The format to post pictures here is not user friendly.

[Dino]

Yeah the system is not ideal but it's a small price to pay.  I love this site.

I use Photoshop to batch resize or I occassionally use one of the numerous online resizing sites.  I also make it a habit to copy each and every post I make before submitting it so I can't lose it if something goes awry.

[garner7555]

This is why I don't have a build thread for my car.  I get frustrated trying to upload pictures and I'm only 31 years old.      I'm not very good with technology though.  Im extremely thankful to Troy for the site, regardless of the picture posting. 

I for one would be willing to pay a yearly subscription fee.  (I pay for Mopar Muscle magazine and don't enjoy it 10% as much as this forum)  Either way I love the site and THANK YOU TROY FOR KEEPING THIS RUNNING!!!   

[Kern Dog]

Best advice I can give, is if you have a facebook account; just post the pictures there(hide them from everyone but yourself).  Then do the following:

1. Right click on the image, goto properties
2. Highlight and copy the address
3. Paste it between the two IMG boxes you get when you push the button

SHAZAM!  No more resizing, no more having to post photobucket links, no more having to rename it to some random jumble of letters in hopes that no one else has done the same!

I don't DO facebook.

[ws23rt]

Best advice I can give, is if you have a facebook account; just post the pictures there(hide them from everyone but yourself).  Then do the following:

1. Right click on the image, goto properties
2. Highlight and copy the address
3. Paste it between the two IMG boxes you get when you push the button

SHAZAM!  No more resizing, no more having to post photobucket links, no more having to rename it to some random jumble of letters in hopes that no one else has done the same!

I don't DO facebook.

  WTF is facebook?  When I went there they wanted me to become part of them in order to see who they were.

[Lennard]

I don't visit many websites but I'm on this site at least once a day.
Thank you Troy for this awesome informative website.  

(And I don't have Facebook either )

[hatersaurusrex]

The problem is that the forum software is 10 years old, and 10 years in tech might as well be 100.  

We're on version 1.1.9 which came out in 2006.  Version 2.0 has been out since 2007.   That's a LONG time in the web world.

The upgrade process seems pretty straightforward according to simplemachines.org - a few command line permissions changes, then an upgrader is run.

I'm happy to help do it, as I've run several forums and I do this kind of work for a living - but I suspect a forum full of guys who like to drive 45 year old cars are fine with figuring out how to keep 10 year old forum software going, even if it means reformatting a pic for 25 minutes or doing four different workarounds just to post it, even if 99.999% of other sites automatically resize and rename pics on the backend.

[Troy]

The problem is that the forum software is 10 years old, and 10 years in tech might as well be 100.   

We're on version 1.1.9 which came out in 2006.  Version 2.0 has been out since 2007.   That's a LONG time in the web world.

The upgrade process seems pretty straightforward according to simplemachines.org - a few command line permissions changes, then an upgrader is run.

I'm happy to help do it, as I've run several forums and I do this kind of work for a living - but I suspect a forum full of guys who like to drive 45 year old cars are fine with figuring out how to keep 10 year old forum software going, even if it means reformatting a pic for 25 minutes or doing four different workarounds just to post it, even if 99.999% of other sites automatically resize and rename pics on the backend.

Yeah, sounds easy. Except it doesn't work right unless your FTP server is configured exactly like how they want it (ours isn't). In the past I would upgrade on my home server then just copy the changed files to the server. When I do that the site goes down and rumors fly. Some people are still jumpy about the last time that happened.

Also, there are server "mods" installed so you basically have to walk through every line of the upgrade scripts to see if it's going to break or disable functionality. I *can* do it, I just lack the time to do it right.

And even then... if I turn on the auto image resizer there's still the problem of someone uploading a giant file and having it timeout. There still has to be a limit.

If I turn on the uploaded file renaming there's guys who can't figure out how to make a signature so they upload the same file with every post!!! Since they're unique names it bypasses any server or browser caches when the other thousands of users see it. You may think I'm joking but I only wish that were true.

Which brings us back to disk space and bandwidth. These days, the colocation gives me unlimited *outgoing* bandwidth so that helps. But - if I want a more cost friendly cloud server - the disks are on a SAN and the size dropped to 30-40GB. We're already beyond that! (Figure that out with a 200k limit on uploads.) To get a realistic drive size it's another $100 per month - then I have to fork over the cash for the additional backup space too so might as well double my monthly costs. Or I can keep the physical hardware which gives me larger - but slower - disks but the backup requirements are the same and I have to monitor/manage the server more closely.

Troy

[el dub]

Just curious. If the members paid twenty dollars a year would that help?

[skip68]

   
If Troy could collect $20 annually from the members he could retire.    

[hemi-hampton]

Does the website offer T-Shirts. If everybody bought a $20 t-shirt that could fund a upgrade? LEON.

[Dino]

Don't mention T-shirts on this board!  That's bad mojo! 

Some people are still bitter about that crap and I know cuz I'm one of them   

[hemi-hampton]

What I miss

[Dino]

The site's original owner took members' orders, and their money, for T-shirts and then disappeared.   

[hemi-hampton]

I found this thread, Looks like they had t-shirts? LEON.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,46265.0.html

[Dino]

Yes Troy had those made, nothing wrong ordering those.  He may still have some.

The issue with the other shirts dates back to '03 or something.

[hemi-hampton]

So what happened to this Jesse guy. Did he get Lynched?

[Dino]

Not that I'm aware of.  I think he got away with it.

[Kern Dog]

Uhhh....

Yeah, sounds easy. Except it doesn't work right unless your FTP server is configured exactly like how they want it (ours isn't). In the past I would upgrade on my home server then just copy the changed files to the server. When I do that the site goes down and rumors fly. Some people are still jumpy about the last time that happened.

Also, there are server "mods" installed so you basically have to walk through every line of the upgrade scripts to see if it's going to break or disable functionality. I *can* do it, I just lack the time to do it right.

Uhhh.......


And even then... if I turn on the auto image resizer there's still the problem of someone uploading a giant file and having it timeout. There still has to be a limit.
If I turn on the uploaded file renaming there's guys who can't figure out how to make a signature so they upload the same file with every post!!! Since they're unique names it bypasses any server or browser caches when the other thousands of users see it. You may think I'm joking but I only wish that were true.
Which brings us back to disk space and bandwidth. These days, the colocation gives me unlimited *outgoing* bandwidth so that helps. But - if I want a more cost friendly cloud server - the disks are on a SAN and the size dropped to 30-40GB. We're already beyond that! (Figure that out with a 200k limit on uploads.) To get a realistic drive size it's another $100 per month - then I have to fork over the cash for the additional backup space too so might as well double my monthly costs. Or I can keep the physical hardware which gives me larger - but slower - disks but the backup requirements are the same and I have to monitor/manage the server more closely.

Troy

I have no idea what any of this means.   

[Lennard]

  Duhh, neither do I but that is because he's replying to hatersaurusrex, who is also a computer guru and does know what it means.

[hatersaurusrex]

All of that made sense to me.  It sounds like Troy understands the issues perfectly but doesn't want to hose the site or double his costs, both of which are perfectly understandable concerns.  SAN storage is not cheap - you're basically paying for reserved space for two of everything since SAN disks are usuallly backing some sort of cluster that keeps the site(s) alive in the event of a hardware failure.   All that redundancy = redundant costs, too.   Think of it like a spare tire that changes itself in the event of a blowout.

[6spd68]

Best advice I can give, is if you have a facebook account; just post the pictures there(hide them from everyone but yourself).  Then do the following:

1. Right click on the image, goto properties
2. Highlight and copy the address
3. Paste it between the two IMG boxes you get when you push the button

SHAZAM!  No more resizing, no more having to post photobucket links, no more having to rename it to some random jumble of letters in hopes that no one else has done the same!

I don't DO facebook.

I merely used facebook as an example...  You should be able to use the same method with any site...  I've done it with photobucket in the past as well.