Shopbot Bulletin Board (Note to admins)

[wcsg]

This is a suggestion Thread

I hope this is not taken out of context but I'm saying this as a suggestion.

Can we get a a new board?

This software is terrible.

There is such a wealth of information here and it's so hard to post and to add attachments. It's ashame, I've been on two years now, and as much traffic and post generation there is I feel like I'm driving around in my parents old Pinto. The search engine is awful and makes it hard to find topics.

I've noticed a couple of things lately, like people with exterior blogs and now a new "Show and Tell". All this can be fused to one.

I have a solution.

"Invision Board" coupled with their "Gallery" and "Blogs" That way the search engine will not only kind keywords and phrases in the forum but also the gallery and blogs. Members will get instant notification from all three on comments, (I don't get email notification from this board, anymore) reply's and PM's. Top of it all, it is so user friendly you won't have to think your creating code to make a simple post with emotionicons, pics or other bbcode.

I will donate MY time and money if needed, this would be my contribution to this community. At least get a free PHPbb board. You can still modulate it with the regular Shopbot main website, for easy switch back and forth. I can't even get to the website from here.

A sample of my site

Front Portal Page
http://thesignsyndicate.com

Forum
http://www.thesignsyndicate.com/foru...ex.php?act=idx

Gallery for show & Tell
http://www.thesignsyndicate.com/foru...q=sc&cat=4

Blogs
http://www.thesignsyndicate.com/foru...utomodule=blog

All three aspects integrated into one. This is an IPB Board, there is also VBulletin and a few others, but IPB is my suggestion, it's more professional.

I only suggest because I like this community and as more info gets input, it's harder to find and help other's.

[myxpykalix]

My suggestion along those lines, is that when i want to put a picture in i have to shrink it down and kill the resolution to the point you can't see good details. Maybe this has a higher limit than 50k. I would like to be able to put several pictures up with a description to show details that you can't do here.
Also when you have nonshopbot (but related) issues (like dust collectors) you can post it there without it being censored and deleted.
My 2 cents.

[wcsg]

With the board I'm suggesting it will automatically shrink down,then enlarge once you click it, to see the full detail of something needed to be seen

[paco]

An upgrade would be nice... would make it up to the user contributions. I second Erik's idea.

[rustnrot]

I'm hoping to demonstrate with this post that you can, however, use external linking to post a bigger picture. This one of my "air spoilboard" as Ed Conley described it in the Atlanta Camp...

Unfortunately, I just found out you cannot imbed an external linked (larger) image. Oh well, click here for a bigger image........

I vote for better software as well....

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...gar_rout_2.jpg

[wcsg]

Forgot to mention, in fear of losing info, going IPB this board can be converted so nothing in content is lost

[hines]

Erik, great post! I've been reading this board for 2-3 years and been posting for the last year. I couldn't tell you how many times I look for an old post containing a tip or trick for the bot only to end up depressed not finding it through this archaic system (no offense mods, you do the best job with what you have). I participate in a few other hobby forums and the following is my favorite setup http://www.chiptalk.net
I am not trying to dismiss any of the mods efforts with this post, only to help create a better board. From what I have seen, this is one of the first threads on this subject.

[bcammack]

Many boards don't even allow upload of images.

You have to upload them to a photo-sharing web site somewhere (or even your own site, most ISP accounts come with a personal web page and some storage space) and then paste an image link URL into your message.

[Forum Admin]

Good suggestions. At the time, we went with this forum software because it did allow uploading images whereas another board that had, to us, a more pleasing look but did not allow images at that time.

Text downloads quickly. Not everyone has high-speed internet and a batch of images greatly increases download time. I do check this forum using a dialup connection from time to time and can understand the frustration of users stuck in places where dialup is all that's available.

Re combining topics under major headings. Do you prefer all topics visible on the front page even if you have to scroll down to see them all? Wwould you prefer to see all of the front page on a single screen but you'd have to open each major topic to see secondary topics - this would mean clicking on "Software" on the home page to open a page listing Control Software, Part Wizard, etc as secondary topics.

[pfulghum]

THe value of this forum is two fold...

Current conversation
and
Archived content

I see myself getting into the archived content regularly. What about the archives???

-- pat