Has the world moved beyond dialup?

[ronsmith100]

Ok, I gotta say this and it wont sit well with the moderators but the limited attachment upload restrictions, especially with the very old justifications of, are passe.
Band width is not anywhere near as restricted as it was when these rules were instantiated.
Nowhere near.
Limiting the size of uploads is, of course, reasonable.
But it is not reasonable by yesterday's standards... not the standards of 2002!

As a matter of comparison please look at the casitaclub.com where a poster can insert a photo at any place in the post. Not just as an attachment and not even as an attachment limited to what? 200k?

Moderators please contact the new owner and ask him if he can handle the bandwidth.. I am absolutely sure he can.
I use 500gig of offline backup for just $5 per month!!

And please let those that are still on dial up that if images are loading slowly that they can skip any post and that broad band is insanely cheap these days.

The restrictions here, though they make the moderators happy, are way out of modern reality.

Please come up to speed!

Ok...

just sayin

[Donna D.]

It's not just a matter of bandwidth, although I'm not paying for it so I can't speak to the new owners wallet. Most often people try to load PRINT READY pictures rather than web or screen optimized pictures. Your monitor and mine doesn't recognize the difference, other than the fact HiRes pictures are slow to load, so what's the point of NOT reducing the file size other than the fact it takes some time? If we don't restrict the physical size of the picture... there are still others that try to load pictures than if printed would be 24x36 INCHES. That causes the layout of the forums to get whacked out of shape. Instead of just a vertical slider bar, you have to use the horizontal slider bar as well... and that's PITA.

The CasitaClub doesn't get near the volume of posts or pictures FiberglassRV does, it's like comparing apples to oranges. The CasitaForum which is a more technical forum has restrictions the same as we have here. In fact, the webmaster has far more restrictions when it comes to signature lines, etc.

We may be comparing 2009 standards to 2002 technology. However, this is the World Wide Web and we have members from outside the U.S. and Canada. It's a polite thing to offer those who are on less speedy connections the same viewing experiences as those on high speed.

BTW: the size is limited to 600 pixels in width.

[Time K]

The board is under new ownership? Ha...I must have been outside using the outdoor plumbing when that happened...

Ron in response to your observations...this board has always provided a safe free (for the users) forum and I never questioned the way it was administered, I just kinda go with the flow..blog space is free and plentiful and we can always point others to photos and movies that we want to share..

[Donna D.]

The board is under new ownership? Ha...I must have been outside using the outdoor plumbing when that happened...

You musta been outside for a looooong time Mike! FiberglassRV and Retirement, posted
Jul 28 2008, 09:44 AM

[ronsmith100]

It's not just a matter of bandwidth, although I'm not paying for it so I can't speak to the new owners wallet. Most often people try to load PRINT READY pictures rather than web or screen optimized pictures. Your monitor and mine doesn't recognize the difference, other than the fact HiRes pictures are slow to load, so what's the point of NOT reducing the file size other than the fact it takes some time? If we don't restrict the physical size of the picture... there are still others that try to load pictures than if printed would be 24x36 INCHES. That causes the layout of the forums to get whacked out of shape. Instead of just a vertical slider bar, you have to use the horizontal slider bar as well... and that's PITA.

[b]Then just limit the pictures to 600 pix across.
No harm no foul.
But let them post pictures that come up as pictures and not attachment thumbnails. That really screws up travelog art and other descriptive functions.

The CasitaClub doesn't get near the volume of posts or pictures FiberglassRV does, it's like comparing apples to oranges. The CasitaForum which is a more technical forum has restrictions the same as we have here. In fact, the webmaster has far more restrictions when it comes to signature lines, etc.

[b]Casitaclub.com and fiberglassrv.com are near dead even in, pages, hits, and users. See Alexa.com for stats. This is another thing that seems to have slipped past reality.

We may be comparing 2009 standards to 2002 technology. However, this is the World Wide Web and we have members from outside the U.S. and Canada. It's a polite thing to offer those who are on less speedy connections the same viewing experiences as those on high speed.

[b]And herein lies the problem. You (the moderators) will forever be polite to the moms and pops that you were being polite to eight years ago. In them days many people had dialup. This is not the way it is today.... that is the purpose of my post.
People would LOVE to post multiple pictures of their egg or their camping trip in concert within their dialog.

BTW: the size is limited to 600 pixels in width.

[b]Great.. then allow multiple 600 widths and allow them to be inserted in the post.. don't restrict them to just attachments that are little thumbnails at then end of the post and are not able to be inserted WITHIN the post.

[b]I am very well apprised of your original reasons.

Why don't you moderators have a meeting, chew on it and send your questions to the owner?
I am very sure that bandwidth and storage will not be a problem for him and equally sure that dial up does not make him much in the way of Google Adsence clicks... read dial up customers do not make him much money.

Just sayin. Donna.

Give it some thought.

[Donna D.]

I'm not going to belabor the point, it is what it is... but CasitaClub formed May of 2000:
Our members have made a total of 116709 posts
We have 5517 registered members


FiberglassRV formed in September 2002 and by November 11, 2005 had over 100,000 posts and over 5,000 members. Then the hack happened. We lost ALL those posts so have started over (we did recover a minor amount of legacy data) at zero. So in less than three years:
Our members have made a total of 196,365 posts
We have 11,195 registered members

and you can post within a topic like here




and here




and here





so I don't get your complaint.

[ronsmith100]

and you can post within a topic like here

Attachment 23744


and here

Attachment 23745


and here

Attachment 23746



so I don't get your complaint.

I guess my complaint was partially unfounded.
I apologize.
I did not know you could do what you did which is very important to story telling.
Please explain IN DETAIL how you can insert a picture between paragraphs in a story.
All I can see is the attachment thing which puts everything at the END of a post.

nevertheless all you really have to do (besides explaining the procedure to me) is allow a 600px image instead of the thumbnail, right?

That wold be marvelous!

As you can see on casitaclub.com the picture is not a thumbnail.
A full 600px image can be inserted between paragraphs.
that would be immensely helpful and the only reason I can see that you don't allow it is out of dail-up considerations. The bandwidth and storage are almost FREE!

Casitaclub and fiverglassrv are, again, almost dead even in pages viewed and hits.. of course "hits" would be less since files, such as jpgs, would be limited. Please check this out at alexa.com as I asked before. What did you find there?

I prefer the casitaclub format which allows full pictures (600px) to be displayed within a post. That's all I 'm saying. I also think most of the poster here would agree if they had a chance to try it out.

Not making trouble.. trying to improve the site.

Ron

PS I am beginning to recognize that this is a futile suggestion.. such is legacy.

[Greg A]

I would imagine that Ron being into fine art photography is desiring a higher res capability, however, in terms of a forum this large the storage issues, etc. would be quite cumbersome if the limits are set too high. Fine art photos can be hosted on a site setup for such and then redirected here in the posts with a url to that site if one wishes. Then if someones bandwidth is too low to load that site they can choose to not view it or wait until it loads.

At Fiberglass-rv-4sale.com we have to keep a close eye on photo upload sizes as well, just like here we archive the sold trailers with pictures basically forever for research purposes, and if everyone could upload unlimited 1meg + photos for each molded fiberglass trailer listing it would become unmanageable to ever change hosting providers and move the site. We've already had to go through a move once this year due to high traffic and listing volume and it wasn't fun to move all the photos.

[Joy A]

Adding a photo in the text is easy. Once you upload a photo you can "Manage Current Attachments" by inserting it into a text wherever the curser is

not just at the end of the text.

I like the thumb nails as generally you can see multiple photos on one page. If I have a need to view a photo in a larger format I can just click on it.

[Donna D.]

As you can see on casitaclub.com the picture is not a thumbnail.
A full 600px image can be inserted between paragraphs.

I prefer the casitaclub format which allows full pictures (600px) to be displayed within a post. That's all I 'm saying. I also think most of the poster here would agree if they had a chance to try it out.

Not making trouble.. trying to improve the site.

Ron

PS I am beginning to recognize that this is a futile suggestion.. such is legacy.

WE do appreciate suggestions Ron, and perhaps in the future suggestions such as you've asked about may be made. Like I said, I don't control the wallet so don't know if or when such suggestions would ever be implemented.

It appears CasitaClub is less restrictive in size, but these two are the 'tops" of a couple of pictures and I see the original IS reduced:




and here's another




Research has shown adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves. By increasing the picture to fill the frame, we'd be forcing people to view full-size pictures they perhaps would rather just skip right by. Having a clickable thumbnail gives the choice to view or not.

Once you've uploaded your picture and are ready to include it in the text, click the graphic with the green plus sign. Here's a picture to add to Joy's information.



As Mike and Greg have suggested... perhaps in the end, the best solution for you Ron is to find a site that allows you to upload pictures and text exactly as you want it to appear. You could then come here and provide us a URL, those that wish to go view your information could do so... Maybe you could post at CasitaClub and provide the link here.

[HerseyBA]

The timing of this topic is interesting in that USA Today has been running a series of articles about the inconsistency of broadband speeds across the country. Broadband accessibility runs from excellent to nonexistent. I have included a couple of links instead of trying to summarize them. They will lead to others. The rural areas are the worst and most neglected.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-08-...?obref=obinsite

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-06-...?obref=obinsite

I guess what I am trying to say is don't add so many bells and whistles that the site becomes useless to many folks. I use a "3G" type service that has seen its quality slip markedly since its sale to a larger provider. Now I cannot use sites I used to visit regularly. I suspect support is going to the larger markets.

[brian m.]

I simply put a thumbnail of my most recent photos up on a posting and direct people to my links to see more photos. They can view them much larger that way.

[Bill MacDermod]

I love this guy............Mark Twain once said......"the only one who likes change is a wet baby".......I'm getting old enough to realize just where he is coming from, I love the site just as it is, Donna for hanging in there

[ronsmith100]

Donna what is different with this site than any other site using IP.board is that you have purposefully removed the icon with ability to link to external images.
I have never seen that before.
You "require" an upload to your disk which takes up space and bandwidth.
Here is an example
LINKED IMAGE REMOVED.
This is just a standard bbscode for inserting an offsite image.

Note that this is not an attachment. It is not on your disk. It steals no bandwidth.

I can do it because I know the code. Others could too if you hadn't removed the "insert image" icon between the "link" and "email" icons.

I did this a few times years back and was asked to stop ostensibly because it made image loads too slow for dialup users to "view".
Of course it makes it even harder for dialup if they must "upload" instead of link.

The whole point of my post was to bring this to your attention and to see if all the moderators still concur that you would rather have images uploaded instead of linked.

Sorry to be of trouble
Sorry I make Bill feel so old

Ron

PS all of the owners other 12 sites allow image inserts from external links

[james kent]

The pictures in your own blog are only about 300 X 400 pixels. It seems to me that you want a double standard here.
As to the question of dial up. There are many areas of both of our countries, mostly rural, that do not even have the opportunity to acquire high speed internet.

[Donna D.]

I can do it because I know the code. Others could too if you hadn't removed the "insert image" icon between the "link" and "email" icons.

PS all of the owners other 12 sites allow image inserts from external links

Anyone that links an image using other servers will come back and find the link has been removed and the picture embedded here.

We don't want this... ever if we can help it:




CasitaForum has forbidden link images too. CasitaForum - All Members Please Read

[ronsmith100]

The pictures in your own blog are only about 300 X 400 pixels. It seems to me that you want a double standard here.
As to the question of dial up. There are many areas of both of our countries, mostly rural, that do not even have the opportunity to acquire high speed internet.

I know.. so if they had dial up and they found a picture somewhere that they wanted to include in their post they would have to dial-up download the file and the dial-up upload the file... that would take forever. With the image insert capability that every other board has they could just link.

make sense?

[ronsmith100]

The pictures in your own blog are only about 300 X 400 pixels. It seems to me that you want a double standard here.
As to the question of dial up. There are many areas of both of our countries, mostly rural, that do not even have the opportunity to acquire high speed internet.

I am in no way in interested in posting my pictures here. Not in the least. I have some paid-for sites for that.
What I am encouraging is that linked images are enabled to tell a story and do do it without adding a single byte to the disk here or using an inch of bandwidth.

I remember Lindy so well.. may he rest in peace.
He had hundreds of images of his Casita mods on a flikr site.
When we would have discussion about something Lindy would join the discussion and add to it by linking to one of his images.
Realize that linking to images saves band width and disk space.

I am not trying to win an argument that I have already lost but I do feel compelled to answer users who may misunderstand what I am saying.

[Mary F]

And what has become of Lindy's Flickr site?

One reason we encourage people to post pics here on FiberglassRV.com is so we will have them available on our server. We hope our archived discussions will continue to include the images that make them useful.

I, too, prefer larger images imbedded right there in the discussion, if a topic is on something I'm interested in reading about. The clickable thumbnail has been a good compromise, for the reasons Donna's already given.

What I wish is that the board would resize too-large images for us...

[HerseyBA]

I found some of Lindy's pictures on Webshots.com, Lindyw43

http://community.webshots.com/user/lindyw43