Greenhill Grammar school, Oldham

 

Due to major changes in the site's operation in Dec 2017 the archives cn now only be accessed through the Bulletin Board.  Select 'Discussion' in the Main Menu to open the Board Index page, then 'MSN Board Archive' in the header area

 

 

 Description and Help

MSN Archive

 

 

 

 


When it came to preserving the MSN Groups Message Boards, it would of course have been nice to put them into a proper Bulletin Board on this site.
That was impossible, due to the non-standard, proprietary nature of the MSN system.
To save the day, Kevin invented this database system, and it works a treat.

Also, it is searchable.  Simply click Search, and then enter your search word or phrase.  N.B. the word or phrase is Case Sensitive.

When you click on Archive, you will get a screen like this, and you are invited to log in (at the top) with your usual login name and password.  In that sense, this and our own BB are connected - same users, same password, and logging into one logs you into the other:-

 

MSNhelp01

 


You are presented with a list of threads.MSNhelp02a
The default is All Threads.
The MSN Boards comprised 7 forums:-

  • General
  • OLDHAM PUBS
  • Reminiscences
  • School Jokes
  • Technical
  • Tech Stuff
  • Where are they?

You can leave the "Any" default, or filter threads by selecting a specific forum.

 

 

 

 

The thread titles can be sorted into any of the following orders:-MSNhelp03a

  • Start Date (date of first post to the thread)
  • Thread (Thread Titles in alphabetic order)
  • Ref No of thread  (Threads have references 1 through 730)
  • Popularity (order by number of postings to that thread)
  • End Date  (Date of last post to the thread)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, any selected order can be Ascending or Descending.

Also, there are 37 pages of threads (20 to a page) if "Any" is chosen.  Clicking one of the 4 buttons on each side of the page number will step in single pages, or 5 pages a time, in either direction:-

 

MSNhelp04a       MSNhelp05a

         

 

Finally, one can choose to begin at either the start or the end of a thread:-

 

MSNhelp06a

 


To actually read the postings, "First find your thread" (to paraphrase Mrs Beeton), and click on the little green block that contains its numerical Ref No (Now you need to be logged in):-

 

MSNhelp07a

 


You are taken to that thread, and you can step through the posts in either direction, 1 at a time, 10 at a time, or 50 at a time, and to return to the list of threads, just click Select New Thread:-:-

 

MSNhelp08a

 


 


It all sounds a bit cumbersome, but play for a few minutes and you will find that it's actually quite an efficient way of doing things.

Is it interesting?  Is it useful?  Was it worth the effort?
Probably not, but this was a once-and-for-all opportunity to preserve those 11,476 postings in 730 threads, and if we hadn't taken that opportunity it wouldn't have been offered for a second time.

Whatever, enjoy it, deride it, or dismiss it.
Those of us who worked on it don't mind which. 

We are just content that when the crunch came, we stepped up to the plate and did itemotions