Forum News & Discussion

[Jim85IROC]

In light of a past member who returned just to delete all their attachments, and some crucial posts...

Members will no longer have the ability to delete their attachments from their UCP.

There will now be a time limit on the ability to edit or delete posts. One week for the deletion of a post, and one month for the editing of a post.

Thanks for your understanding.

On question with regard to this... is there a way around this 1 month time limit? Some threads like the History of the 10T thread that I recently inherited may only get updated sporadically as new info/pics roll in to replace those that were lost. I can't imagine having that content restored within a month.

[Lowgear]

If you look at the second to last post on the previous page, you'll see that after further review it was decided that evoking a time limit for edits ultimately wouldn't be a good idea so it was scrapped.

[Jim85IROC]

Sorry, I missed that post! Thanks.

[Lowgear]

Due to yet another unfortunate event with a disgruntled member, a 30 day time limit for editing posts has been reinstated. There is no time limit for being able to edit the first post of your topics. This way long running threads like the History of the RC10 can continue to be updated along with B/S/T posts for example.

[ChisaiKuso]

Due to yet another unfortunate event with a disgruntled member, a 30 day time limit for editing posts has been reinstated. There is no time limit for being able to edit the first post of your topics. This way long running threads like the History of the RC10 can continue to be updated along with B/S/T posts for example.

I mean no disrespect, but, unless you are willing to make exceptions on a regular basis, this is bad form...

As previously discussed, this does not work for threads like the one you specifically mention above. In the "25 Years Of The RC10" thread, the first post only contains a brief overview and a list of the models that still require updating. This new rule does not allow for those models needing an update to ever be updated. It also prevents any new information and/or pictures from being added to any of the presently completed model posts.

Additionally, this new rule screws all of us who have created (and at least somewhat regularly update) threads showing our RC collections.

[Lowgear]

I totally agree but something has to be done to protect ourselves. When the site is being defaced on purpose by maliciously removing the content of thousands of posts, it's not something we can keep letting go. The blame rests solely on the members who ruined it for everyone else. This is the best compromise that I can come up with. Unfortunately there aren't many options. I wish there was a way to be able to pick and choose what forums would be exempt such as 'The Gallery' for example but there isn't. As it is, I had to install an old modification I found just to allow the continual editing of a topics first post as it's not a native feature. What I can do as it pertains to 'The Gallery' is remove the limit of 10 attachments per post. This way they all can be contained in the first one. That may help in that regard.

If anyone ever needs a post or topic they made deleted, I'm just a PM away.

[RC10th]

I'm not a technical guy but why cant there be some form of backup, like a snapshot of the website every 6 hours or so so that there is something to fall back on?

[Lowgear]

That seems good in theory but it doesn't work that way unfortunately. I manually make a backup every so often, and I think there's a modification out there that will do it automatically once a month or so but this place is too large for that. The problem is it's all or nothing. You can't just backup posts, and then hit a few buttons and they're magically restored. You have to backup the entirety of the board as there's attachments and whatnot that go along with corresponding posts. Backups are really only meant for emergencies where you have to recreate the entire board over again from scratch. Like in the event of a server crash, hacking attempt, data corruption, etc... Plus any topics or posts made after the backup will be lost. The latest backup I have is two months old. So if I had to restore the board, we would lose all that content. Last but not least, restoration is obviously an involved process so the board would be down for an indefinite period. Having nearly 400,000 posts, and many gigs of data hinders the process greatly as well. Luckily in the last 13 years, I don't recall it ever needing to be done.

EDIT: The good news is I found a mod that would solve the problem. The bad news is it's a decade old so it no longer works. I'm trying to get a new updated version created but it's going to be potluck.

[GoMachV]

It’s too bad there isn’t a mod where the user can request a modification to a post but it isn’t authorized until someone looks at it first

[Lowgear]

Ooooh I like it! Something like that would be the best solution. It would require way more work to create though. The old modification I found allows you to omit specific forums from the editing restrictions. Hopefully I can find someone willing to do either one.

[Lowgear]

I've received no response to my request yet. While waiting I contacted a few phpBB developers one on one, and they claim the money and time involved would be substantial.

[Lowgear]

The post editing modification I installed which was briefly mentioned above, only allows the continual editing of the first post in every topic. I was able to figure out a workaround so 'The Gallery' forum and entire B/S/T section are now omitted from the editing restrictions. That is if the mod even works. I can't test it due to being an admin.

[KidAgain]

Much appreciated bud for looking out and actually caring about your forum..............................

[Lowgear]

I just realized that seemingly 70% of the posts in the 'Modern Electronics' forum have absolutely nothing to do with the subject. It doesn't make any sense at all. It makes me wonder if the board had a glitch at one point, and scattered random topics in there from other places. In an attempt to clean it up, I'm moving the topics into their proper places. The problem is when I started, there were 30 pages worth of content so it will take a while to go through it all individually. It's a rather large undertaking. I even created another forum to put a lot of the topics in called "Other Stuff." That's the running title/location for now.

EDIT: I think I know what happened, and it was in fact a glitch that caused it. A number of years ago the board software was so far behind in updates, that when it was finally updated it caused hundreds of topics to be moved into that forum from various other forums. I don't know why I would remember it but I vaguely do. This must have jogged my memory. Nevertheless, it's being fixed now.

[Lowgear]

I've just made the 400,000th post!

Thanks for making this place what it is today. I value everyone here more than you know.