The new forum software version

[Cynthia Daniel]

There's good new and bad news, but mostly good.

The bad news:

There seems to be problems with pages loading and just a blank page appearing. If you refresh the page, sometimes more than once required, it will come up...unless the server isn't functioning, which was the case from about 2am - 7am this morning.

I've reported the problem to the developers of the software, but I'm not optimistic about a fix until the next upgrade.

The good news:

• 1. One of the best things is that you can now:
  
  • add more than one attachment per post
  • if you don't successfully upload an attachment, you can go back and attach your image rather than having to post again.
  
  On the subject of attachment images, during the upgrade process, I became aware that we have over 6,000 of them! Not only that, there are needlessly large files. I did a search on some of the largest ones and opened them in my Paint Shop Pro. By simply resaving them with a reasonable level of compression, I was able to reduce the file size anywhere from 75-90% with no visible change in quality!!
  
  I've attached two files below demonstrating the same file at drastically different sizes. To my eye, I see no difference. I hope you don't mind, Marvin.
  
  I also found some cases where members had simply renamed a tif or bmp image with a jpg extension. You have to actually open the tif of bmp file and resave as a jpg to get the compression benefits. tif and bmps are huge files.
  
  So, I'm reviewing the allowable file size allowed and there likely be changes upcoming. The allowable dimensions will not change, only the kilobytes allowed, which you can control with your level of jpg compression. Without implementing this, my isp will eventually be telling me to purchase my own separate hard drive, so I need your assistance on this.

• 2. I've implemented the "forum jump" drop down menu at the bottom of the page, making it easier to switch to another forum section. If you type the first letter of a section, such as "o" for oil critiques, you'll be taken to the first "o" - if it's not the one you want, type "o" again and it will jump down to the next one (example only since I don't think there is another one that starts with "o").

• 3. The new Quick Links in the top menu is very handy and makes navigation easy.

Hunt around. There are other nice new features.