.::FAO ALL- PassionFord changes taking place::.
19-11-2007, 10:40 PM
#1
.::FAO ALL- PassionFord changes taking place::.
Evening all.
Most of you may have noticed things have been changing around here lately and thats because i have decided to dig in one last time to try and turn this place around.
Over the last 12 months this forum has undergone a lot of change, and not always for the better, but teh fact remains, i always look at the bigger picture and when anyone enters into an adult discussion with me about the changes, they have ALWAYS been able to see my point, and hence, were introduced to the greater picture. So please, before spitting your dummy out like kids, consider the fact that i am not an idiot and therefore i must have decided on certain changes for a very good reason. I will not always be right, but i will only TRY things i think are worth doing.
The Changes So far:
Room layout Changes:
Photoshop section now part of pictures and videos.
Motorsport room and regional meetings room now merged.
TOTB room removed and post moved to teh above forum.
Ford puma room removed and all posts moved into "Other Cars" room.
Cars wanted now merged with parts wanted.
Traders Discussion room deleted.
Ford XR parts for sale room merged with Non rs parts for sale.
ICE for sale room deleted and merged with alloys for sale.
Permissions Changes:
Muppet room will become Gold Members only access tomorrow.
All rooms will need you to log in to view them Except GD.
Staffing Changes:
The moderators will be reviewed, with some stepping down.
Of all teh changes above, the muppet room has caused most upheaval in the members, but my reasoning is very simple. The bandwidth used by this forum is not only expensive, its creating problems during our peak times, and the fact remains that the muppet room accounts for a VERY heavy bandwidth overhead on PF due to the busy postings in there. Upon reviewing the situation, i discovered that approximately 80% of its regulars are NON Contributors and therefore are slowing down the site for paying members. This had to stop, its NOT a free chat forum. Its a car forum. Sorry.
Its a known fact that people hate change, and, generally speaking, people do not actually know what is good for them, and have to have it shown to them before they understand... Bear with us and lets see, as a community, whether these new changes work or not.
Topic locked as i plan to post another reply on another forum related subject, so bear with me.
Most of you may have noticed things have been changing around here lately and thats because i have decided to dig in one last time to try and turn this place around.
Over the last 12 months this forum has undergone a lot of change, and not always for the better, but teh fact remains, i always look at the bigger picture and when anyone enters into an adult discussion with me about the changes, they have ALWAYS been able to see my point, and hence, were introduced to the greater picture. So please, before spitting your dummy out like kids, consider the fact that i am not an idiot and therefore i must have decided on certain changes for a very good reason. I will not always be right, but i will only TRY things i think are worth doing.
The Changes So far:
Room layout Changes:
Photoshop section now part of pictures and videos.
Motorsport room and regional meetings room now merged.
TOTB room removed and post moved to teh above forum.
Ford puma room removed and all posts moved into "Other Cars" room.
Cars wanted now merged with parts wanted.
Traders Discussion room deleted.
Ford XR parts for sale room merged with Non rs parts for sale.
ICE for sale room deleted and merged with alloys for sale.
Permissions Changes:
Muppet room will become Gold Members only access tomorrow.
All rooms will need you to log in to view them Except GD.
Staffing Changes:
The moderators will be reviewed, with some stepping down.
Of all teh changes above, the muppet room has caused most upheaval in the members, but my reasoning is very simple. The bandwidth used by this forum is not only expensive, its creating problems during our peak times, and the fact remains that the muppet room accounts for a VERY heavy bandwidth overhead on PF due to the busy postings in there. Upon reviewing the situation, i discovered that approximately 80% of its regulars are NON Contributors and therefore are slowing down the site for paying members. This had to stop, its NOT a free chat forum. Its a car forum. Sorry.
Its a known fact that people hate change, and, generally speaking, people do not actually know what is good for them, and have to have it shown to them before they understand... Bear with us and lets see, as a community, whether these new changes work or not.
Topic locked as i plan to post another reply on another forum related subject, so bear with me.
19-11-2007, 11:00 PM
#2
Moving of topics:
This one is maybe the biggest bugbear of all and the reason you all complain is because you want your topic to have the maxiimum exposure possible, correct?.
I must wonder, how many of you actually bother to use the correct rooms in the correct manner. I often see comments from, users, normally the old school ones, mopaning that PF's general discussion is just full of crap, and they cant find any car related discussion, so i just wonder why not use the car only topic rooms?
Escort Rs Turbo Room. Look at the community. look how busy it is. Look how ON TOPIC it is. Look at the stickies.
Sierra Rs Cosworth Room. Look at the community. look how busy it is. Look how ON TOPIC it is. Look at the stickies.
How can you people moan there is no car related discussion on PF anymore when its just you lot who cant be arsed to look? Whilst your too lasy to use the forum correctly, all those people are happily enjoying PF tyeh way its meant to be, leaving you lot arguing like kids in GD.
Some of you regularly ask why we cant just have one big room with everything in it, well the answer to that is simple. BECAUSE you dont bother to visit each room, you are very unlikely to know just how busy this forum is... imagine GD with 240 topics a day in it. yes, we create 240 topics a day and cover some 3500 posts each 24 hrs. Yeah, that would be great in one room wouldnt it. real fun!
So we try, as your webforum to make sure each sub forum has the correct topics moved into it, so as if you feel like chatting escort cosworth, you can do, if youn want to discuss things technical, you can do, but until the users stop moaning and actually access the rooms they are supposed to be in, i guess nobody will ever be happy.
Also, its fine you wanting your escort cosworth restoration topic in GD today, but what about in a years time when it would have been a great resource to others for reference, who will find it? They will be looking in the restorations forum, so they wont find yours.
So where do we go from here?
A valid point i accept, is that sometimes it would be nice to get a topic answered real fast, or maybe enjoy some rapid fire discussion, and thats fine, but i dont see how we could implement it without breaking our own rules, unless, and this is JUST AN IDEA... we allow a topic to stay in GD regardless, for 24hrs, and then its moved to the correct sub forum where people can continue to discuss if they fancy?
Anyway, thats enough about topic moving, you will just have to bear with the mod team, and remember, they are NOT PAID to do this, so anyone abusing them with childish remarks or name calling can be banned for life instantly as far as i am concerned. We dont need the childish element here anymore, so if you have nothing adult and constructive to say, i suggest you just move on to another (ford?) forum.
Onto my next subject... BRB
This one is maybe the biggest bugbear of all and the reason you all complain is because you want your topic to have the maxiimum exposure possible, correct?.
I must wonder, how many of you actually bother to use the correct rooms in the correct manner. I often see comments from, users, normally the old school ones, mopaning that PF's general discussion is just full of crap, and they cant find any car related discussion, so i just wonder why not use the car only topic rooms?
Escort Rs Turbo Room. Look at the community. look how busy it is. Look how ON TOPIC it is. Look at the stickies.
Sierra Rs Cosworth Room. Look at the community. look how busy it is. Look how ON TOPIC it is. Look at the stickies.
How can you people moan there is no car related discussion on PF anymore when its just you lot who cant be arsed to look? Whilst your too lasy to use the forum correctly, all those people are happily enjoying PF tyeh way its meant to be, leaving you lot arguing like kids in GD.
Some of you regularly ask why we cant just have one big room with everything in it, well the answer to that is simple. BECAUSE you dont bother to visit each room, you are very unlikely to know just how busy this forum is... imagine GD with 240 topics a day in it. yes, we create 240 topics a day and cover some 3500 posts each 24 hrs. Yeah, that would be great in one room wouldnt it. real fun!
So we try, as your webforum to make sure each sub forum has the correct topics moved into it, so as if you feel like chatting escort cosworth, you can do, if youn want to discuss things technical, you can do, but until the users stop moaning and actually access the rooms they are supposed to be in, i guess nobody will ever be happy.
Also, its fine you wanting your escort cosworth restoration topic in GD today, but what about in a years time when it would have been a great resource to others for reference, who will find it? They will be looking in the restorations forum, so they wont find yours.
So where do we go from here?
A valid point i accept, is that sometimes it would be nice to get a topic answered real fast, or maybe enjoy some rapid fire discussion, and thats fine, but i dont see how we could implement it without breaking our own rules, unless, and this is JUST AN IDEA... we allow a topic to stay in GD regardless, for 24hrs, and then its moved to the correct sub forum where people can continue to discuss if they fancy?
Anyway, thats enough about topic moving, you will just have to bear with the mod team, and remember, they are NOT PAID to do this, so anyone abusing them with childish remarks or name calling can be banned for life instantly as far as i am concerned. We dont need the childish element here anymore, so if you have nothing adult and constructive to say, i suggest you just move on to another (ford?) forum.
Onto my next subject... BRB
19-11-2007, 11:12 PM
#3
PassionFord performance.
As most of you will be aware, for some time now Passionford has been suffering from slowdowns in the evening, normally between around 7pm and 11pm during which time access to the server is slow and you will get critical errors.
This is known to be down to a number of things, or indeed a combination of things, but the main 2 culprits are.
1) There are traffic density problems with the link between UK and France at peak times.
2) PHP software struggles with databases of this magnitude.
(Well over 1.3 gigabyte now)
Now as part of the solution, Pet may well move the hosting server to London, but that isnt going to give us any software solutions, and we do in fact want to move to bigger and better software such as VBull now the site has grown and we have a decent community in place, but there are a few massive hurdles to overcome, the main one being:
The Gold membership scheme all being custom coded so it cannot be ported across with the click of a mouse. The ONLY way to move all that info is to do it by hand, person by person, and thats a mammoth task.
In an ideal world all the gold members would accept they were going to lose their memberships and have to start again, but hey, thats not going to happen is it? lol
PHP BB version 3 RC is available now and we have it running on another server with PF's database, but its not all good so we wont be trying that just yet, but its a definate option and we havent forgotten about it. please, bear with us.
I hope that for now, the culling of topics, merging of rooms, and the bandwidth saved by removing the muppet room tomorrow, will afford us some extra reliability for a while. Lets all Watch this space.
As most of you will be aware, for some time now Passionford has been suffering from slowdowns in the evening, normally between around 7pm and 11pm during which time access to the server is slow and you will get critical errors.
This is known to be down to a number of things, or indeed a combination of things, but the main 2 culprits are.
1) There are traffic density problems with the link between UK and France at peak times.
2) PHP software struggles with databases of this magnitude.
(Well over 1.3 gigabyte now)
Now as part of the solution, Pet may well move the hosting server to London, but that isnt going to give us any software solutions, and we do in fact want to move to bigger and better software such as VBull now the site has grown and we have a decent community in place, but there are a few massive hurdles to overcome, the main one being:
The Gold membership scheme all being custom coded so it cannot be ported across with the click of a mouse. The ONLY way to move all that info is to do it by hand, person by person, and thats a mammoth task.
In an ideal world all the gold members would accept they were going to lose their memberships and have to start again, but hey, thats not going to happen is it? lol
PHP BB version 3 RC is available now and we have it running on another server with PF's database, but its not all good so we wont be trying that just yet, but its a definate option and we havent forgotten about it. please, bear with us.
I hope that for now, the culling of topics, merging of rooms, and the bandwidth saved by removing the muppet room tomorrow, will afford us some extra reliability for a while. Lets all Watch this space.
19-11-2007, 11:16 PM
#4
Search Facility:
The search facility not working properly is due to the fact that when hundreds of users all once use it, its affecting our speed badly as each user is searching a MASSIVE database, so its been culled for the time being.
May i suggest people instead use the excellent searches on the index page. (Top right hand corner here
View all posts since last visit.
View your own posts.
Or the google PF search here:
https://passionford.com/googlesearch.htm
The search facility not working properly is due to the fact that when hundreds of users all once use it, its affecting our speed badly as each user is searching a MASSIVE database, so its been culled for the time being.
May i suggest people instead use the excellent searches on the index page. (Top right hand corner here
View all posts since last visit.
View your own posts.
Or the google PF search here:
https://passionford.com/googlesearch.htm
19-11-2007, 11:25 PM
#7
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Would moving the servers to London cut Pet out of the loop Stu?
I mean he has been looking after it all this time and don't want the fella to lose out if that makes sense?
I mean he has been looking after it all this time and don't want the fella to lose out if that makes sense?
Trending Topics
19-11-2007, 11:26 PM
#8
Too many posts.. I need a life!!
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Excellent ideas, I think the leaving a thread for 24hrs then moving it may drag people into other rooms to continue there discussions so i would back that option. 
19-11-2007, 11:27 PM
#9
19-11-2007, 11:30 PM
#10
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Originally Posted by RWD_cossie_wil
View all posts since last visit.
View your own posts.
Best features of PF IMHO, makes finding most posts a doddle, and I often wish other BB's had this facility
View your own posts.
Best features of PF IMHO, makes finding most posts a doddle, and I often wish other BB's had this facility
Funny as all the other sites i use do have this option and i always use it but for some reason i have never used the pf one
Plus you lose the hover over topic/post thing i think
19-11-2007, 11:32 PM
#11
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Last edited by Ryan_3; 07-09-2011 at 04:08 AM.
19-11-2007, 11:43 PM
#13
Originally Posted by EsCosRacer
i beleive you have enough experience to do the changes necessary
looking forward to a different and better PF
looking forward to a different and better PF
Thanks for the vote of confidence though Mike, your the first, and probably the last.
19-11-2007, 11:43 PM
#14
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A valid point i accept, is that sometimes it would be nice to get a topic answered real fast, or maybe enjoy some rapid fire discussion, and thats fine, but i don't see how we could implement it without breaking our own rules, unless, and this is JUST AN IDEA... we allow a topic to stay in GD regardless, for 24hrs, and then its moved to the correct sub forum where people can continue to discuss if they fancy?
Bit catch 22 innit?
19-11-2007, 11:43 PM
#15
Originally Posted by S2martin
Would moving the servers to London cut Pet out of the loop Stu?
I mean he has been looking after it all this time and don't want the fella to lose out if that makes sense?
I mean he has been looking after it all this time and don't want the fella to lose out if that makes sense?
19-11-2007, 11:45 PM
#17
Almost there!
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i must admit that sometimes i cant always get my head around the search function and often give up with it.
but i do regularly select to view my own posts, makes it easy to first catch up on what id been involved with on my last visit, then i move on to scan around the board as normal.
lets hope these changes are for the better
but i do regularly select to view my own posts, makes it easy to first catch up on what id been involved with on my last visit, then i move on to scan around the board as normal.
lets hope these changes are for the better
19-11-2007, 11:49 PM
#19
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I agree with the muppet room change & some of the other changes seem a good idea too.
Top work Stu & i hope it's a smooth cross over.
One genuine question though, how do you determine what is a general discussion thread & what isn't?
For example, if I was to post a thread asking about opinions on a car I was interested in would that stay in GD or would that go in other cars?
Top work Stu & i hope it's a smooth cross over.
One genuine question though, how do you determine what is a general discussion thread & what isn't?
For example, if I was to post a thread asking about opinions on a car I was interested in would that stay in GD or would that go in other cars?
19-11-2007, 11:51 PM
#21
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Now i have read through everything and fully understand everything i am 100% behind all the changes.
The only website i really use and would be sad to see it slip away.
Credit where credit is due for taking some quite drastic action it seems so well done to all who are making these changes. I will be diffintley renewing my membership.
Good luck and lets see Passionford continue
The only website i really use and would be sad to see it slip away.
Credit where credit is due for taking some quite drastic action it seems so well done to all who are making these changes. I will be diffintley renewing my membership.
Good luck and lets see Passionford continue
20-11-2007, 05:39 AM
#26
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sometimes medicine leaves a nasty taste,but if it makes you better you have to take it,good luck stu.i cant see any major problems with what you are doing,
20-11-2007, 06:44 AM
#28
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I agree 100% with the changes made so far 
It now brings PF on a par with other big forums like MLR & SN etc., who all implement/insist on everything being posted in the correct rooms without any moaning or bad mouthing Mods from their users. You only have to look at the main forum listings on these boards to see how busy all rooms are.
Like any major change, it will take getting used to and there will always be those who can't/wont accept that it's for the best for the future of PF.
It now brings PF on a par with other big forums like MLR & SN etc., who all implement/insist on everything being posted in the correct rooms without any moaning or bad mouthing Mods from their users. You only have to look at the main forum listings on these boards to see how busy all rooms are.
Like any major change, it will take getting used to and there will always be those who can't/wont accept that it's for the best for the future of PF.
20-11-2007, 07:03 AM
#29
Well im not scared to say how i realy feel
Superb ,, I can see why anyone will moan putting topics together is a great idea , like cars and parts wanted both pages ARE used , but not to a massive extent so putting them together makes perfect sence and saves me clicking from one page to another all the time to see nothing much new .
I feel these changes are more of a clean up rather than a drastic change
Im sure it will work fine
Superb ,, I can see why anyone will moan
putting topics together is a great idea , like cars and parts wanted both pages ARE used , but not to a massive extent so putting them together makes perfect sence and saves me clicking from one page to another all the time to see nothing much new .I feel these changes are more of a clean up rather than a drastic change
Im sure it will work fine
20-11-2007, 07:10 AM
#30
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wow! I had no idea the Muppet Room accounted for that much but is a very valid point r.e Bandwidth for other users. Has this become more of an issue of late or has this been the case for a while?
Do you think this will help with the performance in the General Discussion room significantly too?
All seem good to me but as a non contributor financially, happy to go with the flow.
Do you think this will help with the performance in the General Discussion room significantly too?
All seem good to me but as a non contributor financially, happy to go with the flow.
20-11-2007, 07:18 AM
#31
this lot does kind of seem sense to me and i really dont understand computers at all
i hope it works ok and everyone settles in.i hate computers and stayed well clear of them due to it.but i have to say this site is the one thing that has got me to sit behind one.through it i have learnt alot about various cars and met and made alot of friends who i wouldnt know without it.
there obviously will be moaning and tbh i was sceptical about it all and was wondering if pet/stu were looking to wind the forum down so it kind of destroys itself due to them having ALOT of other commitments now.but looking at it maybe i was way off target.
i have always wondered why some rooms were in here tbh.they just seemed to be a waste of time and empty so if getting rid/merging some helps so be it.
lets hope the future for pf is bright
i hope it works ok and everyone settles in.i hate computers and stayed well clear of them due to it.but i have to say this site is the one thing that has got me to sit behind one.through it i have learnt alot about various cars and met and made alot of friends who i wouldnt know without it.
there obviously will be moaning and tbh i was sceptical about it all and was wondering if pet/stu were looking to wind the forum down so it kind of destroys itself due to them having ALOT of other commitments now.but looking at it maybe i was way off target.
i have always wondered why some rooms were in here tbh.they just seemed to be a waste of time and empty so if getting rid/merging some helps so be it.
lets hope the future for pf is bright
20-11-2007, 07:22 AM
#32
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Originally Posted by MARCOSWORTH
Stu,how many % is gold member on here??
Agree 100% with the adjustments being made btw
20-11-2007, 08:03 AM
#33
Originally Posted by NORTH YORKS RS SPARES
Well im not scared to say how i realy feel
Superb ,, I can see why anyone will moan putting topics together is a great idea , like cars and parts wanted both pages ARE used , but not to a massive extent so putting them together makes perfect sence and saves me clicking from one page to another all the time to see nothing much new .
I feel these changes are more of a clean up rather than a drastic change
Im sure it will work fine
Superb ,, I can see why anyone will moan
putting topics together is a great idea , like cars and parts wanted both pages ARE used , but not to a massive extent so putting them together makes perfect sence and saves me clicking from one page to another all the time to see nothing much new .I feel these changes are more of a clean up rather than a drastic change
Im sure it will work fine
quick stu fuckin print this off and frame it ! the cunts happy for once
20-11-2007, 08:16 AM
#36
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Originally Posted by Redkop
I agree 100% with the changes made so far
It now brings PF on a par with other big forums like MLR & SN etc., who all implement/insist on everything being posted in the correct rooms without any moaning or bad mouthing Mods from their users. You only have to look at the main forum listings on these boards to see how busy all rooms are.
Like any major change, it will take getting used to and there will always be those who can't/wont accept that it's for the best for the future of PF.
It now brings PF on a par with other big forums like MLR & SN etc., who all implement/insist on everything being posted in the correct rooms without any moaning or bad mouthing Mods from their users. You only have to look at the main forum listings on these boards to see how busy all rooms are.
Like any major change, it will take getting used to and there will always be those who can't/wont accept that it's for the best for the future of PF.
20-11-2007, 08:27 AM
#37
Testing the future
Originally Posted by 4x4 ste
Excellent ideas, I think the leaving a thread for 24hrs then moving it may drag people into other rooms to continue there discussions so i would back that option.
i look forward to using the board in it's new format
