The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Not sure what a flat view is tho'.

What's wrong with the Kiene Board software? It seems to do everything you want.

One thing any new software has to have is the ability to return to where you just came from. What I mean if I scroll down to a post on the bottom and decide to go back to the list or to post, I wind up at the top again and have to scroll down again. The old software had that anchor.

John

Kiene's Board is designed in the "Flat View". Whereas the NCFFB has both flat view and threaded view. The Old NCFFB was solely Threaded View. On the current NCFFB you can switch back and forth by clicking on Threaded, or Flat View on the second black bar menu on any forum page. It will list Forum, My Profile, Flat View or Threaded View. You can toggle back and forth between the two options. Greg wrote the code to develop this originally, but is not available for the constant maintenance needed. Almost all of the current forum software software out there offers flat view, but threaded view appears to be losing favor and support. Likely if we upgrade we would lose the threaded view functionality. Can folks live with this?

Our options are:

Replace the current Board software with updated software without threaded view
Stay with the current and live with the WSOD
Find a software engineer to write code to support both, but fix the WSOD (Likely not a real option)
Quit using any Board and migrate to Facebook

While many of you have commented to bring back the old Board Software.....it worked, likely that is not a real option, as that format does not have current support and would need a software engineer to write code.

We feel your pain, but need realistic solutions.

can we chip in and buy good sofeware rather then using shareware??

Paul

ya don't need to shout!!



Paul

You still need someone to support it, and most threaded software is getting old and not easily supportable.

The software availeble is good. But we need the backend to install. Greg has the keys.

I saw we go with what works best... what is most widely deployed, what has the best support and requires the least maintenance. Personally, I don't care to much about threaded vs. non-threaded. If the tried and true is non-threaded, I saw we do that.

For folks like my dad, who actually do have a facebook page, but never, ever use it, FB isn't an option and would limit who can really come in and be a part of the community. WSOD clearly isn't an option either. So... the path seems clear... no?

B-

PAUL I WAS SHOUTING ON PURPOSE BECAUSE I WANTED TO BE HEARD!

Greg has mentioned on the website of the new forum software that he would NOT use it unless it supported threaded view. I personally prefer flat, but I wanted feedback from anyone that read the post as to what they like. I am not sure how much time Greg has to put into this effort, but he is the keymaster at this point. I was hoping if there was enough of a push, that he might be willing to budge on the issue. Hence my shouting from the rooftop!

Sorry if I woke you from your nap!

Dustin

When I first used the NCFFB 8+ years ago, I had to get used to the way it worked. Then when it shifted to the "new" format, I again had to get used to the new interface. I say go with what works and is supported so we avoid the WSOD. Hopefully folks will be patient and stick around long enough to get used to the new configuration.

Adapt: it's what we humans do very well.

Just my 2¢.

--FlyGuy (Dave)

I'm in too, like I've done in the past, I'll put my financial support behind my posts...how about the Hitlerators, are you in with financial (not indeterminate value, in kind) support...hmmm ?

Paul

...and Hitlerators, if you take offense to this or any other posts of mine,

FlyGuy(Dave),

A year or so ago, I was part of a group of NCFFB contributors who were asked to test and comment on the "new" board format...at that time, I pointed out user problems and reported to the administrator the difficulties I had with it. Some of the user problems were resolved in the roll out but, this format (and I guess the "unsupported" softeware that runs it) is harder in which to function than the member bulletin board employed by my local FF club; which I believe is a supported-cheap commercial or shareware (what ever that means) application.

Paul

From what I understand, if the NCFFB moved to a commercial, non-shareware software, they'd of course have to pony up the $$ initially, and then have a tech monitor it for problems that arose (like the WSOD). Since this is a volunteer board, and we all have lives outside of the NCFFB, that could be a problem to find someone to stay on top of thing as much as is needed. I think GM's background is in computers, and he tirelessly took care of the board for years. Understandably, I think he got burned out and seldom (if ever) posts here now. This is NOT to say that the current admin aren't working hard, and try and stay on top of all of the issues that arise on the board, but finding a solution for the WSOD has dragged on for much too long. To all of the board admin: thanks for all of your efforts, you folks kick @$$!

My background is not in computers, although I know how to do some basic things, I can't write code, create elaborate websites, or run a bulletin board. I also use a Mac, which also is different from 90% of the other computer users out there. SOMETHING needs to be done, but finding a solution that works the best for the most number of users is still proving to be elusive (obviously).

--FlyGuy (Dave)

First of all, it is not actually "shareware" it is "open-source" software like the Linux operating system that runs a lot of web servers.

Some of the issues are related to the software installed on the server. The "programming language" PHP needs to be updated to a newer (more secure) version. The database software MySQL needs to be upgraded to a newer version.

More later.