richmckee Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I was going to post some 1 year updates on my tank, but the forum software for uploading photos is something out of an infomercial. It's so frustrating and arduous that I'd rather complain, wait a few more years collecting new tank shots the whole time, and then come back when the forum software is user friendly. The rest of the internet has made it very easy to post pics, I just don't get why such a picture intensive hobby has a stone aged system for uploading and managing photos. And it's a little off topic, but what's up with the messaging system? 100 messages max? Are the hard drives on the message board servers from 1995? Is the good BB software just too expensive to buy or does all BB software out there supposed to be 1 step above DOS?(wife) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mohaynow Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I think a lot of it has to do with the limited funds of the club. Paid members can store 200 messages. For the picture situation a lot of people use photobucket or similar services. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePremiumAquarium Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I find it pretty easy myself. I just upload all of the pictures I wish to post ot photobucket and then copy the IMG link to the thread I want the picture(s) to be in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Upload your pic's to photobucket and then you can add them to your posts. As for the 100 messages max, that goes up if you pay to be a member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Upload your pics to an album on Photobucket and send us a link to the album. I want to see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richmckee Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 ok, the photobucket thing sounds like a decent solution if I have to post something, but it's still fairly inexcusable that the user interface on the BB is THAT BAD given modern websites. And the messages thing still doesn't make sense since text storage of any sort takes up almost zero space. Maybe I don't know enough about the economics of it all with the whole membership aspect. Even if I were a member, I would expect UNLIMITED messaging if I have to pay money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I don't want to be an a$$ but you know what if you don't like it, then become a member and run for office the next election and do something about it. You are basicaly badmouthing our site and it is not appriciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefboy Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 photobucket is all I use on any site you might try it (whistle). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richmckee Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 I don't want to be an a$$ but you know what if you don't like it' date=' then become a member and run for office the next election and do something about it. You are basicaly badmouthing our site and it is not appriciated![/quote'] I'm sorry you think that I'm badmouthing the website. I love the contents of the website! I AM badmouthing the messaging user interface and the photo uploading interface as it compares to the rest of the internet in general. Sorry, it sucks. Just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I don't want to be an a$$ but you know what if you don't like it' date=' then become a member and run for office the next election and do something about it. You are basicaly badmouthing our site and it is not appriciated![/quote'] hmmmm....(scratch) kind of like some sponsors attacking some members..... Sounds familiar.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 While the presentation of the complaint may not have been the most friendly, I think he's got a great point. Personally, I think the photobucket option is sufficient for the poor photo interface here. The messaging is pretty ridiculous, though. A 1000 character message shouldn't take up more than about 2 kilobytes even with metadata... I would think that the site could provide users with more than 200kb of storage when a 1,000,000,000 KB hard drive costs about $150. I wasn't going to bring it up on my own, but I think it's worth thinking about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algae Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I've found Photobucket pretty painless. I do loose a few of PM's cause of the limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 These websites cost money to run, each and every month. Upgrades cost money. Storage costs money. Administration of the site costs money but is provided free to you by club member volunteers. This is a not for profit club, operating solely on membership dues and raffles for donated items from our sponsors. You are posting here for free, storing pictures for free, storing PMs for free, and getting all the useful information for free, yet you are complaining? Extra PM storage is a benefit provided to our members. If you would like more space or an upgraded site, here is the link to become a member and help improve the site: http://www.pnwmas.org/cmps_index.php?pageid=join Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 As a board member I welcome feedback and I have seen many improvements in just the short few years I have been a member. Actually the format and layout of this site is much more user friendly than many of the local saltwater forums that i have looked at. I have looked at some of the local forums and found them much more difficult to navigate. I am computer tech challenged but I personally did not find photobucket for downloading pictures very difficult to use and it's what I use for reef2reef, reef central, and reef frontiers. If anything it's a little better here because you can actually put more pictures on one page. You just get an account for photobucket. Download your pictures there and copy and paste the "img" code. As far as the 100 message max, it does increase to 200 if you are a paid members. I agree it can be a little bit of a pain but for a local club we use a great deal of bandwith and we had to recently upgrade our server as the system crashed last year so every little bit helps. There is far more activity, posts, sponsors than most local clubs. All these things cost money and it would not be possible without sponsor and membership support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drunkreefer Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Seems to be the same on every forum I'm on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richmckee Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 I'd rather just start a thread. I've used BB software in 2001 that was just as good as this. I thought there would have been a drastic improvement over the course of a decade. I've talked to a few other board members and they said the same thing. I apologize to anyone who took this personally, you really need to be less sensitive, it's not like I've insulted your mother. I just think that this is such an awesome board that I can't understand why people don't want to improve the outdated interface. I've paid my membership dues and made an EXTRA 50 dollar donation. I have some friends who are very experienced in IT and I'd like to at least see what's out there. Won't be posting anymore in this thread because it looks like drama 101, but I'll be working on this in the background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I am computer illiterate, LOL but I have to say that this site seems pretty similar to reefcentral and that is a high dollar forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I'd rather just start a thread. I've used BB software in 2001 that was just as good as this. I thought there would have been a drastic improvement over the course of a decade. I've talked to a few other board members and they said the same thing. I apologize to anyone who took this personally, you really need to be less sensitive, it's not like I've insulted your mother. I just think that this is such an awesome board that I can't understand why people don't want to improve the outdated interface. I've paid my membership dues and made an EXTRA 50 dollar donation. I have some friends who are very experienced in IT and I'd like to at least see what's out there. Won't be posting anymore in this thread because it looks like drama 101, but I'll be working on this in the background. Thanks for the donation! (clap) I will send you a membership card this week in the mail and get your status updated! Like I said before, I'm not very computer savvy so I wouldn't now about possible improvements in that realm but always am open to suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drunkreefer Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Well I take it back then being that your a paid member b#tch away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I am computer illiterate' date=' LOL but I have to say that this site seems pretty similar to reefcentral and that is a high dollar forum.[/quote'] Actually, ReefCentral, which is THE largest Reefing forum and the #34,278 ranked website on the entire internet for traffic, uses vBulletin 3.8.4. We are much ahead of the game here, using vBulletin 4.1.3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richmckee Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 looks like vbb gets a 3.7 our of 10 on the user feedback. I give it a 5 because it actually does most everything well, except the aforementioned problems. I've done some preliminary searches and asking around to see what's out there and I have found some better formats (at least for the PM). Once I sit down and take a look at the hosting costs as compared to VBB maybe I can recommend something to the technology officer. http://www.forum-software.org/vbulletin4/review Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bicyclebill Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Yes, but also worth mentioning is that it is one of five that rated 5 Stars out of 39 forum formats. Just like any other forum (and we're all very guilty of this), you can find whatever information you want to prove whatever point you're trying to make. looks like vbb gets a 3.7 our of 10 on the user feedback. I give it a 5 because it actually does most everything well, except the aforementioned problems. I've done some preliminary searches and asking around to see what's out there and I have found some better formats (at least for the PM). Once I sit down and take a look at the hosting costs as compared to VBB maybe I can recommend something to the technology officer. http://www.forum-software.org/vbulletin4/review Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 looks like vbb gets a 3.7 our of 10 on the user feedback. I give it a 5 because it actually does most everything well, except the aforementioned problems. I've done some preliminary searches and asking around to see what's out there and I have found some better formats (at least for the PM). Once I sit down and take a look at the hosting costs as compared to VBB maybe I can recommend something to the technology officer. http://www.forum-software.org/vbulletin4/review The people to speak about this on our forum are chief (our behind the scenes web man), Jackaninny, and grassi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Actually' date=' ReefCentral, which is THE largest Reefing forum and the #34,278 ranked website on the entire internet for traffic, uses vBulletin 3.8.4. We are much ahead of the game here, using vBulletin 4.1.3. [/quote'] That's awsome!!! Sounds like there isn't much room for improvement??? All I can say is I'm a happy user. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Just for curiosity's sake, what about offering a banner ad at the top of the page? People like drsF&S or marineDepot or BRS andsuch can pay for the advertising. Personally, a single banner at the top of a page is unobtrusive, and if the ads placed were all reef-related, they may even prove helpful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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