Ask a moderator about the forum and the rules

[baddo 0]

Hi

Well I think a link to the rules should not be individually in each section of the forum as it looks to be so currently. One potentially good place for the link could be in the top bar where we got the links:

Quote[/b] ]Welcome Baddo

[ Your Control Panel :: Log Out :: Notes :: New Posts ] Forum Rules

if it is possible regarding the space available in that bar (forum admins probably have more links in that bar?). The basic idea is to put the link to the rules into a "base template", into a file which is low in the template file hierarchy so that the link is always there no matter what section of the forum is currently viewed.

This is just an attempt to make everyone's life easier, really. Putting the link individually into some subsections of the forum creates inconsistency for the users and maintenance difficulties for forum administrators and as such is in my honest opinion not even close to an ideal and easy-to-use solution as getting the link to the rules depends what section of the forum I am viewing. Every now and then moderators are reminding members of the rules; wouldn't it be easier for you if the link to the rules was more visible for users?

When the forum software is updated then you'd need to make sure the link to the rules won't disappear from the template but that's not really a big thing to check and fix if needed (I suspect you have to do it already with the current position of the link).

This is really not a question of authority and power, you do not need to give up any of your power if you go and improve the forum as suggested.

About my original point: I still think that the rules are written too negatively, you could get friendlier behaviour from visitors of this forum if you use a friendly tone yourself where ever it is possible. In the rules it is definitely possible as a new forum member has not yet done anything bad in the forums and must not be made feel threatened in the moment they are joining this forum. Unfriendly behaviour is really a major problem of this forum and efforts should be made to reduce and discourage such behaviour. As I said before, it all starts from the rules as the rules are an entry point for new members.

Best Regards,

Baddo.

Edit: Well there you said it Kronzky, that is exactly how it was for me when I tried to find the rules. But I'd put the link to the rules to the top of the page instead of the bottom, as it is more often so that we have the top of the page visible and have usually no need to look at the bottom of the pages. The link in "Help" is an improvement but yes it could still be better.

[Journeyman 0]

About my original point: I still think that the rules are written too negatively, you could get friendlier behaviour from visitors of this forum if you use a friendly tone yourself where ever it is possible. In the rules it is definitely possible as a new forum member has not yet done anything bad in the forums and must not be made feel threatened in the moment they are joining this forum. Unfriendly behaviour is really a major problem of this forum and efforts should be made to reduce and discourage such behaviour. As I said before, it all starts from the rules as the rules are an entry point for new members.

Can I make a suggestion Bado? How about you altering the wording of the rules to what you would consider 'more friendly' and then presenting it to Shadow? I would like to help but I'm stuffed for time these days. PM me though if you need.

I have a feeling that these boards are moving towards a more friendly attitude now anyway    ... I've seen some changes for the better already.  

[fasad 1]

Can I suggest that the Editing forums on the forum frontpage get moved or renamed to make them OFP specific?

[baddo 0]

About my original point: I still think that the rules are written too negatively, you could get friendlier behaviour from visitors of this forum if you use a friendly tone yourself where ever it is possible. In the rules it is definitely possible as a new forum member has not yet done anything bad in the forums and must not be made feel threatened in the moment they are joining this forum. Unfriendly behaviour is really a major problem of this forum and efforts should be made to reduce and discourage such behaviour. As I said before, it all starts from the rules as the rules are an entry point for new members.

Can I make a suggestion Bado? How about you altering the wording of the rules to what you would consider 'more friendly' and then presenting it to Shadow? I would like to help but I'm stuffed for time these days. PM me though if you need.

I have a feeling that these boards are moving towards a more friendly attitude now anyway ... I've seen some changes for the better already.

Yes.

One example of rules written in a friendlier tone:

Quote[/b] ]Please respect the following rules when you post on this forum.

§1) Do show and encourage goodwill.

§2) Do respect the opinions and origins of other people in the forums.

§3) Do tell others Your relevant, useful, constructive and legally sound information and opinions.

§4) Do post in well-constructed and spell-checked English.

§5) Do give Your posts a second thought before submitting them.

§6) Do search for an answer first before posting a question.

§7) Do post in correct section of the forum. If You are unsure, ask a moderator first.

§8) Do keep in mind that there can be very significant age differences between forum members.

§9) Do use one and single account for all Your actions in the forum.

§10) Do respect the will of the moderators.

Just a quickly written example, but I am sure you see the idea I am after. Of course this is up to the forum administration to decide what to do, if anything.

Cheers,

Baddo.

[shadow 6]

....

§11) Do respect the current rules or I'll kick yo azz outta here

That better?   (sarcasm)

We're working on the rules and something to make them more visible. Maybe something new in a few days, weeks or perhaps months.

The new rules will be released when they are finished so dont ask when.

Now that you've all discussed this to death you surely must know where the rules are by now

Thanks for your patience (or lack there of).

[karantan 0]

Can I suggest that the Editing forums on the forum frontpage get moved or renamed to make them OFP specific?

Good call. There're new members (ArmA users) which don't check if they're on the right place (it's not so evident), before they post their question/problem about the editing/scripting. The ideal solution would be to move/place it into the OPERATION FLASHPOINT subcategory. Or just to add 'OFP only' in the title.

@Baddo

I'm awared that the above is only an example, but personally I don't see some segnificant and essential changes in your suggestion; those rules are as you say just written in somewhat more friendlier tone, but on the end they're 'the same', and if you look a bit closer they're also 'meanacing', like all such rules are; just for instance; what it will happen, if a member would not 'obey' the fourth point of the rules ('Do post in well-constructed and spell-checked English' )?

If some forum is a friendly place or not is more determined by the users/members (which on the end are the people with their characters), and especially by the moderators (which on the end are the people ... ), than the rules. Those rules on such forums are more or less the same, and re-writing them in some more friendlier and poetic tone I dont' think it will change much.

EDIT:

....

§11) Do respect the current rules or I'll kick yo azz outta here

That better?  

Aw aw aw, no need for such remarks, Baddo don't mean anything bad ...

[shadow 6]

Can I suggest that the Editing forums on the forum frontpage get moved or renamed to make them OFP specific?

I'm concerned with the already unstable database if I were to make any serious changes to the forum structure. This board is already on overtime.

So I have added OFP-tags to all OFP-specific forums outside the "OFP-root".

I hope that helps

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Hmm.. Was asked to repost in this thread, so here goes:

Hi

Fairly new to this forum, so sorry if I ask the obvious. I'm mostly into mission editing and some scripting, but the Arma Scripting forum is going quite bananas these days

In order to keep more up with what posts are where, I was wondering if it is possible to somehow increase the number of forum topics shown in a forum? The default is extremely low, and I end up with having to press those small page links frequently.

I'd like to set it to i.e. 100 or 200 topics shown. I checked the control panel, but maybe I'm going blind. How can I achieve this?

Any ideas? Or am I stuck with those few ones?

[shadow 6]

I was wondering if it is possible to somehow increase the number of forum topics shown in a forum?

....

I'd like to set it to i.e. 100 or 200 topics shown.

Unfortunately that setting is set globally by the board.

.....

15 topics per page was the compromise between those who wanted more and those who were fine with the default 10.

It will not be changed.

You may choose your own settings once we have a new forum up and running though (dont ask when).

[Maddmatt 1]

Will the image size limit ever get increased to something like 200KB? Or even 150KB if 200 is too much.

100KB is just tiny, if you look in the photography thread some people are actually splitting the image up into 2 to cheat the system. If you allow that then why not a single 150 to 200KB image?

200KB isn't much, I'm on a rather slow connection (384k) and would have no problem with 200KB images.

Please make it 200KB.

[Ironsight 1]

I would rather see a limit per post. Like a total of 600KB images per post. This would allow people to post bigger images but still make the page loadable for 56K'ers.

[raedor 8]

I would rather see a limit per post. Like a total of 600KB images per post. This would allow people to post bigger images but still make the page loadable for 56K'ers.

That makes life harder for us, as in the worst case we have to add six numbers to see if the rule is respected.

[mr burns 132]

Please make it 200KB.

Pretty please!

Before he´s left i´ve made a proposal to placebo to have a MP match - community vs. mods - to battle it out instead of just discussing it

[Rhodite 3]

Please make it 200KB.

Pretty please!

Before he´s left i´ve made a proposal to placebo to have a MP match - community vs. mods - to battle it out instead of just discussing it  

I see no point... we would win easily

[SpeedyDonkey 0]

I do think that the 100 kb image rule is outdated. Around 2001 it might have seemed like a good thing, but this is six freaking years later friends.

[Journeyman 0]

I would rather see a limit per post. Like a total of 600KB images per post. This would allow people to post bigger images but still make the page loadable for 56K'ers.

That makes life harder for us, as in the worst case we have to add six numbers to see if the rule is respected.

That is a very good proposal Ironsight! .... @ raedor if the worst comes to the worst we could all chip in and buy you all a calculator each!  

[Daddl 10]

I do think that the 100 kb image rule is outdated. Around 2001 it might have seemed like a good thing, but this is six freaking years later friends.

While I admit that few people still use 56k modems on a regular base there is the odd day (or even week) where the only internet access available to me is by using a slow dialup connection. It's annoying having to adjust compression settings for each image (even at the low resolution of 600x400 that I use in the photography thread) just to get below the 100k mark - but up to now I always managed without too much quality loss. And then there's always the possibility to give a link to a bigger image.

Hotlinking images > 800x600 (which is where a bigger file size allowance would really be required) isn't sensible anyways. Not everyone has a 1600x1200 screen or is running his browser in fullscreen all the time. And on my part I've got to say that I hate nothing more than having to scroll just to see all of a picture. To get a first impression a smaller image is quite sufficient - and for details you can always give a link or do a crop.

So I don't think there really is a big need for this rule to be revised, but if it is, I beg the mods at least to keep a limit to the image size in pixels, if only to keep the threads readable.

[SpeedyDonkey 0]

I do think that the 100 kb image rule is outdated. Around 2001 it might have seemed like a good thing, but this is six freaking years later friends.

While I admit that few people still use 56k modems on a regular base there is the odd day (or even week) where the only internet access available to me is by using a slow dialup connection. It's annoying having to adjust compression settings for each image (even at the low resolution of 600x400 that I use in the photography thread) just to get below the 100k mark - but up to now I always managed without too much quality loss. And then there's always the possibility to give a link to a bigger image.

Hotlinking images > 800x600 (which is where a bigger file size allowance would really be required) isn't sensible anyways. Not everyone has a 1600x1200 screen or is running his browser in fullscreen all the time. And on my part I've got to say that I hate nothing more than having to scroll just to see all of a picture. To get a first impression a smaller image is quite sufficient - and for details you can always give a link or do a crop.

Well last time I posted images I had to use jpeg compression 3 to 5 in Photoshop to get under (and just barely) 100kb. And that was on 990 X 590 images.

I think one has to be completely stupid to post a full sized image. It is as you hinted extremely inconvenient for the viewer, as well as aesthetically unpleasing. I mean, what is the point of posting photos on a forum? You want others to see your work and hopefully they’ll like it, few people are so stupid that they’d ruin everything by posting gigantic oversized images. So I do not really see any big risk in that.

And if you want to have a rule for it, sure why not? It’s an easy rule to implement and easy for moderators to check. (Just like the signature size rule)

[wex-q 0]

We should have a rule of max 800px wide images in the Photothread (Atleast I think that's the max size you can post w/o expanding the table your post is in).

Not that it's important

[JdB 151]

We should have a rule of max 800px wide images in the Photothread (Atleast I think that's the max size you can post w/o expanding the table your post is in).

Not that it's important

What is important is that it depends on your resolution, not on the size of any pic itself. If you have a 22' screen set on 1600X1200, the pic can be larger without stretching the tables than on a 17' set on 1024X768

[shadow 6]

I do think that the 100 kb image rule is outdated. Around 2001 it might have seemed like a good thing, but this is six freaking years later friends.

While maybe most people use broadband today there are days when the net is slo-o-ow. Then there is the issue of slow hosts.

The rule stays.

If you want to post a big image, use http-tags instead if img-tags.

[BlackScorpion 0]

So... it's still 100 kB?

Have fun at the photography forum.

[Maddmatt 1]

What is the point of having a 100KB limit, but still allowing people to split the picture into sections? Some pics in the photography topic are made up of 3 sections. That is effectively almost a 300KB picture.

Surely one whole picture should be considered as a single picture according to the rule, regardless of how many sections it has? Otherwise what is the point in having the rule since it's just making people split the pics to get decent quality?

[JdB 151]

Some pics in the photography topic are made up of 3 sections. That is effectively almost a 300KB picture.

It takes even longer, since for every picture a file transfer has to be setup between the client (webbrowser) and the server, which takes time as well. 1 300kb picture = 1 transfer, 3 100kb pictures = 3 transfers

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

I want to Kronzky to the Moderator staff.

Do you plan on applying a modified version of your patrol script to the moderator profiles so the forum will moderate itself?