A few questions and concerns about the new forum

[Noah Britt]

First of all, I just want to say the new site looks great! I can't imagine how much work it took to build it. I must say, of all the things about the new forum, I'm most excited about the greatly improved search function! Thanks so much to Jamie and all who helped to make this happen!

Second, I have a few questions and concerns (and a couple of tricks I've figured out).

I KNOW THIS IS LONG, BUT PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS, AS MANY OF THESE ARE VERY IMPORTANT CONCERNS THAT WE NEED TO BE THINKING ABOUT!

#1. I've noticed there are already multiple users who are not using their name or at least not their full name (four at the moment). One of the things I really like about the old forums is the requirement to use your real name. It really helps the atmosphere being able to tell who someone is, and being able to at least partially get to know someone online. It also makes it easier figuring out if I know that person or not. It also seems like it would be easier to spot the occasional scammers that show up, as those are usually the ones who don't use a real name. Is the real name rule going to be enforced here like it was on the old forums?

#2. Is there going to be a way to distinguish between paying and non-paying members? (like the green "AFCA Member" and orange "Guest" labels on the old forums) As well as the limited abilities for guests which promote payed memberships?

#3. I'm assuming a Members Only section will be created along with the other updates that will be coming along in the future?

#4. I feel like the ranking system may turn out to cause divisiveness between some members. I also think it is not the most accurate way to portray who is the most knowledgeable member. For example, there may be a very knowledgeable member who does not post often, and therefore has a low rank, and there may be a less knowledgeable member posts a whole lot (saying things like "great job on that", for example) who has a very high rank. With this system, someone who comes here seeking information might not give credence to the knowledgeable member's reply, because the knowledgeable member is stuck with the "Rookie" badge. This brings me to my next suggestion:

#5. It would be great if the date and year each member joined was shown. This would help in discerning more accurately whether someone is a newbie or someone who is more experienced.

#6. Also an option under someone's profile page for their location would be nice, along with the option to show your birthday, which is already there.

#7. The "edit" feature has already been discussed, so all I am going to say about that is I agree with everyone else: it is a very useful thing to have an edit button and I cannot think of any reason we should not have it. I imagine it has probably saved relationships in the club too, for a member to be able to edit something unwise they may have said "in the heat of the moment".

#8. My attachment limit is 48.83 MB. (click on your name and then "My Attachments") This is enough space for about 8-10 photos. Is there a fix for this or will I have to stop posting photos after the 10th? Also, the size limit for a single photo is 4.88 MB. The majority of my photos are bigger than that, so I guess we are stuck having to resize most of our photos before posting. This hassle is harder than having to crop our photos for them to load straight like we had to do on the old forum. Hopefully the picture size limit will be doubled (or more) in the future as well?

 

 

 

Now that you've gotten through the above questions and concerns (thank you!!), I also have a couple of tricks I've learned on the new forum that will hopefully help out some folks.

#1. To search for a user with the search function: Type the name. Under “search in” click “more options” then click “members”.

#2. There is a low limit on the profile photo size allowed. I suspect this is a contributing reason why there are so many new profile pics on this forum. To get around this, go resize the photo to one of the two smaller options; "Best for profile pictures and thumbnails", or "Best for emails and messages". If the email and message option doesn't work, use the smaller profile pic and thumbnail option.

 

Thank you so much for reading this; I hope it has helped show some things that we need to be thinking about, and to anyone that can answer some questions or concerns, I'd be very very grateful. If anyone has additional questions and concerns, please share them below. Please note this post is not meant to cause any offense; I'm genuinely grateful to Jamie and all who worked harder than we know to get the new site rolling. Thank you!!

 

test edit

Edited October 5, 2021 by Noah Britt

[Jamie Horner]

1. We are currently addressing the name concerns one by one. We are not deleting anyone from the forum without contacting them to request a name change first.
2. We hope to be able to provide a way to distinguish between Members and Guests in the very near future.
3. The Board will be making any decisions regarding this (I'm not on the Board). 😉
4. The Board will be making any decisions regarding this.
5. Another Board decision.
6. Another Board decision.
7. I think we have addressed this [see recent changes to Editing / Deleting Posts (NEW)]. And please test it when you have the chance.
8. I have looked into this and again, it will be a Board decision.

[Noah Britt]

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and answer many of my questions! All good news. Just a thought; in order not to have the real name problems in the first place, there could be a requirement added in the registering process, like the old forum.

I'm very glad to hear the editing ability has been restored! Just tested it and it works.

[Bejon A. Boranian]

#8 has me a-bit worried 😬 😳

Perhaps a "delete" feature to maintain the "quota"...?

Just tried to see if I can delete via " my attachments" tab, alas, no luck. 😵

 

[Jamie Horner]

5 hours ago, Bejon A. Boranian said:

#8 has me a-bit worried 😬😳

Perhaps a "delete" feature to maintain the "quota"...?

Just tried to see if I can delete via " my attachments" tab, alas, no luck. 😵

 

Hi Bejon, I guess I'm not sure what you're asking here. If you want to delete an image you've uploaded, you can edit your post and then delete the attachment in the editing window.

[Michael Rathberger]

Thanks Noah for the post.

#6. Also an option under someone's profile page for their location would be nice, along with the option to show your birthday, which is already there.

I don't think DOB is a great idea, nor address for that matter. We get a member's directory each year and I like it being limited to membership. The birthday thing, to each his own.

" I feel like the ranking system may turn out to cause divisiveness between some members. I also think it is not the most accurate way to portray who is the most knowledgeable member. For example, there may be a very knowledgeable member who does not post often, and therefore has a low rank, and there may be a less knowledgeable member posts a whole lot (saying things like "great job on that", for example) who has a very high rank."

I agree with this. It's not necessary and is misleading, and frankly a bit of a turn off. I think only a few people need a ranking here for self esteem and it's not the majority. You're going to get some people who post inane garbage just to get their score up.

"I've noticed there are already multiple users who are not using their name or at least not their full name (four at the moment)"

I've actually never been a fan . I think less people post because of it. I once posted an item and got a call from a non-member out of the blue that tracked me down. But I remember the past too when it wasn't a requirement. It became a flame site, so I think a happy medium is designation (Mr. Mrs. Ms.) and last name at a minimum.

I'm also not a fan of the online tracking that shows what everyone is doing at the moment that you look. A little TMI I think, members online is fine, we don't need to see what they're doing. 

I do like the personal galleries, I see a use for that.

 

All in all pretty good job BOD, congratulations on pulling it off.

 

 

 

 

[Bejon A. Boranian]

I tried the method Jamie mentioned... It works-! 😃.

So now I know,

if the quota in "my attachments" is ever at risk of getting full,

simply "delete" via edit function on post itself.

(...I'll try to only delete my older PICS, when needed, to keep my quota healthy.)

Everyone: Thank-you for the help, feel free to save my PICS (if you want) for personal use

as I will be deleting them when a post gets old/ to maintain quota.

 

 

[Noah Britt]

1 hour ago, Mr. Rathberger said:

Thanks Noah for the post.

#6. Also an option under someone's profile page for their location would be nice, along with the option to show your birthday, which is already there.

I don't think DOB is a great idea, nor address for that matter. We get a member's directory each year and I like it being limited to membership. The birthday thing, to each his own.

" I feel like the ranking system may turn out to cause divisiveness between some members. I also think it is not the most accurate way to portray who is the most knowledgeable member. For example, there may be a very knowledgeable member who does not post often, and therefore has a low rank, and there may be a less knowledgeable member posts a whole lot (saying things like "great job on that", for example) who has a very high rank."

I agree with this. It's not necessary and is misleading, and frankly a bit of a turn off. I think only a few people need a ranking here for self esteem and it's not the majority. You're going to get some people who post inane garbage just to get their score up.

"I've noticed there are already multiple users who are not using their name or at least not their full name (four at the moment)"

I've actually never been a fan . I think less people post because of it. I once posted an item and got a call from a non-member out of the blue that tracked me down. But I remember the past too when it wasn't a requirement. It became a flame site, so I think a happy medium is designation (Mr. Mrs. Ms.) and last name at a minimum.

I'm also not a fan of the online tracking that shows what everyone is doing at the moment that you look. A little TMI I think, members online is fine, we don't need to see what they're doing. 

I do like the personal galleries, I see a use for that.

 

All in all pretty good job BOD, congratulations on pulling it off.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your input; it helps to see things from another perspective.

I'm not going to be putting up my DOB on the site, nor am I going to put up my address (or even the town I'm in), but if the location option was there, I would put the state I'm in. I like the idea of a location option, and each member can make it as specific as he/she feels comfortable with, (or not show location at all). Nobody's going to be putting their address in the blank anyway. You make a good point though, as long as it's in the member directory, it really doesn't matter whether it's on the site or not.

I'm glad you commented about the name thing, I hadn't thought about it that way. For those more concerned about privacy, I do like your last name suggestion.

I agree with you on the online tracking. I don't want everyone else seeing what I'm doing every second I'm on the site.

[Lane Shirey]

To me, the old pics are part of the allure of the forum in general.  Limiting it to a fixed quota will cause all of the good old history to be deleted just to maintain a quota.  There’s nothing I hate worse than going to an old post to get some technical info only to find out that “image has been deleted on photobucket” or something like that. 
 

I don’t recall the old forum having a limitation on total picture storage.  Nor should the new one.  Also, my new phone takes 5mb+ pics, so having to resize each time would indeed be worse than the tweaking needed on the old site. 

[Noah Britt]

Totally agree with you Lane.

Imagine if all the photos were gone from Bill Hoehn's "My last hurrah" thread. Or if all the photos were gone from Darrell Koller's Westinghouse stator removal thread- yeah Westy restorers, you know the one. This is what's going to be happening if we don't have unlimited photo space on this forum.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Noah Britt

[Michael Rathberger]

19 minutes ago, Noah Britt said:

Totally agree with you Lane.

Imagine if all the photos were gone from Bill Hoehn's "My last hurrah" thread. Or if all the photos were gone from Darrell Koller's Westinghouse stator removal thread- yeah Westy restorers, you know the one. This is what's going to be happening if we don't have unlimited photo space on this forum.

There are some members who post 20-30-40 photos of a restoration in a single post, many of them not needed and many superfluous. I always found it slightly annoying. Resizing images is just a good way to manage the site, and limiting the number of photos to an overall limit would be fine -- per post -- but not overall content of a user, we will lose a lot of value. I would probably reduce the max file size to be truthful, limit the size a USER can utilize in a single post, but not restrict a user's overall content. But then again, I'm not a social media person which seems like the direction the site is going. (almost forgot, what about the photo's of a fan meet, we don't want to lose the ability to see those too...)

As for the content in the old site, it would be a mistake of epic proportions to lose that information.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Mr. Rathberger

[Noah Britt]

If you feel there are too many pics that are not worth looking at, you can always scroll through without looking at them. Different people are going to have different opinions on which pics are worth looking at. There has been one time I can think of when I could not identify to what fan a part belonged, and I actually figured it out after looking at one of those resto pics I would've otherwise deemed an excess picture. Some resto threads (for example if someone restored a Paragon or a DC Tesla) are going to need far more photos than another resto, (Bersted for example), and you can't just make a blanket photo limit on all posts. In my opinion, a photo limit is going to cause far more harm than good.

As for photo resizing, I thought we were starting a new AFCA site to make a more user-friendly site. Not only is resizing very not user-friendly, it also worsens the image quality. If we don't raise the photo size limit, there are going to be guests coming here with questions, and not being able to post pictures, because they cannot figure out how to make their photo small enough to fit. These photo problems are going to be a turn off to people here just like they were to people on the old forum.

[Michael Rathberger]

Fair enough Noah. As I said, not a social media person. I'm not the target audience for the site. I don't need to see 40 pictures of a westy stamped steel nor a paragon. As for the DC tesla, when one shows up I might have a different opinion but it'll probably be "DON'T TOUCH IT" 

PS How did Vic pull it off in his excellent Gyro post, cause it seems very reminiscent of the old site? I'm curious, as I don't know how his post differs from the questions on here...

Edited October 7, 2021 by Mr. Rathberger

[Jamie Horner]

Hey guys, so there currently is a limit on photos, size, number of posts per member per day, number of “likes”, etc. 

One of the reasons the old forum started moving a little slower and acting oddly at times was because of the enormous database attached to it.

That being said, I agree with making most everything unlimited especially when it comes to images. Because this is still new and we’re in the honeymoon phase, there are likely many things that will need adjusted. Because I am not on the Board and the final say has to come from them on much of this, I can’t just jump in and change everything immediately, even if I might know how to change it. But you can bet everyone is paying attention even if things don’t get done overnight.

Thanks as always for the discussion. I have no doubt more things will be adjusted soon.

[Noah Britt]

Thanks for the enlightenment Jamie! It's great to have a better idea what's going on behind the scenes. 

While we're talking about storage, I'll add that there is only space in my inbox for 50 messages.

[Jamie Horner]

Okay guys, I got the go ahead on increasing image uploads and max number of messages. Let me know if it changes for you (in a good way). 😀

[Lane Shirey]

4 hours ago, Jamie Horner said:

Hey guys, so there currently is a limit on photos, size, number of posts per member per day, number of “likes”, etc. 

One of the reasons the old forum started moving a little slower and acting oddly at times was because of the enormous database attached to it.

That being said, I agree with making most everything unlimited especially when it comes to images. Because this is still new and we’re in the honeymoon phase, there are likely many things that will need adjusted. Because I am not on the Board and the final say has to come from them on much of this, I can’t just jump in and change everything immediately, even if I might know how to change it. But you can bet everyone is paying attention even if things don’t get done overnight.

Thanks as always for the discussion. I have no doubt more things will be adjusted soon.

Jamie, to me you should have a dotted line connection to the board. 

[Bejon A. Boranian]

2 hours ago, Jamie Horner said:

Okay guys, I got the go ahead on increasing image uploads and max number of messages. Let me know if it changes for you (in a good way). 😀

Actually, my "quota" meter is just gone completely now... I have no idea what I'm at..

..I guess that's good, but will the "max limit" for PICS just sneak up on me one day? 🤔

Thank-you everyone for any help on this.

 

 

[Noah Britt]

That's great news!! Thanks so much for adjusting the limits! Messages, photo size, and attachment limits all look to be fixed.

8 MB photo, let's see if this works: (edit: it worked but I deleted it to save space)

 

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by Noah Britt

[Rod Rogers]

I agree that many posts have WAY too many pictures!

 

Seems to be a fad here!

 

~Sparky~

[Bejon A. Boranian]

Weird, if I quote someone, then try to add PICS, it will just be stuck on "uploading"

So, I added PICS first, then quoted. 🤔

1 hour ago, Rod Rogers said:

I agree that many posts have WAY too many pictures!

 

Seems to be a fad here!

 

~Sparky~

 

1 hour ago, Noah Britt said:

That's great news!! Thanks so much for adjusting the limits! Messages, photo size, and attachment limits all look to be fixed.

8 MB photo, let's see if this works: By the way, this fan has since been restored.

 

It works at least 😄 ☺

BTW, my Russian Blue likes to chew my fan cords, it's why I put some of my fans

up on high shelves & closets. 😮