Opening up the ability to use email for posting might result in a wider set of participants. Web activity is cost prohibitive for many quality thinkers.
Are people aware that you don't need to be connected to the Internet to write comments, only to post them? The reason I ask this is because I've known a couple of people who've had the mistaken impression that starting a browser is what connects them to the Internet. I know one individual who, when he got disconnected from the Internet while writing an email at hotmail, thought he'd lost everything he had written. He believed he had to exit the browser and restart it to connect to hotmail again. In fact, all he had to do was reconnect using the dial-up networking entry for his ISP.
This mistaken impression stems from the way Windows is often configured to dial-up to the Internet. Many Windows machines are configured to dialup to the Internet whenever a browser is started. This is fine, but if you don't know that you can connect to the Internet without starting your browser it can be frustrating. You might think that while composing an email at hotmail you have to be connected to the Internet, when all you need is to have the browser window open to the page you're composing your email in.
This may seem an obvious thing to some of you, but it is by no means uncommon for people to think that one has to be online to write a comment.
If you want to write a comment offline, ensure you know how to disconnect or reconnect to the Internet without exiting or starting your browser. If you don't know how to do this, email me and I'll try to help you out.
Assuming you know how to do this, then writing comments offline is easy. Hypothetical example:
- You connect to the Internet in the usual fashion and go to urania.info.
- At the site, you read a new article or comment you want to reply to, but don't want to write your comment while your online. You click "Post Comment", disconnect from the Internet using the icon for dialup-networking in the "system tray" (bottom write-hand side of the srceen in Windows), all the while keeping your browser window open on the "Post Comment" page.
- While offline, you write your comment in the "post comment" text box. When it's finished and just needs to be previewed and posted, you connect to the Internet using a shortcut to the dialup entry for your ISP.
- Once reconnected, you simply click "Preview" and/or "Post". Everything will be as if you never disconnected.
If you need help, ask for it in the Help thread in my diary. I'm always glad to help.
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