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REPORTING NON-STANDARD FUELS

Reporting Non-Standard Fuels

Methods for reporting and searching prices for non-standard fuels outside normal GasBuddy Organization means.

Legend:

  1. Numbered notes are shown at the bottom of this page, below the Appendices. The arrow at the beginning of each note is a backlink to the point where the note originated.
  2. GasBuddy Organization is abbreviated hereinafter to GBO.
  3. System parts (functions, forms, buttons, etc.) are shown in italics.
  4. Examples of keys or key combinations are shown in a monospaced typeface.
  5. System input to be entered by the user is shown in a monospaced typeface with a light gray background.[1]
  6. System or browser output is shown as a proportional typeface with a light gray background.
  7. For reference purposes, examples are numbered in grayed-out italics.


Reporting non-standard fuels in general

A sufficient number of members interested in the prices of certain fuels in their area may benefit from a means of reporting and searching for prices of those fuels. These members may wish to undertake the task of doing the reporting and maintaining the price lists. While not as convenient as having the mechanism built into the GBO system, it can be done, and, if there is sufficient activity, perhaps GBO will someday incorporate those fuels into the system.

Some examples of useful non-standard fuels are:

  • Biodiesel
  • Marine fuels
  • Aviation gasoline
  • Off-road fuels (non-taxed fuels)
  • Alcohol-free gasoline
  • Heating oil
  • Propane
  • Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
  • Kerosine
  • Kickapoo Joy Juice


Reporting coverage areas

  • State sites - State site coverage areas are most likely too large to conveniently serve local areas and would need to be broken into smaller areas of a more useful size. Members would form groups by area and decide the boundaries of their reporting coverage. The bigger the state, the more groups would likely be needed to service widely-spread areas. It would be confusing to combine widely-separated areas into one report.
  • Metro-area sites - The members of a metro-area would likely use the existing boundaries of their site's coverage area, but outlying groups could form their own areas if desired.
  • Division of areas - For convenience, members may decide to divide their area to group prices in lists. The method of division could be similar to that used by metro-areas, namely, quadrants, ZIP codes, traditional neighborhood names, and the like. Such divisions of a single coverage area should be applied to the price list, which would remain in a single topic.


Venues of reporting

This guide covers these possibilities:

  • GBO Forum - Use a topic to post individual price reports and comprehensive price lists.
  • Wiki - Use a wiki site to publish price lists and link to it from a forum topic.
  • E-mail - Use an E-mail account to receive price reports and send a price list to all participants on a regular basis, advertising the service in a forum topic.


Obtaining member participation

Initially, you may wish to PM or whiteboard members who report prices in the given area and ask for their participation in the reporting effort for the given fuel. Additionally, you may ask them if they know of anyone else who would be willing to participate, either as a reporter or user. Efforts to obtain participation could even extend to outside the GBO community, thus adding new members.

You may wish to invite the use of the forum topic, for a given fuel and reporting area, for discussions about the reporting methods used or how they can be improved. However, discussions about the fuels themselves should probably be directed to the national forum topics, because that's where the major audience would exist for those discussions.

Using the GBO forum for publishing prices

To use the forum method, a topic is established in the forum for a given fuel. Reporting members then post formatted price reports in replies. These reports would then be integrated into price lists. Aged reports would be marked for later deletion or removed from the list. All of these tasks can be done by members according to their skills and/or desires.

No font modification (sizes, bold, italics, etc.) is known to be possible in the forum.

Local prices would be of interest only to local members, so topics should be created in local discussion categories, and not in national categories.

Scope of tasks in forum reporting

The ultimate product of reporting is the formatted price list. Members would define the format most useful for their area. A state-wide format could be defined, or different formats for each area (topic) could be defined.

Depending on their skills and interests, members would participate on varying levels:

  • Input-only reporting - Members post replies with price(s) in a set format, leaving integration into price lists to others.
  • Integrated reporting - Members copy the latest price list, edit in their own report, and then post the list.
  • List maintenance - Members copy the latest list, edit in all new reports, cull aged-out reports and then post the list.


Beginning the topic

Every forum topic begins with the so-called original post (OP). The wording of the OP's text and title should be well thought out, because, while you can always post new replies, the OP is forever.[2] The OP should be worded sparingly to prevent it from becoming obsolete. Any material that could become dated should be placed in a reply, with directions for locating it—the date and time it was posted—included in the more-frequently-posted price reports.

User instructions for the topic

Detailed instructions for price reporting, list maintenance, and maintenance of the instructions themselves) should be posted in a reply. As conditions change or as it becomes apparent that revised instructions are desirable, you need only post a new reply containing the revised material. As there is no known way to link to a particular reply, users are referred to the instructions by the date and time of posting; members can look back through the topic and find them as long as they are visible.

As only four pages of replies are currently visible to the readers of a topic, the latest instructions will eventually age out of view. Before this happens, the instructions must be re-posted to bump them into view, and consequently, the date-time of the new version must be referred to from then on.

The instructions might include:

  • Procedures for those who are willing to:
    • Post only their own prices, but not integrate them into a comprehensive list.
    • Integrate only their own prices into a comprehensive list.
    • Integrate their own and other's price reports into a comprehensive price list.
    • Periodically cull out-dated reports.
  • Data formats for:
    • A single price report
    • The price list as a whole
  • A method for members to contact group leaders to ask questions or make suggestions as:
    • Replies in the topic, interleaved between price reports/lists.
    • PMs
    • Whiteboard posts.
    • E-mails.
  • A list of common elements of reports to be implied but not typed (and thus save space in report lines):
    • Unit of currency (US dollars, Canadian dollars)
    • Unit of selling quantity unit (gallons/liters)
    • Time zone to be used
    • Anything else that will be fixed and therefore can be left out of the formats.
  • And of course, more instructions on how to maintain the instructions.


A suggested forum price report format

A report format might consist of all of these elements:

  1. An optional age indicator:
    1. A hyphen (-) prefix as an "old" indicator. Reports older than some agreed-upon age, say 24 hours, would be preceded by this marker to warn that the price is too old to be reliable in fast-changing markets.[3]
    2. A double-double hyphen (-- --) as a deleted price indicator. Reports older than some agreed-upon age, say 48 hours, would have an "old" price replaced by this marker, leaving the other station information in place until the next report is received in order to:
      1. Give readers an idea of all of the local vendors available.
      2. Remind reporters of stations that need reporting.
      3. Save time for list maintainers when refreshing deleted-price stations.
  2. The price (per a sales unit, less currency units). Each price is appended with a cash (a) or credit (e) indicator. If both types of reports exist, they will be arranged cash first, followed by the credit price. If there is no cash and credit pricing difference, a "same" indicator (s) is substituted to definitely so state, followed by a forward slash (/).
  3. The brand or vendor's name followed by a forward slash (/).
  4. The vendor's street address followed by a forward slash (/).
  5. The vendor's cross or near street followed by a forward slash (/).
  6. The neighborhood, quadrant, zip code or other geographical subdivision of the topic's area according to local practice. If a particular vendor has many locations in one geographical division, consideration should be given to adding directional indicators to allow the reader to easily distinguish one from the other, e.g. N Podunk, SE Podunk, etc. followed by a forward slash (/).
  7. Month and day of the report followed by a forward slash (/).
  8. Time spotted - Local time of the report in 12-hour time (in the GBO manner) followed by a forward slash (/).
  9. The GBO nickname of the reporting member followed by a forward slash (/).
  10. Optional note number of a note located below the table (for which the reporting member would be responsible to also post the note with a matching number. The actual number used is unimportant as long as the report and note match and do not conflict with any other report's note number.)

In this format, there is no attempt to "pretty print", i.e. line up the various fields into neat columns, because the proportional typeface used as system output makes that difficult. It could be done by inserting periods (.) or hyphens (-) to align the fields, but it would be slow and tedious, might be confusing to newbies and is probably not worth the effort. Spaces would not work, because the forum deletes multiple spaces (and multiple blank lines, too). Note that while a message is being composed, it is displayed in a monospaced typeface—each character is the same width as any other— but after the message is posted, it is displayed in a justified typeface—each character may be of a different width, with no option to change this.

To prevent reports from taking up more than a single line for appearance's sake, a long report could be shortened so as to not wrap to the next line, but it would at the cost of information. When deciding on the fields in a format, any shortening would have to balance the two factors of appearance vs. information provided. The use of numbered notes to hold some information may help in keeping reports short so that they don't wrap when viewed on a typical PC.

Making an input-only report

An input-only report consists of a member's price reporting of his observed stations without reference to the existing price list. It would consist of these steps:

  1. Click Forum in the home page menu banner.
  2. Click [statename] or [metroareaname] discussion on the category index page (whose URL will end in Forum_Category.aspx).
  3. Click the appropriate reporting topic on the topic index page (whose URL will end in Forum_Category.aspxForum_Topics.aspx?category=somenumber.
  4. In lieu of reading the topic instructions, review the local format used in an existing price list.
  5. Click the Post a Reply button.
  6. In the message dialog box that opens, type the report for a station in the local format.
  7. Press [Enter] and type any additional report(s), one per line.
  8. Review the entire message and correct any errors.
  9. Click the Post Message button.

Here are examples of input-only reports for stations having the Different Cash/Credit Pricing MSL feature both checked and not checked:

Example 1 - A report where cash & credit pricing are different (shown as typed):
3.98a/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/95831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33
4.04e/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/95831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33

Example 2 - A report where cash & credit pricing is the same as (shown as typed):
4.12s/ARCO/1670 Marina St/Jib Ave/95831/1003/12:05PM/Boatfreak33/14

Making an integration report

An integration report is a price list into which a member has integrated his own price reports. It would consist of the following steps:

  1. Click Forum in the home page menu banner.
  2. Click either [some-state] discussion or [some-metroarea] discussion (as appropriate for your site) on the Category Index page (whose URL will end in Forum_Category.aspx).
  3. Click the appropriate reporting topic on the topic index page (whose URL will end in Forum_Topics.aspx?category=somenumber).
  4. Read the topic instructions, or at least review the local format used in an existing price list.
  5. Highlight the entire text of the message containing the latest price list ([Ctrl-A]).
  6. Copy the message to the Windows clipboard ([Ctrl-C]).
  7. Click the Post a Reply button.
  8. Ino the message dialog box that opens, paste the clipboard contents ([Ctrl-V]).
  9. Press [Enter] and type any additional report(s), one per line.
  10. Cash and credit lines are to appear as pairs with the cash report first, followed by the credit report.
  11. Position the report lines(s) so that the prices or pairs of prices will be in order of cash price (or of credit price if no cash price is available).
  12. Delete any older reports for the same vendor.
  13. Review the entire report and correct any errors.
  14. Click the Post Message button.


Making a list maintenance report

A list maintenance report collects all new reports from all sources and incorporates them into a new price list. It would consist of the following steps:

  1. Click Forum in the home page menu banner.
  2. Click either [some-state] discussion or [some-metroarea] discussion on the category index page (as appropriate for your site, whose URL will end in Forum_Category.aspx).
  3. Click the appropriate reporting topic on the topic index page (whose URL will end in Forum_Topics.aspx?category=somenumber).
  4. Read the topic instructions or at least review the local format used in an existing price list.
  5. Highlight the entire text of the message containing the latest price list ([Ctrl-A]).
  6. Copy the message to the Windows clipboard ([Ctrl-C]).
  7. Click the Post a Reply button to open the message dialog box.
  8. Paste the clipboard contents ([Ctrl-V]) into the box.
  9. Review topic messages posted since the last price list was posted, and for each new report, highlight, copy and paste the report lines to the dialog box, integrating them into the price list in order of cash price, except by credit price if there is not a cash price report also having been input for the vendor.
  10. Mark any sufficiently-aged report lines as "old" per local rules.
  11. Mark any aged-out report lines as "deleted" per local rules.
  12. Review the entire report and correct any errors.
  13. If the list instructions have been republished since the last price list was published, revise the date-time given for the new instructions message accordingly.
  14. Click the Post Message button.


A suggested forum price list format

A price list is simply a collection of price reports, the format of which has already been addressed. However there are a few additional items that could be added to the list to save the need to reference separate instructions:

  • At the top: A report header row to show the fields used in the reports.
  • At the bottom:
    • A reference row to the latest list instructions.
    • A legend row to announce any symbols used in the reports.
    • Numbered notes from the end of the report lines.

A typical list input would look like this when composed:

Example 3 - A forum message price list (shown as typed):

Price/Vendor/Address/Cross-St/ZIP/Date-Spotted/Time-Spotted/Reporting-Member/Note
-3.68a/ARCO/1670 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1001/12:05PM/Boatfreak33/14
3.98a/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33
4.08e/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33
3.99a/The River Shop/2334 Old River Rd/Hwy 65/75842/1002/7:00PM/Calloway
-4.01a/Inlet Marine Supply/5089 Marlinspike Rd/Hwy 65/75844/1001/Catfancier
4.13s/Joe's Bilge/7033 Hwy 65/Harbor Rd/75910/1003/4:05PM/OldAngler
4.15s/Waterspot/6988 Hwy 65/Harbor Rd/75910/1003/4:15PM/OldAngler/
-- --a/Marine Spot/1700 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/0931/1:14 PM/Flycaster/1
4.23s/The Fern Dock/1656 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/8:00AM/Flycaster

Notes:
1. Temporarily closed until AM of 1004.
14. No credit accepted/$.35 surcharge for debit except ARCO's

Order: Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station.
Legend: Price suffixes (a=Cash e=Credit s=C&C same) Price prefix (- "Old," 24-48 hours, -- -- "Too old, deleted")
Instructions: Last posted in this topic on 20140902 at 6:03PM

Which renders as:

Example 4 - A forum message price list (shown as published):

Price/Vendor/Address/Cross-St/ZIP/Date-Spotted/Time-Spotted/Reporting-Member/Note
-3.68a/ARCO/1670 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1001/12:05PM/Boatfreak33/14
3.98a/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33
4.08e/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33
3.99a/The River Shop/2334 Old River Rd/Hwy 65/75842/1002/7:00PM/Calloway
-4.01a/Inlet Marine Supply/5089 Marlinspike Rd/Hwy 65/75844/1001/Catfancier
4.13s/Joe's Bilge/7033 Hwy 65/Harbor Rd/75910/1003/4:05PM/OldAngler
4.15s/Waterspot/6988 Hwy 65/Harbor Rd/75910/1003/4:15PM/OldAngler/
-- --a/Marine Spot/1700 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/0931/1:14 PM/Flycaster/1>
4.23s/The Fern Dock/1656 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/8:00AM/Flycaster

Notes:
1. Temporarily closed until AM of 1004.
14. No credit accepted/$.35 surcharge for debit except ARCO's

Order: Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station.
Legend: Price suffixes (a=Cash e=Credit s=C&C same) Price prefix (- "Old," 24-48 hours, -- -- "Too old, deleted")
Instructions: Last posted in this topic on 20140902 at 6:03PM


Forum editing safety tips

While editing messages is typically done directly in a forum message's dialog box, it is safer to do it separately in a text editor, and when done editing, transfer the text to the dialog box. This is especially true if the Internet connection is iffy, such as when Wifi is being used. Glitches have been known to cause posts to fail and thus wipe out texts upon which authors have invested much time. Some precautionary measures can be taken:

  1. Highlight and save a message text to a Windows Notepad (file type .txt) or Wordpad (select ASCII encoding, .txt file type), either to an internal or external drive. A thumb drive (flash drive) is ideal.[4].
  2. The text can be deposited in an E-mail message and the message is saved as a draft.
  3. Copy the text to the Windows clipboard and keep it there undisturbed (copy nothing else) until the forum message posting process has successfully completed.


Using a wiki to publish price lists

An alternative to posting a price list to the forum is to set up a wiki, which is space on a website designed for display of pages and access to them by many authors (although it can be restricted to as few authors as desired). It can be password protected if a administrator wants to perform the chores of managing membership. Or the wiki can be left open to the public, making it easy for anyone to edit, but susceptible to vandalism. However, restoring a vandalized wiki is quick and simple and, being open, eliminates the administrative overhead of membership. Many wikis are free, such as this one, being supported by advertising, for example. Read Using the forum, above, for the basic principles, many of which would apply to using a wiki as well.

ShoutWiki (which hosts this wiki) uses the same "engine" (software) as Wikipedia, so the same coding techniques learned in one venue serves on the other. Some useful references:

  1. Formatting
  2. Markup
  3. Lists
  4. Intro to Tables
  5. Tables

To advertise the existence of the wiki to readers, a forum topic OP is posted in the local discussion category, containing:

  1. A link to the wiki
  2. A short description of the wiki's function, describing the fuel type and coverage area.
  3. An invitation for members to post price reports to the same topic
  4. An invitation for members to integrate price reports posted in the topic into the wiki
  5. An invitation for members to post price reports to the wiki
  6. An invitation for members to post any questions or suggestions about the wiki in the topic.
  7. A reminder that the topic should be kept positioned on Page 1 of the local discussion category topic index at all times. This is done by posting to the topic at least monthly in order not to allow the topic to age to such a degree that, should it be necessary to post to the topic, the GBO two-month-bumping rule would be violated (which might get the topic locked). In other words, don't let the topic get old.

The above work flow should be tailored to the way in which the wiki is to be used. For example, price reports might be posted in the topic by any member, with their integration into the wiki price list being done by a few.

Wiki formats

There are as many ways of publishing a price list in a wiki as the mind can devise. The improved appearance of a complicated format must be balanced against the ease of maintenance by the many. Two formats are suggested here, one simple, called free-form, and the other of medium complexity, called table-based.

A publishing date and time and a backup date should be added to any wiki version, along with the author's GBO nickname. (These are not needed in the forum version, because all forum messages are automatically time-stamped and marked as to author by the system.) Here is a suggested format:

Example 5 - An added date and time for the bottom of the page:

Version: 20140905 4:38 PM PST --Kiki23

Backup: 20140905 --Kiki23


A suggested free-form wiki format

The simplest format is to duplicate that of the forum message method, i.e. type the report in plain text. This requires no coding skill to speak of. Here is an example:

Example 6 - A wiki freeform price list (shown as typed):

Price/Vendor/Address/Cross-St/ZIP/Date-Spotted/Time-Spotted/Reporting-Member/Note<br>
3.68a/ARCO/1670 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1001/12:05PM/Boatfreak33/14<br>
-3.98a/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33<br>
4.08e/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33<br>
3.99a/The River Shop/2334 Old River Rd/Hwy 65/75842/1002/7:00PM/Calloway<br>
-4.01a/Inlet Marine Supply/5089 Marlinspike Rd/Hwy 65/75844/1001/Catfancier<br>
4.13s/Joe's Bilge/7033 Hwy 65/Harbor Rd/75910/1003/4:05PM/OldAngler<br>
4.15s/Watersport/6988 Hwy 65/Harbor Rd/75910/1003/4:15PM/OldAngler/<br>
-- --a/Marine Spot/1700 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/0931/1:14 PM/Flycaster/1<br>
4.23s/The Fern Dock/1656 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/8:00AM/Flycaster<br><br>

Order: Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station.<br>
Legend: Price suffixes (a=Cash e=Credit s=C&C same) Price prefix (- "Old," 24-48 hours, -- -- "Too old & deleted")<br>
Related Forum Topic: [http://www.floozyvillegasprices.com/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=1&category=1358&topic=397452 Diesel Boat Fuel Price List for Blatzburg and N. Skeeter only.]<br><br>

Notes:<br>
1. Temporarily closed until AM of 1004.<br>
14. No credit accepted/$.35 surcharge for debit except ARCO's<br>
<br>
Instructions: (Insert some instructions here)<br><br>

Version: 20140905 4:38 PM PST --Kiki23<br>
Backup: 20140905 --Kiki23

Which renders as:

Example 7 - A freeform wiki price list (shown as published):

Price/Vendor/Address/Cross-St/ZIP/Date-Spotted/Time-Spotted/Reporting-Member/Note
3.68a/ARCO/1670 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1001/12:05PM/Boatfreak33/14
-3.98a/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33
4.08e/Bill's Bait Shop/1678 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/12:03PM/Boatfreak33
3.99a/The River Shop/2334 Old River Rd/Hwy 65/75842/1002/7:00PM/Calloway
-4.01a/Inlet Marine Supply/5089 Marlinspike Rd/Hwy 65/75844/1001/Catfancier
4.13s/Joe's Bilge/7033 Hwy 65/Harbor Rd/75910/1003/4:05PM/OldAngler
4.15s/Watersport/6988 Hwy 65/Harbor Rd/75910/1003/4:15PM/OldAngler/
-- --a/Marine Spot/1700 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/0931/1:14 PM/Flycaster/1
4.23s/The Fern Dock/1656 Marina St/Jib Ave/75831/1003/8:00AM/Flycaster

Order: Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station.
Legend: Price suffixes (a=Cash e=Credit s=C&C same) Price prefix (- "Old," 24-48 hours, -- -- "Too old & deleted")
Related Forum Topic: Diesel Boat Fuel Price List for Blatzburg and N. Skeeter only.

Notes:
1. Temporarily closed until AM of 1004.
14. No credit accepted/$.35 surcharge for debit except ARCO's
Instructions: (Insert some instructions here)

Version: 20140905 4:38 PM PST --Kiki23
Backup: 20140905 --Kiki23


The coding for the above list is practically non-existent, the only concern being where new lines are to start. You should understand these three principles thoroughly:
      1. All lines in the list will be interpreted as strung together in one long line unless one of the following occurs:
            a. A blank line appears between them. A blank line is interpreted as a command to start a new paragraph.
            b. The HTML breaking space tag (<br>) is inserted in the text. This tag is interpreted to mean you wish to end one line and begin a new one.
      2. Because of 1), above, it logically follows that reports need not be typed on a separate lines. For example, typing:

Example 8 - Reports in a single line (shown as typed):

report1<br>report2<br>report3<br>report4

will have the same appearance to the reader as typing:
Example 9 - Reports on separate lines (shown as typed):

report1<br>
report2<br>
report3<br>
report4<br>

In other words, separate lines (except blank ones) mean nothing; the author is in total control by inserting break tags. Nevertheless, Example 6 is to be discouraged, because it makes for a list that is very hard to maintain. It is recommended that you stick to one report per line as in Example 7, so that it is easy to see where new reports are to be inserted and old ones are to be deleted. Also errors in formatting will stand out, because, the reports being somewhat lined up with each other, they will be compared by the eye.
      3. Where a blank line is desired to appear in the list, two break tags will create it. And again, it won't matter if they are on the same line or not.

Before writing a wiki, experiment with a few lines of text and practice using the break tag to see how it works. The wiki's Show Preview button allows you to look at both the wiki input and output on the same page.


Tweaks to the free-form wiki format

See Appendix 1 and 2 for optional bolding and italicizing of items in the free-form format.


A suggested table-based wiki format

This method enters the data into a nice-looking table. First the table is entered—which is what the reader is really looking for—and then it is followed by additional information, (legend, references to forum topics, notes, and so forth). First let's look at the elements of a simple table.

A basic table

Official table help may be seen here.

A table is produced by some markup (code) elements for the header row and report rows. First they will be listed and described, and then usage examples will be given:

  1. A table-starting code, which begins the table - {|
  2. A table class that automatically defines many appearance items
  3. A new-row code that signals that a row of the table follows - |-
  4. A header row code ! to begin the row. Being a header row, all words will be bolded by default.
  5. The row data - In the case of this table header, the names of the columns are shown, each name being separated by two exclamation points, except for the last name in the row, which needs to be followed by nothing.
  6. An ordinary row code |, to begin the row. Being am ordinary row, all words will not be bolded.
  7. The row data - In the case of a price report row, the elements of the report are shown, each element being separated by tow pipe symbols ||, except for the last element in the row, which needs to be followed by nothing.
  8. A table-ending code, which ends the table.

The input typed for a table might look like this:

Example 12 - A wiki table's code (shown as typed):

{| class="wikitable
!Price!!Vendor!!Address!!Cross St!!ZIP!!Date<br>Spotted!!Time<br>Spotted!!Member!!Note<br>
|-
| -3.68a||ARCO||1670 Marina St||Jib Ave||75831||1001||12:05PM||Boatfreak33||14
|-
| 3.98a||Bill's Bait Shop||1678 Marina St||Jib Ave||75831||1003||12:03PM||Boatfreak33||
|-
| 4.08e||Bill's Bait Shop||1678 Marina St||Jib Ave||75831||1003||12:03PM||Boatfreak33||
|-
| 3.99a||The River Shop||2334 Old River Rd||Hwy 65||75842||1002||7:00PM||Calloway||
|-
| -4.01a||Inlet Marine Supply||5089 Marlinspike Rd||Hwy 65||75844||1001||Catfancier||
|-
| 4.13s||Joe's Bilge||7033 Hwy 65||Harbor Rd||75910||1003||4:05PM||OldAngler||
|-<br> <nowiki>| 4.15s||Watersport||6988 Hwy 65||Harbor Rd||75910||1003||4:15PM||OldAngler||
|-
| -- --a||Marine Spot||1700 Marina St||Jib Ave||75831||0931||1:14 PM||Flycaster||1
|-
| 4.23s||The Fern Dock||1656 Marina St||Jib Ave||75831||1003||8:00AM||Flycaster||
|}

Note that each data item is "enclosed" by two pipe symbols (|), except for the first item, which has not item preceding it, and the last item in the line which needs no closing pipe (it is assumed by the system).

Example 12 renders as:

Example 13 - A wiki table (shown as published):

Price Vendor Address Cross St ZIP Date
Spotted
Time
Spotted
Member Note
-3.68a ARCO 1670 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 1001 12:05PM Boatfreak33 14
3.98a Bill's Bait Shop 1678 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 1003 12:03PM Boatfreak33
4.08e Bill's Bait Shop 1678 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 1003 12:03PM Boatfreak33
3.99a The River Shop 2334 Old River Rd Hwy 65 75842 1002 7:00PM Calloway
-4.01a Inlet Marine Supply 5089 Marlinspike Rd Hwy 65 75844 1001 11:10AM Catfancier
4.13s Joe's Bilge 7033 Hwy 65 Harbor Rd 75910 1003 4:05PM OldAngler
4.15s Watersport 6988 Hwy 65 Harbor Rd 75910 1003 4:15PM OldAngler
-- --a Marine Spot 1700 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 0931 1:14 PM Flycaster 1
4.23s The Fern Dock 1656 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 1003 8:00AM Flycaster

As with the free-format method, bolding, italicizing and other tweaks are possible (see Appendix 1 & 2), but it makes the table more complicated, and, for new authors, perhaps too complicated. It is best therefore to limit such tweaks to the information following the table, because that will remain more or less constant and won't need to be touched often, whereas the table data (pricing) will change rapidly. The table's header row, by virtue of it's exclamation marks, is bolded by default.

A table in a page

Here is the code for a typical page to hold the table of Examples 12 & 13:

Example 14 - A wiki page less table (shown as typed):

(The code for the table of Example 12 goes here.)
''Order:'' Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station.<br>
''Legend:'' Price suffixes (a=Cash e=Credit s=C&C same) Price prefix (- "Old," 24-48 hours, -- -- "Too old & deleted"<br>
''Related Forum Topic:''[http://www.floozyvillegasprices.com/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=1&category=1358&topic=397452|"Diesel Boat Fuel Prices for Blatzburg and N. Skeeter only."]<br><br>

''Notes:''<br>
1. Temporarily closed until AM of 1004.<br>
14. No credit accepted/$.35 surcharge for debit except ARCO's.

''Version:'' 20140905 4:38 PM PST --Kiki23
''Backup:'' 20140905 --Kiki23


Which renders as:
Example 15 - A complete price list page (shown as published):

Price Vendor Address Cross St ZIP Date
Spotted
Time
Spotted
Member Note
-3.68a ARCO 1670 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 1001 12:05PM Boatfreak33 14
3.98a Bill's Bait Shop 1678 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 1003 12:03PM Boatfreak33
4.08e Bill's Bait Shop 1678 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 1003 12:03PM Boatfreak33
3.99a The River Shop 2334 Old River Rd Hwy 65 75842 1002 7:00PM Calloway
-4.01a Inlet Marine Supply 5089 Marlinspike Rd Hwy 65 75844 1001 11:10AM Catfancier
4.13s Joe's Bilge 7033 Hwy 65 Harbor Rd 75910 1003 4:05PM OldAngler
4.15s Watersport 6988 Hwy 65 Harbor Rd 75910 1003 4:15PM OldAngler
-- --a Marine Spot 1700 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 0931 1:14 PM Flycaster 1
4.23s The Fern Dock 1656 Marina St Jib Ave 75831 1003 8:00AM Flycaster

Order: Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station.
Legend: Price suffixes (a=Cash e=Credit s=C&C same) Price prefix (- "Old," 24-48 hours, -- -- "Too old & deleted")
Related Forum Topic: "Diesel Boat Fuel Prices for Blatzburg and N. Skeeter only."

Notes:
1. Temporarily closed until AM of 1004.
14. No credit accepted/$.35 surcharge for debit except ARCO's.

Version: 20140905 4:38 PM PST --Kiki23
Backup: 20140905 --Kiki23


Note that the data in the first cell—the price—is spaced away from the first pipe symbol (|). This is explained in the next section.

A warning about the special spacing requirement in the table for prices

Normally, the data in a table cell could begin immediately after the pipe (|) symbol; no space is required between them. However, in the special case of fields that happen to begin with a hyphen (-), such as some price fields in the suggested format, a space must be inserted to prevent the hyphen—adjacent to the pipe symbol—from being interpreted as the code for starting a new row. This table shows the right and wrong of it:

What you type
in Column 1
How the wiki
sees it
What the wiki does
|-4.08a |-  4.08a Starts a new row
and eats the hyphen
|  -4.08a |  -4.08a Shows price as intended,
leaving the hypen untouched.

Except for the special case of the too-close hyphen, spaces would be optional on both sides of the data. In other words |cat| is the same as | cat | in the cells of the table.

Wiki editing safety tips

Editing messages is typically done directly in a wiki's dialog box to take advantage of the great benefit of a preview feature that allows an author to test his code. While it is in fact safer to edit separately in a text editor, and when done editing, transfer the text to the dialog box, the advantage of the Show Preview button is lost.

Clicking the uppermost Edit button will allow access to the entire wiki, but it will be slower than if a section of the wiki at a time is edited. It also allows backing up the entire wiki.

Some precautionary measures can be taken:

  1. Highlight and save a dialog box text to a Windows Notepad (file type .txt) or Wordpad (select ASCII encoding, .txt file type), either to an internal or external drive. A thumb drive (flash drive) is ideal.
  2. The text can be deposited in an E-mail message and the message saved as a draft.
  3. The text can be deposited in a text editor, saved as a .txt file, and the file attached to an E-mail draft.
  4. Copy the text to the Windows clipboard and keep it there undisturbed (copy nothing else) until the wiki posting process has successfully completed.


Using E-mail to publish price lists

It can be argued that the forum and wiki methods are preferable to using E-mail, because the lists may be viewed at any time, whereas users must wait for the arrival of an E-mailed price list. However, a common E-mail account may overcome this.

This method may simply mimic the forum method with the exception of the latest instructions appearing in the forum topic which advertizes the list. All techniques not available in the forum, but which are available to E-mails, e.g. HTML, HTML entities, bolding, italics, etc. may be used. One user would copy the previous list to the next one, incorporating his latest reports.

The E-mail subject line should begin with the date-time group of the list. This will make it easier for users to manage their inboxes by deleting old lists.

Using a common E-mail account

Some problems are envisioned if there are many reports made:

  1. If a list is republished by every member who makes a report, an excessive number of E-mails could clutter up members inboxes. # Members making input-only reports could send them to the account where volunteers could integrate them and republish the list.

Procedures would need to be adopted to guide users in doing list maintenance.

If a single E-mail account is created and used by all users, these problems would not exist, however limiting access to the account might be required to prevent vandalism. Perhaps newbies, after a probationary period of making reports and receiving them in their own accounts, could be awarded access to the common account.


Appendicies


Appendix 1 - Bolding wiki data

Data can be bolded by enclosing it in triple apostrophies (') like this:

Example 16 - A line shown marked up to be bolded (shown as typed):
'''Price/Vendor/Address/Cross-St/ZIP/Date-Spotted/Time-Spotted/Reporting-Member/NoteE'''

Which renders as:

Example 17 - A line shown bolded (shown as published):
Price/Vendor/Address/Cross-St/ZIP/Date-Spotted/Time-Spotted/Reporting-Member/Note

Appendix 2 - Italicizing wiki data

Data can be italicized by enclosing it in double apostrophies (') like this:

Example 18 - A word shown marked up to be italicized (shown as typed):
''Order:'' Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station.

Which renders as:

Example 19 - A word shown italicized (shown as published):
Order: Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station. |}

Appendix 3 - Optional use of a wiki Reflist template

In the examples of wiki pages given above, a note number was placed in a table row and, below, where the author wishes to place the notes, similar note numbers were typed (along with the note itself). This was an entirely manual process, the author being responsible for matching the numbers. When a report line is deleted, the corresponding note is deleted, leaving gaps in the note numbers to save renumbering everything.

The Reflist template—a preprogrammed setup—at Shoutwiki can be used to automatically connect the numbers of the Notes column to the notes below the table. The note text is written at the point in the wiki where it is desired for the note number to appear. The template then replaces the note text(s) with a number(s) in square brackets ([1]) and moves the note(s) to a place the author specifies. In addition, at the beginning of every note text, there is a backlink to take the reader back to the place in the table from whence it came.

As the name implies, the Reflist template handles references. But that is just a name; think notes instead of references and the template will do the job. This is done in the following steps:

  1. For any number of notes, insert the template code {{reflist}} anywhere on the page. This calls the template from the system to perform the reference process.[5]
  2. Enclose the note text in ref tags and place it in the report where the note number—but not the note itself—is to be seen by the reader, e.g. somereporttext<ref>Some note text.</ref>.
  3. Just above the point in the page where it is desired for the notes to appear, type the label ''Notes:''. (This has no effect on the Reflist process; it is merely to inform the reader that what follows next are the notes.)
  4. Follow the word Notes with tag <references />. This is how the template knows where to display the notes in the order in which they appeared in the report.

The above steps cause the note text that is typed between the <ref> tags, whether inside or outside of aa table to group together in immediately following the <references /> tag. Each note will be numbered in both places automatically. If a note and its tags are deleted, the remaining notes will be automatically renumbered accordingly. If a note is added, the notes will likewise be automatically renumbered.

This is a minimal example to show the appearance of notes inside and outside of a table:

Example 20 - A short wiki with notes (shown as typed):

{| class="wikitable"
|This is the first row of the table.<ref>This is the first note.</ref>
|-
|This is the second row of the table.<ref>This is the second note.</ref>
|}
This line is the first line outside the table. <ref>This is the third note.</ref>
This line is the second line outside the table. <ref>This is the fourth note.</ref>
===Notes:===
<references />
{{reflist}} |}


Which renders as:

Example 21 - A short wiki with notes (shown as published)::


This is the first row of the table.[1]
This is the second row of the table.[2]

This is the first line outside the table.[3]
This is the second line outside the table.[4]

Notes:
   1. ↑ This is the first note.
   2. ↑ This is the second note.
   3. ↑ This is the third note.
   3. ↑ This is the fourth note.
Template:Reflist



Appendix 4 - Regulating column width

Unless the author overrides it, the system sets the cell widths of tables. By default, the width of a column is automatically set by the widest data in any cell in the column like this:

Example 22 - A table with different column widths (shown as published).:

Title: column width = widest cell
somewideheader someheader
somedata somewidedata
  • As above, except additional white space may be specified around each cell's data, effectively increasing it's width as desired (but vertically as well as horizontally). The element cellpadding is added after the table class:
This is a header This is a wider header
Some data Even more very wide, wide data

There are several methods of governing the width of a column, but by letting the system do it, it may be more readable when using different devices (such as smartphones), because the browsers can adjust how the columns are viewed. Anyone seeking to adjust columns manually may contact the author for additional advice if necessary.

Appendix 5 - Centering the data in a column

The data of a cell may be centered by inserting align="center"|before the data and following it. This would have to be done for every cell in the column.

Appendix 6 - Choosing Wiki and page names

  1. Any wiki name that is to be chosen participates in a competition with all other authors for the same name. A way to diminish the competition is to prefix the name with some characters that are unlikely to be duplicated by others. For example, there may be others who wish to use the name guides, but there are likely none who wish to use gb-guides. Your initials for example could be used.
  2. The main page of a wiki defaults to the name Main_Page. The M and the P case sensitive, but it shouldn't matter, because there will be little reason to type this page name. This is because going to somewiki.shoutwiki.com automatically defaults to somewiki.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page.
  3. Wiki page names are case-sensitive, except for the first letter of the name, which is non-case-sensitive. Thus cat is the same as Cat. but CAT will fail because the AT will not be recognized as the C will.
  4. If underscores (_) are used to separate pieces of a page name, the first letter of each piece defaults to upper case in the name used. To avoid this, use hyphens (-) instead of underscores to separate pieces of names, e.g. Non-standard, not Non_standard. If this precaution is taken, except for Main_Page (which must be typed that way). all names may be typed all lower case, which is what most users do.

Notes:

  1. Under some monitor settings, the light gray background may appear to be washed out to white, so the examples will not stand out as well. Resetting your monitor to factory settings may correct this.
  2. The only remedy for a botched OP that you can undertake yourself is to announce in the topic's final reply that the existing topic is closed and that operations are being transferred to a new topic (with a better-written OP) as a replacement. If that is to be done, post the new topic first in order to get a URL to be used to build a link that will be placed the last reply of the old topic before you let it fade away. Alternatively, you can send a Personal Message (PM) to a forum moderator and ask that the old topic be deleted. Such requests are often fulfilled.
  3. Another symbol could be used instead of the hyphen, but you must avoid symbols that will "do things" in the wiki e.g. an asterisk (*) or number sign (#) creates a list.
  4. This is a good backup for the extremely rare event that the GBO system loses the topic. There is a known phenomena wherein some author keyboard or mouse action will cause the entire contents of a message being composed to vanish. So far, the cause for this is unknown, but it is instant and irreversible.
  5. It may be that once a template is called, the template code itself may be deleted from a wiki page and the template will still function. There is no guarantee that the template will function later in a different session. Therefore, the template code should always be present on every page on which it is needed.

Template:Reflist

Version: 20150113 6:49 PM PST --CampKohler
Backup: 20150113 --CampKohler

Top Return to Guides Index.


Using a common E-mail account

Some problems are envisioned if there are many reports made:

  1. If a list is republished by every member who makes a report, an excessive number of E-mails could clutter up members inboxes.
  2. Members making input-only reports could send them to the account where volunteers could integrate them and republish the list.

Procedures would need to be adopted to guide users in doing list maintenance.

If a single E-mail account is created and used by all users, these problems would not exist, however limiting access to the account might be required to prevent vandalism. Perhaps newbies, after a probationary period of making reports and receiving them in their own accounts, could be awarded access to the common account.


Appendicies


Appendix 1 - Bolding wiki data

Data can be bolded[1] by enclosing it in triple apostrophies (') like this:

Example 16 - A line shown marked up to be bolded (shown as typed):
'''This is some data.</nowiki>

Which renders as:

Example 17 - A line shown bolded (shown as published):
This is some data.


Appendix 2 - Italicizing wiki data

Data can be italicized by enclosing it in double apostrophies (') like this:

Example 18 - A word shown marked up to be italicized (shown as typed):
''Order:'' Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station.

Which renders as:

Example 19 - A word shown italicized (shown as published):
Order: Cash prices lowest to highest, cash followed by credit for each station. |}

Appendix 3 - Optional use of a wiki Reflist template

In the examples of wiki pages given above, a note number was placed in a table row and, below, where the author wishes to place the notes, similar note numbers were typed (along with the note itself). This was an entirely manual process, the author being responsible for matching the numbers. When a report line is deleted, the corresponding note is deleted, leaving gaps in the note numbers to save renumbering everything.

The Reflist template—a preprogrammed setup—at Shoutwiki can be used to automatically connect the numbers of the Notes column to the notes below the table. The note text is written at the point in the wiki where it is desired for the note number to appear. The template then replaces the note text(s) with a number(s) in square brackets ([1]) and moves the note(s) to a place the author specifies. In addition, at the beginning of every note text, there is a backlink to take the reader back to the place in the table from whence it came.

As the name implies, the Reflist template handles references. But that is just a name; think notes instead of references and the template will do the job. This is done in the following steps:

  1. For any number of notes, insert the template code {{reflist}} anywhere on the page. This calls the template from the system to perform the reference process.[2]
  2. Enclose the note text in ref tags and place it in the report where the note number—but not the note itself—is to be seen by the reader, e.g. somereporttext<ref>Some note text.</ref>.
  3. Just above the point in the page where it is desired for the notes to appear, type the label ''Notes:''. (This has no effect on the Reflist process; it is merely to inform the reader that what follows next are the notes.)
  4. Follow the word Notes with tag <references />. This is how the template knows where to display the notes in the order in which they appeared in the report.

The above steps cause the note text that is typed between the <ref> tags, whether inside or outside of aa table to group together in immediately following the <references /> tag. Each note will be numbered in both places automatically. If a note and its tags are deleted, the remaining notes will be automatically renumbered accordingly. If a note is added, the notes will likewise be automatically renumbered.

This is a minimal example to show the appearance of notes inside and outside of a table:

Example 20 - A short wiki with notes (shown as typed):

{| class="wikitable"
|This is the first row of the table.<ref>This is the first note.</ref>
|-
|This is the second row of the table.<ref>This is the second note.</ref>
|}
This line is the first line outside the table. <ref>This is the third note.</ref>
This line is the second line outside the table. <ref>This is the fourth note.</ref>
===Notes:===
<references />
{{reflist}} |}


Which renders as:

Example 21 - A short wiki with notes (shown as published)::


This is the first row of the table.[1]
This is the second row of the table.[2]

This is the first line outside the table.[3]
This is the second line outside the table.[4]

Notes:
   1. ↑ This is the first note.
   2. ↑ This is the second note.
   3. ↑ This is the third note.
   3. ↑ This is the fourth note.
Template:Reflist



Appendix 4 - Regulating column width

Unless the author overrides it, the system sets the cell widths of tables. By default, the width of a column is automatically set by the widest data in any cell in the column like this:

Example 22 - A table with different column widths (shown as published).:

Title: column width = widest cell
somewideheader someheader
somedata somewidedata
  • As above, except additional white space may be specified around each cell's data, effectively increasing it's width as desired (but vertically as well as horizontally). The element cellpadding is added after the table class:
This is a header This is a wider header
Some data Even more very wide, wide data

There are several methods of governing the width of a column, but by letting the system do it, it may be more readable when using different devices (such as smartphones), because the browsers can adjust how the columns are viewed.

Appendix 5 - Centering the data in a column

The data of a cell may be centered by inserting align="center"|before the data and following it. This would have to be done for every cell in the column.

Appendix 6 - Choosing Wiki and page names

  1. Any wiki name that is to be chosen participates in a competition with all other authors for the same name. A way to diminish the competition is to prefix the name with some characters that are unlikely to be duplicated by others. For example, there may be others who wish to use the name guides, but there are likely none who wish to use gb-guides. Your initials for example could be used.
  2. The main page of a wiki defaults to the name Main_Page. The M and the P case sensitive, but it shouldn't matter, because there will be little reason to type this page name. This is because going to somewiki.shoutwiki.com automatically defaults to somewiki.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page.
  3. Wiki page names are case-sensitive, except for the first letter of the name, which is non-case-sensitive. Thus cat is the same as Cat. but CAT will fail because the AT will not be recognized as the C will.
  4. If underscores (_) are used to separate pieces of a page name, the first letter of each piece defaults to upper case in the name used. To avoid this, use hyphens (-) instead of underscores to separate pieces of names, e.g. Non-standard, not Non_standard. If this precaution is taken, except for Main_Page (which must be typed that way). all names may be typed all lower case, which is what most users do.

Notes:

  1. Bolding is not necessary for headers in tables, because hearders are bolded by default.
  2. It may be that once a template is called, the template code itself may be deleted from a wiki page and the template will still function. There is no guarantee that the template will function later in a different session. Therefore, the template code should always be present on every page on which it is needed.

Template:Reflist

Version: 20150927 12:25 PM PDT --CampKohler
Backup: 20150927 --CampKohler

Top Return to Guides Index.