Mod Help Needed: Gigantic Opening Post

Hello Moderating Staff and fellow ATS members.

I have been busy for a few months now preparing my next major thread. I hope it will be well received.

The thread body may be in excess of 20 posts, and I would like a clean flow of posts without any interruptions breaking up the main thread until all has been posted. What would be the best way to go about withholding member posts until I have finished posting all of the thread?

I will probably be done with my formatting within the next week or two.

a reply to: Sahabi

I will do my part until I get the all clear from you ...looking forward to it ...peace

Just a suggestion. Post it during off hours. At a time of day when not many people are posting. It is not a perfect solution. But it could help.

Hopefully the mods can help you better though.

a reply to: Sahabi

You should most likely open up a private dialog with the staff before making a 20 post OP, as that is pretty excessive.

PM one of the super moderators and lay out what you wish to do.

a reply to: Sahabi
This is what I do, when the need arises.
Pre-type everything that needs to be posted, and break it up into sections no larger than the maximum size (which is 7413 characters, I learn from experience).
Then you know how many posts will be needed.
Copy-paste the first section as an opening post, including a note at the bottom that it will be continued in subsequent posts.
Then, very quickly, post the required number of additional posts with some copy-pasted skeleton message like "Content to be added in a short while".
Then, as quickly as possible (because readers will be impatient) replace all of these skeleton messages with the material you have ready prepared.
That was my procedure for the Index Thread of my Revelation series, which began with 8 posts.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Thanks Brother!



a reply to: karmicecstasy

That's a good idea. I might take that as part of my solution. Thanks!



a reply to: eriktheawful

Trust me my friend,... for the sake of the average attention span, I already chopped and condensed as much as I could.

To be honest, without condensing and adding further elaboration on some points, this project could have easily turned into a full-scale book.

Some things just can't be articulated and rationalized in the span of a commercial break. For those that find my thread too much, I ended it with a final short and summarized post. If that still isn't satisfactory, then the thread must not be for those detracting based upon length.



a reply to: DISRAELI

That is a great idea! I usually do format and number ahead of time, but I didn't consider bumping-off place holder posts until I have sufficient time to copy/paste the material.

Would you happen to know,..... if I take your method, will the automated; "edit on 4-2-2017 by Sahabi because: (no reason given)" message generated at the bottom take away from my maximum character count?

a reply to: Sahabi
I have just checked, and the automatic wording seems to have no impact.
[The checking procedure was to post a very long old piece, from the days when the limit was longer, deleting it, and re-pasting it to see if the cut-off point changed).
But in any case the demands of stopping at the end of a sentence, and ideally at the end of a paragraph, would make each post slightly shorter.

I discovered accidentally that posting links to other threads, and presumably other links, adds "invisible" characters and slightly reduces the effective limit.

Thank you for working so hard on such a presentation. I'm always impressed and appreciative of people who make such great efforts for the readers on this site. That being said... I'm dying to know what it's about! Would you give us a little hint?

Sahabi


You can also put a reminder at the beginning of your post. The ability to view just your posts in the thread is available. Click the profile button and click on "view posts in thread".. that should bring up all your posts in succession. Thus, if someone does get a comment in the middle, a person can still read just your full 20 page thread before responding..

The feature is there from the AMA threads we used to do here awhile back.. if nothing else..that may be an option

Thanks,
blend57

Why not make it a series of op's? I know that other members have done this in the past (part I, part II etc.), but it would be an odd way to go about it if all the parts are naturally following on the same content.
Also doing it as 20 posts in the same thread could also actually hinder the debate around the topic so I am not 100% sure doing 20 posts is the way to go. Hmm difficult this one.

Anywho, if it's a topic I have interest in then 20 posts done anyway won't intimidate me, but it would have to be REALLY engrossing.

I am looking forward to what you are offering up to the ATS gods, sounds like you've poured some serious hard work into these posts.

a reply to: Sahabi

yes, it will.
I'd allow for those extras ...and maybe give a few extra more in case you need to make corrections.
Or if staff needs to make an edit.

a reply to: BeenieWeenie

Hint? Hmmm,.... Well, the thread traces some prehistoric, ancient, and historic points in mankind's development, all in an effort to directly challenge a commonly agreed upon conspiratorial view, and hopefully, shed some much needed light on the subject to expose prevalent falsities.

It is in the spirit of ATS's; "All Roads Lead To Rome" / "All Roads Lead To Babylon", and reminiscent of William Cooper's; "Mystery Babylon" series.



a reply to: DISRAELI

Thanks for checking that out for me! It's much appreciated



a reply to: blend57

Thanks! I'd hate to play the pessimist, but a posting exclaimer might not be sufficient. We see it over and over, some people reply to threads immediately without ever reading an op. Even when a YouTube video is posted with a duration of 10-minutes, someone will reply within 2 minutes criticizing the content that they obviously didn't have enough time to view, let alone digest.

Hopefully, we can avoid the necessity of the "Posts In Thread" option for my OP, so that those who are not logged-in can enjoy a nice flow of material.



a reply to: constant_thought

In this instance, the material does flow better as a single piece of work. Breaking it up into multiple threads will take away from the main points, and as a thread series, each individual thread would appear almost pointless and disjointed.

I drafted the thread with a structured first post, and extremely short and summarized final post. For those that don't want to go through all of the material, they can simply read the final post and skim through the thread body depending on what draws one's attention. However, I do hope that a few people will enjoy the entirety of the thread.



a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Thank you very much for the update! I will definitely take that into consideration as I finalize my formatting.

a reply to: Sahabi

It is in the spirit of ATS's; "All Roads Lead To Rome" / "All Roads Lead To Babylon", and reminiscent of William Cooper's; "Mystery Babylon" series.

It was the all roads lead to rome thread that brought me to ATS . I suspect that your new thread will bring a much needed break from the political mud pit that has effected most of this place .I know it will for me because by the sounds of it ,it will take me a week to get through the op . looking forward to it ...peace

a reply to: Sahabi

You should make one single post/OP with brief explanation and link to a single complete PDF file of the whole thing.

Geez.. I don't think many will read it in continuity post after post after post.

I think your trying to break down a short novel into tiny segments!!

a reply to: mysterioustranger

I do not have my own website and I do not make blogs or PDFs.

All of my threads are ATS exclusives, and I feel that I do fairly well at condensing and formatting my content for this forum.

If it is too long or not interesting, everyone is more than welcome to ignore the thread instead of criticizing the size. I am more concerned with peer-review and criticism of my presented material. If it is too long for someone, it simply means that-that person is not the intended audience.