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Post by KliffsAurora on Nov 21, 2007 13:32:44 GMT -6
Some other Car Forums have a gallery section where you can look at other members vehicles. Is that an option for the ACNA boards server? Just Curious...
I know we have a section where we can post up our pictures but I didnt know if we could ever have a section where you could enter in a name of a member and look at there car and stuff.
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Post by Mr. Javi on Nov 21, 2007 13:43:07 GMT -6
That would be nice.
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Post by KliffsAurora on Nov 21, 2007 13:52:00 GMT -6
On mymonte.com (another place I belong to) you have a profile and you can write blogs, upload pics to your album, and write little tidbits about yourself, your car and whatnot. I think it would work well here too.
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scottydl
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Post by scottydl on Nov 21, 2007 15:29:51 GMT -6
Unfortunately we are limited by Proboards on some add-ons like that, and I'm not sure there's any way to expand the member Profile to include photos. That's kinda what we use our avatars and sigs for, as well the "Aurora Showroom" section. There's always the never-ending Latest picture of your car thread, currently on its 49th page. That ought to give you a good overview of several members' cars.  |
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Post by Marc on Nov 21, 2007 19:34:17 GMT -6
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scottydl
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There's nothin' like an American V-8...
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Post by scottydl on Nov 21, 2007 21:16:06 GMT -6
Ah, good catch Marc. The thread was created as a Gallery collection of sorts, although not too many members have chosen to add their information.
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Post by Aurora40 on Nov 22, 2007 8:22:11 GMT -6
We would need somewhere to host files to have a gallery. That means it would cost some amount of money. That's why we don't have one.  |
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Post by JimW on Nov 22, 2007 8:36:06 GMT -6
We tried and it failed miserably, so I suggest we make use of the site. I know Mike has offered webhosting for this site, but I've resisted his generous offer for a variety of reasons. ACNA is still relatively small, so lets us what we have to maximize it to its fullest.
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Post by KliffsAurora on Nov 22, 2007 16:58:28 GMT -6
Well at least I(we) know this stuff now. I Guess we can use the ACNA Members and There Aurora's as our Profile Info/Picture Gallery. I Continuously use the latest Pic Of your Aurora thread when I post my pics. Thanks for the Info. If there ever came a time where the site upgraded to a fee membership based forum, I would contribute.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2007 23:18:30 GMT -6
So I was really bored at work. Reading this thread inspired me to have some fun while I killed time. I was playing around with a better forum (written in php) and more accommodating to the needs of an automotive forum. I installed it flawlessly and also added the Album feature. It seriously makes an automotive forum that much better. If you guys ever want to move over to a ad-free, paid for webhost that supports the ability to run your own stuff let me know. I will gladly pay for the hosting on the forum. Check out my "mock" ACNA forum. It has no use other than as a testing ground. www.punk-ass.com/forum |
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scottydl
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There's nothin' like an American V-8...
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Post by scottydl on Nov 27, 2007 8:34:37 GMT -6
You may or may not have read references to ACNA v2. That was our php forum that looked just like all the other car forums out there, with all of its dandy features. We moved to it FROM here (Proboards, our first forum home) a little over 2 years ago I think and were there hosted by canaca.com for 3-4 months. With essentially no warning, our host shut us down due to their lack of forum resources and V2 was a total loss. All threads, postings, images GONE. Most of us found our way back here to Proboards (the forum was still in place, just had no activity for 3-4 months) and resumed way of life, technically now as ACNA v3.
We've taken to vote a couple times on moving AGAIN to a new host for php software and whatever else new technology has to offer ... but the overall consensus has always been to stay here at Proboards. If we moved, our entire archive of threads here (10,000+) would be lost... or at least it would all have to stay here, and we'd constantly be referring/linking to it from the new site. (We've checked and no, there's no way to transfer all the content.) Everyone would have to re-register at a new site. Many occasional members/visitors would be lost because they wouldn't know where everyone went. Our ACNA "history" on Google and other search engines (which took a LONG time to establish) would be worthless, and the new site would not be easy to find.
So essentially, it's not worth it to move. Even for nice features like photo albums and such. Believe me, the admin capabilities & options are much nicer with php also. But the established forum we now have here at Proboards outweighs the advantages of starting over IMO. Also, your offer to pay hosting fees is appreciated. That's been considered before also with similar offers from members, but we don't feel it's right to rely on any single member to support/own the forum (financially or otherwise). And we obviously don't want to become a pay site either. The discussion always ends up back at staying here (Proboards) since it's free, and living with some of the shortcomings.
We could put this up for a member vote again, but for all the reasons above the answer - although not ideal - is pretty clear.
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Post by Marc on Nov 27, 2007 8:43:02 GMT -6
ACNA is excellent as is. No moves, please.
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Post by 95mushroom on Nov 27, 2007 8:48:47 GMT -6
For a gallery, why not just add a url link in your sig to a cardomain, or carnut, whatever the other one is? Something like Click here to check out my Gallery/Blog? Scotty and myself have been sporting links for a bit now. I mean we have the homepage link button under the avatar, but that probably doesn't get much use. The link would be more obivously, the only thing would be it we'd would/should increase the max. numbers of characters allowed in the sig if possible. |
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Post by Aurora40 on Nov 27, 2007 10:45:00 GMT -6
Well, let's not revisit the moving of the forum just because of a gallery. The gallery could easily be added as a button that links to another site, or text in the scrolling banner, a link in a sticky thread, whatever. It wouldn't necessarily even have to support logins. But again, someone has to host it, someone has to maintain it, etc. This is why there isn't one.
Honestly, generally speaking members seem willing to put forth very little effort towards the "club". There's nothing wrong with that, but let's be honest about it. What we have works fine and requires very little effort and zero cost. It's about all people are willing to put forth, again which is fine.
I would ask what the goal is of having a gallery, though? I know plenty of forums I use have them, and I almost never click on them. Is it nice it's there? Sure. But if it were gone it wouldn't lessen the forum by a whole lot.
If the goal is to see other people's cars, then in what way? To see random cars, or specific people's cars? If it's specific, put a link in your signature or in your profile. If it's a way to just see a bunch of random Auroras, well there is the FMA, there are stickied threads for past FMA's, stickied threads for members and their cars, stickied threads for "latest car pictures", etc.
So what I am saying, I guess, is what is the real argument for a gallery? What is the end goal, what is the cost, what does it buy us, and what are the alternatives that may already address some of the goals with no cost?
To me a gallery doesn't exist because it doesn't make sense given all these variables (especially cost). But I'm certainly open to arguments.
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Post by Mr. Javi on Nov 28, 2007 18:30:44 GMT -6
So I was really bored at work. Reading this thread inspired me to have some fun while I killed time. I was playing around with a better forum (written in php) and more accommodating to the needs of an automotive forum. I installed it flawlessly and also added the Album feature. It seriously makes an automotive forum that much better. If you guys ever want to move over to a ad-free, paid for webhost that supports the ability to run your own stuff let me know. I will gladly pay for the hosting on the forum. Check out my "mock" ACNA forum. It has no use other than as a testing ground. www.punk-ass.com/forumMan that looks nice, the lay out and all, that color scheme, is inviting. |
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Post by Oldsnut on Nov 28, 2007 23:03:57 GMT -6
I personally see NO purpose in a gallery, ACNA seems to be working just fine and attracting people to the site on a frequent basis. Not having a gallery makes members search thru the forum and quite possibly learn things. That is all.
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scottydl
Super Moderator
There's nothin' like an American V-8...
Posts: 7,373
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Post by scottydl on Nov 29, 2007 12:59:08 GMT -6
Not having a gallery makes members search thru the forum and quite possibly learn things. What a concept! |
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Post by aurora2fst4u on Dec 1, 2007 20:40:34 GMT -6
I personally see NO purpose in a gallery, ACNA seems to be working just fine and attracting people to the site on a frequent basis. Not having a gallery makes members search thru the forum and quite possibly learn things. That is all. I have to agree w/oldsnut... and yes I'm still learning things. Hey guys thanks for posting about past thoughts concerning forum changes, very well written and informative. I for one, thank you all for your time in monitoring, moderating and administrating this site  ;D |
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scottydl
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There's nothin' like an American V-8...
Posts: 7,373
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Post by scottydl on Dec 3, 2007 18:58:05 GMT -6
Hey guys thanks for posting about past thoughts concerning forum changes, very well written and informative. I does help to run through the club's history every now and then. Not everyone has been around as long as some of the crusty original members. I wasn't even original, but came on the scene shortly thereafter. |
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;D