Author Topic: General Discussion Thread  (Read 2671524 times)

Sunflower

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2040 on: December 02, 2014, 04:30:16 PM »
Sooo, in 2014, how exactly did you end up using a forum where you have to seriously think about how much people post because it might become full? This sure is a new problem to me.

I realize that in these days of nearly unlimited cloud storage, that does seem like a silly concern.  But, my child, some of us Internet veterans remember days when 1 MB was a lot of data, and we had to walk uphill through the snow both ways to get a dial-up connection...  ;)

More practically, SimpleMachines Forum has some weird limitations that have given us unhappy surprises.  For one, it turns out there's an upper limit on the amount of image storage that the forum can share -- and it's low enough that we hit it last month.  We had to ask everyone who had posted photos/graphics to change attachments to links.  Finally, Eich had to unilaterally remove all attachments.  Otherwise, new forum members couldn't even get enough space to upload their avatars! 

BTW, I don't know whether the attachment space limit reflected SMF's limited resources/failure to plan ahead, or whether it's a deliberate ploy to get users to upgrade from the free version to a pay version, the way Dropbox and other cloud storage services do. 

Either way, maybe you can see why some of us have (hopefully baseless) worries about upper limits on other data types. 
"The music of what happens," said great Fionn, "that is the finest music in the world."
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FrogEater

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2041 on: December 02, 2014, 04:31:14 PM »
"Spam" board as you describe it sounds sensible.
I know for sure that chatboxes are possible on SMF forums, I already saw one on such a forum
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FrogEater

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2042 on: December 02, 2014, 04:33:12 PM »
some of us Internet veterans remember days when 1 MB was a lot of data, and we had to walk uphill through the snow both ways to get a dial-up connection...  ;)

Ahhhh, dear old 5''1/4 floppy diskettes...
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Oskutin

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2043 on: December 02, 2014, 04:35:57 PM »
Does youtube embedding work here?

Sunflower

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2044 on: December 02, 2014, 04:48:10 PM »
Does youtube embedding work here?

Good question!  Have you tried using the "img" code above, as for still images, and seeing what happens?

And here's the SMF's list of BBC commands. http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Bulletin_board_code  (FYI, that wiki is slow to load and needed a couple of "refresh" commands in my browser.)

Do let us know if you find out anything, brave experimenter...  (Otherwise, ask Forum-Thor Eich and Troll-Slayer Noako, our admins.)
"The music of what happens," said great Fionn, "that is the finest music in the world."
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Sunflower

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2045 on: December 02, 2014, 04:53:52 PM »
I realize this, oh grandmother willow
:D

Quote
If there's a space problem in a while and upgrading the storage space is an option, we could almost certainly crowd fund it though. I think it's important that people should get to talk about Everything Else in the GD boards even though it's a forum dedicated to a certain subject. As long as one doesn't go too off topic or silly. Which I realize can be hard. ;)

I'm sure we'll get an official answer re: storage before long from our admin, Eich. 

Down the road, this forum's growth may in fact require a paid version and crowd-funding.  So it's good you're thinking ahead!

"Chance favors the prepared mind."  -- Louis Pasteur
"The music of what happens," said great Fionn, "that is the finest music in the world."
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Eich

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2046 on: December 02, 2014, 05:02:17 PM »
Someone posted about teenagers breaking up over petty teenager thongs, and that reminded me of my parents' story.  They were high school sweethearts, but my mom moved away after a couple of years.  Everywhere my dad went, though, she just kind of popped up randomly; on vacation with her family, traveling with friends, etc.  They'd always talk for a while when they saw each other.  They started hanging out again and got married after college.  Now, 30 years later and they're still crazy about each other.  :)
My oldest sister and her husband also dated as young teens, and they're a friggin' power couple.

Does youtube embedding work here?
Nope.  That's a can of worms I'm not ready to open yet.  There is a way to get it working, but there are other things that are both simpler for me, and more pressing.

Concerning a spam board, and a shout box, shout boxes that I've seen end up taking away from the rest of the forums they're on.  One forum I use hardly gets more than 3-4 posts per day, because the user base is small, and everyone just uses the shout box.  A spam board might work though... It's just... 5 is such a goooooood number for boards!  I've considered that as well, and I've thought about implementing it as a trial, like the language board (speaking of which, it's obvious that the language board is here to stay, I'm not even going to bother putting up a poll for that, but maybe a poll for suggestions?).

As for storage, I'm not sure why smf limits the storage for attachments, but I'd assume it's to keep the site running at decent speeds.  SMF is really cool, they don't have a subscription model or anything, as far as I know.  There is a limit on how much the host site will store, though.  We're about half full right now, after 3 months, using their free option.  Believe it or not, I was actually going to look I to upgrading to a paid subscription this afternoon.
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curiosity

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2047 on: December 02, 2014, 05:11:19 PM »
Someone posted about teenagers breaking up over petty teenager thongs, and that reminded me of my parents' story.  They were high school sweethearts, but my mom moved away after a couple of years.  Everywhere my dad went, though, she just kind of popped up randomly; on vacation with her family, traveling with friends, etc.  They'd always talk for a while when they saw each other.  They started hanging out again and got married after college.  Now, 30 years later and they're still crazy about each other.  :)
My oldest sister and her husband also dated as young teens, and they're a friggin' power couple.
Nope.  That's a can of worms I'm not ready to open yet.  There is a way to get it working, but there are other things that are both simpler for me, and more pressing.

So, this thing DOES happen in real life! This means there also might be some unicorns wandering in the woods somewhere, right?
I know such a couple, too, though it's only been 7 years for them... Well, everyone is different.
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Piney

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2048 on: December 02, 2014, 05:55:05 PM »
I think a "spam board" might be a bit superfluous, but I see how that would work. And I wasn't advocating creating a new thread for RPs, I just meant I would support it if it were a thing that would happen. But enough about that.
(And to reply to an earlier comment, I did mean board. I was just talking about the general discussion board. Not the forum. I'm not stupid enough to think that the whole forum is for non-comic related stuff, geez.)
« Last Edit: December 02, 2014, 06:00:02 PM by Piney »


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Sunflower

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2049 on: December 02, 2014, 06:45:05 PM »

As for storage, I'm not sure why smf limits the storage for attachments, but I'd assume it's to keep the site running at decent speeds.  SMF is really cool, they don't have a subscription model or anything, as far as I know.  There is a limit on how much the host site will store, though.  We're about half full right now, after 3 months, using their free option.  Believe it or not, I was actually going to look into upgrading to a paid subscription this afternoon.

Thanks for the swift and helpful answers, Eich!

And at the rate we're going, it's not too soon to start thinking about upgrading.

Even if we keep adding members arithmetically rather than geometrically, 300-odd people will clearly post a lot more content every day than 30, back in the old old days of September 2014.

And once Ch. 5 starts, and/or yet another venue posts Minna's language tree, we could see a Gold Rush-like influx of new members.  Which would be terrific, until we realize we're in a Malthusian struggle against one another for scraps of teh Internetz...
"The music of what happens," said great Fionn, "that is the finest music in the world."
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OrigamiOwl

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2050 on: December 02, 2014, 06:50:29 PM »
in a Malthusian struggle against one another for scraps of teh Internetz...
Like... real estate... O____O
Now I'm imagining the internet as some final frontier that's been conquered and settled and now it's just turning into mega-city real estate battles....
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Fimbulvarg

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2051 on: December 02, 2014, 06:52:44 PM »
I realize this, oh grandmother willow

Promptly added to my mental forum nickname register

Eich - pookie
Sunflower - Grandmother willow

OrigamiOwl

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2052 on: December 02, 2014, 07:01:42 PM »
Promptly added to my mental forum nickname register

Eich - pookie
Sunflower - Grandmother willow
*rolls under the table*
*raucous laughter echoes through the kitchen, the source...unknown*

Nicknames X'D
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Fimbulvarg

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2053 on: December 02, 2014, 07:04:05 PM »
*rolls under the table*
*raucous laughter echoes through the kitchen, the source...unknown*

Nicknames X'D

You can be applecrack. Like applejack, the coctail, but since you crack up so easily it's going to be applecrack.

OrigamiOwl

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Re: General Discussion Thread
« Reply #2054 on: December 02, 2014, 07:15:53 PM »
You can be applecrack. Like applejack, the coctail, but since you crack up so easily it's going to be applecrack.
Nooooooooo *falls to knees*
it sounds like a butt D':
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