I'm done with the updates I installed for tonight. Didn't really finish setting all the configuration changes I needed to do and found a new one that needs to be done soon (blah!), but AQ is more-or-less back in action for now. I might take it down for another hour or two later this week (late at night, when most of you are sleeping) for more configurating, but for now, it's back up and available. =)

The main thing you might notice different are some of the icons. I've been working to make the smaller icons larger and more easily clickable. Nothing especially exciting for now, but the structure is in place for much more interesting image tricks I might do in the future such as displaying a particular image based on your text size settings. A future project, however.

The other thing you'll notice--which is far more interesting, I think, is there is now a link called WikiBoxing under the Home menubar option. Premium members have already been playing with the feature for a few weeks now, but it's now officially open to all. For those of you not familiar with wikis, it's a method of sharing the collective knowledge of a group of people. In this particular case, a method of AQ members to share their collective knowledge about letterboxing. Check it out, add questions, edit answers, and share your knowledge with the world. =)

On a related note, there is no longer a separate FAQ page. The wiki IS the FAQ page--it's far more complete and thorough than any FAQ page I could manually create. I have created a link on the wiki page to link to a list of some of the most commonly asked questions, but the answers are now provided though the collective knowledge of everyone rather than just my own little perspective. =)

On another related note, someone asked a few weeks back about a list of where it is okay or not okay to hide letterboxes. One section of WikiBoxing, Land Manager Policies, is dedicated to answering exactly that question. If you have any information about the policies of various land managers, please provide the information here. Most importantly, cite the source of the policies or who to contact about letterboxing in a specific park or area.

Eventually, I plan to move almost all of the document for Atlas Quest to the wiki. It's a big job, though, so I'm doing it in small pieces.

As always, if you find anything not working correctly, let me know. I'll fix it as soon as I wake up in the morning. =)

-- Ryan

Phew, I can log on a last. I was beginning to shake from the lack of my early morning AQ fix.

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The main thing you might notice different are some of the icons.

Yes I had already noticed the little flower on the envelope :-)

I love trying to see changes you have made before someone else mentions them after an upgrade.

YT

With reference to Wikipedia......please don't give that site too many kudos. The information is added by people, and therefore, not necessarily accurate. Can't remember the name of the guy, but there were slanderous statements put on that site regarding him and he nearly had to sue the site managers to get the information removed and a bar put up banning further changes.

Unfortunately, when information is listed on the internet, it doesn't have to be accurate and verifiable as does the same information in print. Kids take info from the internet as gospel....and it ain't necessarily so.

Zoemomma

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Yes I had already noticed the little flower on the envelope :-)

so what does the little flower stand for?

I'm not sure if this is something new or not...normally when I open a board through a post link I only see that one post. I know you can click the expand messages button to open all the posts, but normally that doesn't happen automatically for me. Did I change the default somehow or is that something new? I love it and want to keep it that way, so if I changed it and didn't know it I want to know how I did it. Am I confusing or what!?

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so what does the little flower stand for?

I don't suppose it stands for anything :-D Ryan just said he had altered some of the icons to try and make them bigger and I suppose he just added a flower because he felt like it :-)

YT

The flower or star on the envelope used to signify unread mail - either a mail you hadn't read or a mail that you sent to someone else that they hadn't read. But now it appears on everyone's envelope icon.

TG

bigger?! My icons all seem smaller.

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bigger?! My icons all seem smaller.

I think it is mostly developement to come, although some have changed now.
This is what GT actually said:-

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The main thing you might notice different are some of the icons. I've been working to make the smaller icons larger and more easily clickable. Nothing especially exciting for now, but the structure is in place for much more interesting image tricks I might do in the future such as displaying a particular image based on your text size settings. A future project, however.

YT

He's changed the clues icon to a larger one that matches the one used for events.

MC

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The flower or star on the envelope used to signify unread mail - either a mail you hadn't read or a mail that you sent to someone else that they hadn't read. But now it appears on everyone's envelope icon.

It's supposed to be a star. That icon was a bit larger and I liked it better than the original one there, but it'll likely change at some point when I start changing the size of the icons based on the text size people have selected in their preferences. =)

-- Ryan

As I type at work and therefore on a server, etc.. so that could be the issue....and yet, when I try and click on the links on the home page (Getting Started, Code of Conduct, WikiBoxing etc...) I get the dreaded "Webpage Not Found" message. (Tell a friend is the only one that DOES work for me..)

Is anyone else having this problem? Or should I assume it's cause I'm not at home with a simpler connection to AQ.

Just thought I'd mention it with the recent changes...and all...

preboxed

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The information is added by people, and therefore, not necessarily accurate.

That actually applies to just about all encyclopedias out there--not just Wikipedia. ;o) I'm not sure it's possible to create an encyclopedia that's not created by people, and I'm not sure there's an encyclopedia known to man that doesn't contain errors. But if Wikipedia is so choked full of errors, try finding one. They're surprisingly hard to find, and those that do slip through rarely last long.

But yes, I'm well aware that people could put up incorrect information. We beat the topic to death in the Premium Members Only board, in fact, when I let them test the feature for me. =) However, AQ will keep track of who makes what changes so people who deliberately put up incorrect information can be identified, and moderators here have extra powers in the wiki to correct and delete information from it. I think the misinformation will be manageable, and the results will be far more thorough and complete than I could create by myself.

-- Ryan

Can someone tell me how to change the look of my message boards back? I liked looking at them the way they were. I've searched in my preferences and can't figure it out....or can I?

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Can someone tell me how to change the look of my message boards back?

At the top of the page when you are reading the messages is a grey bar that says "Compress Messages" Click on that.

-Amanda from Seattle

Number of Mosquito Bites: 2,586 82,722 1,605,645
Number of Ticks Found: 282 3,041 144,508
Number of Sprained Ankles: 56 503 9,634
Number of School Days Missed: 114 1,786 29,194
Number of Work Days Missed: 137 1,230 40,141

Hmmm ... how does he know these things!!??? :-)

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Number of Mosquito Bites: 2,586 82,722 1,605,645
....
Hmmm ... how does he know these things!!???

Stupid mosquitoes were all over Hawaii. Terrible place to vacation. *nodding*

-- Ryan, enjoying the currently mosquito-free Seattle =)

Thanks, that worked Amanda.

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With reference to Wikipedia......please don't give that site too many kudos. The information is added by people, and therefore, not necessarily accurate.

Actually, the info on Wikipedia is reviewed constantly and is arguably the *most* reliable information you can get *anywhere*. Just out of curiosity, I have looked up a few things that I am constantly perterbed by textbooks and encyclopedias getting wrong, only to find Wikipedia actually had them correct!

One example: the old wive's tale that vehicles reentering the earth's atmosphere are heated by friction. Go ahead, look it up.

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Can't remember the name of the guy, but there were slanderous statements put on that site regarding him and he nearly had to sue the site managers to get the information removed and a bar put up banning further changes.

The particular case in question involved a political campaign where the supporters of one candidate posted a whole bunch of scandalous lies about their opponent, and they did it just a couple of days before the election so it'd be up when voters were checking and before reviewers had a chance to take it down. Hence the lawsuit had some merit, since it arguably did affect the outcome of the election, and the lies could easily qualify under existing slander laws.

Just my 2 cents... but the wikipedia is being banned from use in some colleges because of it's inaccuracies in some areas. When students use this source to study from they are then ending up with false answers in their papers and on exams.

Not saying that it is bad, just to be careful about believing that all areas are perfect...

Rhea
*the wife of a professor*

Good old Wikipedia:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/50902

Good old Wikipedia:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/50902


Ah, just one more reason to "trust" Wikipedia. Point being, info on the internet does not have to be accurate as is true with written, published pieces. And before you start, let me add that I know that there are written pieces that say things such as the holocaust never happened....and at that point, you must consider the source.

Please tell me that you understand that The Onion is a satirical publication.

That is to say that the article you cited is a joke.....

You knew that right?

Let's be sure to get things straight on the matter....

A) Wikipedia has only been banned as a source...it's use has not been banned.
B) It has only been banned by one school...not "some colleges"....

Personally...I disallowed its use as a source for college freshmen along with any other type of encyclopedias....

--GoSox
*the husband of the wife of a college instructor*

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A) Wikipedia has only been banned as a source...it's use has not been banned.
B) It has only been banned by one school...not "some colleges"....

Personally...I disallowed its use as a source for college freshmen along with any other type of encyclopedias....

It's not allowed as a source for ANY of my departments classes and has faced further concern from our university as a whole. As a personal website I use it - but I would never use it professionally. :)

AGJ

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...wikipedia is being banned from use in some colleges because of it's inaccuracies in some areas...

Having worked for educational publishers for 10+ years, I can tell you with no uncertainty that NO textbook or source of any kind is completely infallible. All it takes is one mistake, one typographical error, one blink of an eye when there shouldn't have been, and the next thing you know, history has been rewritten.

It's like Neal Boortz always says: "Don't believe ANYTHING I tell you unless you personally know it to be true... or false."

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Having worked for educational publishers for 10+ years, I can tell you with no uncertainty that NO textbook or source of any kind is completely infallible. All it takes is one mistake, one typographical error, one blink of an eye when there shouldn't have been, and the next thing you know, history has been rewritten.

Boy, you got that right! One example that comes to mind involves the Atkins diet. When on the Atkins diet, carbohydrate intake is cut so severely that the body is forced to burn fat for fuel. The medical term for burning fat for fuel is "ketosis". It's a perfectly healthy condition -- in fact, there are only two ways to lose weight, ketosis and liposuction, and ketosis is the preferred method from a health standpoint.

But way back when -- like, 25 years ago, when the Atkins diet first appeared -- some moron who should have known better mixed up the words "ketosis" and "ketoacidosis". Ketoacidosis is a deadly blood condition that may arise in diabetics or people suffering from starvation. It has absolutely no relation to ketosis nor to the Atkins diet -- but the notion that Atkins can somehow result in a horrible blood condition persists to this day. I even read it repeated in a brand new diet book that just came out in the past few months. And it's not just the common folk who cling to this absurdity; doctors do too!

Another reason not to trust Wiki.

http://spring.newsvine.com/_news/2006/08/01/307864-stephen-colbert-causes-chaos-on-wikipedia-gets-blocked-from-site


Great satire on that Onion link, they crack me up!

Go SoX!!!

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Go SoX!!!

Hell yeah.....

And that elephant thing was hilarious....shut down the wikipedia in 24 hours!!!!

GoSox, are you in MA? Im in Ca but was born in Northampton. Still have family back there.
Im really excited about this season, just got the MLB package tonight so I can watch the boys!