An Opening Note About Our Discussion [ Edited ]

[fanuzzir]

Many readers hoping to find the Great American Novel look no further than Moby-Dick Melville had carved out a quite successful literary career fictionalizing his own adventures in the South Seas. With no profession making a claim on him in the United States, he had enlisted on a whaling voyage only to jump ship, wash up on Tahiti, and return to the United States with exotic, sensational tales to tell. Moby-Dick, however, tells us that he had much more to say about his round-the-world-adventure. Discover the book that turned this popular travel writer into one of the greatest thinkers of the American literary tradition. Our board for this discussion is organized around Moby-Dick's narrative, in sequential order. You'll see posts for the beginning of the novel set on dry land, for the two middle sections of the whaling adventure, and for the final pursuit and confrontation with Moby Dick. In addition, there are special posts for discussions on Moby Dick the sea mammal, to which Melville devoted many scientifically oriented chapters, on the major characters, on Melville's literary biography, and for all the literary allusions and references that Melville packs into his narrative. Please browse the board to become familiar with the categories of our discussion, and (I had to say it), take the plunge!

Message Edited by LitEditor on 12-08-2006 04:28 PM

[Choisya]

Thanks a zillion for all the hard work you have put into all these these notes and into 'structuring' this discussion for us Fanuzzir. If I could send you a bouquet I would

[leakybucket]

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Choisya wrote:
Thanks a zillion for all the hard work you have put into all these these notes and into 'structuring' this discussion for us Fanuzzir. If I could send you a bouquet I would

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Yes. Great set up! You just need to add a "Community Room" for the chit chat (like for these comments) and maybe an Introduce Yourself for the new people--at the back end. It is hard enough to navigate these boards once the volume picks up.

I just got my Moby Dick--just in time! I'll start reading it this weekend. I don't want to fall behind the discussions.

Bucky

[fanuzzir]

I'm looking forward to this adventure together, and I'm glad you like this format. I'm happy to continue this thread as our community forum.

[Choisya]

Ah yes, we do need a Community Room, and Introductions threads - I will try to do these and hope they end up in the right place



Yes. Great set up! You just need to add a "Community Room" for the chit chat (like for these comments) and maybe an Introduce Yourself for the new people--at the back end. It is hard enough to navigate these boards once the volume picks up.

I just got my Moby Dick--just in time! I'll start reading it this weekend. I don't want to fall behind the discussions.

Bucky

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Message Edited by Choisya on 12-10-200606:07 AM

[ELee]

Bravo! Bravo! I'm so excited! Let's really make this our first "old" new group discussion!

[Laurel]

Ahoy, mates! It took me a while to find ye, but here I am!

[leakybucket]

When you answer a previous statement, could you please quote it or or at least copy over the portion you are responding to? I prefer to work in threaded form and can usually (but not always) tell what previous post the question or statement is referring to. But sometimes in the longer threads, I find it easier to toggle to linear and, unless the person got the response in before any other comments were made in that thread, there is no way to tell what is being talked about.

Of course there is the problem of accumulated threads getting too long to quote. I have sometimes tried to delete all but the relevant statement I'm responding to but don't know enough HTML to always get it right yet. Fortunately, so far the software has figured out its way through my mistakes and just given red warnings and fixed it!

Bucky

[ziki]

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leakybucket wrote:. I have sometimes tried to delete all but the relevant statement I'm responding to but don't know enough HTML to always get it right yet. Fortunately, so far the software has figured out its way through my mistakes and just given red warnings and fixed it!

Bucky

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...either that or on such occasions when the post tails are too long just do cut and paste.....

ziki

[ziki]

Also changing headings appropriately helps....but that we should be used to from BNU. Here it is even more important.

ziki

[Portia]

Hi, Mr. Fanuzzir,

I just joined the Book Club today. I am replying to your message of 12/06/06. I imagine you are all well-underway reading Moby Dick.

I don't know how to do this exactly. Am I on the right page? How do I join in or respond?

I probably should wait until you begin the next book you plan to read.

Any advice you can give is welcome.

Portia

[ziki]

Hi Portia,

Bob Fannuzir will certainly reply to you....I just want to say that you do not have to wait...join in...you reply to each relevant heading i.e. chapter 1-27, or you reply to a particular message. You can then use the quote post button so it becomes clear to what you're responding. And if you want to start a new topic you push new message. Check the help section. You can set your own preferences about how you want teh forum to look, go to my profile above. Nothing can go wrong there experiment in finding what suits you best.

You did it right here. And you can also edit your post within 90 minutes after posting. There's spell check, you'll get used to it quickly. :-)

Looking forward to your comments!

ziki

Message Edited by ziki on 01-10-200712:52 AM

[fanuzzir]

Portia, Ziki gave a great summary of the process. One of the nice things about the group is you can force us all to return to an earlier section of the novel just by posting a reply to a petered out thread there. It will show up on our board as a new post, and we'll all be inclined to return to a part of a book we might have read before in order to see what a new reader might think. I know for a fact that you will enjoy the first thread of discussion, "On Dry Land," which covers, among other things, Ishmael's first sleepover with a South Sea Islander. There's also miscellaneous threads to put in your two cents whenever you want.
Here are some hints: use the "Linear Format" on your message board, and make sure you select the option of "newest posts first," so all you have to do is go down to the bottom of the page and start scrolling up. If you choose to have the oldest first, you may have to page through several pages to get to the newest post.

Enjoy the cybercommunity here.
Bob

[Choisya]

Welcome Aboard the B&N Pequod Portia! There is still time to have a voyage with us so throw your harpoon at any chapter you care to comment upon and we will steer over to join you! (Click on Message Listing above to find the Chapters.)

Here is how to select the Linear Format Professor Fanuzzir wrote of:-

I think this is the order in which most regular readers want to see the posts and it saves a lot of scrolling. It also helps if we put the Quote underneath our own message.

1) Sign in (nothing works until you do!)
2) Go to Profile
3) Go to Preferences
4) Go to Display Settings
5) Tick Linear format
6) Go to Linear Format Settings
7) Tick Newest to Oldest/Date descending
8) Do NOT tick 'Automatically jump to first unread message in a thread'.
9) Save changes

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Portia wrote:
Hi, Mr. Fanuzzir,

I just joined the Book Club today. I am replying to your message of 12/06/06. I imagine you are all well-underway reading Moby Dick.

I don't know how to do this exactly. Am I on the right page? How do I join in or respond?

I probably should wait until you begin the next book you plan to read.

Any advice you can give is welcome.

Portia

Message Edited by Choisya on 01-27-200706:03 PM

[ALK]

I am new here too and I appreciate the help given to newcomers. One of the suggestions was to set preferences to newest to oldest. I tried that but that meant I was reading all the posts, which I had not read, in reverse order--very confusing. I have set my preferences back to oldest to newest until I have read all the posts, then setting to newest to oldest will make sense.

[ziki]

Hi Alk,
I feel for you. I have been experimenting a couple of months now and I am not really happy with any solution, yet.It seems to be individual, too. The good thing is that there are some options at least. Sometimes I find the threaded view better because I can easily see who replied to whom. I get more continuity. In a discussion like here on Moby with many posts it can be useful. OTH it is slower way to get through, so if you just need a quick overview the linear is better. As you said if you are up to date with a running discussion then the newest might be best while seeing all the old Christmas messages is a bit enerving. For me just using the forum and experimenting gave the best ideas. Don't give up even if it is far from ideal. Both books and people are fun.

Hopefully the BN techies will keep improving the interface and come up with i.e. collapsable topics (that would make life easier and prevent me from collapsing, LOL). There is a help section on the forum where Bill
and Kevin will advice you if you post your questions there.

Welcome. Will you read Moby Dick?

ziki
on the welcome committee today :-)

[Kevin]

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ALK wrote:
I am new here too and I appreciate the help given to newcomers. One of the suggestions was to set preferences to newest to oldest. I tried that but that meant I was reading all the posts, which I had not read, in reverse order--very confusing. I have set my preferences back to oldest to newest until I have read all the posts, then setting to newest to oldest will make sense.

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Welcome, ALK.

I know others have offered help and expertise based on their experiences here. They're right that much of this is a matter of personal preference. I would offer this piece of advice: Stick with the defaults for a while. That sorts the threads according to the latest post in each thread, and it makes it so that when you click on the thread title, you go to the first unread message.

The one caveat is when you first create your account. In that case, all messages are marked as "read," and the "skip previously read messages" setting doesn't really work. ... As more messages are posted on the boards, you'll see that they become easier to find.

[fanuzzir]

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Portia wrote:
Hi, Mr. Fanuzzir,

I just joined the Book Club today. I am replying to your message of 12/06/06. I imagine you are all well-underway reading Moby Dick.

I don't know how to do this exactly. Am I on the right page? How do I join in or respond?

I probably should wait until you begin the next book you plan to read.

Any advice you can give is welcome.

Portia

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Portia, right now we're finishing our reading of The Jungle on a separate page, where some very wise people are wondering what became of a certain social and poltical vision. On this page, we're still committed to following Ahab down to the bottom of the ocean, so we intend to see this through. There will be a new paage on Hemingway starting late next week; please see the link so that you can buy the book. And on the "classics board," no featured discussion, there are some discussions about Poe and detective stories.

Hope at least one part of this menu entices you.
Bob

[baobab]

I just joined the book club today. I'm delighted to find your discussion of Moby Dick, a book I've been planning to read for many years. I look forward to reading your discussions as I read the book.

[Choisya]

Welcome Aboard Baobab! The more shipmates the merrier! This has been a lively voyage so you will find lots to stimulate your reading. Looking forward to your posts. (See my detailed response to Portia on how to navigate these boards, if you need any help)

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baobab wrote:
I just joined the book club today. I'm delighted to find your discussion of Moby Dick, a book I've been planning to read for many years. I look forward to reading your discussions as I read the book.

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