Pressing problems with the ORIENTED.org website

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1

Hi folks,

Please post on this thread to report other problems occuring on ORIENTED.org

Thus far, I will discuss three (3):

  1. Immediate expiration on Jobs Database
  2. Missing graphics around the website
  3. Continuing problem with the unregistered forum logins

Job Database

Sometime last week, the ORIENTED Jobs database started to lose postings that were stored prior to the current date.

I do not know why this occurred , but I have hope for a solution: The original developer of the software we use contacted us with a possible fix. I plan to incorporate his suggestions next week.

Missing Graphics

Some graphics used on the ORIENTED.org website reside in webspace allocated on our sister website, freeclassifieds.com.tw

Freeclass went down last week, and I need to contact TWNIC to resolve the matter. This should be taken cared of shortly (next week?)

Unregistered Login

I regret the confusion concerning the failure to participate in discussions due the forum software not accepting unregistered postings. I also note requests for assitance from new members who believe they have properly registered, but are not being recognized by the system.

For the time being, I am planning a major technical overhaul of the forums in AUGUST 2002 (either an upgrade of the Ultimate Bulletin Board from www.infopop.com or a switch to a new system, like PHPbb – see poll on this thread).

I am going to be in Taiwan for a few days in July. I may NOT be able to do anything substantial with the forums while I am here – but I’ll try what I can. You can send e-mail, hate-mail, words of encouragement, sarcasm, or some-such platitudes to me at

gus@oriented.org

or SMS me at 0952 948975

Be kind,

2

Job database

Developer’s suggested changes are put in place (cross your fingers).

Add form sizing – fixed.

Navbar graphic returned.

3

Job Database still busted.

Contacting developer again. Stay tuned.

4

What about the SEARCH function? It seems that the index is corrupted or something.

Maybe if you delete the index, it will re-index itself??

It is very problematic now not being able to search for different wordings in different Forums, or to search for postings of different members.

5

Hi Richard, thank you for the suggestion.

You are right: the search function is not working properly. I believe it is related to the corruption of our hidden forums that occurred in May and early June. Furthermore, the system crashed when I tried to “re-index” the forums and reset the cache.

Here’s my strategy for addressing this uncertainy: save the discussion threads and transfer all the content to a new “set up” in August. I’ve recently browsed the www.infopop.com website and noticed they now offer a version of this forum software called “Ubb.x” – this is different because it resides on their systems; they maintain the technical matters directly themselves.

I am tempted to take that option and re-evaluate the web hosting we have now. There are several other factors bearing down, but I’ve marked August as the “Change Month” for several things on ORIENTED.

Please bear with me till then. I’ll keep you posted.

6

Hi, Gus:

I’ve got no particular software preferance. I do hope, however, that you’ll strip out some of the extra code and use CSS, to make the pages load faster and give you more control.

But you already knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?

This page is already 33KB without the images, and it has 20 tables (maybe more once I post this). It could be considerably smaller in both measures. I’d be willing help with the coding, if you like.

7

Hi Cranky,

I’ve been looking over both phpBB and Ubb.x – it’s a tough choice to make.

Two cool things going to phpBB:

  1. it’s free (hard to beat that)
  2. it allows moderators to split threads(!!)

The coolest thing about Ubb.x for me is that now I’ll have someone to blame with things snafu.

Ubb.x uses XML and XLS extensively, so it could be loading faster. I downloaded a phpBB page to see how large it came in, and it was about the same as a Ubb 6.x page

8
quote:
Originally posted by Gus: Two cool things going to phpBB: 1. it's free (hard to beat that) 2. it allows moderators to split threads(!!)
Splitting threads would be a very useful tool indeed. My vote goes to phpBB. [img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]
9

I don’t think that this is an ORIENTED problem, per se, but perhaps you will consider modifying the link to www.freeclassifieds.com.tw which does not appear to be valid any longer.
Thanks…