Archiving Discussions
From LiteracyTentWiki
Here's how to archive a discussion on the ALE Wiki:
1. Go to archives section of the particular discussion list you are interested in. For example, if you wanted to archive the National Institute for Literacy Special Topics discussion on Transition from Corrections Education to Community Education, it's at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2008/000860.html.
2. Begin with the post announcing the discussion (in this example, message SpecialTopics847) and archive in numerical/chronological order all the posts until the message closing the discussion (in this case, message SpecialTopics938). Each post begins with a header, including: From:, followed by Subject, followed by Date. The header is followed by the body of the posted message. The post concludes with the person's signature: name (and possibly email address or other information used in the closing signature lines) for example:
From: Rosen, David
Subject: Corrections and Family Literacy
Date: Wed Aug 04 2004 - 10:29:03 EDT
I teach in a small rural prison in southern Massachusetts. I will be taking part in a pilot family literacy program. I will, most likely, be teaching a class to the fathers (inmates/students) as they prepare for family visits. We are working with a local adult education program. They will provide the programming for the mother/care-giver and the child. The fathers are already in ABE/GED programs, but I am seeking suggestions for the parenting class that I will most likely teach. Please send me suggestions, resources, and web sites.
Thanks in advance
David Rosen<br>
djrosen@theworld.com<br>
After each completed posting, add 5 dashes. -----. This will make a line separating each post, as it did in the above example.You will probably have to add more than one wiki page for the discussion, possibly 4 or 5 or more pages. Make the whole thing on one long wiki page first, and then break it into smaller pages by cutting and pasting. This can be tricky, as you will have to estimate how many messages you can put on a page before you reach the recommended size limit. If you want someone to do this for you, email David Rosen at djrosen@theworld.com and give him the web address for the (long) page of the whole archived discussion.
If you're ambitious, you could read through the items and organize the threads, keeping topic groups together on separate pages, and deleting the items that don't add to the discussion.
Each wiki page, at the bottom, should have navigation information, for example:
On to: (put the link to the next page of archived discussion)
Back to: (put the link to the previous page of archived discussion)
Back to Corrections Education topic page : Corrections_Education
Note that when you do message headers, signature lines, and navigation information, you will probably need to add <br> at the end of each line. Otherwise the lines will wrap (run together).
If you have questions, email them to David Rosen at djrosen@theworld.com
