(Very) belated pingout.I have a confession of bias.
My personal experience in trying to get something formatted just so for presentation goes back to my Fortran days, simply trying to get the calculated result to display with the proper number of significant digits. I remember being infuriated one day that the displayed result simply would not come out the way I thought my code “guaranteed” that it would. A situation made even more annoying when my boss made a patronizing remark about what I was doing.
But that was just one instance: I found that kind of issue to be the general case. I could conceive of a useful program to analyze a certain kind of data, and within a week I would probably have the technical details coded so that it would always give the required results. But it would take longer than that to get the I/O working right. In the general case
Likewise on FR. Without even thinking of using fancy graphics, it can readily take more time getting spellings right - and editing the text to say (hopefully with some precision) what I mean - than it does to compose my thoughts. Using cut and paste is a wonderful time saver, but so often in using it I can come out needing to change the number or tense of some word, or eliminate a stray negation of my entire point.
From that perspective - and considering that newspapers, and especially TV, are all about great production values - I have a bias against great presentation values. If you spent the time to create great production values, how much time could you possibly have spent, you know, actually thinking about the point you’re making?
poconopundit seems to provide a strong counterexample to that prejudice on my part.
Bookmark and ping for a great post with edifying links well worth the clicking.
This post is the trickiest one I've ever posted on FR. When I first posted it, I had to quickly get the Moderator to repost it with a code fix because it didn't display properly.
Things would be easier if we could use in-line CSS styling and javascripts on FR. But it's a wise move to restrict that — given the security problems that would cause and the open nature of our forum.
I'm sure when you worked in Fortran, you learned certain undocumented "tricks" that made life easier. That's really all it is. Of course, the tricks are there to steal: just look at the source code and replicate it.
In my life as a self-employed tech industry analyst/journalist, I've recently been studying Javascript and I'm working on some "low tech" methods to create a more interactive page with overlay HTML divs with pictures and content.
But for that, I'll need to tease FReepers to go to a outside webpage, then come back to FR to comment on it.
One of things I'd like to do is help enable guys like yourself who want to do research and write about a particular &mdash in your case, squashing the Fake News and libelous press.
For example, my website of FR posted vanities and memes, freeper.org gives my content long lasting exposure.
The code for that website is freely available on w3Schools.com. It's the page, How to Create a Portfolio Gallery with Filtering.
But having that code only gets you halfway there. Because you still have to organize your photos, links, and figure out how to automate some things.
Hats off to SunkenCiv and DoughtyOne who are applying their data crunching and research skills in support of FR. ... And having fun along the way.
Good gosh, I know exactly what you are talking about.
However, I find I have less issue, because I don’t have to spend as much time with spelling and composition because I feel that organically, it just comes out right for me.
I hate spell checkers, because more often they introduce a damned error in context even if the word is spelled correctly.
And I admit...I look down my nose and sneer at products like “Grammarly”, and find myself in the less desirable situation of feeling like a snot, looking askance at people who feel they have to use it!
Sigh. I admit, I don’t like feeling like that. Some people really DO need to use those kinds of tools.
Thanks for the ping back to this great thread, c_I_c. Tremendous posters here.
“let it rip”
Way more often than not, that’s me. I’m old. I was going to attach Phil Collins “I don’t care anymore” music to my post here. Instead I’ll leave everyone with this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw_6kRiNF28
Respect and love