Vintage Thunderbird Club International

A few answers:
1. phpBB 3.1 has a whole new theming engine so the old themes don't work. There are some other ones out there. I'll do some digging to see what is available and maybe we can install 1 or 2 alternate themes. Problem with doing this is that any customizations (e.g. the VTCI logo) have to be manually altered and then maintained for each future upgrade.
2. Opening links in new tabs/windows. I agree that this is desirable and there are a few ways to do it, but all currently involve tinkering with the code, and no one seems to agree on the best way so I need to do some more R&D. In the meantime, right-click and open in new tab is a good work around.
3. Uploading images. The forums can support this, but it's going to blow up our database size and could cause some issues with our backups and with our hosting company. Right now, a compressed backup of the site is approaching 30MB and that's right at the limit of what can be restored/recovered using the web based tools and not involving a support request to our hosting company. If we start allowing image uploads, the size will grow exponentially.

Thanks.
-Brian

Fair enough, it probly costs more than its wearth, just thought I would ask.

Links should now open in a new tab/window so that's progress for the day. Enjoy!

Links should now open in a new tab/window so that's progress for the day. Enjoy!

YEAH.............I'm HAPPY, thanks Brian

RAVEN wrote:Fair enough, it probly costs more than its wearth, just thought I would ask.

Not sure about that. GoDaddy.com and others offer unlimited space, bandwidth and emails for $10/month or so, which doesn't sound unreasonable, especially if we could unchain ourselves from the Photobuckets of this world.

~Steve

The concern is not with the hosting company so much as with the management of the underlying mySQL database. Uncompressed database is about 200MB and takes 10-15m to rebuild from a backup. That's going to blow up if we start adding binary data.

I haven't dug into the bbphp code, but I would be shocked if images are stored as binary objects in the database itself. In applications I've built, I store images on the disk and place a pointer in the database, which I understand to be a common practice.

~Steve

Actually I did some digging yesterday after I stated my concerns about the database growth because I was wondering how people were dealing with it and phpBB does store attachments in the file system, not as blobs in the database. That said we're a pretty big, loose group, and there are concerns from the higher ups about liability for malicious attachments so it's still off the table for now.

Thanks.
-Brian

Yoda wrote:. . .there are concerns from the higher ups about liability for malicious attachments so it's still off the table for now.

A different issue altogether, yes. I also frequent the Ford Truck Enthusiast site, which does allow direct uploading of images, though they appear to use different discussion software. The advantages are considerable . . . I would hope it remains in consideration. Not only is it easier, but attached photos (in how-to articles, etc) wouldn't disappear with the passage of time--making the forums a better resource for all.

Thanks for your work on the forums.

~Steve

Another good point that has also received some discussion. Certainly an ongoing conversation.

Links should now open in a new tab/window so that's progress for the day. Enjoy!

well that didn't last long, it no longer works

I didn't touch anything! Bob, please tell me where the specific link that you were clicking is so that I can attempt to replicate.

Thanks.
-Brian

Yoda wrote:I didn't touch anything! Bob, please tell me where the specific link that you were clicking is so that I can attempt to replicate.

Thanks.
-Brian

I've had the same experience--links still open in the current tab for me--using Chrome on both Windows 8.1 and Linux Mint.

~Steve

Click the ebay link, see what you get.
http://www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net/p ... =7&t=11971

For that matter, clicking the forum link opens in the same tab, no new tab or window. I'm bummin' Brian

as far as photobucket goes, you all have an isp right? i guarantee they all offer you web space to store your photos online. check with them on what is available to you already that you probably are paying for and not using.


kd