My fellow BWEers...

jal · Post by **jal** » Mon Feb 15, 2021 3:28 pm

Enabled file attachments

Working on more requests but I may not get around to them today, it’s slow going and I’m learning as I go

s*d*r · Post by **s*d*r** » Mon Feb 15, 2021 3:29 pm

Maybe consider an evergreen first post from the Administrators to include the welcome, some words of introduction to give the flavor of the site to newcomers, and instructions, especially how to post photos and attachments.

Stu

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Mon Feb 15, 2021 3:33 pm

JCNorthway wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 3:26 pm Couple of questions on the new layout/functionality:

1) If I close the browser for this site, do I need to login the next time? I think there used to be an option to be automatically logged on.

checkbox is on login page right below password box, just like before I think.

2) Is there a way to visually see that you are logged in? It used to display your user name upper right if you were logged in.

Right now the only obvious way is to look at who's logged in at the bottom of the page. You can also hover over the bust icon at top right of page and your name should appear.

Also, it looks like the server or the software is on daylight savings time - or else the time zone just off the east coast.

You can change that in your user profile.

jal · Post by **jal** » Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:06 pm

Fixing the search
This may take a few minutes
I have to delete the old index and recreate a new one. This will solve the "too common" response

Fixed. Please let me know if you have any problems. I just tried searching for "calon" which used to give me the "too common" response. This time was successful

jal · Post by **jal** » Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:54 pm

Fixed the Retailers links page. I can also delete it.

I think most of the important items on David's punch list are addressed. We need to decide on avatars.

I have to figure out some cosmetic changes as well but that can wait; by that I mean the secure site, the quick reply box, the Forum confusion, and a few more.

Ok, it's a nice day in Sarasota, I'm off to take a walk.

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Mon Feb 15, 2021 7:17 pm

I was just looking at the "Who's Online" section of the home page and saw -

"Most users ever online was 1187 on Fri Apr 25, 2014 7:58 am"

We must have been under a denial of service attack.

jal · Post by **jal** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 2:36 pm

I renamed the Forum "Our Forum", I can change the name and hopefully, that will eliminate some of the confusion with the "Forums" on the Navigation Bar. Sorry, it's the best I could do with my (very) limited knowledge.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:03 pm

Looks like billo found the original BWE messages!
There is some legendary stuff in there.

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:21 pm

Do you mean from the old MSN postings? That would be some great history to look through.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:22 pm

Yes! As I understand it, all the way back to the initial post on February 26, 2000.

Jay Winton · Post by **Jay Winton** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 5:07 pm

Go away for a few days and look what happens. I liked David's suggestions. Thanks all for your efforts.

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 7:44 pm

So can anyone explain what the Bing [Bot] and Google [Bot] are that show up as registered users online?

jal · Post by **jal** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:33 pm

These are crawler robots for the search engines. Their job is to search HTML pages and index them, so if one does a google search or a bing search on say BWE SHL, the search will return something meaningful.

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:43 pm

Interesting. I knew such things existed, but am surprised to see them showing as registered users. Did we grant them permission to have access by making them a registered user?

jal · Post by **jal** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:57 pm

No, they are not registered. But anyone can lurk and view posts on BWE.

Here's more:

Bots. phpBB recognizes most popular bots (search agents) automatically. You can add more manually if you want. Using phpBB’s permission system, you can limit what these bots can do. For example, you can keep these bots from indexing your board in their search engines. ”

Excerpt From: Mark Hamill. “Mastering phpBB Administration.” Apple Books.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 9:38 pm

You da man, Jacques, thanks for taking the lead on this.
This little problem ended up being a blessing in disguise, it was an opportunity to spruce things up around here a bit.

jal · Post by **jal** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:30 pm

Thanks,
Considering I couldn't spell phpBB last week, it's been a learning curve.
We still need to do some house cleaning. Here's David's Punch List as well as some other maintenance issues:

Return of the quick reply box.
I have not found a way to do that. I don't think it's important enough to pay the consultant to do it. If you care we can discuss

A secure site (https) might encourage more to participate.
That's a function of the site host, how much do we care?

Automatic resizing of photos so that large ones don’t get rejected and they show without requiring scrolling or blowing up the page.
I increased the size to 3mb and allowed thumbnails. Hopefully, that will take care of this. Please let me know if there are any issues

Ability to post PDF, Excel, Word files (with size limit?).
I enabled document attachments. 5 per post 3mb each. Please let me know if there are any issues

Retrieval of original BWE site posts.
Billo is working on it (yay!)

Better search engine (or lessons from Arv!)
I fixed that, the too common answer will no longer appear. Please let me know if there are any issues

Update and maintain the retailer list or delete it altogether.
I fixed that, let me know if you want me to delete it altogether

Ability to post avatars (or point me to how).
I have not been able to get rid of the box with the "?" again, I don't think it's important enough to pay the consultant to do it. I can enable avatars easily but I will not make the decision. I leave it to Jim.

The "Forum" confusion as per Chris
I have not found a way to do that. The only thing I could do was change the name of the forum to "Our Forum" to avoid some confusion with the general "Forums".

The photos orientation as per JC
I have not seen any mention of that in the book. If the issue persists, I will investigate

Spam
So to get rid of the spammers and spambots, I made registration to the site contingent on answering a simple question:

What is your interest in this board?

The answers are:

Wine lover
Wine
Bordeaux

Not case sensitive, any other answers would not allow registering.

I can go back to nothing but we were getting bombarded with spam. I can give a hint in the question (rhymes with line and pine) so as not to discourage newcomers, or change that to a captcha. It's easy enough or I can leave it as be.

That's it for now, let's decide about avatars and registration and please let me know if there are any issues, I'm still a novice at this but if I can help, I'll do my best.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:48 am

Jacques:

The only time I used to use the "quick reply" was when I was posting pictures, but I note I was able to post the above 2000 Baron picture without it, so I wonder if it even still an option. Not sure why it existed in the first place.

I'm not worried about having to have a "secure" site.

I still use the retailer list, it's an easy way for me to link to NH and Zachy's, and occasionally Wine Searcher. It just needs to be updated.

Let's hold off a bit on avatars and think about it. I'm not a big avatar guy, but they may be better than the big question mark.

Your spam questions seem to have worked. We may still get some spam from existing infiltrators that are already in, if so we will ban them.

Thrilled that we made contact with Billo, and that he found the original MSN stuff.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:55 am

Jim, I did update the retailers list. Guys, let me know if you want me to add new ones.

Are you ok with the more convoluted registration mechanism? Do you want me to add the hint to the question?

I have deleted the spammers account not just banning them. I can delete a whole bunch more if you want not just new ones.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:01 am

Looks good, Jacques, the only retailer I would add to the list is MacArthur's:

https://www.bassins.com

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:08 am

JimHow wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:01 am Looks good, Jacques, the only retailer I would add to the list is MacArthur's:

https://www.bassins.com

Done, I also added Grapes

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:23 am

Testing

That’s good. I didn’t have to shrink it. Well played Jacques!

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:12 am

JimHow wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:01 am Looks good, Jacques, the only retailer I would add to the list is MacArthur's:

https://www.bassins.com

I buy a lot of Bordeaux from Saratoga Wine Exchange.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:14 am

Yes I was going to suggest them as well.
We can add whomever, the more the merrier.

s*d*r · Post by **s*d*r** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:48 pm

Consider this new logo if you like it:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqv4ukbtqdb2r ... 2.pdf?dl=0

Stu

stefan · Post by **stefan** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:17 pm

I dunno, Stuart. It looks like a Burgundy glass.

AKR · Post by **AKR** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:24 pm

: de Pez - a fruity St Estephe

Let's see if this works

Racer Chris · Post by **Racer Chris** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:28 pm

The glass is sideways.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:29 pm

I tried changing that square with the "?" to something less annoying (see pic). It seems to work on my older mac but not the one I use now. I'm baffled but hopefully, it works for you folks.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:30 pm

Racer Chris wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:28 pm The glass is sideways.

LOL!!

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:32 pm

What do you think, should we give avatars a try?
Let's get input.

SF Ed · Post by **SF Ed** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:37 pm

Yes, let's give avatars a try. I am always my idol, Ernie Banks.

: ernie 2.jpg (1.91 KiB) Viewed 1210 times

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:38 pm

I kind of like the geekiness of our BWE logo, Stuart, although it has always bothered me that the bottle doesn't have a label on it.
Your logo is a beauty, but, to be considered, we need a Riedel sommelier series glass in there instead of Burgundy series, as Stefan noted.
Can you rework it a little?

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:49 pm

JimHow wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:32 pm What do you think, should we give avatars a try?
Let's get input.

I'm not fan of avatars either, however they have to be better than the question marks

dstgolf · Post by **dstgolf** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:15 pm

How do you post a photo Ian again step by step or is it shown somewhere? I've gotten used to just using a google photos link.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:24 pm

Danny,
When writing your post you should see an attachments tab. Attach the photos you want

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:29 pm

Danny:
FWIW, this is how I do it, although there must be an easier way.

1. I take a picture with my iPhone.
2. Then I "edit" by rotating it around until it is upright again. If I don't do this, it appears here on its side from some devices (laptop, computer, iPad, iPhone, etc.), but not others.
3. When I am editing (rotating) the picture in my iPhone, I find that I can only rotate it three times. I then have to stop, then click edit again, and now it is upright again and "done," ready to be emailed to my computer.
4. I email the "edited" (rotated) picture to myself.
5. From the email, I then download it to my laptop.
6. I then go to "Attachments" below. This used to be only available if I was sending my message with "Quick Reply," but now I notice it is available here.
7. Go to "Add Files," find your picture in your hard drive documents.
8. Add file, add a comment if you want, and "submit."

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:28 am

Danny

I use an iPad to post on BWE on which I have photos. So this is the way I do it:

1. Post reply
2. Attachments (bottom left)
3. Add files
4. Photo library
5. Select your photo then add
6. Them click on ‘place in line’
7. Submit

Et voila!

Whoops...

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:31 am

Not sure why it rotated sideways, but if you click on it it enlarges

jal · Post by **jal** » Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:27 pm

I did a quick Google search and found out that the sideways photo is something people have been complaining about in phpBB for years. It seems it's a function of specific phones (iPhones, Samsung, etc...) with specific browsers (apparently, Firefox doesn't have this issue).

Fixing it seems elusive. Many users have put in a script that appeared to work only to stop at a later date.

If you're interested, one poster says (I'm not even sure that's correct, btw):

There have been numerous topics on this: https://www.phpbb.com/search/?q=orientation

The problem is that the phone should be held horizontal while taking pictures, not vertical. Otherwise exif metadata is added to the picture to tell how to rotate it.

Sorry, I can't help on this. It's beyond my area of expertise