I've been unable to upload photos lately, even tho' I'm well under the baggage allowance. Is it the rain? Is it a slower than NBN speed? Have I missed something? Is it my accursed technophobia? Any ideas will be gratefully accepted & tried.
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I have to admit I haven't yet tried uploading anything since the website was upgraded... Is it still the same process or has it changed??
(Sorry Woko, I know that hasn't helped you!!).
Scott :)
My understanding is that it is different on the new website. Instead of downloading photos via Photobucket I can now go to Add a new file > Browse > [select my photo] > Upload. I managed to get it work once or twice but the last couple of times I gave it a lash my photos failed to upload.
Theoretically, going via Add a new file is simpler (for me at least) if only it would work. But I believe some posters still download via Photobucket & Flickr.
Hi Woko, I have said this many times , I have the same problem. It looks as if they don't upload, empty square with a red cross in the top left corner. I now send (save) them anyway, and some time later, (a lot later), they turn up on the forum. Alison explained to me why that happens, but it is very annoying..
M-L
I've just encountered the same problem and am very frustrated as I don't know if the pics need editing, if they all went in, or if they are there at all just waiting. Not happy Jan. Surely we can do better than this?
Karen
Brisbane southside.
I am finding this new site to be a backward step even from what we had before. I don't like being critical as I realise there are budgetary constraints but while I am grateful for the time spent on this upgrade, the additions by Holly and that we even have this site, for me it has been very disappointing. IMO, we have reduced functionality in many aspects and the photos which were once a wonderful feature are not showing anywhere near to their full potential and now they are not even uploading as expected. There seems to be no way to mark posts as read without specifically opening them and many I have already read which is time wasting.
There are many software packages around both better and quite inexpensive which would have done a far better job than what we now have and would have needed minimal tweaking if any at all to make them fit the needs of this site. I once visited this site with anticipation but now it is as an afterthought. Maybe my hopes were too high but honestly I don't think so as I have been these type of forums for over 15 years and none are like this.
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Thanks Alison, you are expressing exactly what I think. I'm just trying very hard to work my way through it, and waiting for the problems to work itself out. Like you said, the photos are nowhere near as good as they used to be and nowhere near the actual quality of the photo. On top of that,I don't know if anyone else feels that way, those problems (as you said), are keeping members from posting anything but photos. There used to be great discussions on other subjects, I have tried a few times, neither being funny, nor being serious, gets it of the ground. Only "us oldies" on the forum are trying to involve people in discussions, and a few "newbies". It would be very interesting to find out, why some new members post one ore two photos, and disappear again?
Anyway, I find the way this is going sad, I hope it is going to get better soon? Right now, I don't find it as enjoyable as it was.
(now, if anybody wants to hit me, go ahead!)
M-L
I think they (Holly etc.) know about the problems, and I'm sure they are trying to fix it. I think the new site is great with much better image funcionality (albeit a bit buggie at the moment).
I think we need to remember that this wasn't just a new site pulled out of the box, but an upgrade of an existing site. I am sure the members would have been dissappoimted to see all the posts from the old site disappear with the introduction of the new site. It must have been quite a challenge making the new site backward compatible.
I did some experiments this morning and found you can still insert an image hosted externally, (eg. photobucket flicker etc.) so if you need to have your photo included just click the image button and load them how you used to.
Regards Roger
Roger, I was taking into consideration that this is the upgrade of an existing site. Many other forums have upgraded to totally different forum software over time and while trimming old posts have still retained all the others. Also, I am not criticising Holly or anyone else and hope that that is clear. But there does come a time when there is more time spent trying to patch up old "stuff" when new "stuff" with total functionality already built in is already available and does not require ongoing programming adjustments.
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
This evening I was able to upload a photo after 6 or 7 goes. Yipppppeeee! I was getting frustrated about not being able to but not nearly as frustrated as I would have been 12 months ago. I've realised that, overall, my expectations of the world of high tech have been far too high. Really, we're still in the infancy of all this computer stuff & in 50 years time we'll have a good laugh about photos that take days to upload, computers that take 2 minutes to boot up & the user-hostile programmes that currenty bedevil us.
Mind you, there's little doubt in my mind that there are some very clever strategies being used by companies to make us believe that we have to have upgrades & new & faster stuff all the time. Still, you'd be paranoid too if the whole world was against you.
Do we need to cut the site a little slack? I'm prepared to. I can imagine that Birds in Backyards isn't so flush with web site maintenance resources that it can have turn arounds in problems in 1 day like the Big Four banks.
Hi guys
All comments and criticisms welcome - I am doing my best to work out what needs fixing and getting quotes for it all. We simply don't have the funds to do it all. I wish we did.
I am trying to understand the photo quality issues, to me the photos look just as good, if not better than before and the uploading methods are much easier (though there seems to be a problem over the last few days with the speed of the uploads). However many of you have reported issues so there must be something that I am not seeing.
re the Red X's - I will try to get on a few times a day and refreshing the cache as that seemed to fix the issue last week.
BIBY is basically me - I am the only paid staff member on the project close to fulltime (and I am not full time) and have many things on the website and beyond the website to work on. I am not trying to make excuses - I am just as frustrated as you all are, but I am trying my best to get it all sorted for you. I had so desperately wanted the site to be one that the members are happy with and goodness knows I spent a lot of time working on it over the last year to try to give you all something that is better than we had before. The old site wasn't functional at all and had to be replaced.
Sorry guys, you have been beyond patient and I will do better
Cheers
Holly
Thanks for the honest and sincere reply Holly and pardon my ignorance I didn't understand about the funding and your workload, It is the people on this site that make the difference in the long run, so don't wear your fingernails down, we'll adapt.
Regards Shane
p.s I must say that my photos have been loading very quickly today and now I get a thumbnail after I upload, that's progress.
Regards
Shane
Thanks Shane - I didn't want to make excuses, I simply want to deliver a website that you all enjoy and that fufills the aims of BIBY - to create habitat and to educate people about birds.
I am still learning the new site too and working out how to do things (my background is ecology, not IT!) I have spent today writing the first e-Newsletter for the upgraded site (which included analysis of survey data) and working out how to send it! (I am still not confident enough to click send until I can see a test version - hopefully it will go out tomorrow), I have also done 2 radio interviews, had a phone meeting with our project officer and answered emails. So my days are varied and busy! I love my job, I love BIBY and I am trying to pull it all together for you all.
Sorry that does read like excuses but I didn't intend for it to do, just wanted to provide some background for you all.
Holly, hi. I am relatively new to the forum, but feel at home here. I just wanted to say thank you for responding to our comments. We all, I think, like to know what is going on, and what is being done about it. Your response helps put us in the picture, keeping us part of the whole, and helps us understand what is happening. I don't believe anything said was meant to be personal. It was simply our way of letting admin (you) know of our frustrations and concerns. Now, instead of carrying it all on your own shoulders, you have earned our support and understanding.
Karen
Brisbane southside.
I do not mean to sound ungrateful Holly and none of this is directed at you - you have done wonders with what you have had available and I have told you that previously!
Nevertheless, before you spend any more money on programming for this site, have you had a look at http://sea-eaglecam.org/forums/ which is also related to Birds Australia! The software (Simple Machines Forum — SMF in short) is free and has all the functionality needed. There are also help forums on the SMF site for support. You would need help to moderate this (and probably do for this one anyway) but I am certain there are people here who would be happy to help as that one is also run by volunteers - no-one should have to do this alone, it is not possible nor desirable.
There is a support forum there also to help convert a current forum to swf without loss of data and you would still be able to retain the beautiful header you have here. It would stop having to pay programmers to update this forum each time to include what is standard on most other forums (or whatever else you intended) as it is already there and has as many features as any of the other forums I use. There are plenty of other free software systems available if that is not suitable. Just wanted to add something else to your already overfull plate - not really, just wanted to take the money issue off the table.
Apologies for butting in to this discussion and if I am overstepping any boundaries I apologise for that too! I'll shut up and go away for a while now.
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
No offense taken guys, don't worry :)
Still have lots to consider and I am working through it all. There are some site issues which we need to fix that require expert help. I will spend some time looking at the forum capabilities, any new Drupal forum versions or other options (such as SMF or vBulletin) and how that would integrate into the CMS. I recognise that the current Drupal forum is very basic.
On a positive note (I hope)... I spent last night putting a RSS feed together that you can see on the home page or by clicking the little icon on the footer of all the website pages. It aggregates all the new content on the site (and refreshes hourly) but that doesn't seem to include new comments to older threads (only new threads) - not sure if there is a way of working around that but I am looking into that too.
Cheers
Holly
Hi Holly. It's happening again. I'm unable to upload photos. I tried about 6 times a couple of nights ago, gave up & tried 8 more times tonight. No go. I'm beginning to think there's a mouse stuck in the communication pipe somewhere. Even my tiny 565 kb photo can't get around it.
Ok thanks Woko
The easiest answer for now is just to use a flickr or photobucket account and use the image tag button on the toolbar (next to the flag). Coming from an external source there should be no problem with a delay to uploading the image.
Cheers
Holly
Thanks, Holly. Persistent bugger that I am I managed to upload not one but two photos tonight. It's addictive! However, if I get stuck again I'll do the Photobucket tango.