Changes to the forum

[DeltaOne81]

[quote CowbellGuy]
Anyway, welcome to the new server! Faster processors, 4x the RAM, faster drives, 7x the capacity, etc. Let me know if you experience any oddities, and thanks for everyone's support.

As you were.[/quote]

Want to give us any idea of how much that ran you? So we can compensate you appropriately using that handy dandy Donate button?

[CowbellGuy]

Heh. That's cause that's where the server's located. Thanks for catching that. I'll fix it in the morning.

[CowbellGuy]

You don't want to know. It's a monthly lease, for all intents, so it's a gift that keeps on giving.

[jtwcornell91]

I recently noticed that the file attachments are restricted to GIF, JPG, TXT, and PDF.  Can you please add PNG to list of allowed formats?  PNG was developed ten years ago as a license-unencumbered and improved replacement for GIF, so should really be a standard option by now.

[DeltaOne81]

Edit: Nevermind

[ugarte]

I don't know if this has anything to do with the changes but I don't see where else to report technical issues.

I no longer get a note at the top of the screen telling me when I've been PM'd. I only noticed because there were messages in my inbox when I went to PM Ari for information about O'Byrne's real reasons for leaving.*



*Yes, I will continue to beat that dead horse until it is no longer even recognizably equine.

[Beeeej]

You can also change your forum settings so that it sends you an e-mail to notify you when you've received a PM.

[David Harding]

Not a big deal, but when I do a search asking for it to be restricted to "this forum", the search covers multiple forums anyway.

[jtwcornell91]

Okay, so I think Age needs to either a) make it easier for admins to delete multiple messages at once or b) eliminate non-member posting so the spambots can't pile on.

[Rosey]

[quote jtwcornell91]Okay, so I think Age needs to either a) make it easier for admins to delete multiple messages at once or b) eliminate non-member posting so the spambots can't pile on.[/quote]
There are other solutions to stupid spambots that still allow for anonymous posting.  I sent some suggestions based on my own experience to Age.

Kyle

[Will]

[quote krose][quote jtwcornell91]Okay, so I think Age needs to either a) make it easier for admins to delete multiple messages at once or b) eliminate non-member posting so the spambots can't pile on.[/quote]
There are other solutions to stupid spambots that still allow for anonymous posting.  I sent some suggestions based on my own experience to Age.

Kyle[/quote]

Just to play devil's advocate here...what exactly is the advantage of having anonymous posting be available at all?

[Rosey]

[quote Will]Just to play devil's advocate here...what exactly is the advantage of having anonymous posting be available at all?[/quote]
Ease of joining the community.  Someone is more likely to post the first time---and consequently, to become a long-term contributor---if the barriers to entry are very low.  On my metal forum, I have put probably a hundred hours worth of work into the software simply to allow unregistered posting while filtering out spambots and other kinds of abusers.

The ability to post without registering makes a huge difference in how welcoming the community is, but IMO only if the abuse filtering is effective: too much spam can lower the signal-to-noise ratio enough to cause people to leave, which is a lot worse than requiring registration.  So there's a certain minimum amount of functionality required to make unregistered posting a net gain... but that gain is not achievable any other way, which is why it's worth the effort.

Cheers,
Kyle

[Trotsky]

[quote krose]The ability to post without registering makes a huge difference in how welcoming the community is, but IMO only if the abuse filtering is effective: too much spam can lower the signal-to-noise ratio enough to cause people to leave, which is a lot worse than requiring registration.  So there's a certain minimum amount of functionality required to make unregistered posting a net gain... but that gain is not achievable any other way, which is why it's worth the effort.[/quote]

How about permitting anonymous posts by typing one of those funky alpha-numeric codes that are supposed to elude the bots' character-recognition capabilities?  Registering would then obviate the need to type the code.  It would be a barrier, but it would be easy and you could see your post immediately.