We are now running on the new server
#46
Ya all know that you can't take a test in the dark. Nope Well, there's one that I know, but we don't discuss that right now. 35

The thing is that, subscription notifications don't seem to be working yet and Packey is on the job trying to find out why. Meanwhile, we've asked Duffus here to personally call each one of you every time someone posts to a thread that you subscribe to. So if you get a phone call in the middle of the night, it's probably Duffus telling you to check Big Blue.... Misngth
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#47
I uploaded a photo to the photography thread and all that shows is the link. Tried it 3 times, same result. I did it the same way I always have.
Charlie
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#48
Charlie B Wrote:I uploaded a photo to the photography thread and all that shows is the link. Tried it 3 times, same result. I did it the same way I always have.
Charlie

We are working on the photo uploads and links. We're trying to get them to show no larger than 800 x 600 if we could so that most people won't have to scroll. I changed a few things, and I'll change them back in the morning when I do some more testing.

Bear with us for a bit, not everything came out like it should with the upgrade. The move went OK, it's the software that's screwed up a bit. Not bad mind you, but it's taking some work to find and fix the ones we know about.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#49
I just tried to upload a photo, and I got a message saying "The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 150 KiB'. Up to now, the max had been 250KB.
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#50
jwb Wrote:I just tried to upload a photo, and I got a message saying "The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 150 KiB'. Up to now, the max had been 250KB.

Yeah, I've been playing around with some of the settings to see if we can't keep some of the attachments a bit smaller for the sake of those that have smaller screens and/or a slow internet connection. Ideally we'd like to see no more than an 800 x600 pixel photo with a filesize of around 150K. I'll open it back up for a while, but we will soon try to keep the attachment size down. I appears that even at 640 x 480 and even under 100K, photos still have good resolution and detail.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#51
The only thing I'd say there is that over the years, I've converted to more powerful processors and from dial up to broadband. I recognize that some people are still on dial up, or may still be using older processors, though we'd have to assume that fewer and fewer will be doing this. The 250K that had been the limit is already lower than on any other forum I'm familiar with. I'm not sure what we'd accomplish by catering to a smaller and smaller group, while the majority won't have a problem scrolling.

Here is a nominal 640 x 480:
   
Here is a nominal 800 x 600:
   
Six or eight months ago, I opened a topic asking for advice on how to make the nominal 640x480 photos I'd been posting bigger, since I wasn't satisfied with the size. Based on that, I found out how to export files in MS Office to 800 x 600, and when needed, I've then resized to get them under 250K. My own view is that going to nominal 640 x 480 would simply not be satisfying and not what can be done on any other forum I'm familiar with.

I would strongly suggest that you give notice of what you intend to implement (please avoid the kind of surprise we're finding here as a result of tweaks and experiments) and open what you intend to do up to discussion.

I do notice that, for whatever reason, we seem to be getting fewer quality posts in recent weeks -- I'd hate to see any development that accelerated such a trend.
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#52
jwb Wrote:The only thing I'd say there is that over the years, I've converted to more powerful processors and from dial up to broadband. I recognize that some people are still on dial up, or may still be using older processors, though we'd have to assume that fewer and fewer will be doing this. The 250K that had been the limit is already lower than on any other forum I'm familiar with. I'm not sure what we'd accomplish by catering to a smaller and smaller group, while the majority won't have a problem scrolling...

...Six or eight months ago, I opened a topic asking for advice on how to make the nominal 640x480 photos I'd been posting bigger, since I wasn't satisfied with the size. Based on that, I found out how to export files in MS Office to 800 x 600, and when needed, I've then resized to get them under 250K. My own view is that going to nominal 640 x 480 would simply not be satisfying and not what can be done on any other forum I'm familiar with.

I would strongly suggest that you give notice of what you intend to implement (please avoid the kind of surprise we're finding here as a result of tweaks and experiments) and open what you intend to do up to discussion.

I do notice that, for whatever reason, we seem to be getting fewer quality posts in recent weeks -- I'd hate to see any development that accelerated such a trend.

Thank you for your very thoughtful reply. The "surprise" you saw was a result of my playing with the settings to see what we could do to come to a position that would work for the most people. I agree that in today's world, many more people have faster computers, larger screens and, as the advertisers say, "blazing fast" internet connections. Icon_lol My ISP has been slowly raising my connection speed slowly, but has also been increasing my access fees proportionately. Curse To me, the determining factor is the size and resolution of your monitor and the speed you can download at. We are not trying to reign in anyone, but we need to consider the fact that not everyone has these things available to them, either because of their location or because of the cost of updating their equipment or connection type. I remember not too long ago that I had to dial long distance in order to get to the Internet because there was nothing else available in the area that I had just moved to. When you're paying by the minute for a very slow connection, you don't want to wait for a picture to "paint" while the clock is ticking. Nope Consequently, I didn't wait, but moved on without viewing the photo or the post.

We do not plan on any quick changes, we never have here. We've always listened to our members and do what's in their best interest whenever we can. For instance, we had been alerting everyone weeks in advance that we were going to be moving to a new server. That move went smoothly, our problems lie in the software update that we did at the same time. That's why you may catch us tinkering with some settings or adding a feature, when you don't expect that.

Based on your response, we will find a solution that will work for most everyone. I for one would not like anyone to view one of my images by scrolling left and right, I'd rather they see the whole thing all at once. My monitor has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with a 23" screen, and I still find that anything larger than 800 x 600 needs to be scrolled to view the whole photo. We have gotten some input already, we won't make any changes without getting more. We do have some software restrictions that we need to work around regardless.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#53
Don: I appreciate the work on trying to size photos.
We have done a lot of travelling and often we have a connection with a limited amount of download. That's just the time that someone will send an eMail or post a thread with 50 8 gB photos that you don't expect until it shows up.
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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#54
For what it's worth, I'm not sure if the search function is working properly -- and whether that's recent or not, I don't know. I was looking for a layout that a member from Germany named Sven posted on a thread late last year -- the title was "Salinas". It never came up in a search, but I found the thread finally in the Layouts section on about the second page. I was looking, because it's one of a number of very good layouts that people have posted but then lost interest in posting about -- Sven last logged on in January 2013. For some reason, we see good layouts posted, but then members with them drop out, which is discouraging. On the other hand, we seem to have no shortage of continuing layout proposals that never get built.

Seems to me that anything that can be done to make things easy for guys to post photos of interesting layouts actually being built ought to be encouraged! Lately faraway seems to be the only one doing this.
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#55
We seem to get this "slowdown" every summer... People travel and have other things going on, so nothing much is done on the layouts.

For example, I haven't touched my layout since I replaced a light bulb in June. The time before that was February. We've seen it pick up as the weather gets colder, so we'll see what happens then..

As far as members not posting, there's no way to tell for sure what happened to them Sad Sad
The only way we find out what's happening there, is if someone can contact them and ask.
~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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#56
ngauger Wrote:For example, I haven't touched my layout since I replaced a light bulb in June.
Was that the one at the end of the tunnel? 35
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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#57
BR60103 Wrote:
ngauger Wrote:For example, I haven't touched my layout since I replaced a light bulb in June.
Was that the one at the end of the tunnel? 35
Nope - We're not starting that here Icon_lol

Actually I replaced all my original style bulbs in my Lionel accessories with the newer LED type. One of them decided to malfunction, so I had to replace it Sad Sad

I was given some Lionel accessories years ago, to use with the G Scale trains. It fits right in and works great for the 1:20.3 scale i run too.. Big Grin Big Grin Big Grin
~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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#58
Another glitch I've noted since the changeover is that the red "balloon" next to the topic does not turn gray once you've read that post. I have to hit the "Refresh" button or F5 to get it to update. This refers to the "View New Posts" screen. I haven't checked out the other options to read posts.
Gus (LC&P).
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#59
Steamtrains Wrote:Another glitch I've noted since the changeover is that the red "balloon" next to the topic does not turn gray once you've read that post. I have to hit the "Refresh" button or F5 to get it to update. This refers to the "View New Posts" screen. I haven't checked out the other options to read posts.
It depends on how you get to the main forum screens. If you hit the "back" button (which I usually do), the red button will not turn gray unless you post something or change screens. I've bookmarked the, "view new posts" link, so whenever I click on that, I get the true statues of what I've read and what I didn't. If I hit the "back" button on my browser, I see no change.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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