Improvements to this gas grill forum?


 
Oh, here is a different suggestion altogether. Have a "chat box" on the forum that is visible on the right side the page, no matter what section you are in. It can be used for any kind of chit chat that members want to engage in (weber related or not). It would cut down on a lot of idle back and forth in some of the threads and probably lower overall storage and bandwidth on the site as well since it doesn't have to be archived. In the chat box, anyone can jump in at any point and even more than one conversation can be going on at the same time. Kind of like being in a room at a party.

Here is a site I belong to that has that feature: www.silveradosierra.com
The only thing is, is that you have to be logged in as a member to view the chat feature.
 
I've doubled PM to 100.

Chat came up a short time ago in another thread. We had chat years ago when we were on a different software platform. It seemed like whenever you entered the chat room, no one else was there! Wasn't really successful and got turned off.

In vBulletin, it requires a plug-in and lots aren't supported for the software version we're on.
 
Jon Tofte said:
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.
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This could be easily done, if someone would come up with the list of categories AND someone(s) would agree to take on, at least temporarily, a moderator role to comb through past posts and move them into the categories.
 
I belong to a Toyota forum along with a couple tractor forums and uploading a photo is easy peasy. Drag and drop. The forum itself simply resizes the photo/video during the upload process. This is exactly how the info page I had with my old web site worked. I honestly am failing to see why VBx has all these "issues". I have to trust what you're saying but am still puzzled. Honestly when the outside service actually "works". I.E. you actually see a photo rather than outside links in someone's post I guess it's all good. But, many here can't seem to figure out how to actually post their image(s) and have them appear inline with their post. Which frankly drives me a little "nuts" because it forces you to remember to open the link in a different tab/window or it forces you off the TVWBB site. So I honestly do not understand the "issue" VBx presents you with as on the 5 or so other forums I am on putting a photo in your post is drag and drop.
 
I disagree that many here have a problem posting photos, maybe a very few.

Chris,
Do you think it would help some members if they changed their settings to WYSIWYG?
 
Chris Allingham said:
This could be easily done, if someone would come up with the list of categories AND someone(s) would agree to take on, at least temporarily, a moderator role to comb through past posts and move them into the categories.
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I have a few thoughts but I have been too busy to get them out. Some of them have been covered and some are rattling around in my head waiting for me to organize them. I'm hoping this weekend I'll have some time to chime in on all of this.
 
I think Chris nailed it already with his suggestion about combing through the info and organizing it. It would also be cool to add some small write ups to the posts to consolidate it into more cohesive info. The question is, who is willing to take on the tasks. I would be willing to help, and I can think of a few other people (probably more qualified than me) that would be nice to make a small team out of.
 
Chris:
One other suggestion I would like considered is to have a section for "HOW TO's" where members can draft a tutorial on how to perform some task with their grills. Kind of like that "HOW TO Replace a Crossmember" thread that I did.
https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?77334-HOW-TO-Weber-Frame-Cross-Member-repair
That way, when people come on and ask, "How do I convert my NG Genesis 1000 to Propane" we can just point them to the "HOW TO". And hopefully they would think to look there before asking the question.

It would probably be best to have a general layout and format required for a How To, and maybe a moderator should even approve them before they get published. But, I think it would be a great resource for this forum. I also think it should be grill type specific such as gas grills, kettle grills, etc.... with a "HOW TO" section for each type of grill or maybe just the gas forum.
 
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Does this forum has something like for example tapatalk ? meaning an app ? or part of an app that can be downloaded from say apple store or google play and then that forum platform has many forums. Is this forum part of any ?
 
Oh, I have another suggestion. Maybe we need a section called "Weberitis" or "12 Step" or something like that where we can hold weekly twelve step meetings about our obsession with weber grills. :wsm:
 
Bob Correll said:
I disagree that many here have a problem posting photos, maybe a very few.

Chris,
Do you think it would help some members if they changed their settings to WYSIWYG?
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Sorry. I don’t have time to post photo to photo service website etc. remember password bs etc.

Every forum I’m involved in. less than 4. I can drag and drop. 1 takes a step or extra.

I’m not that active here. But read a lot.

I’d post more pics if it was easier to do so.

Ed
 
Ed L said:
Sorry. I don’t have time to post photo to photo service website etc. remember password bs etc.
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I use imgur to host my photos. You can login or you can post anonymously. It's pretty easy to drag the photo and get the bbcode links.
 
I think that we all would enjoy it if you could just post pictures directly to TVWBB but we need to be realistic. Pictures suck up a HUGE amount of space, and in no time the cost for this forum would go up substantially. Unless we were all willing to pay a monthly fee or something it isn't financially viable - at least in my opinion.

So, maybe having easier to access tutorials on using Imgur (and one or two other options if there are good ones) would be the best thing we could do. It really isn't that hard once you learn the system.

I think we need to concentrate on realistic things like some of the ideas for specialized sections on restored grills by model and "how to" sections with more video on common restoration issues. Even that requires time, which seems to be hard to find sometimes:(!
 
I honestly don't think it's as bad as you're saying Jon. If it was why aren't other open forums having this "issue" I belong to at least 6 other forums (other things like cars, tractors, guns and such) allow simple easy "drag and drop". The forums DO however have a "size limit" per photo and so when you drop a photo they're automatically resized to 640x480 I believe. Which is fine for just about any display.
I honestly hate having to go through 3rd party sites, trying to figure out where my photos actually are, and then trying to figure out how to do the links. So I personally don't post as much as I would like for those reasons. I.E. right now I have some photos on this site but, even though I posted them through Imagr I don't have a clue where that photo actually is because I can't find them on Imagr once they're posted.
But for now I am living with it because it is what it is and FWIW it does not look like any change will take place. But yes I honestly go nuts when people have links posted and you try to look at them, but forget to right click and it opens in the same window and bam now you lost your place as where you were on this site. No matter how much you ask people to use the proper link on Imagr to actually have the photo show up they don't. I honestly don't even bother looking at them anymore. Not being harsh I just don't like the hassle.
Chris has a nice building block here and it's fun to discuss with everyone. So I am not beating this horse anymore.
As for adding even more sub forums hell there are far too many now.
 
LMichaels said:
so when you drop a photo they're automatically resized to 640x480 I believe. Which is fine for just about any display.
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I find that resolution to be too small on a high resolution display. Plus you don’t have the ability to make it larger to zoom on a detail.

LMichaels said:
I honestly hate having to go through 3rd party sites, trying to figure out where my photos actually are, and then trying to figure out how to do the links. So I personally don't post as much as I would like for those reasons. I.E. right now I have some photos on this site but, even though I posted them through Imagr I don't have a clue where that photo actually is because I can't find them on Imagr once they're posted.
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You can create an account on imgur and always be logged in if you want to keep track of your photos. If you are trying to find an anonymous post, then take the url of the picture and remove the .jpg and text following it.
 
Honestly 640x480 is FAR better than you think on anything but the largest and highest res displays. Even if you double that, the file size with modern JPG compression is minuscule. I don't want another account.
 
LMichaels said:
As for adding even more sub forums hell there are far too many now.
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I can't agree with this. I was just responding to a new member about a Platinum Genesis he found at a great price. It would be so nice to have a sub-forum for restorations with separate categories for different grill models. If there was a "Genesis Platinum" section with all our restores grouped there he - and others - would have a ready resource for learning more about his grill. It would have been really nice to link that for him instead of telling him to search and hope for the best.
 
Geez Jon there are way too many now. 41 by my count. Many of them over lapping in intent and purpose.
 
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