Your Christmas Wish?

[Alex]

QUOTE (deeknow @ Dec 6 2008, 07:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Roger! ... and.. err.. thanx for pointing out the existing Gallery .. Doh!!

Cheers Charl.

At the moment space isn't so much of an issue as it was - the total disk space used by pictures in the gallery is about 16Mb off the top of my head (it says on the main gallery page anyway). We're on an 'Unmetered' plan anyway, so it's nice and flexible; [total NZFF] bandwidth isn't actually too bad, about 9-12Gb per month, with around a third+ of that being domestic.

I think the only real issue with making new forums is whether there is the traffic to justify them. It seems to be a worldwide phenomenon that people don't use things that aren't used. For example, lets take the blogs section, there isn't a lot of content, so people don't visit often (or at all), and so new content is only very rarely created, which means people don't visit often, which means new content isn't posted, which means people don't visit, and so on and so forth.

Alex

[C152]

How about more different coloured themes?? some of us hav trouble seeing things..

[Alex]

So, at the moment you have the choice of five different themes, although one is a seasonal one, and two of the remaining four are very similar.

I'll go through them as they appear on the drop-down list (it's at the bottom-left of every NZFF forum page - picture);

There are two 'Standard' skins that came packaged with the board - these are 'IP.Board v2', which is a light coloured skin with a blue theme and lots of CSS gradients. Also included with the board is a slicker 'IP.Board Pro' skin which is darker, lighter on resources but still looks pretty good; it's one of my faves.

We also have three custom skins at the moment. These are 'Classic NZFF', which most people will be comfortable with, it's a fairly regular skin, incorporating elements from the days back at nzff.co.nr. 'Classic NZFF' is based on the 'IP.Board v2' skin, with tweaks to customise it. Also there is the Simpler skin, which is another darker skin, although with a sidebar that we can tweak around, and also a slightly different feel to the 'IP.Board Pro' skin.

Lastly, there is our token 'Christmas' skin (only open around Christmas-time ). Only thing to do with this one is to try it.

I do see where you are coming from with your thoughts for new skins, they seem to be either light blue or dark colours. The main issue is finding skins that are fully compatible with our combination of versions of the forum, blogs, and gallery (try visiting the blogs with the 'Simpler' skin, and comparing it to the blogs in the Pro skin to see what I mean there...), and the only failsafe way to do that is through trial and error, which is very time consuming.

That said, I'll have a look around to see what's around and if any cool-looking stuff has popped up in the last couple of months.

Alex

[waka172rg]

Can we get any more smiley face options?

[victor_alpha_charlie]

Probably not possible, but how about some kind of Facebook-esque chat program? If you don't know what I mean log on to Facebook. You can chat with anyone online in a similar way to MSN Messenger. It's a pretty cool feature. If not, even just an IRC Chat similar to this.

[Adamski]

What about an "Identikit/Rogues Gallery" page with *decent* mugshots (ie. RECENT ... and not heavily retouched/enhanced in Photoshop!). So we can put faces to names/nicknames for airshows etc. Either that - or get some badges printed off!

[Alex]

QUOTE (waka172rg @ Dec 8 2008, 08:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can we get any more smiley face options?

What would you like? I think we're mostly set up well but feel free to point to some you'd like added and I can check them out.

QUOTE (victor_alpha_charlie @ Dec 8 2008, 10:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Probably not possible, but how about some kind of Facebook-esque chat program? If you don't know what I mean log on to Facebook. You can chat with anyone online in a similar way to MSN Messenger. It's a pretty cool feature. If not, even just an IRC Chat similar to this.

I could have a look at a PHP chat program if you like, don't know how much it would get used, but there are a few around and they are reasonably easy to set up.

QUOTE (Adamski @ Dec 8 2008, 10:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What about an "Identikit/Rogues Gallery" page with *decent* mugshots (ie. RECENT ... and not heavily retouched/enhanced in Photoshop!). So we can put faces to names/nicknames for airshows etc. Either that - or get some badges printed off!

Feel free to start up a thread, or sometimes people have uploaded pictures of themselves to their profiles.

Alex

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Alex @ Dec 8 2008, 11:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Feel free to start up a thread, or sometimes people have uploaded pictures of themselves to their profiles.

Yeah - I thought of that ... but that means diving into each profile individually. I was wondering whether we could create a kind of "collage" page somehow ...

[pilot.masman]

buy trade sell area??

or place for fsx pc parts etc

[Alex]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Dec 9 2008, 12:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah - I thought of that ... but that means diving into each profile individually. I was wondering whether we could create a kind of "collage" page somehow ...

Oh yea, actually there is a wee function that can help sort of. It isn't a perfect collage but it's along those lines. If you click on the 'Members' page up on the top-right (between Calendar and Search), then search. Just check the "Must have a photo" box and don't enter anything into the search field. It's a bit hit-and-miss, but you have wee thumbnails there to show if the photo is of a person, or of something else.

QUOTE (masman @ Dec 9 2008, 12:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

buy trade sell area??

We did have a forum for this back in the old .co.nr days, but it wasn't really used. If you want to use NZFF for that feel free to post in the OT forum, or alternatively use Trademe like many of us do.

QUOTE (masman @ Dec 9 2008, 12:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

or place for fsx pc parts etc

Possibly the FSX Forum? PC Parts, either Technical Issues or OT.

Alex

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Alex @ Dec 9 2008, 09:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh yea, actually there is a wee function that can help sort of. It isn't a perfect collage but it's along those lines. If you click on the 'Members' page up on the top-right (between Calendar and Search), then search. Just check the "Must have a photo" box and don't enter anything into the search field. It's a bit hit-and-miss, but you have wee thumbnails there to show if the photo is of a person, or of something else.

Aah yes ... not played with that page before! Pretty good! The trouble with that is, our "Avatar" pics are rarely "real" portraits (they're usually pretty entertaining!). What about a "Mugshots" section in the "Gallery". Looking at someone's profile links through to their gallery posts (where their mugshots would also show). Is the "Personal Pic" different form the Avatar pic?

QUOTE (Alex @ Dec 9 2008, 09:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We did have a forum for this back in the old .co.nr days, but it wasn't really used. If you want to use NZFF for that feel free to post in the OT forum, or alternatively use Trademe like many of us do.

No! ... we don't want the great unwashed grabbing our bargains!!

[NZ255]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Dec 9 2008, 02:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is the "Personal Pic" different form the Avatar pic?

Yes.....my Aviator is the 2 Qantas tails (a bit odd considering it's NZ255 (an old Virtual Air New Zealand member name..
The personal pic is (in my case my face) supposed to be your face/mugshot.

I too like to be able to see who I'm chatting to. I have a habbit to make up people's faces if they don't have a photo. To this day, none of them (of who I've found a pic of) look like what I thought they looked like

[Adamski]

QUOTE (NZ255 @ Dec 9 2008, 03:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes.....my Aviator is the 2 Qantas tails (a bit odd considering it's NZ255 (an old Virtual Air New Zealand member name..
The personal pic is (in my case my face) supposed to be your face/mugshot.

I too like to be able to see who I'm chatting to. I have a habbit to make up people's faces if they don't have a photo. To this day, none of them (of who I've found a pic of) look like what I thought they looked like

Yes - thanks for that ... I've trawled through my dusty old profile and (finally) added some more info AND a "personal pic". Didn't know we could do that! Mind you - I didn't know we had a gallery either! It's amazing how much time I spend on this forum and yet haven't explored even the basic menus! I suppose the posts themselves are my primary focus ... then I dive off and get back to [cough] working!

I've been around forums for a *long* time (I'm wondering whether I need to hide my D.O.B. in my profile!!) ... and find that though it's hard to match appearances (real to imagined) ... you can often be surprisingly accurate in "personality" ... based on the way people write - and the inter-reaction with other forum members. I have many Real Life friends today that date back from initial contacts through some forum or BBS.

[victor_alpha_charlie]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Dec 8 2008, 10:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What about an "Identikit/Rogues Gallery" page with *decent* mugshots (ie. RECENT ... and not heavily retouched/enhanced in Photoshop!). So we can put faces to names/nicknames for airshows etc. Either that - or get some badges printed off!

I don't know if that would 'take off' ( ) so to speak. There's a lot of people (myself included) who aren't that keen on having a picture of themselves on the internet for all to see

[Adamski]

QUOTE (victor_alpha_charlie @ Dec 9 2008, 08:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know if that would 'take off' ( ) so to speak. There's a lot of people (myself included) who aren't that keen on having a picture of themselves on the internet for all to see

Yep - agreed - and fair enough. I'm not so worried about my decrepit features being splashed around the Internet, but I get *really* touchy about my email address(es) being dished out. I work in IT, so can't help but be online most of the working day. The last thing I need is 100% spam. I'm similarly touchy about real phone numbers and street addresses. All my *friends* know where I live

[HercFeend]

All in all this is a great forum which I’m enjoying being a member of. The variety in levels of experience and knowledge and the willingness to share both is great.

What I want for Christmas? The only thing I can think of is ‘please keep it on topic’ , if you’re in a thread on a particular subject, that other will use now and in the future for reference, try not to clutter it up with off subject chit chat...... Heavy I know, sorry for all the seriousness!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Safe, Happy & Prosperous New Year, with lots of clear skies and cold air