Posted by Racer on July 15, 2005, at 13:19:25
OK, I've run this sort of bulletin board system, so I know something about how it works. (Mine were much smaller, though.) Since people have been asking about deleting posts or portions of posts, I thought I'd explain what's involved in doing that, so that everyone will have a better understanding of WHY Dr Bob might choose not to do it except in extreme situations.
Now, before I give my explanation, I will say that Dr Bob has modified the base script a great deal, and he may have changed some of these details in the process. This is a general explanation, NOT an explanation specific to BabbleLand.
First, the basic structure of the files involved is kinda complex:
You have the hypertext page that we all see first, the one that has all the posts on it. That, and another page for writing your post, are in the main directory. (Directories are like the file folders on your Windows machine, if you're unsure.)
The individual posts themselves are each a different file, with a different name. They live in a directory that is inside the main directory.
Here at Babble, Dr Bob has set up an archival system, in which every period in the archives is in a separate subdirectory, with all of the posts from that period inside it.
That's the basic structure, or a nutshell version of it.
In order to delete an entire post, Dr Bob would have to use a separate utility, which would allow him to delete that post using its "name" without allowing that same name to be used again. The naming conventions of these posts is simple: it just counts up the number of posts. At this point, Babble has had more than half a million posts. In order to delete one, the utility has to FIND it, and then has to disallow its number from being used again.
Having run this sort of bulletin board, let me tell you: setting up the bulletin board is a heck of a lot easier than setting up that utility! I only used it myself when I really couldn't avoid it, because every time I tried, something unpleasant happened.
If you try to delete a post manually, though, the numbering system gets screwed up, and -- well, let's jsut say that things get even more unpleasant.
Deleting PARTS of posts, though, is even more difficult.
First, you have to find the post in question, using its name. That has to be done, though, using the UNIX file system on the web server involved. Once you have found the post in question, you have to edit it using the UNIX tools available to you. Then you save it, and cross your fingers that it all works without something unexpected happening.
Sounds kinda simple, huh? Well...
To get to your UNIX web server, you start by using either telnet or SSH -- both of which are "command line" utilities on your windows machine. That means that there are no little icons to click -- you have to type in all your commands at a prompt. If you make any mistakes, your command fails. At every step of the way, you have to type everything perfectly -- including capitalization. UNIX, unlike Windows, is case sensitive.
Once you get to the file in question, what you do depends on what editor programs your web server has installed. All of them have "vi" the basic UNIX text editor. Some have easier programs, but they all have vi, so a lot of us use that one. vi has weird little keyboard commands -- since there are no mouse based commands in plain vanilla UNIX -- that you pretty much have to memorize in order to do anything. The most basic version of vi doesn't even allow you to use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move around -- you have to use letter keys to move around, then change the mode to type anything, then change back to move to the next place you want to be!
Don't get me wrong, I kinda like vi. I've used it enough that I'm comfortable with it, most of it is kinda automatic for me, and using keyboard commands doesn't bother me.
That might be a result of my mental illness, though...
If Dr Bob doesn't want to spend half his day editing one line of text in one particular post, can you blame him?
poster:Racer
thread:528055
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050628/msgs/528055.html