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radiotech

Sun Jan 23 2011, 07:40PM

Registered Member #2463 Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546

Would a forum which only handles text, no images, no buttons,
be wise.

There are a few who can discuss things in words only without
referencing the net.

The other issue is the providers are eying download size
tarrifs since movies and skype are eating away at their resources.

Martin King

Sun Jan 23 2011, 08:24PM

Registered Member #3040 Joined: Tue Jul 27 2010, 03:15PM
Location: South of London. UK
Posts: 237

Hm, interesting one. I'm a moderator of the Electronics conference on CIX (a forerunner of internet forums that has been running for MANY years) we manage perfectly well with a text only system (images etc. hosted on external sites can still be linked to but can't be viewed within CIX itself) What's particularly nice about it (apart from the fact that it's subscription only so keeps the spammers and kids away) is that it's fully threaded something that most internet forums still don't seem to have managed. However images are quite important to a forum such as 4HV and videos are externally linked anyway so it's up to the reader if they want to click on the link and use the bandwidth or not.

Martin.

Proud Mary

Sun Jan 23 2011, 08:32PM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

radiotech wrote ...

Would a forum which only handles text, no images, no buttons,
be wise.

There are a few who can discuss things in words only without
referencing the net.

I think that's a splendid idea! Why don't you set one up yourself, so anyone who wants to can join you there!

Adam Munich

Sun Jan 23 2011, 09:27PM

Registered Member #2893 Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242

Ehh, I don't see the point in this. If hosting is an issue I know a guy who may be able to provide a nice server with no rules on what content the site can have (except cp of course).

quicksilver

Sun Jan 23 2011, 11:35PM

Registered Member #1408 Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679

Tucson Packet Radio (HAM) has been a very productive forum(s) for those text only folks. many of us went over to UseNet but it's still alive and well:

When Usenet was the standard dial-up province of those in University it became SO popular that the number of discussion groups were well over 10K.
I think there is still a market for some form of this dialog. The original "Imodocon" (smiley faces) were an outgrowth of attempts to impart emotion to the written word wherein there was no verbal, tonal, or facial alteration to add emotion to the written dialog. However it's real Elmer stuff.

Bjørn

Mon Jan 24 2011, 02:55AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

You can count me in, not for the bandwidth but because of the focus on content.

That everything is 20 times faster and works efficiently on handheld devices is not a drawback either. I would allow pictures in the cases where there is no substitute. .PNG files in 16 levels of grey.

Filled in profiles, automatic spellchecking and a bot that automatically bans people for 3 days for doing silly things.

Nicko

Mon Jan 24 2011, 04:38AM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

pupman TCML already does this (albeit in mailing list format) - many members here are recipients and its worked well for many years.

Steve Conner

Mon Jan 24 2011, 09:32AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

The trouble with these old-school mailing lists is that they go too far the other way. I unsubscribed from Pupman when someone posted advertising 8" x 11" stainless steel spheres for sale, and got about 10 replies pointing out that they were actually spheroids. That's as big a waste of my time as the "OMG flyback driver won't work" crap accompanied by a schematic made of Lolcats pasted together in Photoshop.

ASCII schematics also fill me with an irrational murderous rage, especially when mangled by a proportional font and three different sizes of line breaks. They're practically worse than "word schematics"- "You have a 5 watt bulb connected to pin 3 of the modulator which then goes to a 3 ohm resistor hooked across C142 and L11..."

I would happily lose the big 4HV.ORG logo at the top of every page, and the sidebar on the left.

Finally, what is the biggest thread on the forum? "Post your cool pics here" at about 80 pages.

Chris Russell

Mon Jan 24 2011, 10:58AM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

It bears some consideration, I think. Most forum software offers a "printable" page option, but the layout is usually fairly hideous.

I don't think text-only is reasonable at this point, but I do plan on using a cleaner layout for the new forum that will have far fewer images to load. That will reduce page load times a fair bit, and cut the amount of bandwidth the site uses dramatically.

I've toyed around with some visually pleasing layouts, and while they are certainly nice to look at, I was ultimately left with the same thoughts as Bjorn: the focus should be on the content.

Personally, I've always thought that it would be neat as hell to offer a telnet BBS interface to the site, but that would require quite a bit of effort for something that would appeal to only a handful of people.

Nicko

Mon Jan 24 2011, 11:19AM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

What would genuinely be a step forward would be a "mobile friendly" version... light on graphics/avatars/frames etc. With the increasing advent of www-enabled smartphones, t'would be good (I probably look at 4hv on the mobile as much as on the big screen...)

Many BBS/Forum packages can do this for you FOC...

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Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob