I don't know what this forum runs on, but it's one of the best looking boards I've seen and has the much wanted thanks button:
http://www.civinfo.com/
I don't know what this forum runs on, but it's one of the best looking boards I've seen and has the much wanted thanks button:
http://www.civinfo.com/
Actually... if I may put in my $.02, yes the Buy/Sell forum needs posts older than two years. I frequently use it to go back and reference pictures and prices for things I have purchased and now might be considering selling. It almost cost me $1000 just in this last week as I thought I had paid $900 for something I paid $1900 for and am looking at selling. That's the same reason I don't delete PM's and still have all of them since 2010 or whenever it was.
PM Sent...
It seems wasteful to save every message so that a few people can use PL as their inventory system. It would be nice if there was a way for expiring threads to notify subscribers that they are about to be deleted/archive and give them an opportunity to save whatever they need from it, or, even allow users to vote for a thread to remain in tact for another year or some time period, or maybe even get a "won't ever delete" status if it has good info. There are a bunch of filler threads on here that really don't need to be kept around for any good reason.
I don't know how much storage space is costing, though. Maybe it's only pennies per month?
I would imagine less. I can't speak intelligently on this but, for example, there are 207 pages of posts. Each page appears to have 25 entries. Most threads have between 0 and perhaps 7 responses. Yes there are some big ones like DTR's Single Mode Diode thread with like 127 replies but, 207 x 25 is 5175 listings and many I guess would equal a page typed on 8.5 x 11 paper. What's 5-6000 full pages of text equate to? If you actually backed it up it would probably would all fit on a $20 thumb drive, right? Just guessing. Like I said, I really don't know all the ins and outs of storage but, they always tell you they will hold 10,000 songs or 6000 pictures or 10 hours of video or whatever. Storage I know has gotten stupid cheap. I think I pay on average about $59 for 1 TB externals these days. I know enterprise drives that should be used for something like this forum cost more but, I guess what I'm saying is, I doubt the Buy Sell thread really takes a lot of storage space/money but, I'll be interested to hear and learn if that's not actually correct.
Last edited by Bradfo69; 05-30-2016 at 19:17.
PM Sent...
Maybe that is a solution. Put the archive on the ftp as a zip file by year. The ftp can be a plain Jane nas.
Technical Help...NO....Duh from me !!! Fascinating read though !!!Moral support and a echo to find a way to do a donation...here and there !!!! Yes !!!
.
An now....things do have seemed to slow down...a bit....no hills to climb....no new diodes to wrestle with !!!Yikes...who builds their own projector anymore ???.....that seems to have gone the way of the DoDo !!!
.
Most exciting thing is the new "Maxwell software"...IMNSHO
.
Anyway Robert...THANK YOU !!!! You have made the world a better place !!
.
Beam out
Beam Axiom #1 ~The Quantum well is DEEP ! Photons for ALL !!
.
Beam Axiom #2 ~Yes...As a matter of fact...I DO wear tinfoil on my head !!
.
Beam Axiom #3 ~Whe'n dout...Po ah Donk awn et !!
.
Beam Axiom #4 ~A Chicken in every Pot, and a Laser Lumia in every Livingroom !!
.
Beam Axiom #5 ~"Abstract Photonic Expressionism"....is "Abstractonimical" !!
.
Beam Axiom #6 ~ "A Posse ad Essea" ~ From being possible to being actual ...is the beam target !
For me, one of strenghts of PL is the archive of laser related stuff. This includes the buy/sell section. I often search PL using google for info and it has happened more than once that I find the info I need in the buy/sell section.
Aside from this I would be willing in donating some money for moving PL to another location.
Trying to create a good diode mount....
Agreed, IMHO we should subscribe to the common practice these days of "keep everything forever" which in PL terms is still a tiny amount of data and easily manageable
The site admin shouldn't decide what is and isn't important to people really, although that's his prerogative.
PL now is almost less important as a social community and more active as a wonderful archive & encyclopedia of all things lasers and more.
Its like SAMs FAQ but with more up to date information and photos!
Im using posts from donkeys years ago at the moment with my gas project, its a wealth of information which is very valuable.
Regards,
Aidan
If server space is expensive is it really necessary to even keep an Archive? I kind of agree with Gary here. Laser tech moves so fast that posts from 3 or 4 years ago are no longer relevant. eg LW seem to have got their act together. DPSS modules are almost items of the past....
Would it not be best to selectively archive timeless items such as threads on how to renovate gas lasers and then delete the rest? Would save a lot of server space and thus cost for Robert.
Alternatively, something many people have requested in the past is a comprehensive step by step photo guide to building lasers, so why not start a Wiki reference section with sections such as 1. How to build a laser - a step by step guide, 2. How to repair your gas laser etc (maybe some on here with the knowledge would be willing to write these guides) and then all the archive could be deleted with all the relevant material in wiki archives - far more useful there than hidden in multiple threads. If you want to repair a DT40, is far easier to look in a DT 40 wiki thread than search for 20 separate bite of information contained in 20 separate threads for separate dates.
It seems very pointless spending a lot of money on storage keeping an archive of largely outdated and useless material.
???? That's a very very large forum, much much larger than PL in both size and user base.
Go to the forum section and you'll find the thread board is 3 times the size of PL - 75 sub sections sections compared to 20 on PL.
The forum stats show over 2 million posts:- 2,174,035 posts, 137,000 threads and 70,000 members. Plus the most simultaneous users ever recorded is 7,500 compared to 1,500 for PL.
That particular company is one of the biggest owners of car forums (they run multiple forums around the world) and so presumably have some experience of forum software. I've been a browser of that forum for a long time and I've never known it be down for maintenance, ever crash or ever fail to display properly on my Android phone. (PL is unusable in Mobile mode).
I'm not saying it's the best forum, but I visit a lot of forums (only browse most including that one) and that's one of the best looking and most reliable I've come across. All I can say is that if that is Vb, then they've got their act together with that version. I'm sure if you contacted them, they'd be helpful as it seems quite a friendly admin wise from what I've read.