Improvements to this gas grill forum?


 

Chris Allingham

Administrator
Staff member
Just throwing it out there...any ideas on how this gas grill forum could be made better? For those posting all of the restore info, do you ever think "if only I could..." or "if only we had..."?

I love what's happening in this forum and want it to be the authoritative source for Weber gas grill restoration info. I think it may already be that. But if there are ways to improve things, I'm all ears.
 
One improvement might be to have some sort of wiki to maintain information. This would allow more people to update the wiki provided the changes are approved.
 
The option to upload photos would be nice too but I assume this would require more storage space and drive up cost.
 
Oh, yah, directly uploading photos would be my #1 priority. Additional storage for PM's is secondary.
 
I think it would be cool if we could have easily accessed sub-sections on grill restorations with a section for each major model type such as Genesis 1–5, Spirit 200s, Summit, etc. If threads could be copied to these respective sections for long term easy access it would make it easier to review other’s work and point newcomers to a place where they could see what members have done on a similar model to what they hope to restore. I realize you can currently search but it is not very efficient or easy to narrow down.
 
I think it would be cool if we could have easily accessed sub-sections on grill restorations with a section for each major model type such as Genesis 1–5, Spirit 200s, Summit, etc. If threads could be copied to these respective sections for long term easy access it would make it easier to review other’s work and point newcomers to a place where they could see what members have done on a similar model to what they hope to restore. I realize you can currently search but it is not very efficient or easy to narrow down.

To add something to this, good idea but could perhaps be a single subforum for finished restorations - page one of this forum is plenty to keep up with active discussions as it is now, and the majority of restorations are still 1000-series I believe? Thus you end up with an archive of sorts, while keeping active discussions to a single subforum.
 
Yup, as mentioned before, an easier way to upload pics directly. I know you explained on why you don't have that option on this site and I totally respect that but you did ask for improvements. Thanks again Chris!
 
I think it would be cool if we could have easily accessed sub-sections on grill restorations with a section for each major model type such as Genesis 1–5, Spirit 200s, Summit, etc. If threads could be copied to these respective sections for long term easy access it would make it easier to review other’s work and point newcomers to a place where they could see what members have done on a similar model to what they hope to restore. I realize you can currently search but it is not very efficient or easy to narrow down.

Agree with Jon. I don't flip grills anymore because around here the 1000-5000 are unicorns or a 200 mile+ trip to Phoenix and back.
So now I restore just what I want for our collection
So when I try and find something I know I saw dealing with a restoration It's sometimes very difficult to track it down.
I think this forum is more of a resource forum where people come back to it looking for help or methods as opposed to photo gallery where it's a constant pass through. Set up by major model type would at least make it a little easier to track something down.

Also a sub forum for completed restorations sort of like photo gallery to post the accomplishments the members have achieved
 
Given all the feedback about photo posting and despite my recent comments on the subject, I did some searching on the vBulletin support site on the subject and I found this post. It confirms some of my fears about photo hosting...that everyone has unspoken expectations about how slick and easy it will be, how they can upload an unlimited number of photos of unlimited filesize and resolution, and it will work just like FB or Instagram. But that won't be the case if I try to do it. I can't match the bandwidth and the storage space that these sites have. And if we were talking about 10 or 100 photos per person, that would be one thing, but we're talking hundreds or thousands for some of our most active members over the course of a few years. I mean, just one restoration post could have 30 photos of the steps involved.

I just don't see how I can pull it off successfully on vBulletin.

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Fri 15th Feb '19, 5:07am

The main reason why we migrated from VB4 to VB5 last month was to provide forum users with an easier upload facility of their images. Previously, we suggested people use an external image hosting provider, but with the likes of Flikr and Photobucket making changes, this spurred on our decision making to go to VB5.

So despite giving them something they did not have, and making it easier, of course that comes with it's own problems.

We are a car forum, people like to show pictures of their car, shiny or mid-restoration. Typically people are not good at resizing images, and although we have 'unlimited' file storeage, we have set a 2MB limit per uploaded image. I do know that my hosts unlimited filesystem is not really unlimted !

I now am getting feedback that it's now too hard to upload an image, mainly due to the filesize the images are taken from Smart phones and Digital Cameras with ever increasing pixel count and file sizes.

Users are expecting a FaceBook type ability to upload their 15MB camera pic of their Mustang and the clever magic resizes it into the limit we have chosen. I have done a quick search and cannot find any solution through configuration or modification that can do this in VB5.

--

If we move to another platform like Xenforo, it may be worth taking another look. For now, I don't see it happening while on vBulletin.

But if there's a consensus on a subforum or some scheme for organizing content better, those things are doable.

Bill mentioned a wiki...haven't heard that term in ages...there is a Wiki plug-in for vBulletin called VaultWiki, but I have tried to stay away from plug-ins in order to run a clean, easy to support vBulletin environment, and that really paid off in spades when going through our recent forum meltdown...plug-ins played no part in troubleshooting, PHP versioning, etc.
 
I posted in Photo Gallery today with 4 photos using Flickr, it took me only seconds to do so.
I'm still trying to figure out what the big deal is of using a host for our photos. I promise, there is not another member here more tech challenged than I am.
My typing, and then proof reading, takes much longer.
 
I am on a forum for my truck and it allows direct posting. It is MUCH quicker and easier. You don't ever have to leave the forum to post a photo. Just a couple clicks and it is there.

But, I understand constraints and if it would put a big strain on the financial aspect of the site, then I will deal with it just like I have in the past. THanks for the consideration though Chris. And thanks for moding and adminning the site. You are doing a fine job.
 
As I continue to look around, I see a service called ImageBB that connects with vBulletin to provide an UPLOAD button that allows you to directly upload images to their service and it will automatically handle the BBcodes needed for insertion into a post. I think registration for the service is optional.

EDIT: I QUICKLY TRIED TO ACTIVATE IMAGEBB, IT'S NOT WORKING WITH vBULLETIN 4.

And I see services like Chevreto (used by WKC) to create your own standalone photo hosting site, so you control the destiny of your own photos, but you still have to upload photos to it then link them into posts with BBcode. I read that there's an integration with vBulletin, but it would take more research to know how easy/reliable it is.

Is the issue EASE OF UPLOADING AND LINKING PHOTOS INTO POSTS?

Is the issue PREVENTING LOSS OF PHOTOS A LA PHOTOBUCKET FIASCO?

Of course, you'll say BOTH.

But if forced to choose, which is the bigger issue?
 
My biggest concern with photos is ease of uploading. Any photos that I feel are really important, I keep stored on my computer.
 
The private message box could use a little bump in storage, but I like this gasser forum,
and all of TVWBB just as it is.
 
For my two cents worth, once you get setup with a photo sharing site and understand the basics I don’t think it is that big a deal. The cost for the huge bandwidth and storage isn’t worth it. I do think you could be a little more liberal with the mailbox space for active users even if you have to “sunset” really old stuff in boxes of inactive users.

I would plug again a subcategory for grill restorations segregated by basic model types to make it easier to find tips and comparisons for the grill you are working on. I don’t think you can readily see just that as it stands now. There are some great years old threads that few now see but might if it were easily accessible by model.
 
Maybe giving mailbox space according to how long a member has been active on the forum or maybe base it on how much they are active on the forum???
 

 

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