Forum Update ?
hey aldo -
any chance of an update or upgrade of the forums here ?
something a bit more modern and similar to standard phpbb/vbulletin etc, type forums would prob be a good thing, it seems sites like panoguide, nodal ninja, fpp, krpano, etc forums are much more active, i think most users are comfortable and familiar with this format these days...
some features which would be good include: buttons for adding text styles, images, perhaps an inline pano viewer could be rigged up...
here is a joomla site using a more modern forum plugin
http://www.regaltips.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=70
and christian bloch rigged up an inline forum panoviewer with krpano here
http://www.hdrlabs.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1259050050
thanks :)
sam
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Sam Rohn :: 360° Panoramas :: www.samrohn.com :: Location Scout :: www.nylocations.com :: New York City
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Jürgen Schrader on Mon, 2010-01-04 10:00.Hm - I think we first would need a decision if putting more efforts into a forum on our site is worth it.
While there are still so many places outside to exchange general information on VR issues I can see no practical reason for the IVRPA to rival these. IVRPA could have made the site a valuable ressource for technical information years ago, and I think that now it's to late.
Nonetheless I would support anyone who gives a helping hand to bring our website into the focus of the people it is meant for.
--
Jürgen Schrader
IVRPA Director
www.bavaria360.de
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Carlos Chegado on Mon, 2010-01-04 10:20.Well, you know the saying:
Better late than never ;-)
Carlos Chegado
IVRPA Director
www.carloschegado.com
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Aldo Hoeben on Mon, 2010-01-04 10:51.I personally don't think that changing to another board system per se will bring any new discussion to the forum; it is all about having a healthy community. Even worse, by swiching to another system we would (again!) loose all current discussions, which would drive people away.
Having said that, if you (or someone else) can put your finger on the actual features that are missing from our forums, I can see if these can be added to our current forums. The inline pano viewer looks nice...
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Eduardo Hutter on Mon, 2010-01-04 16:46.The inline pano can be easily made on some off-the-shelf forum systems like YaBB (Bloch's forum) creating custom tags which will substitute the html embed. I posted a solution for phpBB on 360cities forums sometime ago: http://tinyurl.com/yd4kbfq
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Sam Rohn on Mon, 2010-01-04 17:05.i would think importing from one forum plugin/system to another (if needed) would probably be covered by an existing tutorial or plugin, ive had a bit of experience with such things, i'd be glad to help
a more moderen posting interface with something like bbcode or tinymce would be helpful, make posting images etc easier
and something like eduardo's pano viewer bbcode (thanks!) would be a great addition to these forums not available in too many other places so far...
sam
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Sam Rohn :: 360° Panoramas :: www.samrohn.com :: Location Scout :: www.nylocations.com :: New York City
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Doug Aurand on Mon, 2010-01-04 17:43.Sam
I still check in here at IVRPA once a week or so, but the reduced ammount of converstaion is why I didn't renew my membership
If you're looking for a VR forum with more activity, take a look at Panoguide.com
Douglas Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Sam Rohn on Tue, 2010-01-05 06:27.hey doug -
i sort of agree, i think the lack of forum activity/conversations here (compared to other free sites) sort of makes this site seem less authoritative, and this does not help draw in new or retain existing members, or even keep total newbies interest very long....
i actually do read panoguide & several other pano forums almost daily, (i'm a news junkie), there are probably about a dozen or so active pano forums and mailing lists out there, no reason to think this site cant be one of them :)
sam
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Sam Rohn :: 360° Panoramas :: www.samrohn.com :: Location Scout :: www.nylocations.com :: New York City
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Carlos Chegado on Tue, 2010-01-05 15:59.Hi Sam, we are currently discussing this in the Board of Directors and we will have a special meeting tomorrow with our Webmaster Aldo Hoeben to find ways to address the forum issues.
Unfortunately, we can't decide anything until tomorrow when the new 2010 Board of Directors takes charge and new officers are elect, but I bet you will here back from us soon ;-)
Carlos Chegado
IVRPA Director
www.carloschegado.com
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Kris Bulman on Tue, 2010-01-12 06:40.I recently joined IVRPA in hopes there would be a large member community, which would provide a wealth of resource.. It's quite disheartening to hear (just after signing up) other members choose not to renew their memberships for the lack thereof.
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Matthias Taugwalder on Tue, 2010-01-12 08:19.Hi Kris
Thanks for your feedback.
We are currently in the middle of reorganising the possibilities how our members can communicate together. Additionally to that we have some ideas and projects in the pipeline to increase the value of an IVRPA membership.
More information will follow within the next few weeks and months.
---
Matthias Taugwalder
IVRPA president
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Kris Bulman on Tue, 2010-01-12 09:07.Thanks for the update Matthias. I have experience running php/mysql based forums & CMS platforms as well as linux server management; if there is ever need for public support, I'll do what I can to chip in if a call out is made.
It looks like there is a lot of talent here & it's cool be a part of it.
Here's to lots of VR in 2010!
Cheers,
Kris
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by aaronspence on Tue, 2010-01-12 08:26.G'day Kris,
I apologise for the lack of activity on the forums, there are a lot of IVRPA members, but they're not here much at the moment. We're working on this very problem now. I see you've grabbed our twitter feed, so keep watch, things are a changing around here... albeit slowly :)
The other thing to do, if at all possible, is get down to the Tucson Conference [ http://tucson2010.com/ ] in April. That's where you'll get to see real community in action. We'll likely have the largest number of pano photographers in one place for a very long time. (Since San Francisco in 2007)
And finally thanks for your input, it's extremely valuable... please let us know how were're doing as the year goes on. Yeah OK, 'poorly' is noted for the moment :(
Thanks for your time,
Aaron Spence
http://panedia.com
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Kris Bulman on Tue, 2010-01-12 09:15.Well, I've invested in a membership, so I'll be a part of it as much as I can. I'd hate to see good money go to waste ;)
Looks as though I'm the only Canadian on the IVRPA map?
I'd love to make it to Tucson this year, and it would be a very good possibility if I hadn't already booked my years events. If this year goes well, I will make a concerted effort to attend an IVRPA conference in 2011.. I realize that's where the real thriving heartbeat will be; Until then, I'll rely on good coverage by IVRPA and it's community. ;)
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Sam Rohn on Wed, 2010-01-06 05:07.thanks carlos -
like i said, there should be no reason to lose existing posts, importers and converters from one forum to another are quite common, as are plugins to unify users & login from drupal etc to the integrated forum, and there should be existing tutorials covering any specific conversion -
only thing we might lose is urls to specific posts, maybe some sort of redirect plug in could handle that, not a big deal either way
or maybe an existing upgrade to the forums we are using, this would prob be easiest
i am not too familiar with drupal specifically but i have worked with wordpress, smf, & phpbb & other CMS type apps a bit, and i'm happy to try to help aldo get all this sorted
like aldo said, this is about building & maintaining a healthy community, and it seems to me that the ivrpa forums could & should be a bit more active than they presently are, new forum software alone will probably not achieve this, but something more in line with more "standard" forum look & behavior cant hurt
like these - none of these sites are as old as ivrpa.org , yet all are far more active
http://www.panoguide.com/forums/
http://www.nodalninja.com/forum/
http://gardengnomesoftware.com/forum/
http://www.autopano.net/forum/
http://krpano.com/forum/
http://flashpanoramas.com/forum/
http://flashificator.com/forums/
http://www.tawbaware.com/forum2/
http://www.hdrlabs.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl
sam
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Sam Rohn :: 360° Panoramas :: www.samrohn.com :: Location Scout :: www.nylocations.com :: New York City
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Carlos Chegado on Thu, 2010-01-07 12:03.Thanks for your input Sam,
Unfortunately, no agreement was reached yesterday and the BoD decided to adjourn this matter to another day.
By the way, you can always follow what is being decided in the Board of Directors by following the meeting minutes page that is updated every week:
http://ivrpa.org/about/minutes
Carlos Chegado
IVRPA Director
www.carloschegado.com
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Sam Rohn on Fri, 2010-01-08 19:59.thanks carlos -
let me know if things change :)
sam
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Sam Rohn :: 360° Panoramas :: www.samrohn.com :: Location Scout :: www.nylocations.com :: New York City
Re: Forum Update ?
Submitted by Carlos Chegado on Mon, 2010-01-11 11:10.I will as soon as the BoD decides;-)
BTW, members can subscribe to the BoD minutes page and get notified when we post our decisions there:
http://ivrpa.org/about/minutes
Carlos Chegado
IVRPA Director
www.carloschegado.com