Shopsmith Forums

skou wrote:

skou wrote:Here's the REAL reason for the "update."

phpBB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhpBB

VBulletin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VBulletin

See the difference? We used to be VBulletin, and now we're phpBB.

steve

OK guys, if you look, phpBB is FREE, and VBulletin wasn't.

In my (never to be) humble opinion, THAT is the reason for
the "update."

steve

No. It may have well been a big reason for the change in software, but had nothing to do with the update itself. While VBulletin was not free, the version previously used was paid for. There was no ongoing or recurring cost to keep using it. They could have kept on using it, without updating, for "free." In fact, it was a very old version and they had been doing that very thing for quite some time.

The simple fact is that they were using a very old version of the VBulletin forum software. It was no longer supported by the manufacturer. There were security holes. It was long past time for the forum to be updated. So they basically had two choices - pay for the newest version of VBulletin, or go with a free product like phpBB. Because of how old the version of VBulletin was they were using and the process it would take to upgrade, it was just as easy (or hard) to change to a different software. In computer terms, imagine "updating" Windows 3.1 to Windows 8. With that kind of update, it wouldn't be any more difficult to migrate to Linux or Mac.

Personally, I think "Admin" made the right decision. He had to go through the migration anyway. phpBB, while free, like Linux, has a ton of community support, has a ton of available add-ons and plugins from purely cosmetic to enhancing security, and is in constant development. This means that future updates will not be years apart because somebody didn't want to approve a purchase for annual support or the next new release from VBulletin necessitating a complete overhaul once an update could not be pushed off any longer.

The decision keeps the forum up to date, secure, with features expected of modern forum software, at no new monetary cost. Good decision, if you ask me.

dusty wrote:It sorta worked.

It appears that we can now post more than 5 images. These are smaller than I had been posting but they display just fine.

The sequence does not appear to be as I had intended but I'll work that issue in real time.

I had to select each image individually. I was unable to select multiple images simultaneously as we could before.

I am not sure what the 'select inline' option is all about.

Admin IS working on things!!! I could not color/bold quoted text last night!


Now as for 'just fine', having to scroll larger attached pix is not to me 'just fine'.

Where did you 'see' select inline???

Sorta = 'different' fer sure. I think we will be satisfied when Admin finishes teaking.

JPG wrote: Now as for 'just fine', having to scroll larger attached pix is not to me 'just fine'.

Sorta = 'different' fer sure. I think we will be satisfied when Admin finishes teaking.

JPG and all, just click on the pic and you'll get the whole pic without scrolling it.

Place "inline"? Did it appear above?

Bingo!!!!!!

IIRC that worked last night.

Now for a bigger pix.

Nope 800 is the limit vertically

So,

Thank you for that insight.

It is really frightening what I look at and do not see these days.

algale wrote:With the old forum, through the user preferences you could specify globally how you wanted to view threads. One of the options I used was to put the newest post at the top of the page. I found this saved scrolling to view what was new. I've been through the used control panel on the new forum and don't find this as an option. At the bottom of individual threads there is an option to view ascending or descending but you can't set this as the default for all threads. Oh, well. As they say in my line of work, "the jury is still out" on the new forum.

I just noticed that if there are unread posts in a thread that there is a link that says "Go to First Unread" (or something similar) at the top of the thread. That is a very useful feature and better than my prior solution!

algale wrote:

algale wrote:With the old forum, through the user preferences you could specify globally how you wanted to view threads. One of the options I used was to put the newest post at the top of the page. I found this saved scrolling to view what was new. I've been through the used control panel on the new forum and don't find this as an option. At the bottom of individual threads there is an option to view ascending or descending but you can't set this as the default for all threads. Oh, well. As they say in my line of work, "the jury is still out" on the new forum.

I just noticed that if there are unread posts in a thread that there is a link that says "Go to First Unread" (or something similar) at the top of the thread. That is a very useful feature and better than my prior solution!

When you're viewing a list of threads, there's a small icon at the front of the thread title that, when clicked on, will take you directly to the first new post of that thread. No need to click on the thread title first, then click the "Go to First Unread" link.

beeg wrote:JPG and all, just click on the pic and you'll get the whole pic without scrolling it.

Thanks for pointing that out! I was not liking having to scroll the images. But now that I'm aware of how this works, I actually like it a lot! It shows most of the picture, but doesn't take up a lot of screen real estate unless I want it to. In a picture heavy thread, that's a lot less scrolling, yet it's still easy to find the picture I want without having to squint at thumbnails.

Well! Future posts regarding the last post will be interesting to say the least!

Well I was staying out of this as the fur was flying a little, but there have been a lot of good "discoveries" on pictures, schemes, font sizes, etc. I have tried both styles, and I have actually come back to the Shopsmith1.

So far, I like it! If anyone cares ....

Dick