FAQ - Section 2
The ESI Bulletin Board

 2.1 How do I add a link to an article on the ESI Bulletin Board?

Ahhh! the perennial problem, and one that's quite simple, even if we do all forget how to do it every five minutes! Generally you've found some excellent article, like an early posting from Dan talking about T+25 investment, and you want to share it with the world. You can see the address at the top of your web browser, looking something like:

and you want to turn it into a 'clickable' link like: (but from the Bulletin Board). To add a link to a previous BB item (or another Web page, or whatever), simply add the characters: to the start of your web address/BB page address; then add the character: to the end of your address. So you'd add a line like: in your BB message. NOTE: you don't need the '#001' type bit, unless you want to go to a specific point within a thread, and it's nice if you put TWO lines, as above, one for the bronze users, and one for the silver users.

2.2 How do I add a 'mailto' link to an article on the ESI BB?

This is very similar to the above section on adding web links. To create a 'clickable' e-mail link such as:

you merely add the characters: at the start of your e-mail address, and add the character: to the end. So you're adding a line like: in your BB message. Easy eh!

2.3 I can't download the entire BB/How do I filter articles?

Please note, this point was valid for the old ESI system, and doesn't make much sense on 2ESI. As and when I work out the new system, I'll update and/or delete this point.

Don't worry, you're not alone in your problem, no-one nowadays seems to be able to download any of the "large file" options for the bulletin board. Hopefully ESI will get around to splitting the messages up by month, but until that happens, why not try some of the following. All of these techniques assume that you've selected one of your favourite sorting methods (reply, posting date, or whatever) for the last week. This should mean your browser is looking at an address something like:

in order to filter the entries, you're going to mess with the entry(s) at the end of that address, i.e. after 'full', 'reply' or whatever.

  1. Speed up your downloads by only looking at todays messages (put 'start=d0' at the end of the address), or those for today and yesterday ('start=d1').

  2. Retrieve the amount of entries you want by number of days ('start=dn'), weeks ('start=wn') or months ('start=mn'), where 'n' is the number of days, weeks, months, you want to retrieve (going backwards from today).

  3. To get messages from WAY back, use a 'start' and 'end' filter, e.g. to get the entries made from 45 to 46 weeks ago (oh how few there were...) use the following at the end of the address: start=w46&end=45.

  4. Finally, the way in which your selection is ordered (the mode part), is controlled by the words 'full' or 'item' in the CGI string; 'full' will give your selection in date order, whilst 'item' will group them in subject order.

Once you've set up a filter to, say, read one days worth of articles, then why not bookmark it and use that all the time, rather than wending your way from the ESI home page?

(thanks to Gerry Hibbert)

2.4 How can I use IE4 for offline browsing of the BB ?

The wonders of modern technology, and in particular, that spawn of Satan, Mr. Gates, allows Internet Explorer version 4 to be used for off-line browsing of Web pages. This is possible due to the feature of 'subscriptions' that IE4 provides. By making use of this technique, you'll be able to download, say, 1 weeks worth of BB entries in one hit, and then browse them at you leisure, and without running up a huge 'phone bill. There are, apparently, other off-line browsers available (e.g. Lotus Weblicator), but unless someone tells me how to use them, this section will concentrate on Microsoft's product.

Here, hopefully, is the Ladybird guide to subscribing and off-line browsing:

  1. Start IE4, and go to the page you wish to subscribe to, e.g. for the last weeks entries use:

    http://www.esi.co.uk/bronze/bboard/dolist.cgi?days=1w&date=&showthread=&filtertype=all&epictext=&subjecttext=&submit=List+Articles

    you'll have to type in your username/password to get there.

  2. Add this page to your favourites (click on Favourites, Add to Favorites). This should pop up a dialogue asking if you'd like to subscribe to this page.

  3. Click on the last radio button "Yes, notify me of updates and download the page for offline viewing". This should enable the 'Customize' button.

  4. Click on the 'Customize' button, to bring up the subscription wizard.

  5. Select the second radio button "Download this page and pages linked to it", then click on the 'Next' button. This should ask you how many pages deep you want to download.

  6. Leave the number of pages to download at its default (should be 1). With other subscriptions you probably wouldn't be doing this, as you can end up downloading a LOT of web pages you didn't intend to!. Click on the 'Next' button. This should ask you about being notified via an e-mail message.

  7. Leave the choice on its default of 'No', and click the 'Next' button. This should take you to a scheduling question.

  8. Select the second radio button 'Manually' to update the subscription only when 'Update Subscriptions' is chosen from IE4's Favourites menu. The first selection 'Scheduled' would be used if you wanted to set up an automatic download early in the morning, etc. Click on the 'Next' button. This should show a scrren asking about passwords.

  9. Click on the 'Yes' option, and enter your ESI bronze or silver username and password. Click on the 'Finish' button. This should take you back to the original 'Add Favourite' dialogue box.

  10. Click on 'Ok' to finish adding your subscription.
To download your new, weeks worth of data, for off-line browsing, select 'Favourites' then 'Update All Subscriptions' from IE4. This will now take a short while (hopefully) to download the required data.

Once the download has finished, you should be able to select 'File', then 'Work Offline' from IE4. Now select the relevant page from you list of Favourites, and off you go, and a damn site faster than usual it should be!. Don't forget you can disconnect from your internet provider after you've done your download, thus saving vital pennys for that next hot tip!

(thanks to Petro)

This page is undergoing (fairly) regular revision, if you don't like something, or have something to add, why not send me an email, Rick.  rick@couscons.demon.co.uk