Site Upgraded

[gstark]

OK.

The site upgrade has been done. We're now running the latest version of phpbb3, along with the latest version of the compatible portal as well.

There's a few minor housekeeping issues that I need to address, but otherwise, I think I can go to sleep now.

[Murray Foote]

I hope you haven't been awake too many days.

[ATJ]

Thanks, Gary!

Where's the Thumbs Up emoticon? I only ask because I wanted to give you one.

[gstark]

Andrew,

Do you mean this one?

[sirhc55]

[Remorhaz]

As Gerry would say - noice...

[the foto fanatic]

Gratitude, bro! 'Spect man!

Hope you still remember your vacation!

[Reschsmooth]

This is an awesome upgrade - thanks Gary.

[biggerry]

nioce.. .i will save my list of housekeeping issues for later.

cheers for the hard work gary.

[ATJ]

Andrew,

Do you mean this one?

I guess I do, but it is not showing up for me - and neither is the cheers.

[Remorhaz]

I guess I do, but it is not showing up for me - and neither is the cheers.

Now gone for me too - but it was showing yesterday

Oh and I love iPads too

[the foto fanatic]

Technology has bitten me on the arse!

Cable service down, left with wireless iPad to battle that iloveipads fool.

I lost.

[gstark]

Interesting.

Since doing the upgrade, we've had no less than ten, and perhaps eleven, new spammers register as users.

We no longer have the anti-spam question, which I suspect kept a few at bay, but with the new software, we now have a newly registered users group, which prevents their initial x posts from actually being posted to the forum. I've set x to 5 and invoked this feature, and banned the ten new users already.

Let's see what else I need to do here ...

[gstark]

Gratitude, bro! 'Spect man!

Hope you still remember your vacation!

Oh yes.

[gstark]

While the newly registered users group kept spammers' posts from being seen by you, there were still about 8 or so new spammer registrations, with attendant first posts, overnight, so I have just (re-)installed the anti-spambots question to try to help deter these useless pieces of shit.

I find it intriguing that with the default anti-spam measures installed, but no anti spam question, we had maybe 20 spammer registrations and a shitload of spam posts occur; this all since I upgraded the board on Friday afternoon: less than 48 hours. Previously we had maybe one spammer every two or weeks.

If we can return to the previous level of successful spammer registrations, and then with the newly registered members' group interfering with their first few posts, hopefully we shall soon have a workable board.

Now all we need is a minimeet.

[gstark]

we had maybe 20 spammer registrations .

I just counted. 22 of the little shitheads, over about 40 hours.

[chrisk]

Not sure if this is related to any new anti spam measures but I can't log in to the forum using chrome.

[zafra52]

It is a refreshing new look. I also like that
little clock.

[Wink]

Not sure if this is related to any new anti spam measures but I can't log in to the forum using chrome.

I've only just managed to get back in here myself. I was told I was logged in, but when the screen reloaded I was logged out again.
Solved it by deleting the cookies for dslrusers.com AND dslrusers.net.

Is there a way to widen the view (like it used to be)? If I close all the widgets (or whatever they're called) down the RHS the rest of the forum doesn't take up the extra empty space like other forums I've seen. The result is the photos are even smaller to view now. I'd love a widescreen skin option.

Well done on dealing with the crash and upgrade while away Gary. That can't have been an easy task.

[TonyT]

I still can not log on with the Mac and I now have 16 smilies the others are just squares with x 's in them and I just got the PC fix so it was a away for a week so I was using the laptop.

[sirhc55]

Yep, the smilies are buggered

[gstark]

Yep, the smilies are buggered

And now?

I suspect that we've been seeing them being loaded from a local cache, and that was continuing until the cache expired.

[gstark]

I still can not log on with the Mac

Using two different Macs, and am having no issues.

Firefox, and Safari. Auto-login is working fine as well.

About to install and then try Chrome

Which browser are you using?

[gstark]

Is there a way to widen the view (like it used to be)? If I close all the widgets (or whatever they're called) down the RHS the rest of the forum doesn't take up the extra empty space like other forums I've seen. The result is the photos are even smaller to view now. I'd love a widescreen skin option.

OK, I can do that fairly easily, and while I like what the widgets, I'm not married to that aspect of the layout.

What do the rest of all y'all think, please?

Well done on dealing with the crash and upgrade while away Gary. That can't have been an easy task.

Frustrating would be a good word.

To start with, the crash happened about a half hour after we went to bed (in New Orleans). Apart from the obvious, having just retired for the night (morning) it was about 8 hours before I became aware of it ... when I awoke the following day.

I started by seeing an alert email saying that my sites were down. Usually, that's an intermittent thing that can be ignored, but when I tried to access the sites, not a whole lot was happening. I was actually getting messages suggesting there was a SQL error, but I also had no access via my usual backdoors either.

So, a quick email off to the site hosts - corenetworks - who I must say were very bloody good. Most responses were received within about an hour, were very professional and helpful, and I basically had the server back up within another eight or so hours.

While that may sound like a long time, remember that I was away from home, with not just limited access, but touring and partying was actually further restricting my system access.

Within that timeframe they gave me access via a remote IP-based KVM, which let me see that the system wasn't booting, with it seeming to me to be the primary HDD. They then confirmed all of that, and offered me a few options for installing a new HDD and OS. There was a little to and fro over the OS options that were needed, and that was about it.

I had potential access to the KVM for a further 48 hours if I needed it, plus they put the old HDD into a USB cradle for me to see if I could resurrect anything from it. That was futile, and while I lost a bit of data, plus my scripts directories, the important stuff was well backed up and relatively easy to re-implement.

[gstark]

I also like that little clock.

Remember that if I widen the forum pages, the little clock will probably go bye-bye from those pages.

It'll still be on the portal page, of course.

[gstark]

About to install and then try Chrome

Ok, no obvious issues for me using Chrome on OSX either.

For those having issues, please clear your caches and cookies. There's actually a delete all board cookies option at the bottom of the forum pages; that may be worth a shot for you.

[Mr Darcy]

I'm not sure if it is the "widen pages" issue above, but photos are appearing at about 500px wide for me not the "just under 800px" they used to be. OK for portrait mode. Not so good for landscape photos. As my smallest screen is a 13" 1680x1050 even the 800px seems small. Though I understand and accept the reason for this limit.

[TonyT]

I still can not log on with the Mac

Using two different Macs, and am having no issues.

Firefox, and Safari. Auto-login is working fine as well.

About to install and then try Chrome

Which browser are you using?

OK the mac works my bookmark was telling me I was on .com but the address was .net. changed to .com address all we'll and smilies are back

[gstark]

I'm not sure if it is the "widen pages" issue above

I'd say it most likely is.

Let me switch the widgets (rh column) off for a while, and you can tell me if it's better, worse, or whatever.

OK the mac works my bookmark was telling me I was on .com but the address was .net. changed to .com address all we'll and smilies are back

That's actually a very good point, Tony. For those having issues, also please check that your bookmarks are pointing to the correct site URL. dslrusers.com is the best one to use.

[photohiker]

I can report that Firefox on OSX Lion works for login as expected, using .com.

The image issue remains as far as I can tell. In my Autumn shots, I posted 800px wide images but they seem to be displayed 452 × 302px in the browser. I linked them to the originals because of this, as they are a bit small that size, esp the third one which comes to life larger but looks pointless small.

edit: I just did a reload, and I can see that the images load 800px wide, but then something takes over and displays them smaller. Looks like either CSS or JS is in control...

Which brings me to another issue, not sure if it is by design or not, but if I click on any image link on the forum it opens in the same window and DSLRUsers.com is lost unless I press the back button. A lot (but not all) of other sites open these links in a new window...

Good effort getting the site back up on hols btw. Well done that man.

[Mr Darcy]

edit: I just did a reload, and I can see that the images load 800px wide, but then something takes over and displays them smaller.

Ditto. And still.

[gstark]

edit: I just did a reload, and I can see that the images load 800px wide, but then something takes over and displays them smaller.

Ditto. And still.

How about now?

The portal settings describes a setting that says images for news posts, which was set to 450px; I've just set that to 770.

[gstark]

edit: I just did a reload, and I can see that the images load 800px wide, but then something takes over and displays them smaller.

Ditto. And still.

How about now?

The portal settings describes a setting that says images for news posts, which was set to 450px; I've just set that to 770.

Ok, I see what you're seeing. 450 is probably ok if I have the two column layout. With the one column layout, 770 will probably be close to the correct number, I think.

Your opinions ans suggestions, please?

[gstark]

And another new member - the first since I installed the upgraded anti-spam measures - has just joined a little while ago. There's a couple of things that look slightly suspicious there, so let's see what happens in the next few minutes and hours.

[Remorhaz]

Ok, I see what you're seeing. 450 is probably ok if I have the two column layout. With the one column layout, 770 will probably be close to the correct number, I think. Your opinions ans suggestions, please?

It's better but I think you should get the forum to stop putting the wide framing matt which goes around the images so we just see the images near full width in the centre column. Right now the right side of the image gets cut off (even though my monitor is 2560 pixels wide).

[gstark]

It's better but I think you should get the forum to stop putting the wide framing matt which goes around the images

I think you'll find that the frames have been placed there by the posters, and are a part of the image. Thus that's beyond my control.

[Remorhaz]

It's better but I think you should get the forum to stop putting the wide framing matt which goes around the images

I think you'll find that the frames have been placed there by the posters, and are a part of the image. Thus that's beyond my control.

Ahh OK

NB: I think the previous forum code had a post column width of 800 (which meant we used 775 pixel wide images to avoid forum resize). Any chance you could change the 770 to 800?

[gstark]

Any chance you could change the 770 to 800?

Done.

[Mr Darcy]

Sorted

[gstark]

Sorted

Excellent.

Thanks, all y'all for your patience and feedback.

we had maybe 20 spammer registrations .

I just counted. 22 of the little shitheads, over about 40 hours.

And since I've implemented the latest countermeasures - almost 24 hours - zero spam posts to deal with, and zero (confirmed) spam registrants.

[CraigVTR]

Using Firefox and all seems well so far.

[surenj]

Thanks for all your hardwork Gary.

Portable Chrome is stable now on Win7starter and Win764.

Since we are moving ahead with technology etc etc (IPAD now 2K screens, most people have fast internet, 4k screens on the way), I wonder whether it's time to review the 800 pix rule? How about making it larger say 1000pix? Should we do a 2 week trial while we are at it?

What do people think about whether this would add anything extra to image viewing or maybe pose a risk with theft of images (which will always remain no matter what).

Thoughts??

[gstark]

Thanks for all your hardwork Gary.

Thanks for the thanks, and it's truly my pleasure. At some point, some might even refer to it as therapy.

Since we are moving ahead with technology etc etc (IPAD now 2K screens, most people have fast internet,

This is one that I don't know that I'd accept. Yes, things are getting better, but I'd still give it another two years before I'd be happy to make that sort of statement.

The NBN, as it rolls out, will be good, but I think there's still quite a lot of people still on dial-up.

The other point about that relates to screen sizes - and the formatting of the rendered pages within the forum. the 800px that we see is imposed on us by the forum software, but in addition, if/when we're using portable systems, a wider format might not be quite so usable.

If I went to, say, 1000, first of all, I don't think that the full images (width) would be visible within the standard forum pages. I may be wrong on this, and I'm certainly open to suggestions, but ....

Your point about the theft of IP is valid too, of course, but there are ways that can be addressed.

My other thoughts are along the lines of having a gallery section here (zenphoto perhaps?) which you could use instead of the various services that are already being used. I have plenty of disk storage on the server, and bandwidth is not a major issue for me either.

What are your thoughts please?

[Remorhaz]

If I went to, say, 1000, first of all, I don't think that the full images (width) would be visible within the standard forum pages. I may be wrong on this, and I'm certainly open to suggestions, but ....
...
My other thoughts are along the lines of having a gallery section here (zenphoto perhaps?) which you could use instead of the various services that are already being used. I have plenty of disk storage on the server, and bandwidth is not a major issue for me either.
...
What are your thoughts please?

Personally I'd like the larger image sizes to look at (e.g. 1024px images so the forum width would have to be larger again so it doesn't resize them).

I host my own images as well so I wouldn't use the gallery I suspect but then that's probably unusual.

[Mr Darcy]

I can't say I would object to a larger photo size, but I am aware that more than one member is on a dial up modem. At least that was the case a year or so ago. I offloaded my last 56k modem to one then. Though I haven't seen him around lately. Perhaps he has moved on.

A poll might be in order to find out what the currently active members actually use. If we are all on ADSL or better, the bandwidth issue is moot.

Screen size is another question for a poll. I know when I was actively writing software, I made sure it would fit on an 800x600 screen. as many of the users only had screens that size. Then when I desperately needed more real estate for one overloaded form, I discovered that ALL the clients had moved to 1024x768 (or better) screens a couple of years earlier. No one told me. We do need to keep up with current trends at times.

As for IP. I think that is a decision for the individual. Let them know it can be an issue. In the FAQ perhaps. Everyone reads that don't they? Then it is their call. I know I usually post small, but sometimes want to go large for a particular purpose. also I am not bothered if someone decides to download my photo for a screen saver, or a slide show, but I would take a dim view of it if I saw my photo on a newspaper or magazine cover without my prior approval. Those uses though would presumably use much higher resolution than 1024 or thereabouts. On second thoughts some of the covers I have seen...

[Mr Darcy]

Hmm. On squizzing what I just wrote, the acronym decoder seems to be a bit feral. Perhaps tell it to limit its TLA decoder to whole words only.

A quick check to see if Gary has updated the Acronym list:
my Sony and perhaps my badminton racquet.

EDIT: Yes he has.

[gstark]

Hmm. On squizzing what I just wrote, the acronym decoder seems to be a bit feral. Perhaps tell it to limit its TLA decoder to whole words only.

A quick check to see if Gary has updated the Acronym list:
my Sony and perhaps my badminton racquet.

EDIT: Yes he has.

That's actually the word censor facility. Who else would find such a creative use for it?

[Remorhaz]

Screen size is another question for a poll. I know when I was actively writing software, I made sure it would fit on an 800x600 screen. as many of the users only had screens that size. Then when I desperately needed more real estate for one overloaded form, I discovered that ALL the clients had moved to 1024x768 (or better) screens a couple of years earlier.

A poll would be good - I know that the lowest res screen I use is my iPad but after that the next lowest res is 1920x1200 and I basically have to set my browser to auto zoom the forum so I can read it.

[ATJ]

My netbook is only 1024x600.

[phillipb]

1366 x 768 here.