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chockstone forum upgrade? |
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19-Oct-2010 3:28:03 PM
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can chockstone possibly upgrade the forum software?
stuff by vbulletin is so much better and a number of other forums run this...
http://www.vbulletin.com/
the forum's great, but outdated in my opinion.
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19-Oct-2010 3:37:45 PM
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Am I reading right that that software cost $195USD and that the anti-spam stuff is only in the more expensive suite version?
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19-Oct-2010 3:39:08 PM
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Can't say I see the point in upgrading ... works perfectly well the way it is!
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19-Oct-2010 3:42:24 PM
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this one's free
http://www.phpbb.com/
yeah the forum works well, but i think these work better
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19-Oct-2010 4:13:18 PM
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Dont fix what aint broken.
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19-Oct-2010 4:22:47 PM
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On 19/10/2010 rodw wrote:
>Dont fix what aint broken.
+1
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19-Oct-2010 4:24:51 PM
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+ 2
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19-Oct-2010 4:47:41 PM
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+ 3 (and we use vBulletin here already for our user groups).
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19-Oct-2010 7:15:28 PM
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'If it ain't broke don't fix it' - people stopped listening to that 5000 years ago, when bronze tools started to replace stone tools.
jaebo, what features are we missing here that you'd like to see?
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19-Oct-2010 7:19:49 PM
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I reckon those hairy dudes replaced their stone tools with bronze tools when their stone tools broke.
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19-Oct-2010 7:36:08 PM
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...or the bronze tool brigade massacred their arses...
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19-Oct-2010 7:39:12 PM
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It's fair enough to want some extra features on Chocky but there are some constraints on what can be done.
The first is time. Mike does this in his spare time. He's been good at adding features over time but don't expect too much.
Change of Software : big call.
There are two options : 1. Just load some new forum software on Chocky's webspace and go. Easy but you lose all of the history, for whatever it is worth. It also means all the users have to register again.
2. Full conversion of the current Chockstone database to new software. This is a big job.
What's not so obvious is that Chockstone is still here and used not because of the software but because of Mike. Mike has managed to keep it running and find a secure home for it over the years and that is some achievement.
And because it's still here we use it.
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19-Oct-2010 7:59:11 PM
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I think it's the outdatedness that makes Chocky so appealing.
If you look at most other major climbing forums, the aesthetics alone make you feel like you should be talking about nintendo Wii games.
It's simple & easy to use, and because it doesn't use a WYSIWYG means it's not crudded up with too many pictures/quotes/colours etc.
I, for one, love the monochrome style.
HOWEVER - searching & finding relevant information is very difficult. With 150264 posts & close to 10,000 topics - it's hard to find information & there's so much repetition.
For example, an easy to use Recall Information was just mentioned.
Perhaps there needs to be a "Selected posts" section & FAQs
- Shipping from OS links
- Camping beta
You can see that Chocky was once a thriving VCC website with interviews & activities - but seeing as the latest news is from 2006; maybe the mods should have a (online)chat and see what can be updated/moved around without actually tinkering with the software?
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19-Oct-2010 9:05:52 PM
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a view new posts tab would be handy. So you dont have to sift through the forum pages if you dont get on here everyday. But it's no biggy as is
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19-Oct-2010 9:18:39 PM
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On 19/10/2010 costa wrote:
>a view new posts tab would be handy.
Like the list on the front page?
On 19/10/2010 martym wrote:
>HOWEVER - searching & finding relevant information is very difficult.
>With 150264 posts & close to 10,000 topics - it's hard to find information
>& there's so much repetition.
Google search site:chockstone.org
>You can see that Chocky was once a thriving VCC website
VCC??? Nothing to do with the VCC...
Nobody sends in news - they just post it in the forum. Probably could be removed. Coming activities etc still gets updated...
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19-Oct-2010 10:27:52 PM
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One thing people forget is that Chockstone generally comes down pretty fast even over a slow link. The code might be a little ugly, but it'll work over a 33.6 modem just fine. I know most people have faster links than that, but I suspect there's a proportion of the users of this forum that are still using older modem. I could be well wrong but I do think it's a feature of the current code base.
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20-Oct-2010 8:06:31 AM
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Leave
It
Alone
(unless you have unlimited time to fix it, unlimited time squared to fix your fixes, and at least 5 years ahead unbooked)
Even then, it's so much better than RC.com, all the new messages are there highlit for my amusment.And no pissy emo-ticons and moving stuff like QURANK (which is otherwise midly better)
Why not spend some of this spare time that is burning a hole in your 'whatever' doing useful stuff (cliffcare, rebolting, going climbing).
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20-Oct-2010 8:59:20 AM
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On 19/10/2010 ajfclark wrote:
>One thing people forget is that Chockstone generally comes down pretty
>fast even over a slow link.
That might be true, but accessing it from seppo-land is a constant pain in the ar5e. I get loads of timeouts, SQL exceptions etc. and the only thing I can think would cause it is latency plus some weird code design (same database connection reused across multiple requests in the same session????).
I'm on high speed cable here, but my ping RTTs to www.chockstone.org are around 250ms. In comparison www.sydneyrockies.org.au is around 35ms (and I only chose it as a comparison because I know they don't use a CDN, which totally skews the RTTs).
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20-Oct-2010 9:20:08 AM
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Just for my own interest, could you send me a traceroute -n (or tracert -n from windows) to each?
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20-Oct-2010 9:37:13 AM
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i don't mean any offense in the suggestion and it sounds like a big job.
one advantage is having administrators to help monitor and regulate the forum.
i'd love to get out and climb more, but gotta pass the time in the office in some way...
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