New forum’s wish list!

pdavit · Post by *pdavit » 2003-02-06, 23:35 UTC

What I would like to see personally from the new forum which was also missing from the old forum as well is a way of posting an image e.g. a capture screen from Total Commander, but not as a URL. Not all of as have the “prestige” of a web space so whenever I find myself posting some messages having the needs to attach some captured shots to explain my text with the aid of images… I can’t!

I don’t know if this is feasible but a workaround can be if each user had a folder with his/her user name created automatically after registering to the forum where he/she could host some images. I know that this can raise issues of virus threats as well as speed and space problems for the forum so, any suggestions will be welcome here.

Maybe if this is physically done on another server to reduce the workload for this forum and to eliminate viruses from passing to this forum. Then again this raises issues like the cost of the new system but there might be a simpler solution which I just cannot think of it so, please give some feedback here. Thanks!

Kind regards,

Panos

Valentino · Post by *Valentino » 2003-02-07, 04:40 UTC

Christian (his team) could analyze (automatically of course, on upload) the uploaded "picture" to decide if it's really picture. It's easy, especially if only several types of images are allowed - jpeg, gif, png.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2003-02-07, 08:42 UTC

Actually the forum software does support images, but I have disabled them. Why? I know many forums where they are enabled, and where people post huge images everywhere - in the signature, in their posts, etc. - full of advertising for their sites! Therefore I have decided to convert all images to links. People who want to see the image can still do it, but all others will not be bothered.

Btw, on eforum.de images were disabled too...

Valentino · Post by *Valentino » 2003-02-07, 22:38 UTC

Therefore I have decided to convert all images to links. People who want to see the image can still do it

It doesn't very matter if this is a direct image insertion or links to image, but the question was what to do if one doesn't have any web storage to upload an image.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2003-02-08, 09:16 UTC

There are many free hosting providers out there, e.g.
- www.geocities.com (now yahoo)
- www.angelfire.com (now lycos)
- www.50megs.com also has a free offer
- Try a Google search
Most of them don't allow direct links to an image, though, so you need to create a small html page which links to your image.

pdavit · Post by *pdavit » 2003-02-08, 15:08 UTC

Why not limit the posting of images to the png type which has been specifically designed for captured screenshots and the resulted size is very very small! We already have the ability to post an avatar with a size limitation (both on image size and file size) what’s preventing as from using this (already implemented) feature for the normal posts?! Come on we are in the 21st century why do we have to stick to pure text!

The posting of images though was just part of the suggestion as many of us need to post menu files (more practical than copy/pasting the contents of a menu file as a post) as well as other types of files like zip for TC tools.

Using a free hosting provider is not a very practical approach. Many users don’t have the knowledge and even more don’t have the time!

bago · Post by *bago » 2003-02-08, 15:14 UTC

What about a dynamic wishlist where ghisler put features suggested from users and every user can vote for each of them (like a poll) but with a ranking of most voted features and so on.

Is this already handled by the PhpBB?

pdavit · Post by *pdavit » 2003-02-08, 15:18 UTC

Well, this is already feasible http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewforum.php?f=7 and you can create your own polls as well!

bago · Post by *bago » 2003-02-08, 15:32 UTC

pdavit wrote:Well, this is already feasible http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewforum.php?f=7 and you can create your own polls as well!

I don't think this is the same of what I'm thinking to

I think to a list of feature where I can "cast" a vote for each feature (from 0 = I'll kill you

if you implement the feature

to 10 I'd kill for it

).

Then a simple table with total votes and medium scores would help understanding what users wants

.

The place you're pointing me to is a "single poll" topic, and It would be chaotic to use it for every feature in the TC wishlist.

pdavit · Post by *pdavit » 2003-02-08, 15:37 UTC

>bago
>The place you're pointing me to is a "single poll" topic, and It would be chaotic to use it for every feature in the TC wishlist.

Well, that’s true but in any case your suggestion will end up to a “chaotic” result based on the fact that TC has so many features! Isn’t that true?

bago · Post by *bago » 2003-02-08, 16:27 UTC

pdavit wrote:Well, that’s true but in any case your suggestion will end up to a “chaotic” result based on the fact that TC has so many features! Isn’t that true?

Well, I think Christian already mantain a wishlist

and he could put it online and we can vote each feature in the list.

I don't want users to add item to wishlist directly, but only the "moderator" (ghisler).

Valentino · Post by *Valentino » 2003-02-09, 03:17 UTC

1. Publishing the wish list may give ideas to TC competitors.
2. Christian doesn't trust too much to forum's pools because "they can be cheated by power users" (not word-for-word cite).
3. IMO, imporatnce of some feature can be estimated by the number of replies to its thread and by the heat of discussion

.

Ergo · Post by *Ergo » 2003-02-09, 08:55 UTC

2. Christian doesn't trust too much to forum's pools because "they can be cheated by power users" (not word-for-word cite).

Must admit, that I don not imagine how these polls can be cheated. The only way is to crack administrator password and to make changes to MySQL base.
In phpBB only registered users can poll, so no IP, no cookie is taken in account. So I think It is the most reliable results!

André Martin · Post by *André Martin » 2003-02-09, 10:57 UTC

Hi - if you are not logged in all times are set to GMT -6 - what about setting the "default" time to GMT +1 because I suppose that the majority of tc users are from (around) europe?

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2003-02-09, 10:58 UTC

It's quite easy to cheat such polls. It works like this:
- get a domain, e.g. somedomain.com
- create a 'catch them all' inbox which accepts messages for any user, e.g. someone(at)somedomain.com
- With a script, register thousands of users, each with a different e-mail, e.g. user0001(at)somedomain.com, user0002(at)somedomain.com etc.
- Automatically confirm the registrations
- Automatically participate in the poll.

There are even sites which do this professionally (when you can win something)!