Salon Table Talk

Tabletalk.Salon.Com closed at the end of Friday, 10 June 2011 (around 23:59:59 PDT). The site now redirects to a goodbye article on Salon.com.
Download the archives at Archive.org.
== Archiving [archived] ==
Archiveteam is looking at duplicating Tabletalk.Salon.Com, which has less than a month's notice to live after 16 years of existence.
We'll have more up here soon, but for the moment, if you are a tabletalk.salon.com subscriber, please start saving threads as fast as possible. The system is hysterically hostile to outside forces and programs working with it, and we can't subscribe to work from the inside. So for the moment, it falls to you. Please do as much "save as" to documents as possible, with the flattest threads and the most data you can get. We'll have more opportunities and discussions shortly, but time is of the essence.
There are 2973 discussions on the site.
== Discussion ids ==
Topic file 	Discussions	Messages	Claimed by 	Status
attic.Books%20Attic.html.ids 	112 	185972 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Computers%20and%20Gadgets%20Attic.html.ids	25 	76080 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Health%20Attic.html.ids 	43 	49978 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.House%20and%20Garden%20Attic.html.ids 	39 	158918 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Imagination%20Attic.html.ids 	115 	624478 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Issues%20and%20News%20Attic.html.ids 	81 	226418 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Mind%20and%20Spirit%20Attic.html.ids 	46 	112880 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Mothers%20Attic.html.ids 	147 	958922 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Movies%20Attic.html.ids 	80 	155990 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Music%20Attic.html.ids 	63 	94153 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Politics%20Attic.html.ids 	65 	463451 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Private%20Life%20Attic.html.ids 	140 	1151462 	(yipdw) alard 	Downloaded
attic.Salon%20Central%20Attic.html.ids 	49 	100084 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Sports%20Attic.html.ids 	30 	25401 	alard 	Downloaded
attic.Television%20Attic.html.ids 	64 	551785 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Books.html.ids 	63 	29913 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Business%20and%20Work%20Life.html.ids 	29 	20225 	(no2pencil?) alard	Downloaded
topic.Families%20Who%20Think.html.ids 	166 	297148 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Gadgets.html.ids 	31 	10252 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Health.html.ids 	98 	55033 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Home%20and%20Away.html.ids 	57 	58054 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.House%20and%20Garden.html.ids 	141 	202618 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Imagination.html.ids 	137 	87706 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Issues%20and%20News.html.ids 	150 	77262 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Mind%20and%20Spirit.html.ids 	55 	32321 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Movies.html.ids 	85 	101155 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Music.html.ids 	59 	34161 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Politics.html.ids 	100 	121838 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Private%20Life.html.ids 	192 	386561 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Salon%20Central.html.ids 	51 	67267 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Sports.html.ids 	44 	24411 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Television.html.ids 	168 	164601 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.Welcome.html.ids 	8 	2507 	alard 	Downloaded
topic.White%20House.html.ids 	240 	395284 	alard 	Downloaded
== Scripts, list of discussion ids ==
The git depository contains scripts and lists of discussion ids.
You should be able to run ./dld-all.sh FILE_WITH_DISCUSSION_IDS to start a download. From time to time you will be blocked by tabletalk. The script will then exit. Start it again after some time and it will pick up where it stopped.
== Site structure ==
=== Topics ===
The discussions on the site are grouped in a number of topics. These topics are listed on the tabletalk front page: Books, Family Life etc.
URLs: 
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx/Books/ 
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx/Families%20Who%20Think/ 
etc.
(Note: the URL of the topic is not always the same as the topic's title, see Families%20Who%20Think vs. Family Life.) 
Each of the topic pages has a full list of the discussions in that topic.
Most topics have archived discussions, which are moved to an 'attic'. The list of topics in the attic can be found via the attic link on the topic page. For example:
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx/Books/Books%20Attic/
The attic page has, like the topic page, a list of the discussions.
=== Discussions ===
A discussion has a starting post (which appears on each page) and a list of messages. A discussion has a discussion id, a sequence of letters and digits. The messages are paginated: 50 messages per page. The index of the next message is given in the URL, starting at index 0 for the first message.
Simple URLs to get the messages of a discussion:
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx/.[DISCUSSION ID]/[MSG INDEX]
E.g. 
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx/.eea08df/0 
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx/.eea08df/50 
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx/.eea08df/100 
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx/.eea08df/...
These URLs do work, but the URLs that are linked from the tabletalk pages look slightly different.
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?14@@.eea08df/0
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?14@@.eea08df/1160
The last page of the discussion can be recognized by grepping for the LAST link. If this link is not on the page, you have found the end of the discussion.
== Protection message ==
Most of the time Table Talk will just block and ignore you for a while, but sometimes you get this:
To protect Table Talk from aggressive search spiders,
hyperactive bots or automated spammers, we take measures to suppress
heavy repeated activity. If you are reading this, we may have 
misidentified your actions as that of a robot. We are Sorry
for your inconvenience.
You will be unable to access this site for the next 60 minutes. 
This restriction is a defensive response to excessive activity or
other inappropriate use of system resources. Contact
tthelpdesk@salon.com if you believe this to be in error - the
restriction is automated, and we want to know if you feel a mistake was
made.
See you in an hour!
== Announcement ==
Gail Williams - 10:26 am Pacific Time - May 11, 2011
Director of Communities at Salon, plus key grip and bottle-washer.
When Salon Magazine was launched on the Web in 1995, the grand opening had to be delayed slightly while the forums were readied. It was critical that there be a way to make the new web-based publication a living gathering place, in the way that traditional media had never been. The idea was that most of the discussion would relate to articles, but from the beginning much of the concern of those in the new Salon Table Talk section was about hanging out with other interesting people.
As years went by, some of the social tools that Salon had envisioned from the start, such as interactive article writing with a social component (now at Open Salon) and direct comment on fresh stories (now at Salon Letters connected to each story) became available.
The Web evolved in various ways, and search engines began displaying results from forums, which changed the context for Table Talkers. TTers asked that Google and other search tools not supply results from these forums, and Salon listened. While that preference cut both traffic and possible ad revenue, it made Table Talk feel comfortable to many.
As Table Talkers told us many times, you liked a lot about the way TT had been created and had evolved. TT saw a decline in sheer quantity from its peak, but never in quality. For a long time it was possible for Salon to let the community drift pleasantly in the background.
This year, we've undertaken the process of re-evaluating and modernizing everything about Salon's technical infrastructure. Looking at the issues involved in bringing TT forward, and at the resources of the technical staff, it became clear that the long-anticipated closing of this forum has to happen now.
I'm deeply sorry, personally, to have to make this announcement on behalf of the entire Salon team. We looked at many scenarios, and at the end the best thing to do was to tell you what was going to happen so that if you want to plan to connect with your TT contacts at Open Salon, Facebook, The WELL or any of the forums that have informally spun off over the years, you have a month to do that.
If you want to make personal copies to preserve your favorite posts or historic threads, this is the time to do that, as well. After June 10 they will no longer be available.
It's been a rich, unique, compelling conversation. Each TTer who has posted has made this place special. Mary Beth Williams, the former TT sysop and sporadic wielder of the virtual "bossy stick" of forum management, can also be credited with several years of the survival of this place due to her intense respect for the Table Talk community. Here's to her and to all the posters who you would thank for making this long-running feast delicious for you. TT has been an inspiration to so many of us.
May the friendships and the knowledge generated here continue in many places and resonate over time.
Gail Ann Williams, Director of Communities, Salon.com May 2011