The TO-DO list

another good one is to do something to make this site faster

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

I think having the specs possibly in a sort of drop down box, where you can click an arrow and they fold down, is achievable, I've certainly seen this on vBulletin boards.

That would be a nice way of doing it as well.  And yes, I've seen it on vBulletin too, so there may be a chance that there's also an SMF mod for something like this.  Unfortunately, I'm still not very good at finding anything that's very useful.

What happened to the OP icon idea ? ?

Do able ?

We already have the add-on installed.  Nathan is simply using text instead of an icon.

another good one is to do something to make this site faster

I'm sure Nathan would love to do that, but something like that would require a fairly big chunk of cash.  Servers aren't terribly expensive (to start off), but once you start upgrading them, the money adds up fast!

[Web moderator]

another good one is to do something to make this site faster

There is an SMF Optimization Mod (not sure of link). I'm not sure what it does exactly, but I know it's there.

Servers aren't terribly expensive (to start off), but once you start upgrading them, the money adds up fast!

Servers aren't terribly expensive? That's a new one.

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

I meant that they're not terribly expensive when you first start off with one...like, a low-grade server.  The server I'm currently on is free.  To upgrade, it would be $5 a month, which I think is pretty reasonable.  Then the next upgrade is something like $20 a month, and so on.

So, you can obtain a server (or space on a server, I should say) for not much money...but once you start upgrading, they do indeed become quite expensive.  And for a site with as much traffic as this one, I'd hate to imagine what the costs are.  It makes me glad that I've got a dinky little site that no one uses.

I didn't mean to give the wrong impression.  Sorry about that.  Heh.

[Web moderator]

LOL! I thought you were talking about a professional Dell server that costs about $5000 or something!

Are you using Ubuntu Server?

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

Ha ha, no, nothing fancy like that!  I'm just talking about space on a regular ol' web server.  For my site, I am just doing it through Freehostia.  They're not the best servers, but they have what I need, and the free server gives me more than enough bandwidth.  I just have to pay a $9.95 yearly fee for my domain (I believe I bought it through GoDaddy, but I actually don't remember).

The site I'm desiging is going to be a very basic/simple site for a business that my fiancé and I want to start soon (we still have to go to the registry and everything), so I don't need all of the bells and whistles.  Unfortunately, the free server doesn't support the PHP mail functions, so I may eventually upgrade because I am trying to run a PHP-based game with an integrated SMF forum, and they're going to need the use of these functions.  Of course, that's if I ever get around to coding the various modules and designing the themes and whatnot (that's going to be difficult with school starting next week).


EDIT:  Ubuntu Server looks very interesting, by the way.  I would like to eventually look into this, but I think some of it may be a little over my head at the moment.

[Moderator]

I cant help but notice that the site looks different color wise...


As for servers:
With such an overloaded MySQL database server, I think it might be time to contact that ISP of yours, Nathan, and see if they have a second MySQL server that you can use. It seems to get worse at times, and then gets better.. but, it can be a real pain some of the time.

Other than that, building one yourself usually isn't that difficult, nor is maintaining it, but, its always good to have experience, especially if something goes wrong. 

When I first get onto ComputerHope in the morning (for example), I would see around 5 pages of unread topics. However, if I leave it, close the browser, and then come back later it would all be gone. Then I would have to click 'Click here to try all unread topics' to view the 5 pages again.

Same here.

Have ability for users to add system specs and get listed under user profile

I saw on some other board, computer like small icon, next to user's nick, which when clicked on, displays all that info in a pop-up. Possible?

Make the Message window sizeable in the new topic / reply window.

Great!

On Quick reply add bold, italic, img, link buttons.

Super. Possible to add "quote"?

o another one is a box to right your quick reply istead of having to click on replay all the time that would be nice also

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

I cant help but notice that the site looks different color wise...

See here: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,64354.0.html

EDIT:  Nevermind, I see you already found the thread.

another good one is to do something to make this site faster

I very rarely have issues with the site's speed.
The SMF optimization mod is more trouble than it's worth by the way, caused a lot of issues for me.

o another one is a box to right your quick reply istead of having to click on replay all the time that would be nice also

We already have that, check your settings to make sure it's displayed.

Breath.........fresh...air..

[Global Moderator]

I've just recently been experimenting with the Quick Reply. Very convenient (useful for bad internet connections)

I don't think smileys are needed but the [ quote] like Broni suggest would be useful, along with [ img], [ b], [ i], [ u] and [ code].

Perhaps they could replace the text:
With a Quick-Reply you can use bulletin board code and smileys as you would in a normal post, but much more conveniently.

Have ability for users to add system specs and get listed under user profile

I saw on some other board, computer like small icon, next to user's nick, which when clicked on, displays all that info in a pop-up. Possible?

Putting this info under an icon is a great idea. One of the appeals of CH to me is that it is not "garbaged up." User profiles and computer specs displayed in the Topics section quite often interfere (IMO) with the topic content.

EDIT: I would like a FAQ on getting my head out of my @@@ so that I can use the Quotes right!

I would like to see the cursor placed in the message section when selecting "Reply' or 'Quote.' Upper left corner of the message section for Reply and at the end of the quotation for Quote.