Ronald's activity

On the local Sicily news today they said that a German that lives here was bitten by a tick and died as a result - the expert brought on to comment pointed out that now is a particularly tricky period and everyone should be particularly careful in the countryside - preferably going out fully clothed rather than shorts, etc. The symptoms of a tick bite are similar to those of pneumonia so it is all about diagnosing the symptoms correctly.  

well done moxie - will advertise this a bit wider on website, newsletter etc next week. complimentoni 

Quite a few things are discussed here - I will try to explain how we envision the setup here to be used.There are three dimensions to the communityTopics - this divides discussions according to subject. It is the closest you get to the old forums. There are 7-8 large themes with sub-topics and we have designed the topic page to offer a "forum-style" view of topics. You can use the various links to post into a specific topic and others can comment on posts, etc.Location - this divides topics according to location - and is a big improvement to the previous forums. One of the challenges of the previous forums was to deal with information that was both topic relevant (e.g. property) but also location-specific (e.g. property in sicily). I Now it is possible to look for property related discussions in Umbria or Food related subjects in Sicily (but even drill down to a specific town). Next week we will have a Location page that resembles the topic page that will hopefully go some way towards making it easier to realise that this functionality is here. Combining Locations with Topics makes a Grand Tour section (ala old forums) redundant. It is enough to visit a place page (e.g. Umbria) and then filter according to a topic.Groups - Groups offer two functionalities - firstly to enable members to discuss topics and or locations that are perhaps not quite covered by the "official" lists above, but, more importantly enable members to aggregate around a subject and hence connect better because their interests are made obvious through membership  (e.g. Le Marche people, Northen Tuscany people, Gardening people, etc, etc).As a means to give the group owner more control they can choose which members to accept and how to moderate entry in the group. Obviously open groups have more chances to grow. But it may even make sense for someone to have a closed group of just 4-5 members that perhaps want to explore a specific issue with more flexibility than mails or anything like that. Finally a group posting may be also tagged as public which open it up to discussion from anyone in the community. Again this is a personal choice. These three "dimensions" allow people to explore topics and locations and combinations of these with more flexibility. Now, there is a question of easy of use and tools to make using the community better. We are working on the various issues and something like "mark all as read", the text-editor, etc have all been focused towards making using the website easier. We are not however looking to re-create the forums (i.e. replicate all functionality) we believe leaving things simpler may be easier.Finally, I realise that for whoever was very used to the forum format a lot has changed. The piazza is a different place and it needs getting used to. We hope that through explaining and adjusting we will make the transition easier. 

comment control: I think that is enabled - you can decide what view you wantquotes: thanks! will look into thatIMCE: I found that really horrible to use but perhaps something is better than nothing :) thanks! 

The pressure is increasing on Berlusconi's government - let us see whether also this will just die out or it will sum up to something. Main problem is that there is no real opposition so if the foreign press doesn't stir things up no one here can... 

Hi - I thought that  a threaded list is more interesting as it allows sub-discussions to develop (you reply to a comment and another thread takes off there while others continue with the main theme). If you prefer flat then no problem to set it that way.As for quotes I send you a pm Kevan - if we can activate them on this site we will. I am not ideologically against "quoting" :) it is just a question of whether that is part of a toolbox that we can use on this site. If I missed a button somewhere that just switches them on I will press it - don't want any wild boars after me :)Images - no, you can't upload images in comments right now - we will look into it. You can link to images through the image button of the editor above but not upload.  Thanks

I find there are two queue systems - if it is to get into a sagra, festival or generally this sort of outdoor events or grab the dish of whatever delicacy the sagra is about it is every man, woman child for themselves - at which point I step back and the Italians in the group take over and get us through (which usually means roughly maintaining our original positions and not be overtaken too many times while they keep telling me to chill it and no matter how much I throw "angry" stares people could not care less and I will not shame them into retreat). I hate it and get all precious about personal space and old ladies pushing into your ribs. Then you have your post offices, supermarkets, doctors etc where queues are generally kept but it may occasionally mean the odd direct comment (signora, e il mio turno...) . the "trick" there is to realise that if there is a ticket system it means that you can get your number, leave and come back in time for your ticket number to show up. So for example at the doctors you get your number and if you time it right can go away do something else for 30 minutes then come back and you are done. The disaster scenario is when you loose your turn because you were too late to come back at which your ticket is worthless unless you come up with a really good excuse :)

Hi All - I understand that the change was huge and it was uncommonly quick. I will try to reply to some specific things straight away:1. There is no way to "mark all as read" - true and we are working on that.2. There is no search - there will be (probably today)3. Viewing your own posts - click on "My Posts" on the top4. Viewing posts you have participated in - click on "My activity"5. The FAQs answer a lot of the questions. As the Italians say "e dispersivo" answering to everyone every time. The FAQs include quite a bit of info all in one place6. Groups - non-members cannot participate in them (so no mockery sempre_italia). If your group is open anyone can join, if your group post is also public others can see it (because the post creator said it should be public)7. Groups - open vs closed: you get to choose. The idea is that you have more freedom to create the space you like. There are pros and cons to each (closed groups may well have fewer members - open groups where anyone can join can grow faster, etc)8. Quotes - I answered to that. I realise that a few people want it a lot but repeating it will not change the situation. Currently the functionality is not there we hope to have it in the future but it is in the long-term queue  Hope this answers a few things - there are still improvement to come that I hope will help.      

while the issue is trivial (yet another powerful man in an unclear affair with a young girl) the fact that mr. b may have not taken it too seriously straight off means that this story was not as carefully managed as others and the holes in the account are way too obvious.the real issue (as ever) is not why he did whatever he did - but why he lied so obviously about it.it is impressive how little the Italian press is doing but thankfully the foreign press will not let go.

hello all - taking notes - adding to list. keep suggesting - we will get there eventually :)