Deleting PMs

[french frank]

You've only recently been given Moderator powers, I'm afraid you'll have to earn your Wings before being further elevated up the chain of command and a bigger Inbox!

If Hosts feel they need more, it can be arranged. But if everyone had 500 and then didn't empty their boxes, it would take up rather more space. I think the default was 100.

[Nick Armstrong]

He means £ per hour

You're like a John Williams movie score: lots of tracks, just one tune...

[MrGongGong]

You're like a John Williams movie score: lots of tracks, just one tune...

Surely you know what La Monte said about variety ?

(B and F# for a very long time)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... if you do want to keep all your messages, you should regularly download them as files to your computer and delete those on the forum website.

I'm currently trying to do this - but I'm having difficulty: there doesn't seem to be an "export to" facility anywhere. I have a lot of PMs that I don't want to lose, and I've reached capacity. How do I save them onto my computer before deleting them from my Forum storage, please?

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm currently trying to do this - but I'm having difficulty: there doesn't seem to be an "export to" facility anywhere. I have a lot of PMs that I don't want to lose, and I've reached capacity. How do I save them onto my computer before deleting them from my Forum storage, please?

One for the techies I think. I've never known the answer! I'd probably resort to a 'work around' by copying and pasting into a standard email desired texts, and sending it to myself headed 'FOR3 messages archive' ...

Anyway, would you let me know when there's room to swing a cat in your inbox, as I tried to introduce a metaphorical feline earlier, as you probably saw!

[Flosshilde]

introduce a metaphorical feline earlier,

Shouldn't it be maritime rather than feline?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyway, would you let me know when there's room to swing a cat in your inbox, as I tried to introduce a metaphorical feline earlier, as you probably saw!

Indeed - several cyber moggies have been clawing at the door, and I really need to do something about letting them in. But there are so many old messages (not least from Chris Newman and arcadesproject) that I would like to keep. Any advice from anyone would be very welcome.

[Dave2002]

I have an on-going, but rather stalled, project to produce a system which can cope with the PMs once downloaded.

In the meantime I tend to select PMs and download them in all the current formats (Text, XML, CSV ...) for future reference.
Once I think I've downloaded enough, I delete those selected PMs.

The CSV works with Excel, and the text version looks like a lot of emails all in one large file.

The XML versions will appear as a rather messy list in most browsers, but that's because they don't really know what to do with it all - since there are no formatting instructions. This can be sorted, for example using XSLT. I'd need to look at the XML in detail to see how to do that. It should be possible to make a sort of searchable database using XML.

[french frank]

Yes, quickly as I have to go out: tick the messages (you can do a whole page at a time), go down to the Selected Messages menu and choose which format you want to download them in. Or have people tried that and it doesn't work? I used to do it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks to both Dave and frenchie - I now have the messages downloaded in all three formats - but before I delete the originals, is there any way to make the saved messages look more like the originals (easier to read, in other words)? Dave - what is XSLT? Is it an outside app that I'll need to download, or is it already part of my computer. (I can tell the difference between the various augmented sixth chords, but this is way out of my comfort zone. Part of my New Year "List" - I no longer make "Resolutions" - is getting over my technophobia.)

[Dave2002]

fhg

XSLT is a Translation mechanism for XSL, which is an eXtensible Stylesheet Language centred round XML - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XSL

It allows conversion of XML to XML (!!!) and also reformatting of XML to Text. Also, XML->XHTML, which is useful for web pages.

I might have a quick look to see if I can produce a simple formatter tonight or over the weekend, but it's not going to be sophisticated.
I might, however, be able to provide something you can use quickly, with something better later on.

[Nick Armstrong]

I can tell the difference between the various augmented sixth chords

That must have got you out of many a sticky situation!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

OK - I've WIKIed "XSLT" and found this sentence:

XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents or other formats such as HTML for web pages, plain text or into XSL Formatting Objects, which may subsequently be converted to other formats, such as PDF PostScript and PNG.

Now, I know that that couldn't be clearer to those familiar with this sort of language, but I still need these ideas to be "translated" into "push this button and then that one" vocabulary. Looking elsewhere on the internet merely produced more of the same sort of technical language - requiring more time than I have this afternoon.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That must have got you out of many a sticky situation!

You may laugh ...

... oh, you did ...

But when it comes to the final question on Who Wants to Win a Billion? we'll see whose moggies get the cream!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

fhg

XSLT is a Translation mechanism for XSL, which is an eXtensible Stylesheet Language centred round XML - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XSL

It allows conversion of XML to XML (!!!) and also reformatting of XML to Text.
I might have a quick look to see if I can produce a simple formatter tonight or over the weekend, but it's not going to be sophisticated.
I might, however, be able to provide something you can use quickly, with something better later on.

Sorry, Dave, I missed this when I posted above. Essentially, it can take the "goto" computer language and make it look more like the text looks in the original messages?