Folks-

I remember OLRs (Off-line Readers)--software that would allow a person to collect all of the new messages from a forum, download them to a temporary, client-side database where the messages can be read and replies can be created while they are off-line.

As forums moved to an HTML-based interface, and connect time got faster and cheaper, OLRs seem to have been forgotten.

I suspect that there is still an audience for OLR (though not many people still know about them); that vBulletin, through creation of a suitable style, can be made compatible with data mining techniques; and that a javascript-based application (perhaps in combination with either Applescript or Visual Basic) could be created that would act as an OLR.

So, what do you all think--Does this sound interesting and useful, or is the old guy just living in the past?

I dunno, I honestly don't see the value in it. I might as well read them on the site :p Most people I know are connected to the internet 100% of the time, so offline reading/writing doesn't seem to beneficial these days.

SomethingAwful has a Firefox plugin (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2015554) that will 'enhance' the forum browsing experience much like OLRs would, but afaik it works online. Recently I saw that Doom9 now also has a similar plugin. Maybe you were thinking in this direction?

SomethingAwful has a Firefox plugin (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2015554) ... Maybe you were thinking in this direction?Altough that looks interesting, it wasn't exactly what I was thinking.

I was thinking about a couple of old friends who, when they had an OLR, would spend a couple of hours a day participating in forums. Each morning, they would download message while getting ready for work, then read and reply to them while commuting on the train. They would do the same thing at night, going home. Now that they have to be online to participate, they only do so for a couple of hours a week--mostly on saturdays.

I was thinking about people I know who fly on business a lot, that could benefit from an OLR--since its expensive to be online on a plane.

sry dunno