Suggestions for changes/enhancements to storageforum

Handruin

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Now that the server move is complete, I'm going to open a can of worms and ask if there is anything you would like to see changed with the site? Do you guys have any thoughts/ideas or problems with the site you'd like to see improved?
 

ddrueding

Fixture
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I'm thoroughly happy with it. The only thing I can think of is some sort of real-time updating within the page (like Slashdot is currently working on) that would eliminate the need to refresh periodically (possibly saving bandwidth). Considering Slashdot can't even get it right, and the piddly amount of bandwidth it would save, not worth it IMHO.
 

Stereodude

Not really a
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Can we get a smilie box next to the message window when replying. We've clearly got a variety of smilies, like :rolleyes: , :evil: , and :p , but I'd like to see all our options.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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I strongly dislike the current form of Slashdot. It takes too damned long to make a post and it's almost impossible to tell what parts of a thread are new on subsequent visits.

Fark has a really nice system for handling quotes that I miss on SF: you can highlight text, hit the "quote" button, and that text is the only text quoted in the reply. SF's quotes don't quite work the same way.

That's the only thing on my personal wishlist.
 
Last edited:

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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We need to bring in a few new members or this place will eventually die.
 

Handruin

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Can we get a smilie box next to the message window when replying. We've clearly got a variety of smilies, like :rolleyes: , :evil: , and :p , but I'd like to see all our options.

We do have a smiley box next to the reply window. I might not be understanding what you're suggesting, can you help clarify? I've attached a screen capture of what I see. Is this not what you see?
 

Handruin

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I'm thoroughly happy with it. The only thing I can think of is some sort of real-time updating within the page (like Slashdot is currently working on) that would eliminate the need to refresh periodically (possibly saving bandwidth). Considering Slashdot can't even get it right, and the piddly amount of bandwidth it would save, not worth it IMHO.

This could be something VB might work on in the future. I don't think it would save bandwith, actually it might consume more based on the way I envision it being implemented. AJAX would be used to poll ever n number of seconds/minutes and then adjust the pages. If you don't refresh more than once every few minutes, an automatic solution might end up being more costly.

That aside, I think it could still be nice, or even work a bit like facebook where it places a box within the page and says "3 new updates" in which you can click it and the page updates without a full postback.
 

Handruin

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I strongly dislike the current form of Slashdot. It takes too damned long to make a post and it's almost impossible to tell what parts of a thread are new on subsequent visits.

Fark has a really nice system for handling quotes that I miss on SF: you can highlight text, hit the "quote" button, and that text is the only text quoted in the reply. SF's quotes don't quite work the same way.

That's the only thing on my personal wishlist.

This might be something I could try to implement. Let me see if I fully understand what you're suggesting.

1.) You click in to a thread and you find a post you want to quote. Before you click any buttons, you first highlight the part of the text you want to quote and then click a quote button.

2.) The "reply to message" page loads and the only part wrapped in the quote tags is the text you selected in the previous step?

Is that what you'd like to see? I looked at fark and I don't see the functionality you described. Do I need to have an account?
 

Handruin

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We need to bring in a few new members or this place will eventually die.

I'm open to ideas. The registration is open...we don't have much in the way of published content, so our following is small.
 

Handruin

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They might have a plug-in for that. It'll be use at your own risk. ;-)
 

Stereodude

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We do have a smiley box next to the reply window. I might not be understanding what you're suggesting, can you help clarify? I've attached a screen capture of what I see. Is this not what you see?
:confused: No, that's not what I see. I've never see a smilie window on this forum on any browser or PC.



Edit: I figured it out. The editor was set to basic instead of standard in the options section of my user control panel.
 

Handruin

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Sweet! That was an easy upgrade. ;-) I'm glad you asked about it, now you can see all the smilies again.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
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I certainly wouldn't call it 'ashamed'. In fact, I couldn't say why I like it that way. I am under no misguided belief that my actions here couldn't be matched to me in the real world. Not sure, really.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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I certainly wouldn't call it 'ashamed'. In fact, I couldn't say why I like it that way. I am under no misguided belief that my actions here couldn't be matched to me in the real world. Not sure, really.

Your identity is quite public. ;)
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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I have thought of telling local friends about this place, but I like having two separate spaces.

http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/ThePoolGuy.html

"This world here, this is George's sanctuary. If Susan comes into contact with this world, his worlds collide!"
- Kramer, in "The Pool Guy"


"You have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. If she is allowed to infiltrate this world then George Costanza as you know him ceases to exist. You see, right now I have Relationship George. But there is also Independent George. That's the George you know, the George you grew up with... Movie George, Coffee Shop George, Liar George, Bawdy George."
"I love that George."
"Me too, and he's dying. If Relationship George walks through this door, he will kill Independent George. A George divided against itself cannot stand!"
- George and Jerry, in "The Pool Guy"
 

udaman

Wannabe Storage Freak
Joined
Sep 20, 2006
Messages
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We need to bring in a few new members or this place will eventually die.

what? All the new grrrl handle/sockpuppet spammers aren't enough to satisfy you LM :D. We just need [edit], splash, iGary and such to liven it up for you then?

It will die when Handy decides to make it so...of course we could bring over a few of the infamous SR members, then it will die quickly...or bring back Prof. Wiz.

Sweet! That was an easy upgrade. ;-) I'm glad you asked about it, now you can see all the smilies again.

<^^^snarky, pointless post> :p

I got a friend to register today. Getting him to post may be another thing. ;-)

Just point him to the latest 'twitterrific' word association thread here on SF...oh, wait>>> I think we're here right now :D


Now if Handy could only fix my main ISP, hate having to use the alternate just to get into this site :(


Umm, what kind of "published" content is Handy referring to in prior post???
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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It's really quite nice to be able to do that.

The interesting thing is that Fark actually added that functionality after it was developed as part of a popular Firefox addon that was made for the express purpose of improving browsing on that site.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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Is is it possible to increase the file size limit for attachments or is that set by vBulletin? For example, large jpegs are allowed yet many file types are limited to 19.5KB. For screenshots and similar content I prefer to post a clean png instead of a big and/or ugly jpg.
 

udaman

Wannabe Storage Freak
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Is is it possible to increase the file size limit for attachments or is that set by vBulletin? For example, large jpegs are allowed yet many file types are limited to 19.5KB. For screenshots and similar content I prefer to post a clean png instead of a big and/or ugly jpg.

Examples of file size png vs jpg? If you use PS, then limit jpg compression to 50 setting and you'll avoid the dreaded jaggies when doing text input overlaying.

Yes, Handy can specify any file or pixel size limitation he wants:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/attachment_manager

Can also enable inline attachment, *hint* :p

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/vboptions_group_attachment

  • View Attached Images Inline
    If thumbnails are enabled, any image without a thumbnail will be shown as a link, regardless of this setting's status, unless the image size happens to be within the thumbnail size limits.

    Set this to 'No' if you want to preserve bandwidth or server processor resources.
  • Thumbnail Creation
    If your version of PHP supports image functions, you may enable the creation of thumbnails for images. This is the master switch to enable/disable thumbnail display. Go to Attachments -> Attachment Manager -> Edit -> Display to choose what image types will be thumbnailed. You will need to go to Maintenance -> Update Counters -> Rebuild Attachment Thumbnails after changing this setting.
  • Thumbnail Size
    Maximum width and height that the thumbnail can have. The image will be proportionately resized so that the longest side is no larger than this setting. If you change this setting, you will need to go to Maintenance -> Update Counters -> Rebuild Attachment Thumbnails.
  • Thumbnail Quality
    Quality of JPG thumbnails. 75 is a good balance between file size and image quality.

Just use http://imageshack.us Mr. Worrywart.

Not worry. Your suggestion takes additional steps, more time consuming and tedious than just doing a quick attachment (reason why such a functionality exists...don't you think?).
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
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Just use http://imageshack.us Mr. Worrywart.

I thought it would be either to use the internal features of the forum. It's not like a 34KB PNG file is breaking the bandwith. :lol: Of course I could host images somwhere else, but I don't want to maintain them for the life of the SF forum. As well, the host site could change and links would break, etc.
 

Handruin

Administrator
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What size do you think is appropriate and what other attachment extensions are you interested besides png?
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
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From another couple forua I frequent. Basically all regular file types for pictures. Granted these deal with some artsy stuff where pictures are pretty much required and highly valued. Quite a few forums I am on just plain don't allow attachments at all so I got handy with photobucket and I don't find that a pain at all now after a couple years using it, but I was really resistant in the beginning.

I think it is a really important thing to discuss the max size and whether or not we want to be modem friendly. Does side scrolling annoy the users? Viewing on a PDA or god forbid a modem where clicking a link with some big pictures posted can kill your viewing experience? I am on one bike forum where they are super aggressive about removing all pictures much to the annoyance of all, primarily because they have a president and the forum admin on dial up still (last I heard anyway in 2007), but that's a biker crowd with a whole different set of priorities.

Attachment Key
Filetype Max Filesize Max Width Max Height
bmp 97.7 KB 700 700
gif 293.0 KB 800 800
jpe 97.7 KB 700 700
jpeg 293.0 KB 1000 1000
jpg 293.0 KB 800 800
pdf 97.7 KB - -
png 195.3 KB 800 800
wmv - - -
zip 976.6 KB - -


Attachment Key
Filetype Max Filesize Max Width Max Height
bmp 19.5 KB 790 -
gif 195.3 KB 790 -
jpeg 195.3 KB 790 -
jpg 293.0 KB 790 -
pdf 19.07 MB - -
png 195.3 KB 790 -
txt 19.5 KB - -
 

ddrueding

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Side-scrolling is annoying, but 1000 pixels wide would be OK with me. Other than uda (who wanted to be able to embed video as well), is there anyone else on dial-up?
 

timwhit

Hairy Aussie
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Chicago, IL
Doug, have you considered installing a mobile template? Something like this would make viewing on a smart phone much easier.
 

Handruin

Administrator
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Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try when I get home from work tonight.
 

Handruin

Administrator
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I have the one mobile style uploaded into the forum. I'm not a huge fan of it, but it is a simple layout. Note that if you change your style to it, there is no easy path to get back to the default without logging out and logging back in. Use the style changer at the very bottom left of the screen.

There is also a VB mod for auto-detecting mobile devices and changing the style based on the mobile device. Once we can figure out some decent styles, I'll try implementing that mod so that each type of phone gets an appropriate style.

Tim, which type of mobile phone should I target for yours? I'll look for a BB style for ddrueding, and also an iPhone for those of us who have one of those.
 
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