Some polite suggestions for mods and forum members

[mrfixit]

I'm on a lot of forums, have moderated a few in the past and have a couple of ideas that forum users and mods alike might find useful.

I've noticed a few board members post about the forums acting up a bit sluggish. I've noticed it myself since landing here. There are lots of reasons why this could be happening, but this can be reduced if members follow a few simple guidelines.

1. Quotes.
When quoting from a previous post in a thread, there's no need to quote the whole thing. No one is ever going to read it. Try and get into the habit of highlighting the part of the text you want to comment on and strip out the rest.

If you are replying to a post directly above yours, use the ^ symbol. Or ^^ for two up. There's no need to quote it. We can all see it perfectly well thanks.
Using @whoever, works just as well if you want to reply to a whole post by another member further up the thread.

2. Pictures.
Keeping the size down to a maximum of 600px x 400px really helps speed up page loads. Even on high speed connections. I'm on a netbook and don't do sideways scrolling. A link to a larger picture is a solution if you don't have a smaller image to use. (Mods, I seem to remember there is a phpbb plugin that can do this automatically for large images inserted into the form). Big pictures cause forum blowout and can slow down retrieval times and page loads for everyone, even if they not viewing that thread.

3. Necros.
Not too bad here. When modding I always discouraged brining back threads from the dead after three months. A link to a previous thread is just as good as new members can go back and get up to speed, and keeps forum speed up too. Nothing slows down a forum more than necro'd threads. The server has to work overtime sending the page from way back when and keeping all the new threads up in the air at the same time.
Any necro'd threads were locked.

All these things done together will make the forums easier to use, speed up loads no end and save the site admin money on monthly bandwidth.

Thanks for your time. Hope you like the suggestions.

[wizer]

Is this a joke?
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[mrfixit]

^ No joke. As boards get bigger and bigger good housekeeping is essential.

A server is just like the hard drive in your pc. Too much stuff splashed around slows it down.

[wizer]

It came across as one of the most patronising posts I've read in a long time. This is an adult woodworking forum with lots of IT savvy people about, including the owner.

But thanks for thinking of us.
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[leverb01507]

I didnt even realise this was slow but maybe im behind the times, maybe 0.23 seconds for a page full of information to appear miraculously on my screen is just a blatant p**s take!

[wizer]

BTW. Pictures are not hosted on this site, so don't actually have any real bearing on server load. Similarly, I've never heard of an old post being served taking any more time than a new one. It depends on archive settings, but AFAIK, there aren't any on this forum. Certainly if an old thread is being updated or added to, then surely that's saving server space? I see what your saying about quotes, but it's not something I've really seen as an issue here and implementing your 'idea' would be pretty much impossible IMHO.

Also FYI, the owner of this site takes very much a back seat and AFAIK the mods have no access to install modules, plugins or updates, neither would they want to either, I should suspect.

We have our ups and downs but it all works pretty well most of the time. Certainly complaining about things rarely has any success.
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[big soft moose]

[Alf]

Dunno about the techie stuff, but from a courtesy POV, I think I'd prefer to be addressed by name than pointed at thusly ^ I know, I know; I'm stuck in the past and should probably be communicating in binary by now...
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Regularly Musing from the Workbench again: Das Blog

[lemonjeff]

^ 10100011

[Smudger]

^?
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Dick Smith

Chimpin' for Britain!

[Smudger]

For the Hand Tools section we could use this one

☝
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Dick Smith

Chimpin' for Britain!

[Mreagleeyes]

I agree with Mr Alf

[Smudger]

Blimey! No need to shout
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Dick Smith

Chimpin' for Britain!

[studders]

[wizer]

Yes it is annoying when occasionally an old thread gets resurrected for no apparent reason and then we all start replying until someone points out that it's an old thread. But it's only once in a blue moon and how on earth do you stop it? The only way is to lock those old threads. Which I think is a bit OTT.

It's all just etiquette issues and, as discussed many times before, there's hardly any sensible methods to inflict a strict etiquette on people of all ages from all walks of life. Gawd, we'll be telling people with high post counts to stop posting soon
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