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dyrodium
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Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 6476
Location: Sydney


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Ok, I just stumbled across this German robot combat group roboteers.org:

http://forum.roboteers.org/portal.php

I really love how their page is setup, you get sent directly to the forum yet you still have room for a blurb up the top saying what it's all about, and on the right get a calendar for upcoming events. To be honest, this might be an even better solution to trying to make a simpler and newer home page... A forum keeps itself updated by nature. I'd be more than happy handing out a flier that directed to a page like this, if it was accessed by a simple URL.

Could I get some feedback on how people feel? Would this make it easier for new people to come in and see the next local event and perhaps more friendly to get in and start posting? There's a couple of things on there that we could remove to unclutter a little.

Post Sun Dec 04, 2011 8:59 pm 
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miles&Jules
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Joined: 19 May 2010
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Location: ipswich QLD


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Ha pretty cool website ...there events look like ours only cleaner!
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Post Sun Dec 04, 2011 9:31 pm 
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Jaemus
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Joined: 01 Apr 2009
Posts: 2674
Location: NSW


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Yep, looks like that german site is, as far as i can tell, is forum software with a frontpage portal plugin/module, much as you suggest.

That sort of setup makes sense, particularly with regard to the content generation aspect, but you're talking forum seccession here unless Brett will make the plunge and set this up for this forum. Im not sure if there are such modules available for phpBB, particular the very old version we have here, although there very well could be. Either way, afaik, this will likely involve a completely new installation, which the current database may or may not be able to be ported into, depending on the nature of the new or updated software.

That said, I entirely agree that it's worth looking into, and if implement in a simpler, less cluttered fashion than the linked German site (keeping in mind as Aaron correctly suggests, eye candy be damned, pure content FTW), should be a winner.
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Post Sun Dec 04, 2011 10:43 pm 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
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Location: Brisbane, QLD


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That site is really very ABBL-esque.

I really wish I had a copy of that PHP. I would learn PHP just to be able to revamp it.

Steve
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Post Sun Dec 04, 2011 11:08 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia


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Looks a bit cluttered to me, but Im not picky, if you guys all like it, you can can change it.

We are running the latest version of the phpBB V3 series (IIRC).

I never did the change to the phpBB v5 series because it took a while for them to get some early bugs ironed out (there were a lot of rapid releases), and it wasnt compatible with some anti-spam modules I had installed, and it didnt really seem to offer much that was better than phpBB v3 at the time.

Plus, I cant recall the details now, but I think there was some big messy work going to be required to pull the photo album across. Its another sql-database based add-on to phpBB v3. I didnt want to break everyones old image posts, which probably means having to either figure out a way of installing the old photo album plugin in phpBB v5, or having to export all the content from the old album database, importing it into whatever the new photo album is, building a cross-reference table of links and then doing a search/replace on the old posts to update them to point to the new database.

Its stuff like that, that is why I say whoever is volunteering to revamp the site had better know what they are doing and be prepared to put in some hard work to do a good job of it. not just offer a rethemed front paqe and then realise it will break all the back-end stuff.

PHP isnt that hard for anyone with some coding experience, I can read and mod it fairly easily.. I wouldnt want to write from scratch, but following whats going on doesnt take a lot of brain-cycles. Getting all the SQL stuff in combination with the PHP and the style scripts takes a bit more head scratching.

and making sure you do any changes in a safe roll-back-able fashion so if you bust something by tinkering in an area youre not familair with you can get things rolling again without having to start over is the hardest part. Its tedious, careful work, but if you dont want to see "Sorry, the Forum is down for maintenaince [while we try to figure out what weve stuffed up]" pages, then you have to do it.

Not to toot my own horn too much, but who can remember *any* significant amount of downtime on this forum in the last 10 years ? Thats the difference between a novice admin who changes things willy nilly, and a careful admin who backs things up and makes sure changes are roll-backable.

OK, I havent done any changes in the last few years, its just run nicely by itself. But when I was changing code and installing plugins, , I always made sure I had several history backups and recovery plans. If you admin server systems for multiple users and not just yourself, that is essential and what I would want to see from any potential new admins.
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Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:40 am 
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miles&Jules
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Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 3973
Location: ipswich QLD


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Oh sounds pretty scary...it would be a shame if any or all of the forum posts got lost forever...I love searching through old build reports and finding cool stuff I missed before.

Yeah the existing website does seem to be problem free, good work over all the years spockie!
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www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:57 am 
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Knightrous
Site Admin


Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 8511
Location: NSW


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I think the forum software is fine. It might be an older version, but:

- It's stable
- It's functional
- It's bug free
- It's has no big security issues
- It's minimalist and has no wank features.
- It's spam free

As much as I'm generally all for riding along on the latest version of any software, this is one exception I'm willing to accept Smile

On an off shoot idea. Couldn't we just load the forums into a framed page from the RoboWars site instead of trying to hack the forum code to have a front page?

I've hacked a dodgy example together here: http://crystalnode.net/projects/robowars/index.html
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Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:47 am 
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dyrodium
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Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 6476
Location: Sydney


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@ Aaron, that alternative would work pretty well I think, however it's somewhat back to the same issue with the home page being outdated, none of those side links are needed any more, but perhaps could be substituted with robowars NSW, QLD and the wiki...

The current forum has been pretty reliable, I can only think of a few temporary hiccups over the years.

I can't offer any coding or website expertise, not nearly close to what you're asking Brett, but what I can offer is a determination to pull up the popularity of the sport.

I've been doing this through school clubs, talks, managing events and intend to continue. I think we're all on the same page with the fact a flashy site is pointless if it has none of the drive to back it up, but on the same token I need to direct people somewhere.

EDIT: On a side note... I'm not sure who uses the photo album still, or has for some time, other than Phillip? Could organise a rip of it's content and then get rid of it in my opinion... I've found photo bucket great over the years.

Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:57 am 
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Knightrous
Site Admin


Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 8511
Location: NSW


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quote:
Originally posted by dyrodium:
@ Aaron, that alternative would work pretty well I think, however it's somewhat back to the same issue with the home page being outdated, none of those side links are needed any more, but perhaps could be substituted with robowars NSW, QLD and the wiki...


Yeah, it does however remove a lot of hassles and we can still keep a lot of the old historic pages on the site without people having to go through them to find anything recent.

Change the Infomation link to point to the wiki, remove the robots, store and chat forum links. Add a "Looking for the old RoboWars site" link down the bottom that will take you to the old content that exists. Add an Upcoming Events link and update the links page.

Ensure we do a quarterly wiki update with fresh information and it should be pretty good for a while.
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Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:03 pm 
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seanet1310



Joined: 08 Nov 2006
Posts: 1265
Location: Adelaide


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quote:
Originally posted by dyrodium:

The current forum has been pretty reliable, I can only think of a few temporary hiccups over the years.



These odd hiccups where hosting side faults from memory not the fault of lack of admin support or buggy/compatible software. Such reliability should try to be maintained.

AArons solution looks good as an option (With full screen forum imo option still needed) with the appropriate updated information of course
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Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:45 pm 
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Philip
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Joined: 18 Jun 2004
Posts: 3842
Location: Queensland near Brisbane


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The site has been very reliable. Techs often don't get noticed when everything is running well. Good on you, Brett.


quote:
I'm not sure who uses the photo album still, or has for some time, other than Phillip?
I don't want to stand in the way of any changes. What is a good photo hosting site with no inappropriate pictures?
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Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:01 pm 
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dyrodium
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Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 6476
Location: Sydney


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Sorry Philip didn't intend to attack you or anything, as I said photobucket has been good for me, you only see your album and they have a strict uploading policy you can read here : http://photobucket.com/terms

I've liked how I can simply click the image posting link ready to go and paste it into my posts. It's free, advert supported.

Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:54 pm 
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seanet1310



Joined: 08 Nov 2006
Posts: 1265
Location: Adelaide


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+1 for photobucket. I have had an account for around 7 years+ and have never seen what could be considered inappropriate from advertisements, Just the standard reputable vanilla internet ads used to support general all age use websites.

They also have a reasonable strict terms of use as Angus linked, you do not see anything from other peoples albums unless you go out and hunt them down, so if someone did upload an inappropriate image for the short time before photobucket took it down you would never see it. You can embed photos.

Nexus (George ?) was the only other person by the looks of things to use the album from start 2010
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Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 7:23 pm 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 5459
Location: Brisbane, QLD


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Photobucket is pretty nice. The only things I don't like is how it fails to open in any browser properly under linux and mutilates videos. I dont know how many of those photos would be missed. It would only be if it breaks links around the place.

I really don't like the sound of just chucking the forum in a frame on the main page. That will look ugly, and not really solve any problems.

The version of phpBB we are running is V2.0.17 from 2001 according to admin panel that is older than the one we were using on ABBL. PhpBB only exists in V1,2,3 AFAIK. There isn't really much reason to go to newer than what we have except for few better management tools for threads, and plugins for youtube videos and stuff.

The ONLY way to reduce spam is to activate accounts manually. Humans are cheap enough to spam forums in many countries and you can't stop them beating any protection measures you put in place. Even then if they register a new email account don't put in details you are still blind. One key feature which this version lacks is the remove user and all posts. Which is great for spammer removal.

I can sort out some crappy hosting if anyone wants to play with some installs and sites.

Steve
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Post Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:36 pm 
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marto
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 5459
Location: Brisbane, QLD


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So does anyone have any issues with moving QRSC site to a robowars.org/qld or qld.robowars.org?

I would like to do this before the Edge event.

Steve
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Post Mon Dec 12, 2011 12:17 pm 
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