I think technically, the term "post a picture" originally meant to send a photograph via the postal service. So...maybe we're looking at this all wrong: The proper technique for posting pictures here is clearly to send them, in the mail, to Cliff, who will then arrange for them to be viewable.
I think technically, the term "post a picture" originally meant to send a photograph via the postal service. So...maybe we're looking at this all wrong: The proper technique for posting pictures here is clearly to send them, in the mail, to Cliff, who will then arrange for them to be viewable.
This thread has just taken a sharp turn onto a much more entertaining road.
I'm propose that someone make a smart phone app that sends pictures to a system that prints and automatically sends them by Pony Express to Cliff, who can scan and then post them on the site.
Problem solved
[This message has been edited by lorennerol (edited 07-29-2015).]
Originally posted by Danyel: Here is how Art (Vernon8360) posts his pics !!!!!
I just got a picture from him today. It was only taken one week ago! Talk about advances in technology, it blows my mind that someone can take a photo, half way across the country, and then I am looking at it just under a week later! Wow! I just don't understand how people did stuff like this before air mail, and having to take film somewhere to have it developed.....
This thread has just taken a sharp turn onto a much more entertaining road.
I'm propose that someone make a smart phone app that sends pictures to a system that prints and automatically sends them by Pony Express to Cliff, who can scan and then post them on the site.
Problem solved
For those of us in the Americas, I'm not sure how the ponies get over the Bering Strait and thousands of miles of Siberia, but I guess that's just a detail.
Originally posted by Synthesis: 36 year old here. I'll do my best. A hashtag allows you to "tag" a post with a term that other people can use to tag their post as well. If multiple posts use the same hashtag, they can easily be searched for or grouped together to allow common topics to be viewed.
If three people talk about the same thing, but use a different hashtag in each post, there is no common way to group those posts together without using a full text search function in the server-side software. Something that would bring the server to its knees within seconds. The hashtag allows a faster method of tagging a post so that it can be linked to other similar posts.
I'm still confused...because if people are just randomly making up hastags how does anyone know to search for that hashtag in the first place? Seems like there would have to be some kind of Network Solutions out there assigning hastags and making sure they all come back to the same post. Otherwise I still just don't see how it works.
I'm still confused...because if people are just randomly making up hastags how does anyone know to search for that hashtag in the first place? Seems like there would have to be some kind of Network Solutions out there assigning hastags and making sure they all come back to the same post. Otherwise I still just don't see how it works.
Nope. Hashtags work "virally"... One person types a hashtag. Another person likes the post and reposts it with the hashtag, or creates their own post but uses the original post's hastag because they want to make it more popular...
Example: I post "Fieros rock! #NoFires4Me" Someone else thinks it is cool, they post "I like what this guy says #NoFires4Me" or just shares/reposts my post with that hashtag, and it has now spread to two people. Our circle of followers/friends all like/copy/repost/reuse the hashtag, and you now have a "viral" thing that goes from one, to two, to 4, to 16, to etc etc etc.
It grows exponentially, and the only thing that links the posts together is that hashtag. Otherwise, you'd eventually end up with a million posts that all say something different, and noone really knows what all of these people are talking about. The hashtag links them together in a common topic.
Originally posted by jscott1: For those of us in the Americas, I'm not sure how the ponies get over the Bering Strait and thousands of miles of Siberia, but I guess that's just a detail.
I agree with many here ............. BUT you must remember one thing ................ . . . . . . This forum is FREE .................. Data storage costs alot !!
It's true, the best things in life are free. I am, however, going to buy Cliff another beer anyway
------------------ Tim '87 GT Med Red Metallic 85K miles Bay City, MI
Steve, some people just don't have time to be in front of a desktop computer specifically to post on the forum. Phones are far more advanced then they used to be. I have all my images on my phone. That means I have to take the time to upload my pics to my desktop, then use pip for posting. To johns point. Would be much more convenient to go directly from phone to forum.
Jason, I use dropbox. Any photos on my phone go automatically to all my computers at home. You may not be able to copy and paste an actual photo from your phone, but its easy to post the photos URL if you store copies online like Imageshack, Picturetrail, etc.
If someone must post photos while theyre on the pot, its easy to do with a laptop.
To me anyway, its silly to try and see a photo on your phone, much less read some of the posts where you have to scroll every 5 words to see them. (unless you have a pair of magnifying glasses you can wear) I read one longer post in a thread once that took me 30 minutes of reading and scrolling. I could have drove home and read it on a laptop faster. Thats assuming your phone dont have a 12" screen.
I ain't no spring chicken, but I would prefer an easy way to upload photos from my phone. I would post photos much more often, especially on my frequent pull-a-part visits, if I could do so easily via my Android.
I wanna see a picture posted by voice.... Voice usually sucks. I have a samsung galaxy too and google speech to text has a hard time figuring out what Im saying and I speak perfect, clear english. I get mistakes almost everytime I try to use voice to dial a contacts phone number. ie/ call home...did you say Nome, AK......search RV boondocking, did you say R&V Boatdocks ?
I agree with many here ............. BUT you must remember one thing ................. This forum is FREE .................. Data storage costs alot !!
Sorry Danyel, I have to disagree with you on this one.
Here is some information from Cliff:
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more than 100,000 images have been uploaded to the PFF server. This makes it the largest Fiero related photo database in the world - by far. All in all, PFF is 17.2 Gb of Fiero related data.
17.2 Gb? THAT'S ALL? WOW! I have twice that (a 32 Gig thumb drive) on my keyring LOL!
As far as bandwidth goes, a forum with this small number of active members, the bandwidth should be pretty insignificant as well. It could easily be hosted on one of the $20 a month unlimited bandwidth & Unlimited storage sites. Barring the rare case that a story about Kathryn or Tyler hit's the media and the server gets slammed.
I'm propose that someone make a smart phone app that sends pictures to a system that prints and automatically sends them by Pony Express to Cliff, who can scan and then post them on the site.
17.2 Gb? THAT'S ALL? WOW! I have twice that (a 32 Gig thumb drive) on my keyring LOL!
As far as bandwidth goes, a forum with this small number of active members, the bandwidth should be pretty insignificant as well. It could easily be hosted on one of the $20 a month unlimited bandwidth & Unlimited storage sites. Barring the rare case that a story about Kathryn or Tyler hit's the media and the server gets slammed.
I will say this: You get what you pay for with hosting. Pair.com is a high-quality host. Their 80GB storage/400GB throughput shared hosting plan is $30/month with a 20% discount if you pay a year at a time, which is $288/year. Free? No. But not what I'd call expensive, either.
I don't think the problem OP is trying to resolve is... solvable. How are you going to generate traffic for a site dedicated car that no one is interested in or even knows exists anymore. The only people who care about Fieros are all over 40... As someone in my twenties, its hard to connect with this group. That group is only going to get smaller.
In reference to this particular site... Forums are soo early 2000s. The only reason I sign on is... I don't really even know. Sometimes I need help with my car. Besides that, I don't see any value of logging in. I don't know any of you in person, so I am left to rely on the entertainment value. Which there is none. Educational... YEA! entertainment.... well besides looking at everyone's look at this 3800sc build I am doing (which is stale and repetitive)... None.
The site is fine, I doubt cliff has any time to dedicate to this hobby.
With that being said, If he DOES have time and wants to change a few things... here's my two cents.
1. Get facebook / twitter / google login integration. That way I can log in with one of those accounts. 2. Get rid of PIP. Integrate with an image hosing site like IMGUR. They host images 4ever and you can handle max resolution with a css style. That way users don't have to worry how big or pixel dense an image is. 3. Get a new moderating system. I don't have an idea for a new one, but this auto-mod stuff is not working. 4. Give users a way to save and like posts. I use the last 40 posts to watch threads im interested in. There has to be a better way camera guy!
I don't think the problem OP is trying to resolve is... solvable. How are you going to generate traffic for a site dedicated car that no one is interested in or even knows exists anymore. The only people who care about Fieros are all over 40... As someone in my twenties, its hard to connect with this group. That group is only going to get smaller.
The issue is not generating traffic, or growing the site. Every group dedicated to a specific car (particularly one that hasn't been manufactured in over ¼ century) is going to hit peak membership and drop off, if only because of the diminished availability and exposure over time. There's no helping that, we'll get smaller as a group. That said, there's still a fair a number of people still using the forums, and a decent amount of activity.
The issue JohnWPB originally posted (for which we've strayed from slightly) was simply making it easier (or more convenient) to post photos from our phones. Many (at least?) are taking photos with our phones -- not because it's the best camera we own, but the best one we usually are carrying most of the time. I understand not wanting to type on the phone (and I agree -- typing on phones has always sucked, and has only gotten worse since hardware keyboards died out). But being able to quickly attach your photos from an event to the relevant thread (like "car show at X"), even without accompanying text, would be beneficial. It's not that it's impossible to sync/download to your computer, then upload with pip/etc, but any extra step means that fewer people will bother (regardless of intention -- "I'll do it tomorrow"). Thus we have shows where everybody takes photos, but nobody gets around to posting them. Or they get posted to facebook, you see them (assuming you checked facebook the same day), and will never be able to find them again.
quote
In reference to this particular site... Forums are soo early 2000s. [...]
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
quote
[...]The only reason I sign on is... I don't really even know. Sometimes I need help with my car. Besides that, I don't see any value of logging in. I don't know any of you in person, so I am left to rely on the entertainment value. Which there is none. Educational... YEA! entertainment.... well besides looking at everyone's look at this 3800sc build I am doing (which is stale and repetitive)... None.
Personally, a forum format fills a different niche than a social site does. Like you said, you use the forum when you need help with your car. I wouldn't check the Fiero facebook group for tips on replacing my distributor. Social networks have an edge in time-sensitive discussion, but lose significantly in permanence. I recently tried to find a post from only a week past on facebook. It doesn't even present things in chronological order when browsing, and you can forget trying to search for a particular discussion thread.
Besides, I've seen off-topic. I'm happy not having a social link to everyone here...
Regarding your numbered points:
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1. Get facebook / twitter / google login integration. That way I can log in with one of those accounts.
I'm not opposed, but I'd keep using a password, personally. I use unique accounts, passwords, and email addresses for each site. I'd prefer not to introduce third-party gate keepers.
quote
2. Get rid of PIP. Integrate with an image hosing site like IMGUR. They host images 4ever and you can handle max resolution with a css style. That way users don't have to worry how big or pixel dense an image is.
I don't mind the idea of PIP (though I can't use it myself). I like imgur, simply because they were formed specifically due to problems with other photo sites (photobucket, in particular). That said, PIP does have the advantage in that you can't delete uploaded photos. That could be potentially solved by caching remote images, then serving them via the forum (with links to the original). I doubt Cliff wants to start diving into the UBB source for that.
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3. Get a new moderating system. I don't have an idea for a new one, but this auto-mod stuff is not working.
I have no idea what this auto-mod stuff you're talking about. From what I understand, UBB was end-of-lifed a few years ago. I'd suggest attempting a migration to a newer platform (vbulletin, phpbb, etc), rather than hacking new features into a dead product.
That said, migrating all the content (and preserving URLs so links don't break) would be quite the task. I've been putting off a similar task for our customer forum at work, so I know this is not exactly a fun project... I'd be willing to help, though.
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4. Give users a way to save and like posts. I use the last 40 posts to watch threads im interested in. There has to be a better way camera guy!
You can always subscribe to threads you care about to get update notices. And at the risk of sounding old, "Bookmarks" are built in to every browser, and let you save any page on any site. Firefox allows you to sort them into folders and/or apply tags, as well as sync them across devices.
@ seq: That was a very well thought out and put together post, and I agree with pretty much everything you said.
To reiterate, yes, my intent was not a Forum -vs- Facebook thread, although not a bad discussion to have. I mentioned Facebook, for how people can EASILY post photo's from their phones to Facebook, as where on the Forum it is a PITA for the most part.
Have a look at any car show such as the Dells, Tyler Shipman Show, the Daytona show threads on the forum. Now have a look at their Facebook pages. There are a lot more posts and discussions in each of the forum threads for the most part for each of these shows. However you will find 90% of the pictures are posted to Facebook, and not the forum.
If you think PIP is a pain, when you can get it to work, try posting something like 20 photo's to a thread here on the forum! ! ! ! ! Browsing to each photo every time, then Uploading each one individually, then copying & pasting the URL, and having to do this over and over again.
When I post to Facebook, I select the 20 photos by just clicking on them, and hit "Post".
Lastly, as far as the quality of pictures on a phone. I am a photographer, and have a really nice Canon DSLR camera, tons of lenses, accessories and such. Many times, if the lighting is right, I can take almost as good of a photo with my phone.
Here is a photo I took with my Galaxy Note 3 a few months back. It is too large to post to the forum, so you can view it here. I tried reducing it to post here, but it was just too pixelated to show the quality.
If you think PIP is a pain, when you can get it to work, try posting something like 20 photo's to a thread here on the forum! ! ! ! ! Browsing to each photo every time, then Uploading each one individually, then copying & pasting the URL, and having to do this over and over again.
Originally posted by JohnWPB: If you think PIP is a pain, when you can get it to work, try posting something like 20 photo's to a thread here on the forum! ! ! ! ! Browsing to each photo every time, then Uploading each one individually, then copying & pasting the URL, and having to do this over and over again.
When I post to Facebook, I select the 20 photos by just clicking on them, and hit "Post".
To be fair, posting 20 photos at once isn't specifically an issue with PIP. It's an issue with forums. The problem is that forums aren't photo gallery management/sharing sites. They're optimized for discussion. Supporting that use case on PFF would require a significant re-design of how photos are handled on the forum, including the implementing of user galleries. Sure you could just upload them all, and get a big block of text to copy that had all of them embedded in a single post, but that's also not good for people wanting to discuss on a forum, as it creates a very length post and requires scrolling through all the images. And then when people quote and just leave all the images in the quote, it makes it that much worse. When you upload a bunch of photos to Facebook/G+/etc… you generally end up creating a new album, and what you share is a link to that album. People wanting to view the album get sent into a different interface for browsing the album, versus commenting on your sharing of the album itself.
Why not just upload to Facebook/G+/Flickr/wherever for such large collections of photos, and just sharing the link to the album?
Originally posted by dobey: To be fair, posting 20 photos at once isn't specifically an issue with PIP. It's an issue with forums. The problem is that forums aren't photo gallery management/sharing sites.
There is actually a very specific sub-forum here on PFF for individuals builds called "The Construction Zone". It is very much encouraged to post photo's, and lots of them in these threads. I would have to disagree in saying that a forum is not for sharing pictures.
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Originally posted by dobey:Why not just upload to Facebook/G+/Flickr/wherever for such large collections of photos, and just sharing the link to the album?
For those that have not read the TONS of PIP threads, and the Anti Red-X campaign, and hundreds of other posts and discussions as to why NOT to use a 3rd party site for posting photo's to a forum. The galleries can come and go based on numerous things such as inactivity, storage capacity, policy changes, the user reorganizing their images, and many many other reasons.
For example, someone creates a complete write up, with detailed photo's on how to build a 3800 wiring harness from scratch. They host all the images for the thread on Flicker. A few years later, when the no longer have their Fiero, and no longer active on PFF. They clean up their Flickr account and delete those photos. That leaves a useless thread here on the forum with all broken image links.
Here are a couple of good examples why not to use a 3rd party image hosting site for a forum:
And 49 cents postage! Next time I'll just call. I'm sure I can get change for the pay phone.
quote
Originally posted by JohnWPB:
I just got a picture from him today. It was only taken one week ago! Talk about advances in technology, it blows my mind that someone can take a photo, half way across the country, and then I am looking at it just under a week later! Wow! I just don't understand how people did stuff like this before air mail, and having to take film somewhere to have it developed.....
------------------ 1988 GT Medium Red Metallic Manual, Gray Leather K Beck LEDs & StuWipes Frazee: 2011, 2014
Originally posted by JohnWPB: If you think PIP is a pain, when you can get it to work, try posting something like 20 photo's to a thread here on the forum! ! ! ! ! Browsing to each photo every time, then Uploading each one individually, then copying & pasting the URL, and having to do this over and over again.
I don't have a dog in this discussion since I don't use Facebook or anything social media based on the net besides forums...
But the way I look at it is I could likely tear apart an engine with a single crescent wrench, but doing so would be vastly inefficient. I prescribe to the theory that the most efficient method stems from using the right tool for the job and that changes depending on the job at hand. I have posted thousands of pics to forums, and my build threads on PFF are some of the more (certainly not the most) picture intensive, sometimes with 20+ pictures in a single post. I find it quite simple to do using my method.
Originally posted by fieroguru: I have posted thousands of pics to forums, and my build threads on PFF are some of the more (certainly not the most) picture intensive, sometimes with 20+ pictures in a single post. I find it quite simple to do using my method.
I have seen your threads, and yes, LOTS of great pictures for sure! My challenge to you, is to post a photo here with your phone, without using a PC. That is the point (It's even in the thread title) that I was trying to make. So please post a picture with your phone, and describe the steps you used to do so.
I agree it would be very nice to have some tool to easily post pictures on the run (from mobile devices) in this forum. Having said that, you can see that what most people do is just post text in threads and that is as easy as in FB. Search here is very powerful and important for technical stuff. I can wait for following Sunday or Monday to get the Daytona pictures. What I would hate is for this community to be split between the two and I think that is the way it is going. I would need to create another FB account where I can subscribe to that because my current FB account is strictly for direct (blood related) family matters.
(unless you have a pair of magnifying glasses you can wear) I read one longer post in a thread once that took me 30 minutes of reading and scrolling. I could have drove home and read it on a laptop faster. Thats assuming your phone dont have a 12" screen. 
