FAO Mods: Forum Request

dirtydog · 8 May 2007 at 13:33

cleanbluesky said:
Or.... how about... people learn to use relevent titles...

if it aint broke

Some forums have explicit rules stating that you must use an informative thread title. Perhaps we could adopt such a rule.

NathanE · 8 May 2007 at 13:35

The Mad Rapper said:
How would it? You're not thinking it through. If people mouseover but then don't view the thread, surely the bandwidth used will be significantly less?

So it could actually save bandwidth!

Yes but alternatively the mouse-over could tempt more people into the thread... it's swings and roundabouts

The Mad Rapper · 8 May 2007 at 13:36

NathanE said:
Yes but alternatively the mouse-over could tempt more people into the thread... it's swings and roundabouts

I'd like Mark to consider it - he pays for the forums after all. Is there any way one of the Dons could point him towards this thread please?

Loki · 8 May 2007 at 13:39

dirtydog said:
compared to what? having it switched off on the same forum, or compared to other forums? I mean if the forum is just sluggish then it might be sluggish even without it enabled, if the server isn't powerful enough.

Yes they trialed it switched on for a month or so I believe. It was the Red Issue forums. Constant crashing. That said even if its the latest most stable version of MySql and the server is completely underpowered then it's no wonder it crashes.

Freddyshouse used to have a lot more active members than it does today and I'm sure Deebs hasn't updated the hardware for a good few years now. Their overall forum is a lot fatter in terms of features than this one (Arcade, Gallery etc) They don't have the issues of some other forums.

krooton · 8 May 2007 at 14:15

burnsy2023 said:
It's a whole new ball game when you have the amount of users that OcUK does, the load on the server can increase really quite dramatically.

Burnsy

tranceaddict has over 71,000 users, with average active users at 1,000 and globally.

I'd wager that 95% of OCUK traffic is UK based.

Danger Phoenix · 8 May 2007 at 14:20

I have been told by the Admins/Mods in the past that modifications will not be added to these forums because they could potentially affect the security of the site.

I know there is little risk in adding a modification like this, but that is what I had been told

The Mad Rapper · 8 May 2007 at 16:17

*Bump*

iCraig · 8 May 2007 at 16:32

NathanE said:
This would cost a lot more in bandwidth per month so I can't see it ever being enabled.

It would also increase MySQL load which would make the forums slower for everyone.

I don't know how it's done exactly, but every time the user hovers over the title, is it calling the database for information? If so, yes, the MySQL database would be requested more often but these calls to the database wouldn't eat up tons of bandwidth. Plus, you're presuming everybody would have it enabled. Just disable it by default and let those who want it switch it on.

The way around it is to adjust the way a forum loads. Isn't it possible for the page to load the first post along with the title but have it hidden from view. Then when the user hovers, the text is displayed in a little jscript box. Tiny increase in bandwidth and no extra load on the server.

dirtydog · 8 May 2007 at 16:34

The Mad Rapper said:
*Bump*

*giggles*

Don't hold your breath, this has been requested several times

iCraig · 8 May 2007 at 16:42

Danger Phoenix said:
I have been told by the Admins/Mods in the past that modifications will not be added to these forums because they could potentially affect the security of the site.

Possibly, that's why release notes are given with plug-ins and modifications detailing any known issues upon release, and then comments and forums afterwards for bugs/issues later noted down in development.

NathanE · 8 May 2007 at 20:53

iCraig said:
I don't know how it's done exactly, but every time the user hovers over the title, is it calling the database for information? If so, yes, the MySQL database would be requested more often but these calls to the database wouldn't eat up tons of bandwidth. Plus, you're presuming everybody would have it enabled. Just disable it by default and let those who want it switch it on.

The way around it is to adjust the way a forum loads. Isn't it possible for the page to load the first post along with the title but have it hidden from view. Then when the user hovers, the text is displayed in a little jscript box. Tiny increase in bandwidth and no extra load on the server.

If it was AJAX based then obviously that's a totally different matter. But other vBulletin boards I've seen with these feature aren't using AJAX... They simply output the additional HTML for adding a tooltip to each thread row in the list. So one SQL query per thread. And bandwidth += length of OP in bytes * number of threads in list.

Other than increased ease of DoS there probably wouldn't be many security considerations to make for such a plugin.

Elmer · 8 May 2007 at 21:23

It is a feature I use on other forums and miss on this and find myself clicking on posts with vague titles which turn out not to be of interest.