Unleashing the Mod from Hell

[Guitarfrenzy]

That would be a nice feature. I've double posted before on accident and it would be nice to delete the other useless post. Really the size of the file and the width, height of the file should be kept in check. I mean if you post one that takes up the whole screen and you have to scroll over to the right to finish looking at it, then it's really annoying to read the post.

[Southpa]

I mean if you post one that takes up the whole screen and you have to scroll over to the right to finish looking at it, then it's really annoying to read the post.

Not to mention trying to read everyone's text afterwards. Its sort of like taking the word wrap feature off a txt file. Shouldn't have to scroll in both directions.

[Maiden69]

That's why I like photobucket they resize the pic for you instantly, like here on the avatar, if it's too big it get resized automaticaly. That's somenthing they can add, an automatic pic resizer, that way if it's too big it get s resized...

[litchfield]

Can we clear up the pic thing.

[Guitarfrenzy]

Where is the new rules for images posted anyway?

[litchfield]

Be nice to know, eh?

[darren wilson]

One key difference on this forum is that you cannot "attach" images to posts, so they don't get stored in the ProjectGuitar/ibforums database. If images are always hosted remotely, so it can't be a bandwidth issue on the server side, because the images aren't being stored or served up by the ProjectGuitar server. So i'm guessing that Brian and Kevan want to keep things lean on the client-side.

Embedding images has advantages and disadvantages. As does posting a link instead of an image.

[soapbarstrat]

I'd really like to be able to delete a bunch of old posts of mine. Hell, I might just really get into it, and delete them all.

This threads getting to be kind of a "free for all". I mean no mods slapping anyone. You'd think Wes would have at least told some of us to go take a hike within the last 12 hours.

And if they want only links, well, that's still better than MIMF's pic policy, where you can't link to a commercial site.

I mean how many times does someone mention a Stewart MacDonald product and puts a link right to it ? Quite often, and it's nice that it can be done here. I don't think you can even do that at MIMF, even though Stewart MacDonald is a sponsor there. If I was Stewart MacDonald, I think that would piss me off.

[weezerboy]

a few pages back someone mentioned about how to get the search function used more

simple

java function to make a popup appear when someone starts a new topic, if they hit yes to using the search function then its posted, if no then they are redirected to the main page . or even to the search page

dan the artificial geek

[Jehle]

I like pictures in the post, but for some cases, I'd rather have links. It's a mixed bag. I always resize my pics to 500 pix wide, and save as JPG's. Genereally 30k to 50k is about how big they are.

I use a laptop at the house, and use dial up there. Some of the pics in the threads are way too big to get on the screen, then they are also big in terms of file size. I would like to have the big hi res pics linked to, and the embedded ones limited to the 100k mark (or so).

And on another thought....

Is it really possible to make all of these changes to the forum? I've hosted my own forum before, and there were always limits to what you could do. Or rather, what you could do easily. I'm afraid that a lot of the changes suggested are just going to be difficult to implement. I may be wrong, but I'm curious about just how much control over the bells and whistles in the forum there really are.

[Guitarfrenzy]

So If I posted the picture of Stewart MacDonald when he came by to see my neck jig the other day. Would they allow that?

[westhemann]

This threads getting to be kind of a "free for all". I mean no mods slapping anyone. You'd think Wes would have at least told some of us to go take a hike within the last 12 hours.

my understanding is that the purpose of this thread is to discuss these issues and get it out in the open....

how well would anyone get anything out in the open if i told you guys to take a hike?

[Ki swordsman]

hahaha great pic frenzy

[lovekraft]

Since, as Wes said, this thread is in the spirit of getting things out in the open, there are a few things that I'd like to have explained to me, because I must be a little thick, so help me out if you can, please.

First of all, I've seen posts alluding to the moderators' heavy handed tactics and blatant favoritism, and describing Kevan as a "nun with a ruler" and a "nazi", and we don't even need to go into the crap that's been launched at Wes when he tries to do his job, but what I haven't seen is anyone willing to back up these accusations with any examples. Since this isn't a democracy to begin with, it would seem imperative that these "abuses of power" be brought to light, but no details ever seem to emerge. I'm not calling anyone a liar, but I'd appreciate knowing where this attitude comes from. I'd be grateful for specific examples, so the membership can decide if the wrongs are real or imagined.

Second, I need to apologize to everyone concerned for calling attention to LGM thread about the pictures - I had no idea that it would cause even more problems. From the text, it's obvious that the issue was something that had been discussed before by the parties involved, in private, and unless Jeremy and the admins decide that we deserve an explanation, it's not only none of our business, it's not our problem! In retrospect, I should have kept my mouth shut.

Finally, there's been a lot of axe-grinding and offense taken when none was intended recently, in this thread and in the forum in general, and I would like to understand where all this is coming from. I absolutely refuse to single anyone out, but some of you are still here only because the mods are indulgent, contrary to their reputation. In the year I've been here, I've only seen one member get thrown out, and he richly deserved it for not knowing when to back off, but several of you have been tempting fate on a regular basis recently by asserting your dominance and independence at everyone else's expense, and probably should have long since been given a vacation to cool down. And before anybody loads up his varmint gun to come looking for me, remember that I didn't single anyone out, so if this makes you angry, it's probably because you recognize your own actions here. Summer's over, the annual Noob Invasion is receding along with its inherent noise increase, and it's time to calm down and get back to work.

Sorry if this irritates anybody, but we're rapidy becoming our own worst enemies, so let's all get our petty little complaints out on this thread so we can move on. As always, this is just my opinion, no more or less valid than anyone else's, so if it angers you, just ignore it. Oh, and thanks to Brian for giving us a place to bitch and whine like little kids, and for listening to it.

[litchfield]

Love craft, when I told Kevan about his partiality, I used LGM as an example. There was no link to a reference, because the issue had happened a page or 2 earlier in the same thread. As for being a nazi, that's an opinion, and this thread and his general attitude support in IMO

[Kevan]

I will contue to post pics. If you dont want to see my pics, FINE. You can kiss my ass, I will go someplace else. Carvin, moser, SD....they have forums too ya know.

See ya.

What I'm saying is if that is the case, I can and will go elsewhere.

See Above.

If you're so incredibly miserable here, why so many posts per day? I hate spiders so....I don't run out and rent "Arachnaphobia". To quote the great Jeff Spicoli: "Make up your mind dude!"

It would seem to me Kevan that what is happening here is an attempt to silence those who bring no value to this forum. However, 'value' is dictated by your own conditions. So for people like me, who read the 'serious' threads about construction, finishing etc, but don't have either the expertise or experience to offer advice or tips to others will be squeezed out. What about people like Litchfield here, or Wes? These people have great knowledge which I know they pass on to others, but they also talk complete crap in the off topics sections.

I don't determine the value of what information is said here. The members do that. To some one, it doesn't help at all; to another person, it's the answer they've been looking for. Why would you be squeezed out? It seems to me you're asking legitimate questions, using sound advice, and working to complete projects. There are no rule violations there. I haven't deleted any of Litch's project posts, or Wes'. I don't think any of the other Moderators have either. I do remember asking him to add on to his initial post instead of doing 8 posts 3 minutes apart with one line each. Sounds pretty rough, eh? I'm such a hardass.

Now, I don't want to take this up on a personal level and start slagging others off, but from reading and watching this forum for some time, it does appear to me that you are only too happy to close down threads that you either disagree with what is being said, or deem them to be of no value, whether or not anybody else is interested or not. I'm really sorry Kevan, I'm sure you are a nice guy with a lot of knowledge and experience, but when it comes to moderating you come across as a bit of a Nazi.

Ok...I'm sorry. I'll re-open the voting on the lifting of the Maxima poll. I know that was a big hit here, and considering how it directly relates to guitars, amps, and the construction practices of them, well....come on. I really was wrong of me to close it. I'm sorry.

As I say, I'm sorry Kevan, I really don't want you to take this as a personal insult, nor do I really wish to engage in any arguing about it. That is my opinion and that's that.

A little too late for that.

End result? The ones in the know were chastised for giving advice, and stressing the point of waiting to use high dollar wood. That really irked me.

Stop.

Don't twist it around to make me look like the bad guy. It's simply not gonna happen. There are FIVE PAGES of you, and other veteran members, ripping into this guy. Whether he's an asshat or not, it's simply a violation of the rules. And you damn well knew it, but you continued. Then Brian cut my leash....and you got all pissy.

Guess what? Tough. Don't want to play by the rules, you're gone. Try running around an NFL game kicking guys in the crotch. See how long you last. Get back to us on that.

Since you didn't bother linking to the topic in question, I'll help you all out. Decide for yourselves:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...topic=9740&st=0

Be sure not to miss Page 4. Some good stuff from Litch there.

I'd like to hear the Admins' reasoning behind limiting photos in the context of a thread.

On the one hand, it seems like a really bad move that can substantially reduce the value of the forum.

I'm not sure how value is reduced. You'll need to elaborate on that (after you read about the new pic posting rules below).

On the other hand, though, not having to load a bunch of big photos every time i want to view a thread will significantly reduce the loading time for pages on the forum. (We need to remember that not everybody has broadband access.)

Correct. Pics are cool, but 20 pics, 1200x960, per page, of an 8 page thread...man..that's a lot of scrolling (up/down & left/right).

Posting inline images introduces two issues: 1) When the original poster takes the image down, you end up with a broken image link, which is not-so-useful if someone's looking up an older thread. 2) Loads of people don't properly resize their photos, which results in having to scroll horizontally to read anything else on the page.

#1 is dealt with as time goes on. If the site goes down or the link becomes broken, it'd be nice to get a message from any member saying that it's no longer working so we can edit the thread to repair it, or pull the pic onto the main site (with owners permission, of course) to host it from there. Pics for tutorials will top the list; shockwave movies of Christina's ass twisting around are way down on the list. :-)

#2 This will have to be the responsibility of the poster. If they choose not to follow the rules (below), then the pic will be removed until it's properly sized. Not all of us have a 52" monitor like Darren. :-)

Where is the new rules for images posted anyway?

Sure, but only because Litch asked so nicely that *one* time.

- ONE pic per post. The pic should be no bigger than 600 wide.

- All subsequent (following) pics should be linked. DO NOT USE THE "IMG" TAG for pics 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.

- When quoting a post with a pic in it, CHANGE THE IMG TAG TO A LINK, or remove it from your post.

Oooo....feel the sting of that ruler! "He's so mean...he wants me to actually READ and stuff! I can't take it anymore!"

I'd really like to be able to delete a bunch of old posts of mine. Hell, I might just really get into it, and delete them all.

This threads getting to be kind of a "free for all". I mean no mods slapping anyone. You'd think Wes would have at least told some of us to go take a hike within the last 12 hours.

And if they want only links, well, that's still better than MIMF's pic policy, where you can't link to a commercial site.

I mean how many times does someone mention a Stewart MacDonald product and puts a link right to it ?  Quite often, and it's nice that it can be done here. I don't think you can even do that at MIMF, even though Stewart MacDonald is a sponsor there. If I was Stewart MacDonald, I think that would piss me off.

This is absolutely possible, today.

Email or PM an Admin or Moderator with a link to the post you'd like deleted (included date and time), and if it doesn't affect the entirety of the thread, it'll be deleted.

Painless.

Love craft, when I told Kevan about his partiality, I used LGM as an example. There was no link to a reference, because the issue had happened a page or 2 earlier in the same thread.

Man, you certainly read things differently than others. Did everyone miss the two warnings I gave to LGM about pic posting issues? I mean, I can see that Litch did, but.....no one else saw them? Wait....let me check to see who posted after the warnings went up:

LGM (of course), oh- look- there's Litch....who else....Jehle, Bowser, BLS, Ormsby, KI...wow, a bunch of people. So, you've seen at least ONE warning to LGM. Did you catch the other?

The answer to your question: No. No one is favored. There is no partiality when it comes to abiding by the rules. Check out Scott's post a few pages back. If I had a grandmother, and she broke the rules, she'd get warned. If she did it again, O2 tank or not, she gets a 2 week break to think about what she did.

Sorry that the new rules/updates page hasn't gone up yet but I'm still waiting to meet with Brian to finalize everything prior to posting them in one place (and editing the main site rule pages). We'll get it up ASAFP.

As I've said before: It's pretty simple- play/post by the rules, and everything is cool. Don't play by the rules, and you'll be hearing from someone.

[litchfield]

Since I am to understand that only one pic is allowed, what gives? What specific reason?

[Kevan]

Re-read the above post.

It's all in there. I promise.

[litchfield]

Because of scrolling?

[litchfield]

If you dont want to see posted pics, you can change the board settings so you dont see them.

[MikeB]

litch... edit funnction?

[litchfield]

HUH?

[litchfield]

Go into your control panel and click board settings.

This whole pic thing is bullsh*t. I will post as many pics as I want. Like the above states, edit your board settings if ya dont wanna see them.

With all the shxt you are pulling to "pull the forum together" all you will achieve is breaking it apart and running a damned daycare. The seasoned members will leave. A lot of people enjoy seeing pics of other's work, just as much as they do posting (and vice versa), but wont click a link to see them. The pic thing is the last straw for me. If you wanna ban me, do it. If I dont say what I have to say, I will regret it. If what I have to say doesn't mean jack to you (which I assume it doesnt) fine. You have the forum in your hands, and feel free to fxck it up. So far you have done a whiz bang job of that.

Letting little kids (or those behaving as such...cant distinguish over the internet) run rampant, post blatantly wrong advice, pseudo theories, ect. is just plain wrong. But that seems to be what you want supported. Enjoy Project Kindergarten.

"If I cant say anything nice, dont say anything"....you know how I feel about that. The nicest thing to say doesnt always go down so easy. Unlike the sugar coated anectdotes so preferred here. Bah, fxck that! If I build a shxtty guitar, I wanna know it. I dont wanna hear things like "looks great!", when people are thinking "Good God, that's hideous!" Leave the false pretences at the door

Yes, I agree the forum had some problems. It has more now. The sections you are doing away with were helping to create community. Guitarist (or anyone really) talk more that just shop. The best thing that could have been done is to make the search function more into awareness, and fix that it only goes back 30 days. Also, Take care of the "weekly topics" with a FAQ section. What did removing the rant section do? What did the forum badges do? Removing post counts wont fix that, but will in theory fix the post whoring.

If that makes no sense, kiss my ass, I'm out. I ain't gonna sit here and watch my favorite place on the net be perverted by a nazi.

BTW, I dont give a tinker's damn about post counts.

[Setch]

Woah.

That was forthright.

Question regarding image posting: Is the 1 per post rule an absolute? It seems to me that it will be fairly restrictive to people (like me) posting step by step photo-essays. Most of the stages of a build require more than one illustrative image, and it seems pointless to show step one, and then force readers to skip back and forward from text to image for the rest of the steps. Likewise, it seems pointless to make somebody spread a description of one process (eg: neck shaping) across 5 posts, simply because they are limited to one pic per post. The forum software already limits the number of pics in each post, to a quite sensible 5, which should be enough to illustrate most procedures, and more than enough to document a completed instrument.

I'd much rather see people forced to limit the size (pixel and file) of their images rather than number. Obviously nobody *needs* to see 12 1024 x 768 pixel images of one guitar in one thread, so people should restrict themselves to 2 or 3 (front/back/closeup of body) and then link to any more. Again I think the MIMF policy is the benchmark - post as many or as few images as you need, provided they are of reasonable size, and are posted to illustrate a procedure, or showcase a particular detail of an instrument.

Opinions?

[Guitarfrenzy]

Litch.. Brian put Kevan in charge now. If they decide on the rules and think that it will make PG that much better, then at least give them a chance. And if we don't agree with something that is being done, all we can do is give them our opinion, if they decide that it's a valid point or not doesn't matter though. They still can do what they want to do, because it's their site to begin with. I do happen to agree that there should be a picture limit on size. That means kb size and picture dimension size. I can see now they aren't talking about bandwith being the issue, since using the IMG tag only bring up the url of the picture and shouldn't hurt the bandwith of the site at all. But then again, that's not what they are concerned about, it looks like they are trying to make it user friendly and I'm all for that. No more scrolling over to the right to see the whole picture again, and waiting longer to even see the pictures. I'm my opinion, it's long been overdue, I've never seen a forum that let people post pictures so freely anyway, without any kind of guidelines. I don't know what the kb limit or size limit will end up being, but if they feel it's best for the site, then we'll either have to accept the changes and abide by them or find another forum. That's really up to each person to choose and decide upon. The only thing that I wish was that it was 3 pics a post though, because only one pic a post is really not enough in some cases. So if you had 3 pics that was 60kb a piece and under; that's still smaller than one picture that's 200kb in size. I don't know what's the best way of solving these problems, but I do fell that they will come up with something good. We do need to remember that even though we really like this forum alot, we still don't own it and Brian can run it anyway he sees fit. But they will be setting themselves up for alot of headaches in my opinion, because the more rules, the more they have to keep track of everything that goes on. You know, I try to go by the rules as closely as possible, even when entering the GOTM contest it was set up for a 4 picture limit, and even then not many followed it. lol.. So it went by unnoticed, and like I said the mods are gonna have their hands full when they try to look at each photo's kb size and check to see if they didn't go over the width, etc.. lol