Outdoor Ontario
Off Topic => Board-related Issues => Topic started by: Andy on September 29, 2020, 08:19:10 PM
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I will be shutting down the board in the next few weeks. Hosting charges are increasing every year and the number of spammers has gotten to be too much of a chore to deal with. Thank you all for supporting the board all these years.
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I will be shutting down the board in the next few weeks. Hosting charges are increasing every year and the number of spammers has gotten to be too much of a chore to deal with. Thank you all for supporting the board all these years.
Thank you so much for letting us know, and all the work put into maintaining this informative board. I've learnt so much from this site about birding and had so much fun interacting from all the seasoned birders.
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I'll be very sad to see it go. All the moderators and admins did a tremendous job in keeping it alive for so long. This is where I started my birding adventure. This is one board where I didn't see much of any egotism or controversy and everybody was very courteous and helpful. Plus different topics of discussion was a bonus.
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Members of this forum and its secretive satellite visitors are becoming an endangered species because they are rapidly losing their habitat due to the rabid activities of frustrated stupid people. Habitat is herein defined as a respectful platform for the exchange of ideas and insights by people who think for themselves and love to be persuaded to think otherwise. The study of physics tells us that the universe is perpetually experiencing a net increase in entropy despite localized examples of actual constructs, exquisite creations that confound the general program of spreading chaos. In society, there are also a few individuals that build things, from mental constructs to working systems, all for the benefit of others but with commensurate welfare. Sadly, the ineluctable destroyers advance en masse to deconstruct and malign the intellectual edifice provided by great builders like Andy. Such visionaries cannot be defeated and their constructs cannot be extinguished for long by internet trolls and the raging scamming menace that haunts the dark side. It is well within a great builder’s persona to survey the intellectual landscape and by this policy discover a clearing with potential to create something new, something worthwhile and what is needed for the creative and inquisitive among us, and then also to act as a caretaker of that temple. There is nothing nobler.
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It's sad to see the board being shut down. I have enjoyed this site for almost 14 years.
Thanks Andy for hosting and everybody for the interesting discussions, reports and photographs.
What will happen to the posts? Will they be destroyed or saved, and in that case accessible?
/Thomas
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I'm sorry to see this board close. It has been a wonderful place to experience vicariously the better birding and photography of others. Thanks to all the people who have run the board and thanks to all the members for your contributions.
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As another old-timer, I am also sorry to see this site go. I have enjoyed sharing what I know and learning from all the rest of you folks. I will have to find somewhere else to post my nesting reports, if my local Red-tailed Hawks try again next year. Thank you Andy for all your hard work over the years.
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Thank you so much Andy for providing these forums for so long! I'm sure you have helped countless birders over the years by providing a friendly and supportive community. We are all going to miss this site. Thanks to everyone who has shared their love of birds and generous words of wisdom.
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Hi everyone! I have some potentially good news.
I've been talking with Andy this past week about the possibility of migrating this forum from the server he is currently renting, to one that I already have running for other projects.
It looks like it should be possible to retain all of the existing posts, private messages, user accounts, etc, but there may be a few cosmetic and procedural changes to how topics are viewed or posts are created. I'm endevouring to keep everything as similar and straightforward as possible, so as to reduce any kind of learning curve. However, because the server is shared with other websites/services, I can't use exactly the same forum 'engine' to run it. I hope you will bear with me and are willing to give it a try.
I'll post some updates in the coming days as I get it up and running.
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Hi everyone! I have some potentially good news.
I've been talking with Andy this past week about the possibility of migrating this forum from the server he is currently renting, to one that I already have running for other projects.
It looks like it should be possible to retain all of the existing posts, private messages, user accounts, etc, but there may be a few cosmetic and procedural changes to how topics are viewed or posts are created. I'm endevouring to keep everything as similar and straightforward as possible, so as to reduce any kind of learning curve. However, because the server is shared with other websites/services, I can't use exactly the same forum 'engine' to run it. I hope you will bear with me and are willing to give it a try.
I'll post some updates in the coming days as I get it up and running.
Thank you! Thank you! I am in tears
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Good news indeed, thanks for the effort.
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Hope it works out son and that you don't regret coming to the rescue.
I'm sure Andy appreciates the help.
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In this dark times of coronavirus, this is a wonderfull news for everyone on thes forum.
Thanks a lot for a ray of hope. We all need it and appreciated it! :)
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Thanks so much for trying this. I'd be happy to deal with some changes in formatting if it allows the forum to continue.
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Hey everyone. I just thought I'd give you an update and let you know that the forum migration is going pretty well so far.
Could someone do me a favour and help me check to see if all of the settings have migrated properly here: https://newsite.outdoorontario.net/
Mainly I'd like to know if other people can:
- Login correctly with your existing password
- Generally view various topics & posts
- Able to see photo's / attachments
- Able to make a post (doesn't have to be fancy, as it will probably get deleted when I do a final copy of this site)
- Able to upload / post a photo
- If you're a moderator, are you able to moderate
- How does it look on your phone/tablet, if that's something you use to check the forum...
Also, there are a couple new options that I could use feedback on:
- Below all the various topics is a list of recent posts. I've set it to show the twelve most recent posts. - Should this list be longer?
- To the right-hand side of the banner image you should see a crescent-moon beside the search button. Clicking this will change the forums colour-scheme for easier viewing in the evening (where the otherwise bright background might be a bit glaring). Clicking it a second time will revert you back to the friendlier daytime mode. - If there is something that is hard to read with these colour-schemes, please let me know.
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Hey everyone. I just thought I'd give you an update and let you know that the forum migration is going pretty well so far.
Could someone do me a favour and help me check to see if all of the settings have migrated properly here: https://newsite.outdoorontario.net/
Mainly I'd like to know if other people can:
- Login correctly with your existing password - Yes all good.
- Generally view various topics & posts - Yes
- Able to see photo's / attachments - Yes
- Able to make a post (doesn't have to be fancy, as it will probably get deleted when I do a final copy of this site) - Yes, I just did a test post, works.
- Able to upload / post a photo Yes, part of the test post that I just did
- If you're a moderator, are you able to moderate
- How does it look on your phone/tablet, if that's something you use to check the forum...
Also, there are a couple new options that I could use feedback on:
- Below all the various topics is a list of recent posts. I've set it to show the twelve most recent posts. - Should this list be longer? I am ok with what I see. The question is will there be an indication like the current site when a post is unread?
- To the right-hand side of the banner image you should see a crescent-moon beside the search button. Clicking this will change the forums colour-scheme for easier viewing in the evening (where the otherwise bright background might be a bit glaring). Clicking it a second time will revert you back to the friendlier daytime mode. - If there is something that is hard to read with these colour-schemes, please let me know.
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Hey everyone. I just thought I'd give you an update and let you know that the forum migration is going pretty well so far.
Could someone do me a favour and help me check to see if all of the settings have migrated properly here: https://newsite.outdoorontario.net/
Mainly I'd like to know if other people can:
- Login correctly with your existing password Yes, I can
- Generally view various topics & posts I can see all my photos of recent posts,
- Able to see photo's / attachments I can see mine, but not able to see some of the others pics, maybe some kind of format
- Able to make a post (doesn't have to be fancy, as it will probably get deleted when I do a final copy of this site) Did that.
- Able to upload / post a photo Did that too.
- If you're a moderator, are you able to moderate
- How does it look on your phone/tablet, if that's something you use to check the forum... THE Dialogues look Okay, my pics don't fit on the screen when I check on my phones, and I don't seem to find the reply button when I view it on my cell phone.
Also, there are a couple new options that I could use feedback on:
- Below all the various topics is a list of recent posts. I've set it to show the twelve most recent posts. - Should this list be longer?
- To the right-hand side of the banner image you should see a crescent-moon beside the search button. Clicking this will change the forums colour-scheme for easier viewing in the evening (where the otherwise bright background might be a bit glaring). Clicking it a second time will revert you back to the friendlier daytime mode. - If there is something that is hard to read with these colour-schemes, please let me know.
Thank you so much for making so much effort to help this community.
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I'm using Chrome.
In the Original forum I see photos. In the New forum sometimes I see photos, sometimes I see links to photos, sometimes no photo or link.
I can Log In, Log Out and post but I cannot preview my post.
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I'm using Chrome.
In the Original forum I see photos. In the New forum sometimes I see photos, sometimes I see links to photos, sometimes no photo or link.
I can Log In, Log Out and post but I cannot preview my post.
I used Edge (Internet Explorer) and I see similar issues with photos. The photos of mine that don't show up in the new forum are the ones that are private on Flickr stream - all public photos appears OK. It is the private link that doesn't work the way it worked in the older version of the board (e.g. SS's photos on Photobucket). The photos that are attached directly (e.g. Ally's) to the post show up OK.
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Ok, I think I see the problem. All external url's that link to servers via 'https://' links are getting an extra 'http://' tacked on to them.
(ie. external-image links show up as: "http://https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50398630908_66e1aafbf1_c.jpg", and that's certainly not going to work.)
I'll do some digging to find out where the conversion went wrong.
Thanks for the testing!!
Re: 'The question is will there be an indication like the current site when a post is unread?'
There should be... When I'm logged in, and go into a topic (Say Ontario Birds), I see little red boxes that say 'New' at the end of each thread-title, to indicate there are unread posts.
Re: 'My pics don't fit on the screen when I check on my phones, and I don't seem to find the reply button when I view it on my cell phone.'
Ya, there doesn't seem to be a built-in solution for picture scaling. I think I'm going to try to hack something in to fix this once everything else is working.
To reply (with quote) to a post while on a small screen, click the circle with the three dots (...) to get the list of options, like 'quote'. Alternately, to continue the thread, there should be a row of buttons below the last post. The 'backwards-facing-arrow' should be reply. (It's unfortunete that on mobile devices you can't hover over a button to get the hint-text to help tell you what it does. :P)
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Ok, I think I see the problem. All external url's that link to servers via 'https://' links are getting an extra 'http://' tacked on to them.
(ie. external-image links show up as: "http://https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50398630908_66e1aafbf1_c.jpg", and that's certainly not going to work.)
I'll do some digging to find out where the conversion went wrong.
Thanks for the testing!!
Re: 'The question is will there be an indication like the current site when a post is unread?'
There should be... When I'm logged in, and go into a topic (Say Ontario Birds), I see little red boxes that say 'New' at the end of each thread-title, to indicate there are unread posts.
Re: 'My pics don't fit on the screen when I check on my phones, and I don't seem to find the reply button when I view it on my cell phone.'
Ya, there doesn't seem to be a built-in solution for picture scaling. I think I'm going to try to hack something in to fix this once everything else is working.
To reply (with quote) to a post while on a small screen, click the circle with the three dots (...) to get the list of options, like 'quote'. Alternately, to continue the thread, there should be a row of buttons below the last post. The 'backwards-facing-arrow' should be reply. (It's unfortunete that on mobile devices you can't hover over a button to get the hint-text to help tell you what it does. :P)
Thank you so much for the patient work and reply. Has to be the best Thanksgiving gift I received ever!
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You are very welcome Ally! - It's always nice to recieve a little unbridled enthusiasm for ones work. :P
I think I've got the missing photo's all working now. - I did a quick test on Chome/Brave, Firefox, and Edge, and they seem to be ok.
There are a few custom avatar's that aren't appearing, but that might be easier to fix individually.
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I got an error message when trying to upload an avatar:
The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved.
Otherwise it seems to be working fine, thanks for your effort.
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You are very welcome Ally! - It's always nice to recieve a little unbridled enthusiasm for ones work. :P
I think I've got the missing photo's all working now. - I did a quick test on Chome/Brave, Firefox, and Edge, and they seem to be ok.
There are a few custom avatar's that aren't appearing, but that might be easier to fix individually.
Silly me! Just realised why I couldn't see the three dots or reply on my cell phone. I didn't log in.
You are the son of Shortsighted? When he called you son, I just thought it was a general term.
This is just too cute. So happy to know both of you.
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Thanks Thouc. - I've updated the permissions for the avatar directory, so uploading should be working again. - I've also managed to find the right location to put all the old custom-avatar images so that they appear automatically.
So, since things seem to be working out ok with the replacement board, shall we set a change-over date for a final copy of posts / messages to the new board?
Unless there are any objections, I'd propose the night/morning of Friday-->Saturday (24th), and I'll put a notice at the top of this forum to let anyone who hasn't stumbled upon this thread to find out about the change-over.
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Thanks Thouc. - I've updated the permissions for the avatar directory, so uploading should be working again. - I've also managed to find the right location to put all the old custom-avatar images so that they appear automati
So, since things seem to be working out ok with the replacement board, shall we set a change-over date for a final copy of posts / messages to the new board?
Unless there are any objections, I'd propose the night/morning of Friday-->Saturday (24th), and I'll put a notice at the top of this forum to let anyone who hasn't stumbled upon this thread to find out about the change-over.
Sir. Yes sir!
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Ok, I think I see the problem. All external url's that link to servers via 'https://' links are getting an extra 'http://' tacked on to them.
(ie. external-image links show up as: "http://https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50398630908_66e1aafbf1_c.jpg", and that's certainly not going to work.)
I'll do some digging to find out where the conversion went wrong.
Thanks for the testing!!
Re: 'The question is will there be an indication like the current site when a post is unread?'
There should be... When I'm logged in, and go into a topic (Say Ontario Birds), I see little red boxes that say 'New' at the end of each thread-title, to indicate there are unread posts.
Re: 'My pics don't fit on the screen when I check on my phones, and I don't seem to find the reply button when I view it on my cell phone.'
Ya, there doesn't seem to be a built-in solution for picture scaling. I think I'm going to try to hack something in to fix this once everything else is working.
To reply (with quote) to a post while on a small screen, click the circle with the three dots (...) to get the list of options, like 'quote'. Alternately, to continue the thread, there should be a row of buttons below the last post. The 'backwards-facing-arrow' should be reply. (It's unfortunete that on mobile devices you can't hover over a button to get the hint-text to help tell you what it does. :P)
Thank you so much for the patient work and reply. Has to be the best Thanksgiving gift I received ever!
I just got what Dinu was saying about new messages, on this site, there will be signs on the home/navigation page, when you have unread posts. On the new site, it will be under each subjects like ontario birding. You need to click many to find out if someone post a new one.
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Oh. It seems I didn't fully understand what dinu meant either. (About the indicator of new posts in a given category, not just new reply's in a given post) - You see I've never been quite so caught up that I've read every single new post in a given category, so for me every category had a red-circle image beside it...
So with more careful examination, it seems the new forum has a similar feature. The pencil icon beside each category is black so long as there are any new updates in a category since the last time you viewed the list of posts in that category (independent to whether you've read them all). It turns gray once you've gone in and viewed the list.
It's subtle enough that I didn't really notice it before. - Therefore I think I'm going to change the colours, and maybe the icon as well to something a lot more obvious.
Dinu: Sorry for not understanding the really rather straightforward question that you asked me.
Ally: Thanks for pointing out my obtuseness. :)
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Oh. It seems I didn't fully understand what dinu meant either. (About the indicator of new posts in a given category, not just new reply's in a given post) - You see I've never been quite so caught up that I've read every single new post in a given category, so for me every category had a red-circle image beside it...
So with more careful examination, it seems the new forum has a similar feature. The pencil icon beside each category is black so long as there are any new updates in a category since the last time you viewed the list of posts in that category (independent to whether you've read them all). It turns gray once you've gone in and viewed the list.
It's subtle enough that I didn't really notice it before. - Therefore I think I'm going to change the colours, and maybe the icon as well to something a lot more obvious.
Dinu: Sorry for not understanding the really rather straightforward question that you asked me.
Ally: Thanks for pointing out my obtuseness. :)
You are very welcome, and I noticed the black/grey pencil difference too, should have said it so I get more pointd :lol: :lol: I had been best student in class (nerd/dork) :P :P
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Oh....
Dinu: Sorry for not understanding the really rather straightforward question that you asked me.
Ally: Thanks for pointing out my obtuseness. :)
Hey, no worries, I didn't give enough details either. You did a tremendous job and this is shaping up to be a fantastic alternative. Looking forward to start using the new site.
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One other question. I have this current site saved as favorite; will the new site inherit the same path after migration and cutover? Or will the path be different? Thanks.
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Good question. I've set it up so that any requests to "outdoorontario.net/birds/phpBB/...." automatically redirect to "outdoorontario.net/", so you're existing 'favourites'-link should just bring you to the home page.
- That said, if you have any other existing 'favourites'/'bookmarks' that link to sub-pages (like say 'Bird-ID'), those too will also just redirect you to the home-page, so in that case it might be worth updating those bookmarks.