 |
| |
| This site requires new users to accept that a small amount of member data is captured and held in an attempt to reduce spammers and to manage users. This site also uses cookies to ensure ease of use. In order to comply with new DPR regulations you are required to agree/disagree with this process. If you do not agree then please email the Admins using info@nikondslr.uk after requesting a new account. Thank you. |
| Moderated by: chrisbet, | ||
| Author | Post | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
jk
|
I am looking for help and suggestions for a new/alternative software for the forum. It is known that this current software UltraBB v1.172 make images uploaded directly look less sharp or fuzzy compared with image posted as a link from Flickr and some other repositories. I have posted examples in follow up posts. First we need to understand why. Then we need to find out if it is fixable. If Not then we need to consider alternatives. Help required. Any volunteers? |
|||||||||
jk
|
Iain's photo posted with a Flickr link. Flickr  DSC_9368 by Iain Clyne, on Flickr |
|||||||||
jk
|
Iain's photo posted via this forums uploader. Through Forum |
|||||||||
jk
|
OK, post #3 image is definitely less sharp than post #2 image. Why? What is doing this? |
|||||||||
Robert
|
It's simple JK, as I said in another thread, all forum software does this to a greater or less extent. I raised this issue years ago with this image, which I posted from Prestatyn when I first met Jeff in 2012, 26th May D200, 80-200 f/2.8  The original image.  Another...  To store on our server images which equal images hosted on flicker or other image hosting platforms would overload our server, both for bandwidth and storage capacity. Hosting on a dedicated image server such as Flicker takes the load off our server. Some time back there was some talk about relocating the forum onto a facebook group, the image degradation there would probably be far worse. For up to a thousand images Flicker is free and thanks to Jeff's help, relatively easy. Most everybody I know who wants to show good quality images uses a dedicated image server such as Flicker. It could be made a little easier but no doubt in time these things will be improved. I don't believe different forum software would result in better image display capability. That isn't to say there aren't other advantages to upgrading out forum software. I really miss slashthrough, and the single image per post is a real pain. It would also be nice to have a normal set of smilies without having to resort to using the Apple interface to get them, but that isn't what this topic is about. The same image exactly, posted via the forum software. Attachment: Screen Shot 2019-02-03 at 10.38.57.jpg (Downloaded 84 times) |
|||||||||
Robert
|
Hmmm, seems better this time. Ho hum... Looking again it's smoother, lost noise detail. Colours aren't as bad as they were in 2012. |
|||||||||
jk
|
Seems like I need to restart my Flickr. I am wondering if it is as good if you upload into the Gallery. |
|||||||||
Robert
|
jk wrote:I am wondering if it is as good if you upload into the Gallery. I can't remember, I think I did try it and I suspect it's much the same as posting into the forum. Same reason. |
|||||||||
jk
|
This is when linked from the forum Gallery. |
|||||||||
jk
|
Medium image from Gallery. |
|||||||||
jk
|
Both images are suffering the same 'crushed' sharpness around the head and water droplets. So if you want best quality results displayed you need to link to a source on Flickr or the like. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Hi - it is octarine from over on the ultra forum - I am also an admin working with Jim Hale on the Ultra software. I have made a couple of very minor changes to the javascript so that the "G" button on your forum editor actually works and opens up your gallery software. From there if you start a reply (it is important to have some text BEFORE the picture - quirk of the browser) and then click on the "G" button, click on the image you want out of the gallery, click again to maximise it - then DRAG it into the editor box, you should get a full res image. E.g. the duck:  |
|||||||||
jk
|
Well doubly welcome. I still need to go and do the Gallery change that you suggested. Cant do on my ipad. Probably do on Saturday morning. I need to PM you with some questions but it might be easier to talk on the phone or videocall. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Those changes would only affect the ultra gallery that you haven't used since 2012! |
|||||||||
jk
|
Ah. That is because we have the PhotoPost add-on gallery. |
|||||||||
jk
|
I guess there are two main issues that we are needing to address. Image quality for posted images. IQ seems (is) considerably crushed when images are loaded directly into a post on the threads. Second item is that it is possible to only upload a single image to a post. It would be good to allow 3 or 4 images. If we want to do more in a single post then we need to use urls to images in Gallery or Flickr etc. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
You can add as many images as you want from your gallery ! second  third  |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Or - if you want full size images,   |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
All just dragged and dropped into the editor - you may need the collapse the window to see the editor window with some of the huge images!! |
|||||||||
jk
|
Hmmm. I feel that we may have been misled in the past over the built in gallery capabilities. |
|||||||||
jk
|
Another question...... Is it possible to have an button on a post that allows a 'Liked by username' icon to appear on the post ?somewhere?, as we tend to use the Quote button then comment which is very slow and wasteful as it bloats the comment. |
|||||||||
Robert
|
jk wrote: Hmmm.My recollection is that there was no gallery and that we had to add one? |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
A picture guide to inserting full res images from gallery using Ultra "G" button First type a few words ( important - the image can't be the first thing in the posting) Then click on the "G" button above  then from the popup screen, click on the image you want to post  that opens up the gallery of the photo owner  click again on the photo you want  click again and it opens up full size - use the window scroll handles to pull the image window to the left so you can see the editor box  and finally drag the image from the left and drop it into the editor box close the gallery window. You can repeat as many times as you want - you can also drag the thumbnail or the intermediate image into the editor box as you wish. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Robert wrote: jk wrote:Hmmm.My recollection is that there was no gallery and that we had to add one? Early versions of Ultra had galleries but when the original coder left, Jim felt he could not sell something he didn't have copyright to. Then windows and browsers moved on and some of the code used fell out of use so the galleries stopped working. I developed a "fix" using modern javascript which I have now put into your forum so the gallery is functional. As you use an add on gallery I also modified the script to open your gallery instead of the ultra one. The drop & drag is a happy accident from updates to the browsers these days. So, that is the story, I don't think you were misled  |
|||||||||
jk
|
Thank you very much for the explanation. Looks like I have some testing to do over the next week or so. |
|||||||||
Eric
|
This is quite interesting. Anything that improves the way the forum handles images must be good. Of course this method does mean we have to post our images into our individual gallery first....something I've tended to avoid. Quite often in the middle of a thread we want to imbed an image or several images to illustrate a point. The necessity of having to first post those images into a gallery, would seem to be a side step. Is there not a way to multi post direct into a thread direct from our computers ....like we do from Flickr? |
|||||||||
jk
|
Just tested on my ipad using Safari, I get a browser does not support this function message. No worries. I will test on Firefox and Safari on my desktop. Eric, posting to Flickr and linking is essentially the same process just different location for the images. |
|||||||||
Robert
|
Eric wrote: This is quite interesting. Anything that improves the way the forum handles images must be good. No way do I see this idea as a way to stop using Flicker. I will continue to use Flicker because I want my images in one central location from where I can post them in this and various other forums and be viewable in Flicker albums. I haven't used the forum gallery in a long while, this alteration won't change that. I don't think we want the expense of the additional storage and bandwidth which will result from the storage of the images with the forum hosts the forum can be slow enough at times. My understanding is bandwidth is expensive. Using Flicker is free up to 1000 images and the user pays Flicker over that. The hosting bill for the forum is less if heavy users use Flicker, or whatever other image host they select. What would be much more useful would be to be able to post several regulated images via the 'post image' button, from our desktop. For documentary images like screenshots where I want to show a method, I don't want to clutter up my Flicker gallery, not this gallery for that matter, with demo shots and screenshots of settings. Now I can't resize this window either??? The windows need to be resizable like they were. Not only that the blank para separation has been stripped out, so we just have an unreadable block of text. Sussed it, Double returns... |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Eric wrote: Is there not a way to multi post direct into a thread direct from our computers ....like we do from Flickr?In theory, yes there is, if I can find the time to develop a multi image attachment routine or a way of uploading from your PC to the forum - at the moment the forum, like others, uses a standard upload routine that requires a URL to embed in the post. The gallery allows that to be short circuited since the software "knows" the URL of the image since it is hosted on the forum. Downside is that you have to upload the file to the forum gallery as well as flickr if that is your preferred storage. The downside to external storage is that, like photbucket did, the images may be given temporary sharing URLs that stop working after a while. Also if something changes externally the forum ends up with broken links - from an admin's point of view it is better for forum integrity to have the images in the gallery or as attachments. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Nikondslr is using a mere 6% of its bandwidth so I doubt that is a concern. |
|||||||||
Robert
|
At the moment because very few images are hosted and these which are are low res. Please will you address the concerns I have regarding the text edit window resizing and the stripping of single blank paragraphs. This are major issues as far as I am concerned, they function perfectly well until you started meddling. |
|||||||||
Eric
|
chrisbet wrote:Eric wrote:Is there not a way to multi post direct into a thread direct from our computers ....like we do from Flickr?In theory, yes there is, if I can find the time to develop a multi image attachment routine or a way of uploading from your PC to the forum - at the moment the forum, like others, uses a standard upload routine that requires a URL to embed in the post. Ok, thanks for explaining. I will look at reinstating my gallery  |
|||||||||
jk
|
This is a multi image test.   |
|||||||||
jk
|
OK that seems to work on my desktop. I need to also test on the ipad where it fell over.. We will need to write some guidelines as how this feature should be used. We need to be able to limit the number of inserted images in a post to ?4? images. Open to debate on this. What I am trying to stop is Mr Silly posting his 2000+ images of his holiday snaps into one post!!! Also we will need to constrain the size of the image in <2MB, as well as longest side pixels to 1024 pixels. Once again open to discussion on this but we need to be aware that we dont always view on a 30" monitor! |
|||||||||
blackfox
|
looks good to me so far .. but with a very small forum be careful with costs , as rob says flickr is the cheapest option .. the best straight from desktop renditions I have come across so far are on the photography-on-the-net forum but no idea what they use |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Don't get too carried away to soon - I may have a PC direct to post function for you if I can work out the coding required - I have a pilot part coded ... Limiting the number of images per post may be a fruitless exercise as people will just complain they can't load one more than whatever limit you set and post again and again to get round the limit. You could set a limit of X number of posts per user per day / hour but I guess that won't be popular either! Moderation is the best route - educate people to post reasonably. Having now had a good look at the photo gallery code, it is no longer maintained - the authors abandoned it some years ago and even their website is no longer online. Something to think about before getting 1000s of images on it! |
|||||||||
Robert
|
Thanks for your efforts Chris, we know the software is obsolete, if as you say the forum's gallery is present, I suggest we cut away the add-on gallery and dump it and it's contents, We can save any potentially important images in case anybody really needs them. All of my stuff is saved on my computer. I would not have entertained an add on gallery had I known the forum had it's own. We were led to believe the add on was essential, it has been a real pain because the log in is separate from the forum login initially and it has caused many new members quite a bit of grief. Simplicity. |
|||||||||
jk
|
The software is old but is most current version. I dont know which gallery will provide us with most ease of use. |
|||||||||
Robert
|
chrisbet wrote:I may have a PC direct to post function for you if I can work out the coding required - I have a pilot part coded ... Just one point to bear in mind, a high proportion of us here have Mac's, I suspect you mean PC, personal computer as opposed to a Windows computer, just mentioning it since it may be relevant. I tend to agree about limiting the number of images, there is no, 'one size fit's all' with posting images, it depends on the circumstances to some extent. Moderation is the best way I think. |
|||||||||
jk
|
Robert wrote:chrisbet wrote: Yes I agree about Mac/Win/Linux but in truth it is really all about the browser. We can support some but all is a different game as you will get people who want Opera, and others. Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Edge, should be a good compromise for now. I agree that circumstances may drive a desire for more images in one post but in reality there is no reason why you need to show each and every step and if you do then it can be broken into smaller steps i.e. larger number of posts. If it is so complex then a YouTube linked video might be better. We need to follow the 80/20 rule! You will never sayisfy all the people all the time. |
|||||||||
Eric
|
jk wrote:Robert wrote: If we actually had 80 people posting and 20people silent it would be a step forward.  |
|||||||||
Robert
|
jk wrote:I agree that circumstances may drive a desire for more images in one post but in reality there is no reason why you need to show each and every step and if you do then it can be broken into smaller steps i.e. larger number of posts. If it is so complex then a YouTube linked video might be better. I was thinking about when Jeff takes the Mrs to Costa Rica for a month, he will have a bucket full of images to show us. |
|||||||||
jk
|
Erik, we have 300 members but 280 are silent, 15 are active and 5 are very occasional posters. |
|||||||||
Robert
|
I had been wondering about suggesting a cull of members who had not logged on for a certain time. But I thought that they don't really take up much space. |
|||||||||
Eric
|
jk wrote:Erik, we have 300 members but 280 are silent, 15 are active and 5 are very occasional posters. My point exactly. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Lol - so I swelled your numbers by 62/3% all on my ownsome You can always use the mass email facility to "ping" members and see if they are still alive. The number of dead email addresses we get back at data1 when we do that is amazing.... |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
On another matter - I have a mod to make to the reply file to feed previews correctly in the new template - when is everyone likely to be offline? |
|||||||||
jk
|
Late at night is good as there is only Rich in Australia and the occasional user in USA who are timezone shifted. |
|||||||||
Robert
|
And me when I can't sleep... my cure for insomnia is an hour on the computer, I get so tired I just go back to bed and straight to sleep! Why not just close the software and get on with it. An hour or two, or even longer without the forum during updates/upgrades and maintenance is perfectly acceptable. We rarely have downtime. Perhaps an announcement the day before that the forum will be off for X hours would avert any concerns. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
It's OK - I just waited until I saw nobody but me on the "who's online" so I knew it was at least 50 mins since the last person left. I often work after the 10pm news through to 1 or 2 am. The changes are very quick to implement - just the few seconds it takes to upload the modified file, just don't want to do it while someone is half way through a long post they have carefully crafted!!  |
|||||||||
Robert
|
<user=590><font color='ff0000'><b>chrisbet</font></user> wrote:</b> If I ever manage to carefully craft a long post I will copy it to pasteboard then frame it and hang it in the front room!!! LOL |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Robert wrote:If I ever manage to carefully craft a long post I will copy it to pasteboard then frame it and hang it in the front room!!! LOL Lol - you wouldn't believe some of the ire directed at one of the fora I work on - had to develop a "load last" function that restored the last thing a user typed! |
|||||||||
Robert
|
I'm posting this from my iPhone. My most testing experience was spending hours creating database layouts for DB Database then the computer failing to save to floppy disk. A right royal pain in the butt. No mouse all screen movement by arrow keys. |
|||||||||
Bob Bowen
|
Is it just me or has all this tinkering with the forum software made it very slow to load. All other net pages seem as normal just the forum. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
I think it is the server - I have asked the host to have a look at it - other fora on the same server are also slow. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Lol - I turned on the forum stats - bottom of page - to see what was taking so long and it suddenly speeded up! |
|||||||||
blackfox
|
yorkshire in our caravan more like , did try the Lake District a couple of years ago .. and luckily I chose the highest point of the site everyone else was paddling in there awnings , quite funny really as 5 people were arguing over our pitch when we left |
|||||||||
Bob Bowen
|
Much better now than this am or last few days. Thanks Chris. |
|||||||||
Eric
|
Not that it matters I suppose but the 'Recent Topics' link on this thread and SOME of the other ones generated in last few days, returns an error message NOT FOUND. |
|||||||||
blackfox
|
To be totally honest , I haven't go a clue what's been done here ,all I can see when viewing on my I.pad is that some images in this thread are now so tiny it's impossible to view them . . A total waste of time and effort imho  |
|||||||||
Eric
|
blackfox wrote:To be totally honest , I haven't go a clue what's been done here ,all I can see when viewing on my I.pad is that some images in this thread are now so tiny it's impossible to view them . . A total waste of time and effort imhoJeff...you have to log onto the new editor to see the differences. It hasn't been formally released by Chris and Jonathan as such but when I was getting the small image problem on iPad, Chris told me to go to my Account, select Preferences and then choose the Modern editor instead of the Ultra theme, in the board theme. Worth doing as it's a lot better in many ways...even on iPad. Chris beat me to it. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
I have just checked on an iPad and everything looks fine except a few images from flickr have become unavailable. The changes have been made on a totally separate theme - if you want to see, then change your theme in 'My Account - Preferences' to 'Modern editor'. We are still working on it but it is usable - there may be a few more features to add. Edit - cross posted with Eric |
|||||||||
jk
|
Jeff, take a spin with ModernEditor theme and tell us how you like it. I also want feedback from Robert but he seems to be busy or away. In fact I would encourage people to take a look at the ModernEditor theme that Chris has been working on and give me feedback. We wont necessarily be able or want to implement every suggestion but it is always good to have different perspectives. |
|||||||||
Eric
|
jk wrote:Jeff, take a spin with ModernEditor theme and tell us how you like it.Jonathan/Chris If we are approaching the time to open the new editor for all, would it be an idea to somehow archive the various WIP posts on the forum changes ..and start a dedicated thread of comments? There may be one already that I have missed...but then others may also miss it and post on the several forum related threads...dispersing useful comments? Or maybe it IS this one. |
|||||||||
jk
|
Yes I was going to make a new thread for responses. I can move the thread to Locked (Permanent or Temp) until we go live after more tests. I really want Robert's input on this but he is AWOL. |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
Ahh - I have been doing a bit of investigating on the issue of images misbehaving themselves - when a high resolution image is viewed on a small screen or iPad it is blown up to full image size in pixels which exceeds the screen width - the result being that the largest image on the page shrinks everything else so you see the whole image. Hence the tiny text and other images. I have solved the issue by containing ALL images to 100% of the screen width so they stay within the normal boundaries of the screen. The resolution is unaffected and zooming in will work as normal so you will see the detail. I have applied this "fix" to both Ultra and ME themes. |
|||||||||
Eric
|
jk wrote:Yes I was going to make a new thread for responses.***Good idea. Robert is visiting Jeff in North Wales at the moment. |
|||||||||
jk
|
chrisbet wrote:Ahh - I have been doing a bit of investigating on the issue of images misbehaving themselves - when a high resolution image is viewed on a small screen or iPad it is blown up to full image size in pixels which exceeds the screen width - the result being that the largest image on the page shrinks everything else so you see the whole image.Thanks Chris. That has been bothersome for a long time but I didnt have the ability to investigate. |
|||||||||
Pam
|
Testing Attachment: Screen Shot 2019-03-02 at 07.53.19.jpg (Downloaded 39 times) |
|||||||||
chrisbet
|
The gaps are the fix for the issue of the menubar covering the top of the post. I am going to move the menu bar to the bottom and see how that works. |
|||||||||
Chris
|
This is still Robert, my son Chris's account. I don't see the gaps as an issue really, a bit of 'white' space does no harm. Still trying to test the green arrows! that's why I am using different accounts. |
|||||||||
Chris
|
I just had a notification eMail to tell me there's a new post in this thread... No notification request was set.  |
|||||||||
Chris
|
Screenshot of settings, after I removed this thread from the list. Attachment: Screen Shot 2019-03-02 at 08.40.22.jpg (Downloaded 31 times) |
|||||||||
Chris
|
The watch thread eMail has arrived again despite removing the setting as shown above. Screenshot below... Attachment: Screen Shot 2019-03-02 at 08.44.59.jpg (Downloaded 30 times) |
|||||||||
Robert
|
OK, The green arrow appears to work as expected. There does appear to be a problem with unrequested notification eMails. |
|||||||||
Pam
|
Yes, I think that works better although the forum title banner is still there obscuring the post header. |
|||||||||
Robert
|
That's spot on Chris! Edit: Or it was! |
|||||||||
Robert
|
I have to go now, have fun... |
|||||||||
Current theme is Blue
| A small amount of member data is captured and held in an attempt to reduce spammers and to manage users. This site also uses cookies to ensure ease of use. In order to comply with new DPR regulations you are required to agree/disagree with this process. If you do not agree then please email the Admins using info@nikondsl.uk Thank you. |