Need Help Testing New Message Board

RJM62

RJM62

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
Messages
13,157
Location
Upstate New York
Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
I couldn't find a forum specifically for sport pilots, so I decided to put one up myself and maybe make a few bucks in the process in return for the inevitable aggravation that accompanies administering a board.

It's monetized only with Google Adsense. No popup ads or any of that other annoying cr@p. Maybe banners if it actually gets some traffic, but not for now.

Any comments about bugs, slowness, quirks, suggested categories, etc. would be very much appreciated.

http://www.flysportusa.com/yabb

Thanks,

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
I couldn't find a forum specifically for sport pilots, so I decided to put one up myself and maybe make a few bucks in the process in return for the inevitable aggravation that accompanies administering a board.

It's monetized only with Google Adsense. No popup ads or any of that other annoying cr@p. Maybe banners if it actually gets some traffic, but not for now.

Any comments about bugs, slowness, quirks, suggested categories, etc. would be very much appreciated.

http://www.flysportusa.com/yabb

Thanks,

Rich
Click to expand...
Ok, I joined.
 
Greebo said:
Don't forget to add your link to our Links Database!
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's a pretty good idea, actually. I should add one once I'm sure the forum is stable. There's a link page on the parent site, but none on the board itself.

I've never used YaBB before. I used to use phpBB, but I got tired of the endless security updates. Then I started using SMF, but it can be really slow and expensive (resource-wise) once it starts getting traffic.

The YaBB installation was so simple that I actually sat there asking myself, "Is that it? Is it done already?" Even the default colors were what I would have chosen, LOL. The only modification that I had to hand-code was adding the table for the Adsense ads. So a job that I thought would take the better part of a day wound up taking three hours.

(I did have to do a Perl update on the server in the wee hours of the morning, but by rights, I should have done that already, anyway.)

In any case, I hope the forum serves a purpose. Making a few bucks on it would be nice, too, but I'm more hopeful that it will be useful. I'm not aware of any other boards dedicated to SP and LSA.

Thanks,

Rich
 
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Good site. Doing a little testing for you.

1) I was unable to find a way to upload my avatar.
2) When I linked to the avatar from my site, the image is distorted.
3) In PM list, subject has no underscore, so it is confusing what to click on to open message.
 
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Thanks, and thanks for all your help, Aunt Peggy. Considering that you're both a pilot and a programmer, I am especially grateful for any help, comments, criticism, or advice you can offer.

I've never used the particular board software before, so I'm still poking around learning about it myself. So far, I like it, but it's new to me. Also, I'm not very strong in Perl coding, so I'm being particularly cautious before making any changes to the board code itself.

Actually, the only changes I've made from the default install have been a change to the template for the Adsense ads, and a few minor changes to the stylesheet. I played around with some color and background changes but then went back to the defaults because I liked them better than the changes I'd made.

That being said, I've been looking into the avatar issue. There is a published mod that allows for uploading of avatars, but I want to read it first. It's version 0.2, which makes me a little cautious. Also, I have some work to do in the field today, so I don't want to go messing around with board mods this morning (just in case, you know).

I suppose I could also write a quick upload script to allow users to upload their avatar images, but I'd rather take a look at the published mod first. No point in reinventing the wheel.

As for the image being distorted, maybe GD is resizing it server-side? I'm pretty sure I have the latest GD installed on the server, but will check later today. (Maybe it will help if you resize it yourself on your server first.)

The PM window is confusing, I agree. The hyperlinks only underscore on hover. I'm thinking about changing the stylesheet to underscore them, and then change the link color on hover. Or I suppose I could just change the wording in the heading for the Subject column (add "Click Subject to Read," or something like that), but that looks a little... I dunno, maybe "dumb" is the word.

I'll have more time to look at it again later today, unless I get swamped by clients who broke stuff over the long weekend. Thanks again for your help. I very much appreciate it.

Rich
 
Hey everyone,

Gibbons gave me a heads up that guests were not being allowed to view the board I put up when he was trying to view this post. Sorry about that. It was my mistake.

This is the first time I've used the particular board software, and it turns out there's a quirk that I didn't know about. In each category on the admin panel, the administrator can select which users are able to view the boards. I selected all of the groups.

The problem is that guests don't belong to a group, and therefore can't view the boards if all the groups are selected. I never noticed it because I'm always logged in.

The cure, odd as it seems, is to de-select all the groups and re-save the settings. De-selecting all the groups allows all of the groups, as well as guests, to see the boards.

Kind of a backwards way to do things, in my opinion; but hey, it is what it is. I should have read the documentation more carefully.

With apologies,

Rich
 
Well done Rich. I started a thread that may be useful as a sticky regarding common SP/LSA, uh - issues. See what you think.
 
Speaking of which...

Why the heck does PoA have unused forums for fantasy sports, but no sport pilot/LSA forums??? :dunno:
 
docmirror said:
Well done Rich. I started a thread that may be useful as a sticky regarding common SP/LSA, uh - issues. See what you think.
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Thanks, Doc; and thanks for joining. I made it a sticky, as you suggested.

Rich
 
smoore said:
There's also http://www.sportpilottalk.com/

They got cracked and destroyed sometime right before Labor Day and his backup wasn't able to restore any of the topics so all of the discussion was lost.
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Man, that sux. I hope they get their membership back.

The endless vulnerabilities of phpBB is one of the reasons I used YaBB for this board. It just got to be too much, what with the constant updates. I used SMF for a while, but it seems kind of heavy and sluggish.

So now I'm trying YaBB. It's new to me in several ways: Not only is this the first time I've used it, but it's written in Perl and my Perl skills are not very strong. (I'm no PHP guru, either, but at least I can plod my way through a PHP script without having to refer to a cheat sheet every third line of code.)

I'm pretty obsessive about backup, though. The whole server is backed up nightly, with separate backups of the various database-driven sites and boards. Let's hope I don't have to use them.

Rich
 
smoore said:
What other boards do you run?
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Well, let's see... I run four private boards owned by clients of mine. They use them to pass internal information to each other and discuss whatever it is they need to discuss. Two use phpBB, and two use SMF.

I also run a political board, www.accountablepolitics.org/forum/, that is popular mainly with the Russian Mob (very frequent registration attempts from the same IPs until I ban the ranges). Very little other action there.

I used to run two other boards which I have since shut down: One was attached to a pest control information site at www.scarafaggio.com . It had been getting a lot of spam, and when I caught someone trying to hack it (it was a phpBB board and I'd missed a security update), I just decided to pull it.

The other board was an SMF board attached to a NYS FSBO listing site that my brother and I owned. We lost so much money on that I pulled the plug after a year.

I'm also one of a two-man team that administers a pest control information board at http://www.ipconetwork.org/fmb/cboard.mv . It was originally written from scratch by a retired exterminator who who has since passed away. The other fellow does most of the work; I help out as needed. We've thought about using some other board software because it gets really clunky unless the database is pruned frequently, but we leave it be out of respect for Gerry's memory.

I also assist in running the private version of that board for the parent organization, although once again, I'm more of a assistant.

So right now, I'm running the four private boards, FlySportUSA, and Accountable Politics; and I'm helping out with the two pest control sites. So six, plus assisting with two.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
So six, plus assisting with two.
Click to expand...

Wow, busy man. I've never run a board or anything and have always wondered why you nutcases ;) would put that on yourselves. Seems like a quite thankless task.
 
smoore said:
There's also http://www.sportpilottalk.com/

They got cracked and destroyed sometime right before Labor Day and his backup wasn't able to restore any of the topics so all of the discussion was lost.
Click to expand...

That's why I back up POA myself :)

BTW--It's *really* hard to beat VBulletin. I wouldn't even waste my time with different forum software. It's worth every penny.
 
jesse said:
That's why I back up POA myself :)

BTW--It's *really* hard to beat VBulletin. I wouldn't even waste my time with different forum software. It's worth every penny.
Click to expand...

I value your opinion, Jesse, and will look into it, especially for the four boards that I'm being paid to run. I've been living with them using phpBB and SMF because the sites are private and require authentication before people even get to the boards. But yeah, I've soured on phpBB and am lukewarm on SMF. Thanks.

For what it's worth, I'm not unhappy with YaBB so far. It's a little quirky and, um, rudimentary, but I don't hate it. I have a few mods I want to install, but my mediocre Perl skills are slowing me down because I'm going line-by-line to try to make sure they don't conflict with each other. Also, that pesky matter of having to work for a living cuts into available time...

But there's no rush, and I'm learning something new, which is always good.

Rich
 
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