Forum Asthetics

[Jacques Mersereau]

Agreed.

This site is a gold mine of good information.

Most of the participants are artists or aspiring up the endless ladder ;)

It seems to me that each artist has his/her own opinion, otherwise
they wouldn't be an artist.

This "plain grey" site works perfectly for me when it comes to delivering information.

I'm sure we could argue web design all day long . . . no thanks :)

(Unless you're a professional colorist and want to reveal secrets)

[Ted Springer]

I've only skimmed this thread really quick, so forgive me if I talk about something that has already been discussed.

Anyway, I'd like to see the ability to add images directly to the posts themselves turned on via the [img] tags. That would make troubleshooting preferences and other things much easier. Check out my post here:

Clicky Here

As you can see, it would be nice to be able to see the images in the post itself instead of having to click on the hyperlinks and switch back and forth between browser windows/tabs to read the text and see what it is referring to.

The only reason I can see NOT to have images in posts would be to protect 56K'ers from lengthy downloads. So perhaps there should be a size limit requested (and added to the FAQ). If someone exceeds this limit and posts an excessively large picture that requires horizontal scrolling on a monitor set to lower resolution, then a Moderator could just edit the post so it shows a hyperlink instead. Images are part of the internet, and I think 56K'ers are used to waiting for them to load, just as long as they are not TOO big. Also I think the members here are mature enough not to post images that don't relate to the discussion at hand. Whaddya think?

Also, the "QUOTE" button seems to be broken. When I press it, it does not add the "quote" tags to the quoted text. I usually just add the tag myself.

As for the forum colors, they are fine and dandy by me.

[Rob Lohman]

Thank you for taking the time to write this down, Ted.
Basically the reasons why this is not allowed are the following:

- Bandwidth requirements, as you've pointed out not everybody is on speedy connections
- Bandwidth usage on the DVInfo servers and associated costs
- If you can add pictures people tend to introduce these and thus increase the noise level which puts further work in our laps
- Althought pictures can help out when describing things it can also greatly clutter up a thread

The final call as always is with Chris which will probably tune
in shortly.

Thanks!

[Boyd Ostroff]

Personally I really appreciate the speed and simplicity of DVinfo.net, even though I always access it over high speed connections. I don't mind clicking on links which open in separate windows either. With any reasonable screen resolution you can arrange them for easy reference.

Kudos to Chris for sticking with his convictions and keeping this site speedy, uncluttered and informative. It's truly refreshing in this day of annoying popups, flash animation and banner ads.

[Jeff Donald]

I think one thing we sometimes fail to recognize is the international mix of the membership. Cable modems and DSL lines are becoming almost a norm in the US, but elsewhere, high speed internet connections are still a luxury. In deference to the international membership, I think the restriction on images will need to be maintained for a few more years.

[Rob Lohman]

There are two ways to store images, local and remote. I thought
you wanted to store images on our servers. You can drop that
remark if you are talking about inlining from another server
(ie, remoting). That removes my mark about our bandwidth
consumption but adds the annoyance of:

1. those free hosting that a lot of people use have a maximum bandwidth usage a month which gets eaten up FAST when a lot of members JUST view the thread

2. when that bandwidth is up or the site is removed or the image is removed we all get broken images in the threads which clutter it up as well

If something is really important to illustrate Chris has been known
in the past to host the images on his servers and post a link to
it in the thread.

And that quote button is really very rarely used on this forum
(thank you for that) since most people can follow to whom and
what is being replied. Or small sections are "quoted"

[John Locke]

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : I think one thing we sometimes fail to recognize is the international mix of the membership. Cable modems and DSL lines are becoming almost a norm in the US, but elsewhere, high speed internet connections are still a luxury. In deference to the international membership, I think the restriction on images will need to be maintained for a few more years. -->>>

Jeff, from this side of the pond, it's really baffling how anyone in the States can still be using dial-up. I've been using affordable, dedicated, high-speed access for about four years now...and I don't know if dial-up is even in use here anymore.

I wonder how it is in other parts of the globe.

[Chris Hurd]

Here in CenTex, unless you're actually in a town of 20,000 or so, high speed is simply not available. I'm in the country, south of San Marcos and about eight miles east of New Braunfels, and there are no plans for DSL out here in the foreseeable future. I have to rely on StarBand, which is a satellite uplink, and it manages roughly ISDN speeds down and 56K up (on a good day with clear blue skies). Very much behind the curve down here. Central Texas is sometimes even more third-world than Canada.

[Lorinda Norton]

Ditto for Idaho. And here I am less than twenty miles from Micron Technologies and not really in the country anymore. I have to rely on my cable friends in town when there's something (like music videos) from folks on this forum that I want to see.

[Dylan Couper]

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Hurd : Very much behind the curve down here. Central Texas is sometimes even more third-world than Canada. -->>>

Hey!
Huh?
Why if I wasn't drunk, I'd take offense to that remark. In fact, I'd drive down there to negate the Canadian stereotype, but my sled dogs probably couldn't take the heat in Texas.

[Jeff Donald]

Dylan, you mean to tell me your igloo has cable modem service?

[Dylan Couper]

Fo shizzle!
The only real issue is sometimes the moose walking by catch their antlers on the cable going into the house and pull them down.
Stupid mooses.