument's sake. This amounts to a very significant level of support for this website.

My feeling is that us regular contributors….. and there many of us on OLO….don’t need to contribute financially, as we make the site attractive to advertisers….and that is where the real money is.

I don’t think OLO could afford to introduce user fees. That would just deter people very quickly, no matter how small the fees might be.

What it needs is italics, different font sizes, types, colours, emoticons, etc, etc, to make the site more attractive….. and bring in heaps of new contributors…. thus making the site more attractive to advertisers…. and enabling Graham to both charge more for advertising and have more advertisers use his site.

Getting a bit off-topic, but one thing that eternally bugs me is that whenever you open up a thread, it goes to only the first page, and you have to hit the ‘all’ tab or the last page tab to get to the business end of the discussion!

I wish that either the last page would be set as the default or the whole thread would come up straight away …. preferably the latter.

I hit all every time, every one will do it different ways.
I hit 100 threads and a quarter too.
Find it best to every time, go back to my last post and read every one after.
Well a few are just ignored and others hard not to but keeps me up to threads paths.