Shopbot Bulletin Board (Note to admins)

[keith_outten]

My 2 Cents

Running an online forum can become a huge undertaking. The costs associated with hosting a state of the art forum can also rise faster than you would expect. Many are sucked into the deals that hosting companies offer that are so cheap they figure they can cover the costs out of pocket.

In the beginning its easy, but things get real complicated when you grow and start hosting thousands of Members. We host our woodworking forum on our own Linux server with a dedicated Internet connection. The reason forums are more complicated is forums require a database and the hosting companies will start increasing their fees as you increase your access to their database and start consuming clock cycles on their server. Bandwidth is the second issue that comes into play and is the major reason that file sizes must have some limit placed on them.

The third issue is labor, it is time consuming to run a forum that is active. Anyone can do it for a few months or even a couple of years. A forum should be a long term commitment with a Staff that keeps everything running smooth and is able to deal with and resolve problems quickly.

I have a brand new PRTalpha at work and a second one downstairs in my workshop. Neither one is running when I am working on The Creek here in my shop office. Thats why I'm not surprised that there hasn't been a response from the Forum Admin here yet, the daily chores are more time consuming than many would expect.

I should add that I really appreciate the work and the expense that the folks at ShopBot expend keeping their Forum online. Talk ShopBot is valuable, the collective knowledge here is what makes ShopBot the tool that it has become. I would have never gotten off of square one without the information that exists here.

.

[wcsg]

I don't think it's about lazyness in regards to resize pictures (new boards to this automatically) and videos. It's just a big pain in the ass on this board. A lot of the forum code here is too. Also this board does not need adverts because it's paid by the machines Shopbot sells and services they perform. Why would they have adverts?

This forum is one of the biggest resources the company has. It's to their advantage to covert it to a new board and put someone on it and make it easier for the average lamesman.

For all the reasons I stated above in previous posts, it's to the advantage of the company and the community. I understand some members might be scared of change, but don't. It's like going from a old PR to a new PRSAlpha
You want advantages right? Otherwise why upgrade your old machine? Like I said, I would help out in anyway possible, volunteering MY time if needed.

It's a small step but big pull forward. I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass myself but I know from running my own forum board that it can greatly improve this community in communication and trading of ideas and thought.

And this is my buck 'o' five!

[hines]

You have a good point Erik. The main reason I considered a Shopbot was the info I received from this forum. I even purchased my bot last year from a posting in the For Sale thread. It only makes sense for Shopbot to invest in the forum since this is one of it's biggest advertisers and support group. Anytime I hear someone say they are considering Shopbot it's because of this forum and their phone support. It would only make sense to dedicate money and resources to this forum like they do for the rest of the company. Again, I'm not saying this current forum is unusable, I just think that it could be awesome with a few upgrades.

[keith_outten]

Erik,

I have to agree with you concerning the value of this Forum, the advantages that new software would provide and that some Members will always be concerned when a change in format is considered.

The idea of converting from one format to another is a huge decision and would require a lot of research, even for an advanced Admin with plenty of database experience. I know that it is done everyday but the level of difficulty is relative to experience. A trained system administrator is the right tool for the job if it is to be done reliably.

I would also expect it would take some time for ShopBot to consider their options and course of action as well as a timeline should they decide to undertake a conversion. They may very well need to outsource the job to someone with the necessary skills if they don't have the skills in house.

We are in the process of outfitting a new server for our Forums. Installing the operating system and all of the support programs is a bit of a job, and we are not changing formats. We must upgrade several programs before the new version of vBulletin will work so its not just a matter of copying everything from one server to another, its a major rebuild from scratch.

I will look forward to any future improvements in this Forum, until then it will be much like waiting for the next generation of ShopBots to hit the shelves all the while using what we have to keep things going as smooth as possible.

Keith

[wcsg]

In regards to converting the boards data base, it's a free service provided from a company like Invision Power Board when you purchase their software.

They converted my old BB in less than 24 hours. So it was no hassle on my part. Let the software company do it is my suggestion.

[myxpykalix]

I guess you could look at it like this. Take the collective number of posts we all make (400+) for me alone. Thats 400 phone calls to tech support i DIDN'T make. So you could look at it in the sense that this board saves them TONS of money on tech support alone. Instead of tying someone up on the phone, many time i ask here, sometimes its faster anyway if they are busy.

[keith_outten]

Erik,

Sounds like IPB is the best choice and the conversion would be painless.

Jack,

No argument from me, forums are clearly an asset to almost any business. Forums save time, promote products, provide tech support and are an excellent training venue.

Keith

[Forum Admin]

Several good suggestions that we'll research. Thanks for the input.

To return to the ShopBot website, click on the ShopBot logo that appears in the upper left of each page of this forum. There is also a link at the bottom of the Board Topics List page.

If you want to post lots of pictures without resizing to meet the current requirements, there are many free or low-cost places to do so. Flickr, Google, Yahoo, SmugMug have been suggested. We do allow active links in the posts so you can easily type in the URL where your pictures are located. (As long as spammers are relatively infrequent, active links will continue.)

Faster downloading due to improved software and better search options are high on the list of things we'd be looking to improve. File sharing is not. Lost, misplaced drivers and posts are one thing. Posting cutting files leads to copyright issues and the obvious, but often overlooked, fact that ShopBot models, setups and software vary greatly.

Again, thanks for the input. It looks as though this thread is beginning to repeat so it's now closed. Send any further comments to to Forum Admin.