Suggestion for NICO

[louiegz]

I don't like to complain and in general I like the NICO forums, but I do have one suggestion that would make the NICO experience much better. I'm posting it here in the Q45 forum because this is the forum I post in the most and my suggestion is going to be read to the people that know me the best. Not only that, NICO doesn't seem to have a suggestion box forum so here it goes. Is it just me, or is anyone bothered by reading threads that has photos that are too wide for your screen, It makes the thread a pain in the arse to read having to scroll left to right to read the posts. Is there any way the forum software can control or shrink the size of photo that gets put into a post? I don’t expect NICO members to police themselves on the size of picture they post so it would have to be something that the forum limits the size of the picture. If I can make a recommendation to people that posts pics, instead of choosing the full size picture to post, they should use the medium size picture that comes out before the full size pic. That size is manageable and still big enough to see the detail of the picture.

Thank you for listening

Lou

[Jesda]

I second that. For me, the results vary depending on browser. Mozilla will resize the image for me. IE will just make the page really wide. Safari will smoosh the image horizontally, making it look warped.

Plus, smaller pics load faster.

Compress your images.Irfanview is free: http://www.irfanview.comSo is GraphicConverter: http://www.lemkesoft.de

[maxnix]

Problem is, members run all kind of resolutions, and the servers don't know who is running what. Go high resolution or go home could be the motto.

Now if only NICO could set up a PDA portal.

[squeefoo]

Good one Lou, For those of us condemned to the dial-up gulag by unresponsive telecom bureaucracies this would be welcomed.

The search function totally sucks too, one of the major reasons for so many stupid questions.

[Q_SHIP]

1. The search sucks

2. I want a PM feature real bad.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Mozilla will resize the image for me.

Bingo. Anyone still using Internet Exploder deserves distorted frames. Show your PC some love and use a real browser! Once you spend a few minutes on ANYTHING but IE, you'll wonder how you ever survived with that garbage.

Also, I think the best solution to the screen stretching is common courtesy on behalf of individual posters. If it's wider than, 1024, link to it, don't post it.

The vast majority of users have resolutions equal to or greater than 768x1024. Catering to that crowd is most beneficial.

Combined, these two should solve the problem for everyone.

[louiegz]

Good one Lou, For those of us condemned to the dial-up gulag by unresponsive telecom bureaucracies this would be welcomed.

Bro, Foo, you need to hook yourself up with the DSL, man. Get into the 21 century.

[AZhitman]

Good suggestions.

Most are in the works as we speak.

The problem with the search feature is people either mis-spell or they name their topics poorly...

Automatic pic re-sizing is coming soon.

[elwesso]

Bingo. Anyone still using Internet Exploder deserves distorted frames. Show your PC some love and use a real browser! Once you spend a few minutes on ANYTHING but IE, you'll wonder how you ever survived with that garbage.

Also, I think the best solution to the screen stretching is common courtesy on behalf of individual posters. If it's wider than, 1024, link to it, don't post it.

The vast majority of users have resolutions equal to or greater than 768x1024. Catering to that crowd is most beneficial.

Combined, these two should solve the problem for everyone.

agreed!!! I never have any problems iwththat, the browsers generally stay the same-ish width....

Q_Ship... the search function works fine, you just have to know how to use it.. Its just not as idiot friendly as the vbulletin one was.. Sometimes the search thingy is down and it will give you no results.. It seems like its working but it just didnt give you any results.....

Please, lets not revisit the PM anymore, email works fine.

[squeefoo]

Bro, Foo, you need to hook yourself up with the DSL, man. Get into the 21 century.

Lou, I live on the outer reaches of civilization.SBC says my local switching (whatever-the-hell-you-call-it-thingie) is not going to upgrade until there is "a need to", and I've pestered them relentlessly about it.

My other option is to buy a satellite uplink for $600+ and pay a monthly fee. So... needless to say...

But I did buy a new huge computer with an amazing amount of bells, whistles and memory though... so the occasional NICO experience is definitely better.

PS: Gino rocks...

[Q45tech]

Charge poster per picture view [signature] unless a valid picture for diagnosic purposes.

"...more than 42 percent of Americans now have broadband access at home"

"Among households that will not subscribe to an Internet service at any price, 31 percent said having access at work is sufficient for their Internet needs.

Another 18 percent simply claimed, "I am not interested in anything on the Internet." Thirty-nine percent of households cited "other" reasons for their lack of interest."

[Flagship-Q]

I always wondered why there isn't a VH under the engine forum. I think there certainly is enough topic to warrant it. With it being such a marvel of a engine it shoud have it's due credit.

[elwesso]

We've been talking about having a V8 forum, for the VH45, VH41, VK56, VK45

Since all of those engines except the VK56 are in Q, it seems kinda stupid, because all the discussion is going to be in the Q forum and IOM.

[Rex]

Charge poster per picture view [signature] unless a valid picture for diagnosic purposes.

"...more than 42 percent of Americans now have broadband access at home"

"Among households that will not subscribe to an Internet service at any price, 31 percent said having access at work is sufficient for their Internet needs.

Another 18 percent simply claimed, "I am not interested in anything on the Internet." Thirty-nine percent of households cited "other" reasons for their lack of interest."

FYI

... Statistically, only 7% of visitors to NICO this past month are on dial-up. That includes regular users and visitors.

Incidentally, about 26% of our traffic is from first-time visitors. Let's all do our part to make it someplace they want to come back to.

[Jesda]

"...more than 42 percent of Americans now have broadband access at home"

The ones that dont are either out in the country (Squeefoo) or too busy making meth for it to matter (Ghetto).

[Q_SHIP]

Its just not as idiot friendly as the vbulletin one was.. Sometimes the search thingy is down and it will give you no results.. Please, lets not revisit the PM anymore, email works fine.

You calling me an idiot?

What do you mean by "the search thingy"? You say it will go down and give you no results. That seems like the suck to me! Why does it do this?

I still want a PM feature

[ddrumman]

I second that. For me, the results vary depending on browser. Mozilla will resize the image for me. IE will just make the page really wide. Safari will smoosh the image horizontally, making it look warped.

Plus, smaller pics load faster.

Compress your images.Irfanview is free: http://www.irfanview.comSo is GraphicConverter: http://www.lemkesoft.de

I've been using Mozilla for the longest time (last 6 or 7 months) until a couple of days ago.

I tried setting up an add on Ebay and it would NOT use my fonts. I was freaking out and then it dawned on me that maybe it's the Mozilla thing. Sure enough when I tried to set up my second auction I used IE and everything was cool.

I guess each browser has its good points and its shortcomings as well. So now I go back and forth depending on what I need.

Also I did NOT realize how IE displays the REAL size where Mozilla sizes it down until yesterday.

It doesn't matter much to me. I can go either way. I do however LIKE the fact, that I can see the real size since I have that capability with the IE.

[Falkdesigns]

2. I want a PM feature real bad.

Seriously. This "HEY WES" crap is so annoying. And no, email doesn't work, not everyone has it listed, so it's back to the old "HEY SO AND SO" which is so freakin' weak. I've been on forums for around 7 years, and so far, this is the only one I've seen w/o PM.

That is the only thing I wish NICO had, other than that, it's spot on.

[elwesso]

Can I help it if im popular???

we've revisited this time and time again, and its cons outweigh the pros...

REmember guys, we appreciate your suggestions, but lets not start complaining... no one has crossed the line yet, so everything is still good, and lets keep it that way.

[szh]

Another simple solution to the picture size problem, is to make the image "clickable" to get to the larger picture. I do this all the time in my stuff!

See the M35/45 forum stickies for examples: zerothread?id=125907

Z

[elwesso]

but Z, that requires an extra 5 clicks and 15 seconds of effort!!!!!!!

IN that amount of time, my bagel bites would be done.

[ceningolmo]

Seriously. This "HEY WES" crap is so annoying. And no, email doesn't work, not everyone has it listed, so it's back to the old "HEY SO AND SO" which is so freakin' weak. I've been on forums for around 7 years, and so far, this is the only one I've seen w/o PM.

That is the only thing I wish NICO had, other than that, it's spot on.

Here is the thing about PM service... its irrelevant to whats happening in the threads on the board. And, the threads are why the board exists.

I have been either a participant, moderator, or owner of internet forums since back in the days when we used a "BBS" rather than the internet. And, I have been deeply involved in forums that have and have-not used PM service.

The problem that I always had with the PM service was that it ate up resources for something that people tend to do anyway without help from the forum itself. The forums I have been involved in without PM services generally had a population of people who made use of AIM, MSN, or Yahoo! to accomplish the same task.

I will grant that the cost of resources for hosting PM service now compared with what it cost 10 years ago is significantly less. In fact, the cost has dropped enough to make almost negligible. Almost.

Other than the small increase in cost of resources, I have had another problem with forum hosted PM service.

There is no record of the conversations. The hope of putting such a service in use within a forum is that it will be used for conversations related to forum topics. But, unfortunately, this becomes self defeating. The point of the forum, at least in part, is that the conversations are public and are part of ever growing body of knowledge. At any time we can refer back to past conversations as a means to learn.

In my experience, forums with an actively used PM service (and I have been involved in some that had a service but no one used it) had a less active thread count. Therefore, a smaller body of knowledge and less active conversations. And, therefore, was less attractive to new users. Plus, it always seemed like we had conversations bleeding back and forth between threads on the public forum and things discussed in PM. So, we often ran in to situation while answering questions where we knew we had discussed a topic in depth...but, found very little in searching our archives. This, we discovered in at least two forums, was because the conversations we had largely in PM and no one ever went back to post a public thread about it.

Sorry such a long post... but, its a rare instance in the Q45 forum where I actually have any experience with something. So... thought I should probably toss in my 2 cents while I had 2 cents to toss.

[Jesda]

Man, I remember my BBS. I stuck a shareware CD in the drive and called it good. Fun times.

Bagel Bites rock. I sprinkle shredded cheese on mine.

[maxnix]

If it's wider than, 1024, link to it, don't post it.

I haven't run a monitor that low a resolution since 1993.

[maxnix]

Here is the thing about PM service... its irrelevant to whats happening in the threads on the board. And, the threads are why the board exists.

Exactly! But because it doesn't exist, we get board information dilution (and less effective searches) because of all the "Hey, Wes. You've got mail" and the "Are you in South Philly too?" posts. This information is better on PM and off the boards. It doesn't need to be shared.

By the way, I think we need an Infiniti Vehicles Forum in Classified as there are many whole cars (and good ones, too) lost in the part out posts.

As far as big pictures, I like detail. Enabling clickable links small pictures to larger ones is good also.
Modified by maxnix at 5:50 AM 3/1/2006

[elwesso]

Just so you guys know, wheneverthose threads (rare, maybe 1-5 a month) show up, i delete the thread anyway... OS its no biggie.

[Jesda]

By the way, I think we need an Infiniti Vehicles Forum in Classified as there are many whoel cars (and good ones, too) lost in the part out posts.

INDEED.

[AZhitman]

Lesson #1 - If you DON'T have accurate info in your profile, FIX IT!

Good suggestions, all - If you guys knew how seriuously we take these suggestions, you'd be impressed.

There's a LOT going on behind the scenes....

[Ozzie]

Thank you boss man greg

[Falkdesigns]

Exactly! But because it doesn't exist, we get board information dilution (and less effective searches) because of all the "Hey, Wes. You've got mail" and the "Are you in South Philly too?" posts. This information is better on PM and off the boards. It doesn't need to be shared.

Yep.