Forum Pontificum

[Reginald]

Rumours abound that the Holy Father is about to liberalise the older form of the SSG's Discussion Forum.

Informed sources have said that the Holy Father is concerned that the new format of the Forum might be perceived as a rupture with the past. For example the tradition of the Church is that avatars and emoticons should be on the Gospel side of the screen - there being no clear precedent for avatars on the Epistle side. Notwithstanding, controversy abounds as some modern scholars believe that in the early Church avatars could be on either side (with avatars being concealed behind a curtain as recently as the Sarum rite, and indicated by an extrra candle in the pre-conciliar Dominican rite). Blogging forum archaeologism was specifically condemned by Pope Pius XII in Media Todei but has remained a hotly contested issue since the reforms of (Windows) Vista II

Vatican watchers point to the crucifix having recently been seen in the centre of the Holy Father's desktop, along with the reappearance of the Seventh Cursor, to which all webmasters are entitled on their own sites and to which the Holy Father is universally entitled (at least throughout the Western blogosphere). Recent photographs of the Holy Father have shown him using a variety of accoutrements from the Church's recent past (The mouse mat of Pope Paul VI, the desk chair of Leo XIII, the keyboard of Bd John XXIII). Mgr Guido Martini, papal cocktail barman and ICT technician was recently quoted as saying

"Above all, it must be underscored that the web layout chosen, like some details of the rites themselves, are meant to underscore the continuity of the present forum with that which characterized the traditional forum of the Church.

The hermeneutic of continuity is always the right criterion for interpreting the course of the Church in time. This goes for the forum of the SSG as well.

Just as a Pope cites his predecessors in his documents, to show the continuity of the magisterium, a Pope also does the same in the discussion forum sense when he uses the vestments and sacred accessories that previous Popes have used, to indicate the same continuity in the lex blogandi."

The news has been warmly welcomed in some quarters, particularly amongst older members of the forum who remain attached to the earlier format but also amongst surprising numbers of younger users who have been introduced to the earlier format of the forum and find its older protocols more conducive to e-discussion. Representatives of the breakaway movement, the SSPG, are yet to make a formal statement, but Bishop Feline was recently quoted as saying "Our issues with the SSG go much deeper than just the layout of the discussion forum, we need there to be real evidence that the SSG is still promoting the values of its founders".

Early signs are that the Webmasters of England and Wales are resistant to returning to the older format of the Forum, believing that the new format is more appropriate to the needs of modern websurfers. Webmaster Riley O'Driscoll, in an interview given earlier this week, said that provision for those attached to the transistorised version of the SSG site had always been good and that he didn't think the situation would change much.

With apologies to the real Mgr Marini, and the others herein paraphrased!

Happy New Year everyone

[nazard]

On a more serious note, some other boards have a facility which lets you jump from the index to the last post on any given subject. Would it be possible to incorporate that feature here? I assume it is a case of turning it on.

[sidvicius]

You could try 'Sort Ascending' rather than 'Sort Descending', which puts the latest post at the top.

I quite like this new format; just let's steer clear of excessive Latin OK?

[contrabordun]

You can get this. From the forum index*, in the Last Post column where it says "by musicus", click on the page icon (little white square with an arrow pointing to bottom right) to go to the most recent post in a thread.

*(i.e., index forum hopefullynonprohibitum)

[nazard]

Thanks, C, that was just what I wanted.