02.12.2018 - Migration bugs/errors/issues

[Admin]

1. Know it's been asked for before but any chance of a like button?

Ok, fine. Please provide a compelling use case for having a thumbs up/like system here and I will implement one I just found that isn't too invasive and doesn't hook back to third party content aggregators.

Bug?? Issue?? I'll give you a damn issue.... I wasn't able to buy anything on here for several LONG hours! You're killing me!

I am sorry to have put you through what must have been an extremely traumatic experience. In an attempt to make up for it:

Let's pretend that you just bought PL and you are now the site admin. This should surely sate your purchasing frenzy for at least 15 minutes. Congrats on purchasing a tire fire! I would like to introduce myself as your lowly moderator who does nothing but exercise your will on the board.

So Mr. Overlord-Bossman Supreme: What's the first order of business?

[absolom7691]

Ok, fine. Please provide a compelling use case for having a thumbs up/like system here and I will implement one I just found that isn't too invasive and doesn't hook back to third party content aggregators.

I don't know why but I don't like the idea of a "like" system. It really serves no purpose other than turning each thread into a pissing match. If people are going to base their interest in a thread solely on how many likes it has, then knowledge is secondary while entertainment is primary. I think you should stand firm on a "like" system and keep it out of our forum. Just my $0.02.

Let's pretend that you just bought PL and you are now the site admin. This should surely sate your purchasing frenzy for at least 15 minutes. Congrats on purchasing a tire fire! I would like to introduce myself as your lowly moderator who does nothing but exercise your will on the board.

I am quite sure Brad was just kidding around, living up to his reputation as the big spender of copious amounts of laser gear. I have no doubt he appreciates (as we all do) all you do for our forum.


I'm sure that was probably asked before but I can't find it. To be honest, I didn't look very hard but... what happened to the gallery?

[Admin]

I don't know why but I don't like the idea of a "like" system. It really serves no purpose other than turning each thread into a pissing match. If people are going to base their interest in a thread solely on how many likes it has, then knowledge is secondary while entertainment is primary. I think you should stand firm on a "like" system and keep it out of our forum. Just my $0.02.



I am quite sure Brad was just kidding around, living up to his reputation as the big spender of copious amounts of laser gear. I have no doubt he appreciates (as we all do) all you do for our forum.


I'm sure that was probably asked before but I can't find it. To be honest, I didn't look very hard but... what happened to the gallery?

Well, I've certainly been hesitant to implement a likes system in the past because of the reasons you specify. However there are a number of people who just cruise around the board without posting or feel that posting 15 characters to add nothing substantive to the thread is a waste. A simple thumbs up system would allow for interaction with minimal downside. Now a thumbs-up/thumbs-down system would be an absolute unmitigated shitshow like the star rating system and thread-tags have been in the past here.

Ohh shit, heres a guy I don't like - thumbs down, 1 star, personal character attacks in thread tags, and a reply calling him and his mother names - That'll teach him.

The code behind the gallery has seen no security updates in years, is easily exploitable, and generally just flat out non functional now. At best it's a security issue, at worst it's like making your password "password"

I still have all the data and user galleries, all of which I can pack up and return to the account holders as requested or try to do something with like put up an archive page of previous uploads.

Ideally there would be a way to shovel all the data into the vbulletin gallery system here, but I've yet to find one other than ask users to reupload stuff.

As far as solutions go, it's a pretty bad one.

[absolom7691]

Ohh shit, heres a guy I don't like - thumbs down, 1 star, personal character attacks in thread tags, and a reply calling him and his mother names - That'll teach him.

Yep, that! Well, for a like system, I suppose that could work as long as a downvote option isn't included.

At best it's a security issue, at worst it's like making your password "password"

[Admin]

I want to bitch for a few minutes about the gallery...

A long time ago I moved all the attachments out of the database into the file system because it made a hell of a lot more sense to have a <5GB database consisting mostly of the posts/pm/text instead of a 50GB database containing all the uploads/attachments also.

That and it was much much much faster to display the information when someone made a request and make sane database backups *much* quicker.

galleryproject stores it's data like this in the file system:

/g2data/albums/users/user_name/album_name/filename.jpg

The database is effectively usernames/passwords/access control lists/EXIF data/user comments.

Now on to vbulletin.

Attachments in vbulletin are stored as:

/vbulletin.attachment/1/0/1/4/2/44533.attach
/vbulletin.attachment/1/0/1/4/2/44533.thumb

vbulletin album raw data is stored as:

/vbulletin.albums/5ea2bfb78844fa6fbd095a658c12fa40_1577.ext
/vbulletin.albums/1179.picture

There is an unbelievably nasty database call that links all this garbage together with a username/uuid and then links that with any extra text that may exist, like comments/view counters. There are no granular controls that are useful because the underlying system for it was a "simple" add-on. And this doesn't even begin to scratch the surface on how they are first generated/handled.

There are maybe 15 options I have to play with, and they all revolve around how they are displayed and who they are displayed to. Hell, even the thumbnails are hard linked to the attachment system, so they are authoritative.

If I want a better album system, then I need to shell out for vbulletin 5, where there are more controls, but not that many more. Fuck that. Everything I've seen shows me that vb5 is a one way trip and I would lose the ability to import/export to any other system if vb5 turned out to be hot garbage.

Now the galleryproject gallery that was running here wasn't exactly pleasant to keep running but at least it made sense and served it's purpose well:

Files were stored in the file system with their original names.
Files were grouped by uploader account name into a filesystem directory bearing the same name.
Thumbnails were generated and cached in the filesystem for a chosen length of time.
All this was stored as unique IDs in the database that reference the owner, directly.

It just made sense. It's a shame the project died and garbage like "albums" are thought of as a replacement.

The two systems are effectively mutually incompatible and however ridiculous a system to merge the two would be, it could only be worse if the vbulletin attachments/gallery were stored in the database also.

As best I can tell, there is no third party gallery system that has an import function for galleryproject, so I couldn't even use one of those as a bridge.

Maybe after I get a wiki up and working I can shovel the data in there with headers/what not to reference the existing data, but that idea is so far away right now you'd have to get a telescope to see it.

Well, It's 3am and talking about this has given me a compelling urge to become a professional alcoholic.

[Bradfo69]

I am quite sure Brad was just kidding around, living up to his reputation as the big spender of copious amounts of laser gear. I have no doubt he appreciates (as we all do) all you do for our forum.

Bingo. Yes, that was absolutely teasing. Hence the rolled eyes emoji. Truthfully when PL is down, it's a bit of a blessing to save me from myself and lurking in the buy sell thread. LOL
.
But yes, I certainly appreciate all you do to keep this up and running since it has connected me with what has become some of my best friends and, some of the best people on the planet. And, a reason why you've been receiving my money every month for approaching a decade.

[White-Light]

I don't know why but I don't like the idea of a "like" system. It really serves no purpose other than turning each thread into a pissing match. If people are going to base their interest in a thread solely on how many likes it has, then knowledge is secondary while entertainment is primary. I think you should stand firm on a "like" system and keep it out of our forum. Just my $0.02.

TBH, It's on most boards now and just gives a way of approving a post without having to post thanks etc. In fact many boards have like and thanks buttons. As for it being a popularity contest, that's not been my experience with the system elsewhere. There is no way of tracking overall likes usually, and if the was, I'd suggest keeping stats off people's profiles. Best used as a comment only thanks / approval. Dislike or voting down, definitely a bad idea.

I am quite sure Brad was just kidding around, living up to his reputation as the big spender of copious amounts of laser gear. I have no doubt he appreciates (as we all do) all you do for our forum.

Yeah a lot of the 1st page posts were very jokey. I think most people just saw this 1st part of the thread as a bit of fun and it only became more serious in the last page or two. My comment about Swami and DJKumpla's disco, was certainly a joke.

Robert, if the gallery's a nightmare, why not do away with it entirely? That's 50GB of storage and a lot of bandwidth saved. Yep I know externally linked images sometimes expire and that can cause images to disappear over time. However, it's the system most boards use. Very few host locally anymore (presumably because of the costs).

[JohnYayas]

Personally, I think a like button adds very little value and is just something else spec has to worry with.
If I make some post and 20 people like it so what. If I make a post and no one likes it, so what.
Am I supposed to feel better or worse by it?
Are other people supposed to pay more attention to posts that are liked?
Can't people think for themselves?
Feel free to dislike this post. No need to push a button or reply if you do or don't. Easy peasy nice and easy.

[kecked]

Personally, I think a like button adds very little value and is just something else spec has to worry with.
If I make some post and 20 people like it so what. If I make a post and no one likes it, so what.
Am I supposed to feel better or worse by it?
Are other people supposed to pay more attention to posts that are liked?
Can't people think for themselves?
Feel free to dislike this post. No need to push a button or reply if you do or don't. Easy peasy nice and easy.

I agree no like button. In fact I?d rather have an F off button that lets you burn the post in a flash of smoke and flame. Much more satisfying. Or how about a dead horse button. Free shipping on amazon....

[kecked]

Hey one other point. We should pay something if we post over say 100 posts a year and buy storage for images. I?d happily give you 60 a year if it would help. But I have cash. Many don?t. Maybe do a nag screen like wiki once a year. I?d donate if only asked or reminded to do it.