Been doing some work on the forum the last couple of days.
To be able to manage the user base more easily, I've been through the user database and removed all zero post users who have not logged in for five or more years. That was 4½k users! 75% of the membership.
I've removed all email duplicates from the remainder so you can now log in with either email or UID. An email address can only be used once.
Posting will remain remain restricted to registered users. There were thousands of banned bulk IP addresses, many from mainstream countries even the Isle of Man! I have removed all IP location restrictions apart from the necessity to register and be approved for all our protection. If there are applications for registration from dodgy areas then I will ban them by IP range (octals of 8) which is much more efficient than bulk decimal wildcard use.
There are still about ten banned users from eight or more years ago. Staff will listen to requests for reinstatement, conditional upon Malcolm's T&Cs. My email address can be got from the forum funding thread.
If any members have suggestions for further improvements the PM any member of staff and we will discuss them.
Laurel Bank II Marshal, Classic TT & Manx GP
(This post was last modified: 11-07-2023, 10:32 AM by Chris_Sav.)
The sad news at the Southern 100 has been posted in three differing places, no criticism meant as I find that setup very confusing as well.
The forum is much quieter now than it used to be and I don't think the annual boards for TT, Manx and S100 are really needed. Much of what has been posted has been posted in the permanent top level general boards and I have moved some to the individual yearly boards.
Would anyone object if we tried a run with just using the top level boards in future for the three events, splitting the TT and S100? I would keep the old yearly boards for display as they are now.
Laurel Bank II Marshal, Classic TT & Manx GP
(This post was last modified: 12-07-2023, 10:14 PM by Chris_Sav.)
(14-07-2023, 06:22 PM)Nasher Wrote: I'd also like the ability to post pictures (low quality would be fine) directly on the website
I'd like that too! problem is the website is 75% full with 30k files totalling 1½TB going back over twenty years.
There are myriads of pictures of old meetings that I think are Malcolm's collection, but I cannot be sure that none of them are used on the site so I am loath to start pruning. What I am removing I am backing up to my PC first as I am bound to trip over something vital!
I can set the forum up to take low res pictures, but experience tells me from my other forum that some cannot compress them and some will still upload loads. We could try it for a bit and see how it goes, but I would have to be tight on the limits as half a gig could disappear very quickly.
I'll take a look, but must still have space to take backups on the site, prior to downloading.
I have taken a copy of what I think was Malcolm's personal photo collection and cleared half the space on the site by deleting them.
If anyone spots missing forum pictures from the site, not third party sites, then please let me know ASAP so I can reinstate them.
I have enabled attachments, but for pictures only and imposed a severe limit of 300kb per picture which is enough for properly sized and compressed pictures, limit three per post.
As I've been 'grounded' for the duration of the Manx I've been looking around the mine of information that is the main website.
Once I had healed enough from my eye op I've been tidying a few pages as I went along and making them look more up to date.
Sadly there is an awful lot to be done as Malcolm was fighting a far more serious battle than the forum. If you spot anything not working or giving out of date info then let me know. There are loads of expired links on that page and some incorrect email addresses that I know about.