FerrariChat.com New Software Updates...

ralessi · Nov 2, 2003

Napolis said:

Brian
What part of horrible is a question?
It's an opinion.
Asking why he doesn't go back to the old system re pics esp. as the VAST majority agree it was better wasn't an question either it was a kind way of pointing out that unless he does a lot of us will move on as a lot do when something changes for the worse. It's much like the new 745/750 some buy it others don't. Clicking on a thumbnail and downloading a file not only takes time it breaks the flo of the post and downloading files from the intenet isn't a great idea either as some very nasty things can happen if that file is infected. Non?
Click to expand...

James,

I hope you aren't seriously considering leaving. I ask you (and I'm sure everyone else) to reconsider - you are a great asset to this community.

I can see how everyone is resilient to the change, it has been the same for what, 3 years? I'm sure Rob didn't just come across this one day and decide, oh! let's implement a complete new forum interface next weekend! He gave it serious thought and decided that it would be the best thing for f-chat.

He might have implemented it a little early, without some of the functions that we are used to and/or need, but this will be quickly fixed I'm sure. Rob is not some ruthless dictator that wants to make us suffer for no reason - if we want it and it is reasonable we probably will get it.

This new forum has been up 2 days, and if you give it a week or so I am sure that many of the small details will be ironed out.

So James, and EVERYONE considering leaving - please give it some time.

jarends · Nov 2, 2003

It's a shame we can't post pictures, I see some on some threads, but have no idea on how to do it.

I'll just sit on the side and wait for thing to settle down and hope they do.

KennyH · Nov 2, 2003

jarends said:

It's a shame we can't post pictures, I see some on some threads, but have no idea on how to do it.

I'll just sit on the side and wait for thing to settle down and hope they do.
Click to expand...

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/faq.php?faq=vb_read_and_post#faq_vb_attachment_explain

rob lay · Nov 2, 2003

Easy on me, I haven't waken up all the way yet. Just took me 2 hours to clear out my inbox, so I'm just looking at these posts now. Please let me know if I don't cover all questions or don't address your concerns completely.

First of all, thanks to Brian and Kenny. As my load is pretty heavy now, I would appreciate users as they learn the board and view my other responses to handle some of the questions from users as they also learn the new board.

1) The resistance to change was expected and I'm a little surprised it hasn't been worse. 18 months ago when I upgraded the old software from one version to another there was a huge uproar. So I expected going to a completely new software would be much worse. If you stick with it, then every day you'll get more comfortable with it. If you stick with it for just one week I think you'll be comfortable with 99% of what you need. Human nature is funny as it's funny to hear adults in these posts and emails making some of the negative statements they have. How many times have I said be patient.

2) As already reported, the move to this software was actually initiated by users as I had never heard of vB. I then explored it and other competitors. I then had several lengthy discussions on the old board to discus what was best. Lastly, I went through a testing phase with over 20 users participating. I'm not sure I could of done that process any better than we did.

3) The main reasons for the new software in order of relevance are... handling of increased traffic and load, future support and professionalism of software company, ability of users to customize individually, ability of me to admin and moderate better, and the ability to manage uses and potentially subscribe users.

Probably the most important change for users is the ability to customize. One of the complainers in this thread as sent me numerous emails the past year begging me to get rid of a certain user. Well, now you can. Each user has the ability to ignore what users they want. You're in control. In addition you can control the order of posts, the color combinations and style (many new ones will be added in the future), all users can now PM, you can create polls, you can add events to the calendar, you can individually subscribe to posts and monitor from one place in the User CP, and you can rate posts.

4) I agree working through the image problem is the priority #1. Please trust me that I'm working on it and you can't expect everything to work exactly like the old board. However, I think it's a requirement that images can easily be posted and displayed. Yesterday priority #1 was the Profile birthday bug and that is fixed. Can I ask for current thoughts on the images. I personally think it's not that bad right now, what's wrong with this...

ralessi · Nov 2, 2003

rob328gts said:

4) I agree working through the image problem is the priority #1. Please trust me that I'm working on it and you can't expect everything to work exactly like the old board. However, I think it's a requirement that images can easily be posted and displayed. Yesterday priority #1 was the Profile birthday bug and that is fixed. Can I ask for current thoughts on the images. I personally think it's not that bad right now, what's wrong with this...
Click to expand...

I can start if that's ok... I don't like :

1.) How they are small
2.) How they are distorted
3.) How you have to click to open them and download them into temp files (related to small)
4.) Uploading only 4 at a time (not sure if this is the case)
5.) Them not being in the text - it is ok to say see picture 1 at the bottom or something like that, but if they are just in the text you wouldn't have to go through this step

rob lay · Nov 2, 2003

OK, I turned thumbnails off so you can see how that works for you.

Kenny, how do you do images on your site? IMG tag?

rob lay · Nov 2, 2003

You post one image and it shows it. Now let's see what happens when I post two images.

rob lay · Nov 2, 2003

rob328gts said:

You post one image and it shows it. Now let's see what happens when I post two images.
Click to expand...

See, at this time these are the only options...

1) Thumbnails. You can post as many as you want in a thread, but they're smaller and you have to download to view full. Some Macs can't see the thumnails at all.

2) Images Inline. You can view the image if you only post one. If you post two or more than they're all just links. They still have to be downloaded to view. A way around this is to post a new message for each image.

What do you want in the meantime before I can hack the code to function like the old board?

tbakowsky · Nov 2, 2003

Rob..Is there a function on this board to make the text size larger? I have my computer set at largest but I would still like to have it bigger on my screen. I don't like to sit so close to my screen to read stuff. (kind of freaks me out..weird I know..but I'm Canadian eh?)

KennyH · Nov 2, 2003

rob328gts said:

OK, I turned thumbnails off so you can see how that works for you.

Kenny, how do you do images on your site? IMG tag?
Click to expand...

I use IMG tags, attachments AND html.. My site is pretty much a free-for-all though so I'm sure having all three enabled slows the site down. No biggy, we don't have rules over there and no one seems to care if the speed is disrupted due to more images.

IMG tags are dandy if the images are hosted somewhere else- but alot of places make it so you can't link to the images directly (like my site).

HTML could potentially leave you open to get hacked but its more convenient for the more advanced computer users (doesn't seem to be too many here so it's probably not worth it).

Attachments- I don't set any limits on them- just that they're under 500k. I bet you could have someone on vBulletin whip up a script so that ONLY in the showroom section would you be able to post an image bigger then your max limit now. Also, I've been having trouble with the two (or more) image attachments - they come up as links as you see- and that, for a lack of better words, blows.

I can help you with any aspect of the site, don't be shy.

rob lay · Nov 2, 2003

tbakowsky said:

Rob..Is there a function on this board to make the text size larger? I have my computer set at largest but I would still like to have it bigger on my screen. I don't like to sit so close to my screen to read stuff. (kind of freaks me out..weird I know..but I'm Canadian eh?)
Click to expand...

In the future I'll create a custom style for you with larger font.

ralessi · Nov 2, 2003

rob328gts said:

See, at this time these are the only options...

1) Thumbnails. You can post as many as you want in a thread, but they're smaller and you have to download to view full. Some Macs can't see the thumnails at all.

2) Images Inline. You can view the image if you only post one. If you post two or more than they're all just links. They still have to be downloaded to view. A way around this is to post a new message for each image.

What do you want in the meantime before I can hack the code to function like the old board?
Click to expand...

I kind of see the issues now... I really have no clue. Maybe a poll to decide what the interim solution is?

If you could make an upload script (like on the old site) where you could upload 4 or 10 or however many pictures you wanted at a time, then it spit out the IMG tags, maybe this would work?

Like there could be a link at the top of each page - FCHAT PICTURE UPLOAD

then one could click and upload images, and get the tags so they can copy/paste into the thread?

What do you think?

ralessi · Nov 2, 2003

tbakowsky said:

Rob..Is there a function on this board to make the text size larger? I have my computer set at largest but I would still like to have it bigger on my screen. I don't like to sit so close to my screen to read stuff. (kind of freaks me out..weird I know..but I'm Canadian eh?)
Click to expand...

Are you sure its the site? This is the same size/font for me as it was on the old site...

rob lay · Nov 2, 2003

ralessi said:

I kind of see the issues now... I really have no clue. Maybe a poll to decide what the interim solution is?

If you could make an upload script (like on the old site) where you could upload 4 or 10 or however many pictures you wanted at a time, then it spit out the IMG tags, maybe this would work?

Like there could be a link at the top of each page - FCHAT PICTURE UPLOAD

then one could click and upload images, and get the tags so they can copy/paste into the thread?

What do you think?
Click to expand...

OK, I just put a limit of one image per post. This will keep all images displayed and inline. In the future I will work on allowing more images per post displayed inline like the old board.

Is this acceptable James?

Steve King · Nov 2, 2003

Brian C. Stradale said:

Why do you ask Rob questions if you don't listen to what he says? He has spoken to the pic issue above... and pointed out that its not so easy to "go back to the old pic system". Even taking a step in that direction would make things worse. But he'll work on a better solution for us.

IMO, I think the current stuff will be workable if the thumbnails are a bit larger (so you can see the pics adequately in most cases) AND if clicking the thumbnails opens a page with a pic rather than doing a download.

Rob has also spoken to this. Rob agrees with you and has turned off the pointing to externally hosted pictures. He too wants all the pics hosted by the site so that they do not later get "lost".

Some of the things mentioned over the past couple months include:
1) to reduce the maintenance load on Rob (given he does this for free, that goal alone is good enough IMO... if we were paying $100/yr, then that wouldn't count for anything)
2) to provide a number of features that are repeatedly requested by users

First, if we had each paid $100 or more for this software, then we could certainly quibble that he should do more user testing. But given we paid $0...

Second, you need to understand how this works. Rob's not coding the core capability. That is many, many man-years of effort. Rob is moving from one core bulletin board software to another. In doing so, he can try to keep things the same... but he is dependent upon the software base. And he can't work around a lot of things unless he's willing to invest 1000x more time than he already is.

So, guys, if you're going to complain, at least sound appreciative. Rob's been working very hard so that we can all play.

AND, as Rob has requested, post your bug reports and enhancement requests to the proper forum (links at the bottom of the forum list).

As for my opinion, Rob, it doesn't feel like "home" yet like the old site did, but I am going to like a lot of the features... and suspect after a week or so, it'll start to feel like home once again. THANKS FOR ALL THE HARD WORK.

And already, the site is in better shape than many of the forums that I participate on.
Click to expand...

I believe that Rob started this board as a hobbie and it grew to a good population. It is informative and allows the group to exchange technical information to solve issues with our Fcars. It appears that Rob enjoys this hobbie but now is aiming to turn it into a business. The changes were Rob's idea to want to improve on the board. As you can see change in such grand scale is not received well and is causing some churn with the group. I don't know what motivated Rob to upgrade but it is still his hobbie and maybe his drive to try and make this better. Only time will tell and the board will speak for itself. As more sponsors come on board the goal should be to have them pay for the site. They in turn need to see profit from their involvement in order for them to stay as a sponsor. I'll just wait and watch.

rob lay · Nov 2, 2003

That's a very fair and good post Steve.

I feel like a few users don't have confidence in what I'm doing. However, I'm the one that's made all the decisions over the past years that have made it so popular and the desires of others to duplicate. I didn't come this far by having blinders on and making bad decisions.

Worse case I can always back track. I don't think this will happen. A year from now FerrariChat.com will have more users than it does now and who knows about sponsors.

I had 5 sponsors come up for renewal this month and 4 of them renewed for another year without even blinking. I would say they're getting value out of FerrariChat.com.

Brian C. Stradale · Nov 2, 2003

rob328gts said:

OK, I just put a limit of one image per post. This will keep all images displayed and inline. In the future I will work on allowing more images per post displayed inline like the old board.

Is this acceptable James?
Click to expand...

Rob, I think that's best... works like the old board, but limited to one pic per post. Not that big a loss, IMO. I wouldn't even make fixing that super-high priority... I think that's fully workable (assuming I understand properly).

The other way is problematic for me... a Mac user... as the thumbnails in your examples above don't even show up.

Thanks, Rob.

Patman36 · Nov 2, 2003

Forum looks great Rob, I have to get used to reading from the top down on Ferrarichat

Patrick

ralessi · Nov 2, 2003

Patman36 said:

Forum looks great Rob, I have to get used to reading from the top down on Ferrarichat

Patrick
Click to expand...

User CP - Options - You can change it back to the old way if you so desire.

Steve King · Nov 2, 2003

rob328gts said:

That's a very fair and good post Steve.

I feel like a few users don't have confidence in what I'm doing. However, I'm the one that's made all the decisions over the past years that have made it so popular and the desires of others to duplicate. I didn't come this far by having blinders on and making bad decisions.

Worse case I can always back track. I don't think this will happen. A year from now FerrariChat.com will have more users than it does now and who knows about sponsors.

I had 5 sponsors come up for renewal this month and 4 of them renewed for another year without even blinking. I would say they're getting value out of FerrariChat.com.
Click to expand...

Keep moving forward Rob.

MrM@ · Nov 3, 2003

Well I'm only new & don't have a Ferrari so my view probably won't matter but here goes:

Rob - It's your site! do what YOU want with it...

I regularly go to a Forum that posts photoshopped pics www.b3ta.com (not the same I know) but they have over 17k members and just ask for donations which a good 1/3 do so, in return they only get an Icon next to their name.

Personally I like the layout of this, maybe cause I didn't have time to get used to the old one, you'll always get your moaners you do everywhere supermarket queues especially!! But they will get used to it.

I think you've done a great job of it and will continue to visit everyday.

Thankyou and Goodnight.

Napolis · Nov 3, 2003

Brian C. Stradale said:

Exactly. If it was a question (as "asking why" usually implies), the answer was already presented by Rob in this thread. If it was not a question, then you're just *****ing by suggesting that Rob ought do quickly what he already said he can't do quickly. If what you meant was, "I am going to leave this site and never return if you are unable to return the pics to the way they were." Well, then, see ya... 'cause Rob already conceded that he will be unable to do that quickly. So, what was your point again? Sorry if I missed it... again.
Click to expand...

What part of fixing it in one day, as he has, don't you understand as quickly?

Napolis · Nov 3, 2003

Rob
Unlike Chris Bangle you listen and respond.
As for pics. It would be nice if you could load a bunch at at time and if they would come up as they will appear when you "preview" so you can make sure you're posting the right ones. (larger file size would be nice as well)
Best
Jim

paulie_b · Nov 3, 2003

we'll have to get used to the new program.

rob lay · Nov 3, 2003

Napolis said:

Rob
Unlike Chris Bangle you listen and respond.
As for pics. It would be nice if you could load a bunch at at time and if they would come up as they will appear when you "preview" so you can make sure you're posting the right ones. (larger file size would be nice as well)
Best
Jim
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree 100% - In the future I will enhance so you can post multiple pictures inline just like the other board. I also would like a way to preview the images. However, those won't be a quick fix. So hopefully in the meantime the one image per post is acceptable.

At least it's better than my short attempt at thumbnails.

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