Image viewing only for logged in?

[Harry]

Just curious about this as I saw the discussion on AA concerning it. I still read most posts over there but dont bother to log in so I dont see any of the images that are uploaded to the forum, only pictures that are linked to. I usually just skim through threads that seem incomplete without images.

Just wondering what others thoughts are on this. Do you think that forcing people to log in is a good idea to push people into participating more by being logged in when they visit a forum. It certainly bumps up the who is online but I dont think it drives any more participation and may actually put some people off who want the option of reading a forum without logging or or even registering for that matter.

The post count on AA has seen a little bump with the move from BYMC but that seems spurred in large part by quite a few new members. In contrast the post count here on FD has been about equal to AA with far fewer members (I know my big mouth is a good share of that). When I opened the doors here BYMC was at 91K and both AA and FD has seen just under 1K posts since the move and opening up here.

So, heres my thoughts (as if anyone really cares). This forum should be open to all in every way short of the possibility of a members only semi private area where one might feel a little more free about posting things like a picture of themselves or something like that. If I do set up a semi private area I will include it in the robots txt file to keep search engines from indexing it. Short of that the entire forum would be open for reading but not posting for any way a person wanted to view it and registering or logging in would give the ability to participate.

[dallen]

Harry, I feel that what your saying is the way to go. I may be wrong and I have mine set to automaticly log on whenever I open up this site an the AA site its the only two fourms that I do it. And I post quite a bit here and over at AA but thats because I'm not working at the moment, don't worry I get a paycheck twice a month, on salary. thats all I'll say about that but yes its a real job.

another thing that I feel to be right is that this is your fourm its a nice site, theres not a lot of trafic here not like some of the other sites, This site seems to have more of the serious caster here then over at AA or the BYMC site. Activity at the BYMC site is just about nil as I thing that Lionel was shutting it down or maybe it was that they were not going to support it any more.

Anyway most people will not hang around if they can't see the pictures, thats goes for members as well as visitors, you go over to Homeroasters.org you can see the pictures but if you want to comment on them or to a post in one of the threads you have to be a member and log into post, or download from the files section.

I like the way this site is setup better than any of the other sites or yahoo groups that I belong to.
All I can say is running one of these sites is a big job, so run it in a manner that makes it easy for you, that will keep the spam out, new members active in casting, ect.

David J Allen

[Harry]

Thanks David for the feedback. Honestly though running a site like this isnt much effort at all. I mean sure years ago I had learn the ins and outs of setting things up and at times I will have to do a little searching to find a fix or howto on making a change but really a forum like this is not much work to keep going once set up. I still have a few things I want to get figured out here but nothing that pulls the forum down so I have not bothered to much in digging into them, some time when I am having a cocktail and bored I will look into them

Spam has been killed without a single (knock on wood) bot getting in since I set up the Q&A, come to think of it though I dont think we have had any human members since then either Hope it is not keeping anyone from being able to join if they want to.

[Wayne]

What the heck??

I just typed up a rather long post in the quick reply box, hit submit and it just disappeared....

Wayne

[Harry]

Wayne, generally when I type out a long post I will copy it so it is on the computers clipboard and can be pasted back in. One thing to remember though if you dont do that is usually you can use the back button on the browser and go back to the page with the post typed in. In fact if you have not closed the browser you can probably still back up now to the page where you typed the post in even if it is ten or twenty pages back. Probably also be able to dig it out of the browsers history for some time in the future even if the browser has been closed though I am not positive about the post still being intact.

I dont often use the quick reply but that problem I have seen on every forum I have ever used at one time or another and the issue usually seems to be related to a hiccup in the connection.

If anyone knows of any particular fix or adjustments that can be made to the forum to prevent it from happening point me to it please.

[Jammer]

It may be the way my settings are, but if I hit the go-back button to see a lost post, I just get a blank post page.

[dallen]

happens to me at times also, I lost a message i was typing yesterday and was so pissed I didn't redo it because I had lost my train of thought like I really had one. whicl trying to get the message back, is there some way to autosave what your typing so we don't loose stuff. Thinking makes my head hurt this early in the day, unless I'm getting paid!

[Jammer]

I type it and lose it, then I can't word it the same again. It's always the best the first time around.

[Harry]

is there some way to autosave what your typing so we don't loose stuff.

Not that I know of but if you type a particularly long post it is a good practice to copy it by dragging over the post to highlight then right click and choose copy. This will place it on windows clipboard and you can paste it back in.

I know this can be aggravating but I know of no fix and not so sure the problem is even on the server or with the forum. I think it has to do with your internet connection timing out or have some other sort of hiccup. It just happened to me with a post before this one. I had highlighted and copied it and got the "connection reset" gray screen in firefox. I hit the back button and the post was still there and clicked submit again and it went through.

This forum is on a dedicated server with just a few other sites on it which are all mine and most of them are practically 0 traffic sites. By comparison I looked up the AA statistics for the shared server it is on and there are 71 other sites on that server. If they oversell (if it hasnt been already) that server or one of those other sites posts a rogue script or gets wildly popular performance will degrade sharply for all sites on the server. That lack of control is why I got my own server years ago.

[Heimo]

I know this can be aggravating but I know of no fix and not so sure the problem is even on the server or with the forum. I think it has to do with your internet connection timing out or have some other sort of hiccup. It just happened to me with a post before this one. I had highlighted and copied it and got the "connection reset" gray screen in firefox. I hit the back button and the post was still there and clicked submit again and it went through.

This forum is on a dedicated server with just a few other sites on it which are all mine and most of them are practically 0 traffic sites. By comparison I looked up the AA statistics for the shared server it is on and there are 71 other sites on that server. If they oversell (if it hasnt been already) that server or one of those other sites posts a rogue script or gets wildly popular performance will degrade sharply for all sites on the server. That lack of control is why I got my own server years ago.

This is strange, I cannot remember of a single time this happened to me (except when posting from my old cellphone and not even on this forum)

also I am glad you host this forum on your own server, this forum opens nice and quickly even with my slowish internet connection, AA on the flip side takes quite a while for the threads to load.

also as to the topic at hand, I don't like it when I am searching for information on the internet, come across a forum and then I am unable to view any of the attached pictures that is quite aggravating, also I doubt I will join forums with settings like that, simply because if I can't see any of the pictures I quickly lose interest and move on to the next site, while if I can see a picture, that immediately sparks my interest and motivates me to read on....