Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Forum Problems

Everybody, we moderators know that the forum is having problems. Here's what everybody needs to do, including the moderators. This has been requested by LeighAnn. Email her the problem at leighann@pondboss.com. In the email, you should list the following:

1) Your forum user name.
2) The date and time of the issue
3) What the issue is - i.e. can't post a picture or the forum is slow. If it's "the forum is slow", please give her a length of time in seconds or minutes. Like " When I click on a thread it takes 40 seconds to open."
4) If you can include a screen shot of the issue, please do so and include that in your email to her.
5) Tell her what you are using to access the forum. Desktop, phone, tablet, etc.

Please note that she cannot fix the problem herself, she has to email this to Pro Boards fix-it team and they are notoriously slow to respond. We are guessing that they are on the other side of the world and English is not their primary language if you know what I mean. She can't call them on the phone, her only way of contact is via e-mail. You e-mailing her the problem in the above format makes it much easier on her to forward that to the Pro Boards help team. If everybody gets onboard with this whenever there is a problem, and we help her flood Pro Board fix-it team maybe we will get the issue fixed. Sending a PM to the mods or emailing the mods just make us mods do the above email, and then it seems to Pro Boards that just us mods are the ones bitching about it.

For instance, take the not being able to post pictures issue. They are telling her that they tried to post a picture and it works fine, but we are still having a problem. She said the more people that send emails, the harder Pro Boards will look at the issue.

Right now the forum is running slow. It takes me anywhere from 15 seconds to 50 seconds for a thread to open or for me to be able to respond to a thread. Texas Fishing Forum doesn't have this issue (< 1 second for me to open a thread there), nor do they have a problem with anyone posting pictures there. According to Pro Boards both this forum and that forum are set up the same and should work the same. They aren't.....

I found the forum almost unusable all day. Clicking on most any of the active links on a desktop computer using chrome browser that are listed in the right pane would cause the page to stall while loading. Sometimes it would stall with ball spinning and never load, other times it would bring me to a black page that the desired page was unavailable. Often 3-4 tries later it would suddenly load.

over course of day different pages would sometime load right away other times stall out.

Yet the page you use to log in would load instantly every time (my work computer doesn't save cookies so I have to log in repeatedly as it doesn't keep me logged in)

I'm wondering if one of the many advertisement banners or feeds on the top or sides of the page is what is stalling out the process. Maybe they could in a test environment demo a ad free version of the PondBoss site for a time and stumble on the problem that way?

This has been painful for the past few weeks at work, at home, on desktop and mobile phone version of the forum.

I did send the information requested above to Leighann but didn't think it would help to send her multiple instances of the same problems in the same day even though today seems unusually bad.

I had posted on this thread earlier today but obviously it didn't post, like another thread I responded on that never showed up, thought I was losing my marbles. and maybe I am.

Everybody keep sending them. The forum seems fine for the moment on this end.

There were two days where the forum simply didn't load.

I wonder if managing a Slack space would be easier to manage with such a small team, and cost significantly less money to keep running. One thing for certain, it is MUCH easier to save images. The drawback is archival is very different as it is more of a running chat than a BBS, though I understand there are many ways to view and archive the data.

Definitely improved the last two days. Then slowed this morning, wouldn't even load on my first try. Sheesh.

I just tried a photo-posting test for a new member, but my photo failed to post.

I don't believe I have seen new photos in a post for a while?

Has the photo posting problem returned?

Please reply in this thread if you have been having problems, OR if you have successfully posted a photo as of what date?

If we are once again encountering problems, I will email Leigh Ann after the holiday.


Thanks,
FishinRod

Hello.

Test.


A+

azteca,

Where does that photo reside?

Which format did you use for the link?

How did you link it to Pond Boss?


Thanks,
FishinRod

Hello.

Storing pics on the forum works fine for me.

The site did time out twice for me this morning.

My BBCode link as a jpeg used to render an embedded photo in the post. However, it did NOT work on my photo tests yesterday.

(Azteca replied "That image hoster is great", but didn't say which image hoster? His screen shot might be from Imgur?

Futher, which button in "Use Full Editor" in Pond Boss is preferable for posting the photos? At one point, I was using "Insert Image Link", but then it would cut off anything I typed into the post after that point. So then I started using "Insert Link" instead.


Al, what do you mean by "Storing pics on the forum"? Every time I try to use "Attachment Manager" I get failed for image greater than 2MB. Is there a different method?

If someone that is successfully posting pics will give me a moderate description of what is currently working, then I will type it up in a clean, new post so new members will be able to post photos on Pond Boss.

Thanks,
FishinRod

My bad. Let me retry on hosting the pic on the forum. I was doing 2 things, and posted from Imgur.


Nope, the forum hosting the pic did not display.

Hello.

Yes it is imgbb site, sorry.

I write my text, then I go to the imgbb site, I click on </>, then on the BBcode then on copy, I go back to my post and I click paste and the picture is under my text.
A+

Thanks azteca. I always have to make an edit to my photos to get them to post correctly.

If you have an improved process, can you read my Posting Photos thread, and then reply in the Posting Photos - Comments thread?


Rod

Rod, are you wanting the info about posting Imgur pics, or hosting them on the forum?

I didn't quite understand your answer. Also, there may be a problem with confusing terminology AND me NOT being an IT guy.

I only post photos that are hosted on Imgur and then linked to a Pond Boss reply or thread.

I have also seen some oblique references to people "hosting" photos on Pond Boss. If that is an actual "thing", then I have not ever tried that approach.

Did you try to post photos two different ways? One, hosting the photo on Pond Boss - which failed. And the other, posting your BBQ photo that was hosted on Imgur, which worked?

Yes, I tried one hosted on PB, which failed again. The Imgur pic was a one click insertion. If you go to the "USE FULL EDITOR", and select Post Options "HTML and UBBCODE", then all you have to do is add the Imgur BBCODE hyperlink into the post anywhere you want it.

Also, Imgur provides a resize option for loading pics, and that can eliminate 2Meg+ pics. I like the *800X600 option. It seems to fit most current monitors.

I couldn't find the Post Options you listed when I went into the Full Editor mode. I was on a Windows computer.

It sounds like the "hosting on Pond Boss option" is the one that fails most often? Is there some advantage to that method, or do you think teaching people how to link to their photos on Imgur is the best option?

If you look right under the lower left corner of the Full Editor text box, you'll see it. It'll have 3 dropdown options. Just a little history, but both text boxes available for posts are a javascript plugin called FckEditor, and it's been around for years. It's kinda the defacto way to add random data to a database cell as a BLOB. It has changed it's name since I used it for the City of Dallas, but the functionality is the same.

Reluctantly I went to Imgur, which I think is the best, and easiest, current picture sharing app. My thought was that if Imgur went to pay, I'd be better off having added the pics on the forum's hosting server. Unfortunately, I've lost all faith in posting pics directly to the PB forum, as it's become consistently inconsistent. LeighAnn is already swamped, and at this point I think we're just fighting windmills.

Al, thanks for taking the time to respond multiple times to my questions.

After I click to open the Full Editor function, my computer shows (in descending order) the clickable icons for editing functions, then the text box, then a box of emoticons labeled "Post Icon", then a box labeled "Post Options". The Post Options box on my screen says that: "HTML is disabled" and "UBBCode is enabled". It also has a hot link to the "Attachment Manager" and a clickable button to "Add this thread to my Followed Threads".

I do not have any of the dropdown options you listed that I can see or activate.

Is there any chance that members have slightly different versions of Pond Boss with different functions enabled based on when they joined the forum? I can't ever remember any version of a software update visibly going through the forum

My left side descriptor lists me as a "Lunker" and you as a "Moderator". I believe there used to be different names available in that slot for newer members, but I no longer see that function operating for more recently joined members. That is just one example that is visible to me.

Don't feel obliged to keep putting in the time to answer my low-level questions.

I think I will keep checking back to my Posting Photos post, and will iteratively change it to an optimal answer as more people give examples of how it does not work for them.

Thanks,
Rod

Rod, I don't mind helping one bit.

I'll check the text box as a Mod, and using my burner account, and check for possible differences. Obviously, if a member is not logged in, there's no post option.

OK, you are correct, there are no dropdown Post Options for non-Mods.

However, there are various export options on Imgur, and one of those is BBCode. Hitting Copy beside BBCode means nothing needs to be done but paste the Imgur generated hyperlink on the page.

I've confirmed this as a mod and a general member, on both a Mac and a stinkn' PC.

My Imgur page even looks different that yours!

I wanted to type up a simple "recipe" for new members to use to post photos. I am surprised by all of the internal variance among different users.

News to me and, knowing Lusk, it’s not purposeful.

Other than high pay, medical insurance, retirement plan’s, ability to change and delete posts, being a mod isn’t much different than other members.