How to title your posts so that they show up in chronological order

[Towncrier]

In case you wondered why I editted all my DISmeet posts to include a number as part of the title, I wanted to let the curious know why.

Spurred on by nativetxn's plan to make it a bit easier to sort through DISmeets, I suggested that we use a little trick that I've learned from many years of programming. That is to put dates into a format that sorts nicely. The date is in the form:

YYYYMMDD: Month Day, Year (optional day of week) Title of event

For example:
20030513: May 13, 2003 (Tuesday) Today
20030615: June 15, 2003 DW Sue's birthday
20031204: December 4, 2003 The start of Mousefest
20040101: January 1, 2004 Happy New Year!!!

It turns out that, by clicking on the word "Thread" in the title bar, you can force the DISboards to sort all the threads by title. If you go and do that after you read this thread, you will see four DISmeets that make up the Memorial Day weekend activities for our annual DISmeet.

Just my two cents worth. Kudos to nativetxn for trying to make this forum a bit easier to digest.

 

[nativetxn]

What do you suggest for the threads that have two dates? Should we just use the first one? That would make sense, now that I think about it. Or is there a system for two dates?

Like Shep has 8/16 and 17 in his subject line.

That would be 20030816 and forget about the second one?

It turns out that, by clicking on the word "Thread" in the title bar, you can force the DISboards to sort all the threads by title. If you go and do that after you read this thread, you will see four DISmeets that make up the Memorial Day weekend activities for our annual DISmeet.

I have no idea what you are talking about, John. I'm truly computer challenged.

 

[Towncrier]

My personal preference is to list multi-day DISmeets as separate events. That's why there are four posts that cover the Memorial Day weekend DISmeets that I have planned. If someone clicks on the word "Thread" in the title bar, all four of my meets show up in chronological order.

I guess that an alternative solution is to datestamp the beginning of the DISmeet and then put the range of dates in the subject.

Shep's DISmeet subject could read:

20030816: August 16th/17th Cincinnati Meet

If we adopt the datestamp concept, perhaps more people will split multi-day meets into separate threads.

If multiple events are planned for the same day, the YYYYMMDD concept can be extended to include and optional time in the form HHMM. Threads without a time would sort ahead of those with a timestamp.

Is everyone confused yet????

 

[nativetxn]

I stay that way, John, that's why I feel so blessed to have you around this place

But what do you mean about

It turns out that, by clicking on the word "Thread" in the title bar, you can force the DISboards to sort all the threads by title. If you go and do that after you read this thread, you will see four DISmeets that make up the Memorial Day weekend activities for our annual DISmeet.

I am really confused about this.

 

[Serena]

I think I get it, but I have a question. What if you have more than one thread about a meet, like I do? Do I go along with the theme of some kind of numerical id? Like 20030621.01: June 21, 2003 #1, or would it make more sense to do it another way?

 

[nativetxn]

<b>I finally figured out what you were talking about, John!</b>

It only took me two hours but I finally figured it out

 

[Towncrier]

Serena - Not a bad idea if two DISmeets happen on the same day. However, they should sort close enough even if they have the same datestamp.

 

[Serena]

thanks

 

[Cindy B]

I knew it had to do with programming... I remember very very little from my COBOL days back in the early 90's!

 

[jfulcer]

TC,

If we're gonna sink into techspeak, then you should really say that the format is

CCYYMMDD

right?

 

[Towncrier]

I suppose so, as long as you realize that CC is equal to the Century - 1. After the Y2K fiasco, I won't be caught writing the year as YY anymore. As far as I'm concerned, it's YYYY. Of course the people in 9999 are going to have a new set of problems to contend with (Y10K).

 

[jfulcer]

Yeah, but what about all the programs that are going to crash in 2032? Us old farts may live to see it. I've heard it said that it's going to be worse than the craze over Y2k. Go figure.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Why is this stuck at the top??

 

[Towncrier]

To explain why the funny numbers are at the front of posts in this forum. If everyone did this, it would be a simple matter to sort on thread title in order to see DISmeets in chronological order. You should try it sometime. There are enough posts that you should see the pattern.

Katholyn used to edit all the posts to add the date "stamp", but with everything going on in her life and with the enormity of the task, I can see why she hasn't been keeping up with this thankless task.

 

[jfulcer]

Originally posted by Dan Murphy
Why is this stuck at the top??

Dan, I think I know why:

 

[house_of_princesses]

Not to add to your task list (and the date stamp is a great idea!), but it seems it would be most helpful if there were a way to organize by location. Using major cities to start with. For example, the Chicago DISer's may meet in Palatine, but we could still sort it under Chicago somehow?