15 days remaining... Two Forums getting wiped out.

[Mopar1973Man]

Members Rides and Members Trailers are going to be delete as of the end of the month so if you have information here you might want to get it moved to the new Garage feature here.

 

http://forum.mopar1973man.com/index.php?/garage/

 

So these two forums will be wiped out.

 

http://forum.mopar1973man.com/index.php?/forum/145-members-trailers-rvs/

 

http://forum.mopar1973man.com/index.php?/forum/53-members-rides/

 

This is to just clean up the site.

[AH64ID]

I still don't like it :-)

My vote goes to delete the garage. I really do think the members rides/trailers is leaps and bounds ahead of the garage in terms of creating/editing and reading.

I didn't even look at other members stuff in the garage, too many mouse clicks and pages for what used to be one page.

If I am the only one then so be it.. But IMHO the garage isn't a step forward.

[Mopar1973Man]

It's been posted over one month and no others have said anything.

[AH64ID]

There has been at least one, maybe two, discussions on how its more cumbersome than the old way. 

 

I started my new page and stopped, it's going to take many hours to make my garage as detailed as my page was with minutes of work.

 

Like I said, I may be the only one... but I don't like it one bit. So far the only benefit I see to it is the scrolling photos, but otherwise I can't find any benefit to it.

 

Just my 0.02...

[ISX]

I hate it too... I've been looking a week for a photo sharing site that I like and most are kinda like the garage and it's just a hassle. That stuff is for the next generation of kids who can't live without tumblr, not gearheads who don't double major as nerds.

[Wild and Free]

I agree with above, I never use or look at others garages after checking out a few the pics are too small and the info isn't as good as what is posted in threads.

Once it is in back pages off the main forum I rarely if ever look at those places.

[Mopar1973Man]

The problem I found with the forum page is once the post is over 1 year its archived. No one can edit it not even me. Then you limited to one post on the current setup. This is also limited to 1,000 characters. No way to manage either. This is to keep the forum database from getting excessive large and creating lag on the server. The garage is a separate database table and separate picture storage.

 

With the current garage I'm capable of managing pictures, mod listing, vehicle listings, categories, etc.

 

Being the old forum was filling up with... Well unreadable post. For example...

 

http://forum.mopar1973man.com/index.php?/topic/6262-war-eagle-2005-sb-3500-laramie-4x4/

 

But there was no format. Everyone just crammed a signature line down and no explanation of the mods. I went the extra step with the garage and had all the mod comment boxes extended so you can add long explanation of the install process. Then you can add as many pics as you like just limited 1024x1024 for size which is plenty big for even my 21" screen. The problem is people are lazy and not posting in it properly. I'm attempting to extend mine out more in my spare time. This was because of the setup of no reply which was agree upon in the original design. 

 

Also with the creation of the garage does create a thread again to discuss thing if need be. But again if the thread ages over 1 year it will be archived. The archived threads are move from the main post database to archive data base. This frees the server from digging in a very deep database hunting for data. But then again if I kill off the vehicle from the garage then the thread is automatically removed too. So again its much easy to maintain.

 

My problem is how to make most happy, make it easy to maintain, give people some format, but also keep the server from being overloaded.

[Mopar1973Man]

Ok. How about this idea? How about I open these two forum back up and you prove to me that you can maintain it better. How about that? Since you 3 are staff you can maintain it.

[Cowboy]

What's wrong with this?

http://forum.mopar1973man.com/index.php?/garage/vehicle/52-testing-1-2-3/ (Thanks John for the pre writen out sig  )  Also, when we're done, we can either delete it, or I'll edit it to be one of my trucks.

 

Maybe I'm overlooking something, but it seems to fix all the issues.

 

Garage won't archive.

Fast and Easy to setup.

And if there is something someone would like to go into more detail with, you can add it the modification tab where you can go into as much detail as you would like, even has pictures.

 

One small issue, the garage system doesn't allow font editing. Like in the link above, at least Bold would be nice.

[ISX]

What's wrong with this?

http://forum.mopar1973man.com/index.php?/garage/vehicle/52-testing-1-2-3/ (Thanks John for the pre writen out sig  )  Also, when we're done, we can either delete it, or I'll edit it to be one of my trucks.

 

Maybe I'm overlooking something, but it seems to fix all the issues.

 

Garage won't archive.

Fast and Easy to setup.

And if there is something someone would like to go into more detail with, you can add it the modification tab where you can go into as much detail as you would like, even has pictures.

 

One small issue, the garage system doesn't allow font editing. Like in the link above, at least Bold would be nice.

 

The problem is having to click a bunch to get to it, then clicking more to get to the pics and its all just very complex.  I just added a vehicle and I can see what Mike is going for.  It asks you to fill in a bunch of basic info that describes your truck.  It then creates a thread in the members rides section to simulate the function members rides had.  But, look at this cowboy http://forum.mopar1973man.com/index.php?/topic/9519-vehicle-testing-1-2-3-2005/ So there's formatting issues.  There's so many complexities that it invites problems like that.

 

However, it is the customization of everyones own thread that made it nice.  I could lay out my page like I wanted, John could do how he wanted...  

 

War Eagles thread doesn't have spaces between things that need new lines.. That usually means the text editor messed up.  He mighta had it looking right on his page but then when he posted it, it all crapped out.  We can help him with that easy enough.  He did it exactly as he should, but something screwed up in the process.  

 

I think the garage feature is too in depth and detailed for something that is really just supposed to be an "expanded signature".  I mean really thats all it is.  Take your signature and detail it out and there you have it.  

 

On this one forum I was on, they had a format that would automatically fill in the editor section when you posted.  So if I went to members rides and clicked on new thread, the editor where I type would say Make:   Model:....  then people would have some direction as to what needs to be in the post.  

 

I really never had any problems with members rides.  It was a place to showcase your vehicle, not so much detail the specs of it.  Some would do nothing but post a picture, and thats really what it was for, showcasing the vehicle.  If they wanted to list details and mods, that was their choice. 

 

There is something of a solution possibly.  You used to have another website where the articles were written.  You canned it and just put them all here or actually I have no idea where they went.  Anyways, could you do that again, make another little forum for just members rides, then being it is its own forum, you could set the text to unlimited and this and that without hurting the other forum.  In this forum, the members rides button in the forum list would just be a hyperlink to it.  

 

Just throwing things out there.  The garage just doesn't seem like the way to go.  

[Mopar1973Man]

 

There is something of a solution possibly.  You used to have another website where the articles were written.  You canned it and just put them all here or actually I have no idea where they went.  Anyways, could you do that again, make another little forum for just members rides, then being it is its own forum, you could set the text to unlimited and this and that without hurting the other forum.  In this forum, the members rides button in the forum list would just be a hyperlink to it.

 

That would work but comes at another price? Since Joomla is a standalone software from the Invision Power Board Forum who going to hand create each account and verify their posting, then edit to fix any formating issues? Joomla has very little on the database server so it would work but who's going to do the work? Currently there is no stable bridge software between these two programs.

 

Like my old page still stands.

http://articles.mopar1973man.com/members-rides/17-mopar1973man/25-2002-dodge-ram-2500

 

But again who's going to take up the torch and do the work?

 

Like right now I'm planning on in about 2 week a large box showing up with high idle parts. I'll be assembling them myself. I've also been working hard at getting the store created so the sales can be done online as well. I won't have time to cut and paste accounts from one software to another then call a member up and ask, "What do you want for password?" because all passwords are encrypted. I can't see the password in the IPB forum and the member can't use the account till its created. I could open the Joomla to auto create account but who's going to weed out all the spam bots and spammers that login and post crap? Again another job no one wants.

 

Another thing I can tell what is being done and not done really simply because all staff action are logged by the system.

 

Question is will to step up and take care of all this then? Keep the post clean and orderly? Who's going to take over the TOTM? Who's going to create a write up then of the TOTM for each winner? Who's going to bridge accounts for members?

 

 

At least right now I only got 2 days I get to handle the garage. Once on the first of the month start the new TOTM nominations and place the winner in the feature truck placement. Few simple click and takes less than 5 mintues. Then on the 15th to start the voting. All these are rigged on time limits to auto lock the post at the end time.

[ISX]

Alright lets get back to the core problem.  

 

The problem I found with the forum page is once the post is over 1 year its archived. No one can edit it not even me. Then you limited to one post on the current setup. This is also limited to 1,000 characters. No way to manage either. This is to keep the forum database from getting excessive large and creating lag on the server. The garage is a separate database table and separate picture storage.

 

Well I can unarchive and edit so not sure what you mean on things over a year.  I can sure post way over 1000 characters.   I also don't think a few pics over 50 threads is creating lag that wasn't already there.  The site had the same lag before as it does today.  I can't quantify it but it is the least snappy forum I've ever seen.  Always has been.  I don't know if this is godaddys fault or not.  But I really don't see how 50 threads creates a huge database file.  The double indexing of the garage has to be double the database, plus all the function codes to run the garage thing.  

 

So what is the true problem you have?  

[AH64ID]

I'm on my iPad so I don't want to type a full response right now, and will go to my PC in a bit.

But I want to make a comment on the lazy part, based on what I have seen they aren't lazy with the garage they just don't want to deal with it. IMHO that is two very different things.

[ISX]

Yeah I made a profile yesterday just to see, but I've avoided it till then cause it just looked like a pain.  Then cowboy showed the formatting drops off.  All of my articles already lost their formatting and turned into run on paragraphs.  Innovation is good but geez, refinement is better.  

[Yankneck696]

Well, since you are all staff, why not find a better way to fix the issue. The speed of the site is due to how the server is set up. I was talking to Michael last night about this & the donations were way down, because he didn't have a donation bar to show where he was. There have been some months where he has been in a deficit. So..... I searched & found a donation bar setup, sent him a link & paid for it.

I am not staff. You are. Find something more to your liking & discuss it, instead of bashing what took Michael quite some time to set up.

Not trying to be rude at all about this...

 

Ed

[TFaoro]

I personally like the garage. It seems to be well thought out and easy to format and see modifications. If you don't like to put each modification in then do exactly what Cowboy did and throw everything in the description. Personally I like the detail of seeing every modification made just in case someone wants to copy what you done. There is some clicking to get there but I didn't think clicking was that hard. I say keep it but that's just me.

[AH64ID]

It has been discussed off and on for 5 months, my response is this thread was a simple last stitch effort to go on record that I don't like the garage. It's a time consuming and cumbersome feature, for both setting up and viewing. I don't even like looking at other peoples rigs anymore.

 

I thought the members ride section was perfect, and the time it takes to keep it up seems like less time than setting up a single garage.

 

I just went thru and unarchived a few members rides. Once unarchived they won't archive again, at east that is what the message told me. If that's the case it's not a lot of time.

[AH64ID]

All members rides unarchived. The trailer section, and new vehicles, will need unarchived as they hit 1 year.

[Mopar1973Man]

It has been discussed off and on for 5 months, my response is this thread was a simple last stitch effort to go on record that I don't like the garage. It's a time consuming and cumbersome feature, for both setting up and viewing. I don't even like looking at other peoples rigs anymore.

 

I thought the members ride section was perfect, and the time it takes to keep it up seems like less time than setting up a single garage.

 

I just went thru and unarchived a few members rides. Once unarchived they won't archive again, at east that is what the message told me. If that's the case it's not a lot of time.

 

 

All members rides unarchived. The trailer section, and new vehicles, will need unarchived as they hit 1 year.

 

Forums have been re-enabled for posting you are now the moderator of those forums. Do you which to enlist others for help?

[Cowboy]

I'm with TFaoro, I like the possibility for extra details and pictures on different modifications.  I understand how much time it takes to fill out every little modification, and I feel that requiring so will keep a lot of people from filling out their truck profile, as it did me.  But we don't have to go 'all or nothing'.  I'm sure we can find a happy medium where it's fast & easy to use, but has the extra bells a whistles for those who would enjoy them.

 

We can send an error report about the loss of formatting in the members garage forum thread.  I've got some ideas on how to reduce the number of clicks required to view different rigs.  And will get around trying them when I get a chance.

 

I would love to hear your guyses ideas on how to make the overall experience of using the garage better.  

 

Thank you,

~The guy that's not all there