Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

General Sailing Talk
Yara50
Posts: 835
Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 7:10 pm
Location: Sydney

Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Yara50 »

Geoff O, the new custodian of Yara, has kindly agreed to take over the running of the web site. Not only, he will also be upgrading it to the latest version of the software, so it will make it easier for new members to join.

So hang on to your hats, the new look is coming!!!
Cheers Ian B
Ian B
Ex Investigator 563 #50 Yara
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Ozzie
Posts: 1621
Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 1:07 pm
Investigator Boat Name: Spritzig II
Location: Lake Macquarie
Contact:

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Ozzie »

For those newer to this site. Ian has helmed three incarnations of this site now. The original MSN, later forcibly exported to Multiply and then the creation of this one. Not to mention contributions to my interim investigator site on google groups.

My best wishes and gratitude to you Ian for your dedication to this site and keeping the Investigator 563 in the cyber world. I’m sure our ownership of Spritzig II would have been less enjoyable without this little community to share it with.

Please share your ongoing sailing adventures with us wherever the wind takes you. I too have enjoyed our phone conversations and your good advice.
Ozzie
Investigator #143 "SPRITZIG II"

The Mariner - “It’s too strange here. It doesn’t move right." ...
Enola - “Helen said that it’s only land sickness."
Waterworld (1995)
cruiserpete
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 5:20 pm

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by cruiserpete »

Ian,

A huge thank you for your hard work and dedication with what is a wonderful sailing community on the I563 forum.
It is testament to the quality of a forum, especially an online forum that the quality of the forum's tone and effectiveness is facilitated by the forum admin and moderators.

I learnt a lot about I563's and without the forum, I would have been in the wilderness, and most likely would not have known just how brilliantly the I563 is as a trailer sailer.

Cheers, and a huge thank you :-)

Geoff O, as a previous but enthusiastically active previous member, if I can help in any way, I'm happy to do so. Although my wonderfully refurbished I563 was sold way back in 2013/4 albeit it's up for sale again, I'm happy to help out.

Cheers,
Pete
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Geoff
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2019 12:04 pm
Investigator Boat Name: #50 Timeless
Location: Monto, Queensland

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Geoff »

Hello all,

This is Geoff O. When I bought the boat off Ian and I told him I had recently sold my web hosting business, he asked if I would be interested in administering the forum. I have not introduced myself up to now as I was hoping to have the new iteration of the forum up and running first.

However the domain registration transfer hasn't completed yet, so I can't transfer the forum to my server until it does.
More correctly, the new forum is already in place on the server, but I can't change the DNS yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

I think I have read pretty well every post here, in the meantime. :)

When it does go live, it will look a bit different. The current skin is a custom template that is no longer supported for the latest forum version.
It won't have the image in the top left corner and the colours will be a bit different.

We can look for a different template later, and trick it up a bit. I have looked at some of the custom templates available, most of them are as ugly as a smashed crab. Mostly for gamers I think.

The priority is getting the software upgraded to the latest version - that's done on my server. Once we go live I will get SSL installed so we can get rid of the insecure browser warnings. Then we can worry about making it prettier.

I have never administered a forum before, so I will have to learn how to steer this thing. But I work in IT, so shouldn't be overly challenging.

Shouldn't need to be said, but I have no intention of making this forum 'mine'. I am happy to keep it running and take care of admin work.
I am also happy to be a mod, but most definitely wanting to rely on the inputs of the other mods, and others who have already offered their assistance in that area - looking at you Pete and Ozzie. :)

Anyway, this is mostly to give everyone a heads-up about the visual changes coming in the next few days, so you won't think the site has been hijacked.

I will post a bit more about me and my journey with my I563 (ghost that sounds good- my I563) once the site is working.

Looking forward to interacting with you more soon, appreciate all the knowledge I have already gleaned from you all.
Geoff
Investigator #50 'Timeless'
Investigator #111 'Missy'

As the engineer said, "sure it works in practice, but will it work in theory?"
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Raya
Posts: 314
Joined: Sat May 05, 2012 4:25 pm
Investigator Boat Name: Tme Out
Location: Gold Coast

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Raya »

Geoff,
A big thank you for taking this on. I'm looking forward to the upgrade and the continuation of this site. Ian has done a great job and my thanks to him. There aren't a lot of active members at present but there are a lot of visitors. My guess is that most visitors either own an Investigator or are interested in them so maybe a site facelift might prompt them to join in. There are 172 Investigators out there somewhere.

I've a few suggestions for the site and I'm sure the other members could chip in. Are you happy to take on a few suggestions once the upgrade is completed?

Monto is a bit of a drive to the nearest boat ramp but there are some great locations within striking distance. Looking forward to hearing about your sailing adventures.
Ray
Investigator #39
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Geoff
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2019 12:04 pm
Investigator Boat Name: #50 Timeless
Location: Monto, Queensland

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Geoff »

G'day Ray,

Yes, Ian has done a terrific job, and for a long time. One of his concerns was that as the forum software was outdated he couldn't have it set to auto signups, for security reasons. He hopes that once I get it set up we can have auto signups. He believes this will facilitate increased member signups.

My focus is simply to get the forum installed on its new hosting and fully secured and debugged over the next few days. Then, absolutely will be looking for some brainstorming especially from the experienced and active members such as yourself in all areas - appearance, forum categories, whatever. That should get some activity happening in itself.

As a new member I already appreciate the effort and input you have put in, especially with the boat record-keeping.

2 inland lakes within, an hour of me, 1 is only half an hour away. Good for me to learn on before I drive 3 hours to the Fraser Coast. :)

Thanks Ray, will be posting again soon when the updated site goes live. Hopefully within 2 days.
Geoff
Investigator #50 'Timeless'
Investigator #111 'Missy'

As the engineer said, "sure it works in practice, but will it work in theory?"
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Raya
Posts: 314
Joined: Sat May 05, 2012 4:25 pm
Investigator Boat Name: Tme Out
Location: Gold Coast

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Raya »

Geoff,

Well done with the upgrade. Everything seems to have come across nicely except for the Avatars.
Regarding the style sheet, this one is fine as is the other one you mentioned. The style isn't that important to me as long as it clear and not too cluttered.

Some suggestions.
Could the file size of the photos be increased. The current max of 75kb (I think) is a bit small these days.
How about a gallery page for photos of member's boats.
Could the new members fields include their boat details if they have one? Maybe old members could be asked to reregister so that we had a more up to date idea of who was active on the site.

Thanks for taking this on. If you want a contribution towards the running of the site, please let us know.
Ray
Investigator #39
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Raya
Posts: 314
Joined: Sat May 05, 2012 4:25 pm
Investigator Boat Name: Tme Out
Location: Gold Coast

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Raya »

Geoff,

Avatars did come across. My mistake.
Ray
Investigator #39
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Geoff
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2019 12:04 pm
Investigator Boat Name: #50 Timeless
Location: Monto, Queensland

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Geoff »

Ray,

All good ideas. Totally agree about the style, as long as it is tidy and readable, which is why I like the 2 options I offered.

I have increased the attachment filesize to 2mb, and the image max size to 1000 by 1000 pixels. Do you reckon that is reasonable?

I will have a play with the new registration page later. Pretty sure we can create custom fields, so the boat name is a beaut idea.

I don't know if members would want to re-register, but I could put a new announcement banner up when I take the existing one down asking members to add their boat name to their profile. The banner would be much small er than the one I have up now with all that rave.

The banners are only shown after login, so visitors (non-members) don't see them.

Boat gallery, great. I will work out how to do it.

No contribution needed, but thanks. Costs are negligible, I have to rent a server for my business, and the forum now lives there.

Thanks for the input.
Geoff
Investigator #50 'Timeless'
Investigator #111 'Missy'

As the engineer said, "sure it works in practice, but will it work in theory?"
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Ozzie
Posts: 1621
Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 1:07 pm
Investigator Boat Name: Spritzig II
Location: Lake Macquarie
Contact:

Re: Site Software Upgrade and Ownership

Post by Ozzie »

Great job Geoff. As I mentioned I’m fine to help out after you are happy with the setup and have a few ideas for what they are worth.

It would be great to see more activity member wise but I’m often surprised to see the number of hits on photos and posts . I know some of the hits are search bots, which is how the internet works but some are people, so we are not talking to ourselves. I read many forums on outdoor stuff, travel, 4wd , caravanning but am not really interested in joining other than in the odd case where I want to see pics in regard to “howto” stuff which sometimes requires membership or to ask a question.i assume we may have many who do the same here, join to ask a question and then still drop in to read but don’t actually post again till they need to. Many sites have quite agro interactions and ego driven “know it alls” and this site believe me is an oasis in regard to such things.

My philosophy in regards to forums is always been that knowledge should be “shared around like chips at a party not used like a cricket bat to beat people over the head with”. My paraphrasing of Oscar Wild, but an idea that needs more emphasis on other forums.

Cheers
Ozzie
Investigator #143 "SPRITZIG II"

The Mariner - “It’s too strange here. It doesn’t move right." ...
Enola - “Helen said that it’s only land sickness."
Waterworld (1995)
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