Site Suggestions

Can we post without a mandatory preview?

Yep --

It's changed

Thank You Sir!

So how's the site response time?

I've set Apache and MySQL settings and so far so good on my end, I'm curious to what everyone is seeing as in responsiveness of the Site.

Thanks

All good here on the other side of the US!

Cool, oh and check out the search function, it actually works

Now that is good news!
because:

1. I like to search
2. Some people claim others said things they didn't
3. Sometimes I forget exactly what was said.
4. Maybe we will find treasure!

9Figured I would try out the list function also

Yeah having a db backend makes life a bit easier, plus the CMS I'm using Drupal has some decent options for searches. Also mess about with the "advanced" function of the search, not bad.

I've set up the interface for some basic options with formatting with BB code, if you want to see what you can do with BB code just below the reply box you'll see a "Input format". Click on that to expand and you'll see a couple of links there that will take you to a help page that will do a pretty decent job with showing the BB code. I'm going to expand the help bar later for things like color, size etc., but for now that page will does a pretty decent job.

How can we post flash videos?

Could we get a sports thread? You could REALLY kiss my as and just make it a Green Bay Packers thread!

Yeah, Let me whip something up, I'll create a category actually for sports, break it down a little bit.

Take your time. No biggie....

Also I'm working on for Bloggers to upload, convert video files like mpg's to flash and host them here at the "Herd". I don't know when it'll be done, but it shouldn't take too long, I've already got most of the piece's in place for it now.

I saw that. Nice work.....

On the "Home" page you have a "recent posts" link.

Can you put that on the "Forum" front page also?

I use that link like a whore uses condoms.

Recent Comments and Blog posts are now in the forum pages also, yeah works out alright.

I hope you really wanted feedback cuz I'm willin to give it.

Take the recent comments and Blog posts off the left side.

It squishes things up too much. IMO.

Here is what I was talking about.

Aaaaah the navigation panel, OK I know what you mean now, yeah I'll put it on the forum page.

And yes I need as many suggestions as possible, I'd like to have the site in "Beta" for only two to three weeks max.

OK the navigation panel is on the forum pages (except for the threads).

Also have you check out the "Breaking News" block I have on the "Home Page"?

There's a lot of good source info there, also if you would like other news aggregators piped in let me know and I'll see what I can do. The "Breaking" news items are updated sometimes twice a day depending on the site. The "Big Brother" items though are pending Bills and New Law's, I only update those every two days.

Anyway let me know

Cheers

Boan.

I noticed you are using XP. Set the best performance values in the control panel and try this hack. It tells XP to use all available memory before it uses the swap file.....

How to Tweak the Registry to Improve XP Performance

You should have at least 256MB of RAM before you make these changes.
Open your favorite registry editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
1. DisablePagingExecutive - Double click it and in the decimal value field, put a 1. This will allow XP to keep data in memory instead of paging sections of RAM to the hard drive.
2. Set ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 1. This will cause your system to shut down slower, but will erase the pagefile at shutdown. This is desirable as cached info piles up.
3. LargeSystemCache - Double click it and change the decimal value to 1. This will allow the XP Kernel to Run in memory.
4. Create a new DWORD value and name it IOPageLockLimit - Double click it and set the value in hex to 8000 if you have 128MB of RAM, 20000 if you have 256MB or 80000 if you have more than 512MB of RAM.
Reboot and you should notice that your system runs faster.

Another Trick for Speeding up Downloads

This opens up reserved bandwidth which is limited by Windows defaults.
1. Log on as Administrator.
2. Click Start | Run and type gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy Editor.
3. In the left pane, under Computer Configuration, click Administrative Templates, then Network, then QoS Packet Scheduler.
4. In the right pane, double click "Limit reservable bandwidth."
5. On the Setting tab, select Enabled and set the bandwidth limit to 0%.
6. Click OK and reboot the computer.
Note that this only works with XP Pro, not with XP Home.

Better yet I put the "Recent Posts" in the Primary Menubar up top, I'm going to remove it from the navigation block soon.

One last suggestion....

GET PIXIE OVER HERE!!!!

This forum NEEDS a GODDESS!!!!!

Yeah I miss the Goddess, I figure after doing a little bit more fine tuning I'll send her a PM to come have a look. I miss the Goddess, but hey we've got Citizen Irene

She's busy as hell but I'm hoping she'll have time to blog and jump into the forums from time to time.

Thanks. Tell her I said "Hi!" and request her presence please.

Love it brah!

Thanks

I'm hoping you're talking about the registry hacks.....

Also do a defrag and reduce your internet cache to 20MB or lower. You can schedule a defrag to run weekly. It'll run a lot faster if you do it more often. I also dump the temp folder under my profile monthly.....

Windows is just a bunch a caching. Controlling it is the key.....

Actually, I wasn't but I am going to try your suggestions!

I was talking about the recent posts button

Dems cool too!

Those hacks'll add about 40% of performance boost to your PC....

Did the 1st haven't run enough to tell a difference.

and I run Home ed.

Thanks

Give it time, bud. it'll help. No rush on this one....

BTW, that menu being on the bottom has been around for quite awhile. It has happened on both formats. I haven't mentioned it because I felt it wasn't that big of a deal. It's an obvious bug that happens sporadically.

LOVE your avatar Boan! Good to see you here too.

Vish - can we make the lil smiley guys bigger? And the font? I'm gettin old n crispy...the ol eyes are going....... (

I've gotta work on the default font size, I'd say it is a notch too small. I'm going to create a button for you to change the font size in your posts (it's on the list ).

Also for the "smiley's" if you click on the "more" link there's more smiley's. I'm in the process of uploading more

For your signature use the BB codes, for font put in the [ ] brackets size=12 at the beginning and close it off at the end of the text with /size.

Yeah.... Fonts, font colors and some more smileys would be nice to have. Lemme know if you need some help hunting up the smileys!

You can use the BB code to change for now, just look at the BB Code menu page, it gives you the info on how to change font size, color, bold, quote, url insert's, etc...
What's holding me back on inserting in the editor menu is crating the icon's, it's on the list

Example of changing the fonts

The avatar is from the stock provided here!
Good to see ya Lynn

Thanks!

OK I added to the menubar of the editor a button "F" which is for "Font". I've coded it with a default font type, size and color, change them to your hearts desire

Bear with me as I start fine tuning the site and interfaces. I'm not a coder but know some basic's so code changes take a bit longer for me to make. Anyway keep the suggestions coming, I'd like to go Gold with the site around mid October, sooner if I can.

Thanks, Pagan.

Much obliged!

Good Morning,

Pagan - any chance you can make it so the system only sends one email alert for each thread. I seem to get an email for any thread I have posted on...but one each time someone posts - including myself. It tends to bog down my email account.

• Log in to your account here
• Go to "EDIT"
• Uncheck "Receive comment follow-up notification e-mails"

OK I get that - except I would like "one" follow up email to let me know. Thing is, I got some 20+ emails for 3 threads...
I am getting a follow up email every single time someone posts. You know?
If I uncheck it - I won't get any. The result is that I will end up posting a lot less.

Sorry Lynn, limitation of the software I'm using, it's either all or nothing

An easier way to check for "new posts" is to click on the tab above "Recent posts". This will show all the recent posts and show "new" posts.

No problem! I'll take your advice and use the new posts thingy. )

I use the "Active Forum Topics" on the right hand side to get me up to speed!

Also the advantage of using the "Recent Posts" tab is that also lists Blog posts and Blog Comments. While we don't have much or any Blog traffic now when we do get some regular Bloggers this will keep you up to date on all

Its all good. This site is looking and acting like a real winner.

Nice work, my friend. I appreciate the efforts you have put forth here.

Thanks Brotherman, I thought it was time to get serious about shit you know.

I want to build a "Social Community", not just a basic forum. I looked around at a lot of different scripts both closed and open source. I went with Drupal because you really can do a hell of a lot with it. So it may not be just quick install and walk away, but you're not boxed in if you know what I mean

I do! And your research reflects the quality that one can see here. When I get some time, I'll stir things up over at the PI and get you some readers!

Well I just upgraded the Advanced Forum Module, looks like it's coming along great. I went with a cleaner theme for the forums, let me know what you think. I also removed Advanced Forum from controlling the Blog Comments, I thought it better to have more distinguishing features between Blogs and Forums. I think the flow is better for the Blogs, anyway let me know what you all think.

Nice work, buddy.
I like the other theme a little more as posts seemed easier on the eyes. I also my the online status which is missing by the avatar.