The Organ Forum

I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents since this is a suggestions forum.  First off, I'd like to say how much I enjoy the people and discussions on this forum, in fact I just recently plugged this forum in a class I taught at an AGO convention.  So, having said that, I'd like to point out some of the issues that drive me absolutely nuts on this forum.

 

1) The hosting:  almost all of the time, it seems as if the servers are on the brink of meltdown.  I will usually click on a link and have the browser hang for a while, I'll then click the link again, and the page will either load or hang.  If it hangs, I repeat the process until the page loads.  Sometimes I give up and go do something else.  I have a great hosting plan for http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/ with 1&1, I pay like $6 a month for a package which I'm pretty sure would more than suffice for this site.

2) The software:  Since I'm a forum junkie, I spend way too much time on forums and have a good idea how they flow and what works and what doesn't.  Community server seems to consistently catch me off guard by having an awkward and clumsy flow to it.  One example is replying to a thread.  I just want a button that says "Reply to this Thread" or something.  But no, you cant reply to a thread, you have to reply to a post!  This one gets me every single time.  I also find the text editor (I'm guessing it's FCK Editor or TinyMCE) somewhat clumsy, and I usually have to try 3 times to get a hyperlink the way I want it.  I would recommend PHPBB 3.  The software is top knotch, it's got lots of bells and whistles, but the UI also is well thought out so that the software doesn't turn into a stumbling block.

 Again, I hope the forum administrators see this feedback for what it is, constructive criticism, not flaming.  I am also willing to put my money where my mouth is,  I would be willing to offer assistance with a migration.

Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions.

In regards to hosting,  we've had some rough spots in the past due to server config problems and such, but my own experience as a forum user regarding response times has been quite good for many months now.  That does not mean that there are no issues related to time of day usage, internet traffic, etc. but I've not experienced them or seen them logged as errors in the event and error logs and I'm on several times a day.  If you have a problem with hangs and the like, send me a PM noting time of day and your time zone, and I can check the logs to see if anything was going on at that time. 

The data storage requirements for this forum data now exceed  2 GB and this is a problem.  I looked at 1 & 1 hosting, and I don't see that they offer anything approaching this nor do any other shared hosting plans that I have found.  This means that at some point very, very soon, I'm going to be forced into either moving to a semi-dedicated or dedicated server at a monthly cost of 10x what I'm now paying, or start deleting old messages and inactive users.

Regarding the UI, I'm not sure why you'd want to reply to a thread rather than individual post, or what difference it makes.  It is the way it is because this forum is fully threaded.  I suspect that most people view this forum in a flat view, rather than a threaded view, but the threaded view is supported and that is why one replies to posts.

There are several text editors to choose from in your profile.  As has been noted here, the rich text editor does not behave well in Safari, so if you want to insert rich text as opposed to plain text, Firefox or IE would be your choice.

I'm familar with PHPBB and many of the others, and have no problem with them, other than the fact that migrating the data from this forum software to another would be a very substantial amount of work frought with peril.  If you doubt it, visit the PHPBB site support forums and read about the problems PHPBB users are having migrating from version 2.0 to 3.0 of the same software.  We lost a bunch of messages when we migrated this software to version 2.  It can be done, but it's not something I'm prepared to do lightly, especially since I don't have a tool to do this.

I appreciate your suggestions and offer of help.  Please be assurred that I value both and this is by no means a rejection of your points, but rather what the state of things is here at this time.  Things change.

Thanks again.

-Admin

 

 

Hi Admin, thank you for the reply and taking my suggestions into consideration.  I was not aware that I could change the text editor, I will have to poke around the options some more.

I run my own webserver and could work with you to host you. and even offer you a VPS, where I can do all the backend stuff for you. The catch :D I only do it for Friends and Family :( So I need to first become friends with the forum (Sigh). Also vBulletin might be another option for you as well. I have a spare license and could help you move over to it etc. With my hosting I don't over-sell, but also do expect people to use the resources reasonably. Since I am falling in love with the Organ again, It would be nice to help out an Organ forum. I PM and we can talk.

I have to say I agree with the thread starter on both points.

This forum is one of the least responsive I visit. Certainly when taking into account the rather low count of posts and members. 

Not being able to reply to a thread is for me also a problem. As you say yourself there will not be much members using a threaded view. And replying to a single post is a nightmare because ofen you want to take into account several posts. It then isn't possible to include multiple quotes as you only have a single post to cut-paste from. And using the back/forward button doesn't help because the editor then often looses everything or fails to post the result.

The text editor is a pain. I didn't know you could change it and will try something else but it is just behaving inconsistently. Like recently it has started to add extra blank lines between paragraphs. Let's hope there is something better then the default.

I do understand the reluctance to migrate and see the dangers. But it can be done. 

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Expert in non-working solutions

Havoc:

The text editor is a pain. I didn't know you could change it and will try something else but it is just behaving inconsistently. Like recently it has started to add extra blank lines between paragraphs.

There's been no change to the Forum software or configuration for well over a year so the change in behavior must be due to something on your side.  Knowing what browser, version, and OS that you are using is necessary to provide an explanation or a fix for your problem.

Thanks,

-Admin

 

Oh, this has been going on since the change to this host and soft, it isn't recent. The only constant in what you ask is that I use Opera because I have this with 9.xx (don't remember what I used then) and now with 9.50 as well as using linux (gentoo) and windows (2k and XP). I got used to sites only working in IE that I now have 2 tabs open when replying and wanting to cup/paste from several posts.

But as it is the only forum where you see only the single post you reply to I cannot say that this is because of the forum. I only notice it here because it is the only forum forcing me to do this.

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Expert in non-working solutions

This forum is currently on Windows server and using ASP according to the Admin. Moving to vBulletin and LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) will drastically improve preformance if put on a good host (AKA me since I don't over-sell, but I only do friends and family and charge more for quality). I bet with optimization we can get this board to 1-2s loading time. Also using Windows hosting with ASP software, restricts the site to Windows IE users which shuts out allot of people.

Mac Write:

. Also using Windows hosting with ASP software, restricts the site to Windows IE users which shuts out allot of people.

That's simply, and completely untrue.

Apologies. I think what I meant was that allot of the web apps written in ASP are windows Specific and use ActiveX which limits non Windows users and non IE users. It is getting better.

That's simply, and completely untrue.

I have to agree with that as I don't think I ever accessed this site with IE and about 50% of the time I do so under linux.

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Expert in non-working solutions

I agree very much with the spirit of #2 in the sense that it took a me a very, very long time for me to get used to the new forum software.  However, now that I am used to it, PLEASE don't change it again!!!  

 

          Best,

                 Nathan 

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Like to read about pipe organ parts? - http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/organfixers/

Havoc:

But as it is the only forum where you see only the single post you reply to I cannot say that this is because of the forum. I only notice it here because it is the only forum forcing me to do this.

Not totally correct.  Admittedly, this isn't the most elegant of solutions, but have you noticed the Related tab on the reply page?

-Admin

I just discovered the 'Related' tab.  It is interesting, but it only offers a page of links, each of which would have to be opened.

I think what Havoc may be looking for, is a way to refer back to all the previous posts (on a single page) while composing a reply.

My solution has been to open the same thread in another window.  It is an extra step.

By the way, I just noticed another tab in the Reply window called "Whiteboard".  Has this feature just been added recently?

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Soubasse32

soubasse32:

I just discovered the 'Related' tab.  It is interesting, but it only offers a page of links, each of which would have to be opened.

I think what Havoc may be looking for, is a way to refer back to all the previous posts (on a single page) while composing a reply.

My solution has been to open the same thread in another window.  It is an extra step.

By the way, I just noticed another tab in the Reply window called "Whiteboard".  Has this feature just been added recently?

The Related tab displays not only links to the the current thread, but also related threads.  If you click on one of those links, a new window opens showing that message.  Now here's the trick:  at the bottom of that message is a button that says View All Messages In Thread.  Click on that and you now have access to all messages in that thread.

The end result is the same as what you're doing, but perhaps more convenient.  In any case, I think the argument can be made that opening your threads in a separate window and cutting and pasting between windows is better than constant scrolling that's required when the reply form and the threads appear in the same window as in other forums.