FoPAA

For taking so much time to show those of us less adept than he the ins and outs of this new system (which actually I'm liking more as I learn more about it). Well done! ^

ScottC

What an awesome job Canarsie!!!

You should ask FT staff to make this a sticky thread or to compact it into the new FT FAQ!

UALOneKPlus

Some good info. However, this feature was available in the previous version. It was hard to notice it, but there was a little scroll bar at the bottom that you could use to view previous posts in the same thread.

Canarsie

Here is an excellent example of how an individually-numbered post can help point a fellow FlyerTalk member to specific information that has been posted.

All I did was click on the post number of a specific post — in this case, Post #12 in this thread. The post then appears in its own window. I simply copied the URL address of that post at the top of the browser page and then pasted it in this post as follows:

..to get the link that is seen within the message in this post. Red indicates the code that is needed to be typed; Indigo indicates the pasted URL link; and green indicates the desired text to be typed.

Sure, I could have edited Post #12 by adding this information to it, or I could have quoted Post #12 and added the quote to this post, but then I could not demonstrate how this great feature works.

It is an excellent method of adding information without editing the original post if there is a good reason as to why the original post should not be edited.

Canarsie

I did not know that. Thank you for the clarification, UALOneKPlus. It is greatly appreciated.

In fact, I was hoping (and still am hoping) that other FlyerTalk members — including the information technology staff at WebFlyer — would add their own helpful hints, tips, tricks and suggestions (as well as clarifications, such as the one by UALOneKPlus) to really make this thread valuable and help greatly reduce the dozens of threads that currently appear all over FlyerTalk that pertain to issues relating to the operation of FlyerTalk being powered by the vBulletin bulletin board software rather than to topics and issues that are pertinent to their respective forums.

I also launched this thread because — despite the slow performance and the technical glitches that are occuring, which is expected whenever new software or hardware is integrated — I enjoy FlyerTalk more now than I ever did in the past, and I wanted to share the reasons and ways that the new software makes using FlyerTalk very efficient and productive for me.

For those FlyerTalk members who complain about FlyerTalk switching to vBulletin as unnecessary, please allow me to re-iterate a point that has already been made: the transition was necessary, not merely desired. There really was not much of a choice. FlyerTalk simply outgrew the old Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB) software, which outlived its usefulness. For example, FlyerTalk kept getting corrupted more often, which caused the information technology staff at WebFlyer to spend valuable time and use valuable resources fixing and repairing problems, which detracted them from concentrating on their other important responsibilities.

Another point I would like to make is that the vBulletin software works. It just needs to be tweaked. There are many bulletin boards on the Internet with far more traffic than FlyerTalk (please see this thread for more details and links), yet most of them use vBulletin. Please be patient and give the new software — and FlyerTalk and its staff — a chance. Remember, change is usually evolutionary, not revolutionary.

I greatly appreciate the positive comments posted by everybody else in this thread. Thank you also!

CMW

Is there a way to oder New Posts or Today's posts by Forum? I don't necessarily want to see all new posts by most recent post date/time. I prefer to see all new posts ordered by forum.

Any way to do this?

Canarsie

The following quote is from this thread:

If you love the word milestone, you will really love the term that I will coin in honor of the new FlyerTalk from here on in when referring to the number of a post in a thread:

MILEPOST

What better name could be applied to an individually-numbered post in a FlyerTalk thread?

For example, I have discussed the merits of individually-numbered posts in Milepost 19 in this thread, which also has a link to Milepost 12 of this thread.

Hopefully, the term MILEPOST will catch on here in FlyerTalk.

Canarsie

There is an area in MyFlyerTalk where you can organize subscribed threads into up to four different folders initially. Once those four folders are setup, more may be added.

To add folders in your MyFlyerTalk area:

1. Simply go to the Edit Folders area on the left of the MyFlyerTalk page, which is the last option under the Subscribed Threads area on the left and navigate to the Edit Folders area, where one can find the Add New Folders area.
2. Enter the desired name(s) of the folders you wish to add.
3. When you are done, click the Save Folders button at the bottom.

Initially, you can only add up to four folders, but once the four folders are in place, more folders may be added to your MyFlyerTalk area.

In Milepost 3 of this thread, I described how to automatically subscribe to threads anytime you post in one, but that also automatically places the subscribed threads into a specific folder in MyFlyerTalk. Assuming that you are not automatically subscribing to threads, below are instructions on how to manually subscribe to an individual thread, which is actually initially better if you want to organize your threads into specific folders.

To subscribe to an individual thread and organize the latest posts of that thread in a specific folder in MyFlyerTalk:

1. Enter a thread in the FlyerTalk forum of your choice.
2. Simply click on the Thread Tools area just above the first post of the thread.
3. Select Subscribe to this Thread, which is at the bottom of the pop-up menu that appears.
4. In the Subscribe to Thread:... area, choose the desired Notification Type (more details about Notification Type can be found in Milepost 3 of this thread).
5. Select to which folder you would like the subscribed thread to be placed under the Folder: pop-up menu, where the folders you saved will be listed.
6. When you are done, click the Add Subscription button at the bottom.

From here on in, the individual threads to which you have subscribed should appear at the top of your MyFlyerTalk page in the New Subscribed Threads area. However, if not all of the subscribed threads appear in that area, click on View all Subscribed Threads at the bottom of the New Subscribed Threads area. Please keep in mind, however, that only the subscribed threads with new posts added to them will appear in the New Subscribed Threads area.

I will then choose a thread which I wish to read and then click on View First Unread at the top left above the first post on any page in that thread. This usually takes me directly to the first post which I have not yet seen. I find this extremely useful!

I hope this answers your question, CMW. If not, please let me know.

wideman

(Thanks to Canarsie for all the great info so far.)

I particularly like the improved Search function that lets me look in multiple, selected forums in a single search. (The old FT s/w only let me search one forum at a time.)

If you click the "Search" button and enter a term, the system looks for that term in every forum. This probably isn't recommend: it may take a long time and unless you choose your search term carefully, you might get way more results than you wanted.

A more precise way to search is to look in multiple forums, by doing this:

1. Click the Search button and then click Advanced Search.
2. Enter either a term or a User Name in the approriate box.
3. In the "Search in Forums" box, choose all of the forums you want to search. Click a single forum, click a category (such as Hotel Programs) to search in all the forums within that category, or pick and choose individual forums by selecting them while holding down the CTRL button. This is where the real power comes in -- for example, if you want to search for info on the Marriott Hotel in Paris, you might search in the Marriott, Paris, and Europe forums.
4. Select any other search options. Especially interesting is the option to display results as threads or individual posts: displaying as posts avoids having to wade through a multi-page thread (which might or might not be useful).
5. Click Search Now.

Canarsie

While I have been regularly using the enhanced Search function in the new FlyerTalk, I actually neglected to highlight it in this thread. Thank you for your post, wideman!

One clarification, for those who use a Macintosh computer to access FlyerTalk like I do: use the Command key (also known as the Apple key) instead of the CTRL (or Control) key.

Canarsie

Did you know that if you edit the text of your milepost within two minutes, it does not count as an editing of your milepost?

This has happened to me several times. I expected to see the Last edited by Canarsie text at the bottom of my milepost after I edited several of my FlyerTalk mileposts immediately after initially posting them, only to find that it did not appear. In one milepost, I edited it twice and the text still did not appear at the bottom.

Also, unlike the old software that powered FlyerTalk, whenever a milepost is edited in the new FlyerTalk, the time as well as the date is recorded as to when the post was edited, which is far more accurate.

LH738

Dito. Canarsie, Thanks for the "lessons".

Gnopps

Great work, thank you for this introduction! Btw, is it possible to use wildcards when searching?

Canarsie

The vBulletin bulletin board software does allow wildcard searches (at the vBulletin forums, I have used an asterisk (*) at the end of the word or phrase for which I am searching) but I have not tested it yet on FlyerTalk.

------------------

I have searched for the words Dorito and Dorito* on FlyerTalk (for some reason, FlyerTalk members have an unexplained penchant for Doritos), and Dorito* gave me more results from my search than Dorito, so I can confirm that one can use a wildcard (using an asterisk) whenever performing a search.

Canarsie

Please allow me to expand on this partially-erroneous statement...

I have not officially timed it yet, but if one edits any portion of one’s post within the first 30 seconds (or is it one minute?) after posting the original post, it does not count as an Edit.

A post can be edited as many times as necessary and not be counted towards being an edited post, as long as all of the edits are done and the changes are saved within the allotted short timeframe. Any portion of the post — text or code — may be changed.

I already did two edits in this post.