mmmmhh,
we just changed it now to 100KB limit. Try the same image again.
I know Fred Mirandas site. We were looking also into the possibility of charging only for inserting imges within the forum and the forum access itself would stay free.
Unfortunately this is not possible technically with this discussion software at the moment. We are in talks with the software developer to have this option in a future version. So we decided to start at a lower price but for both access and upload rights (already with 25 USD for using this feature, Fred is charging 45 USD for it). But once our ideal option is technically possible, we can introduce a new system, no problem with that.
Regarding the presentation of images, I do not see a big difference at the moment between here and Fred's site. See an ex&le:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/92932
"providing direct links from posters names to their Contax portfolio"
This is something we try to achieve also in the future. Currently we have only an old software of the photo gallery (fred miranda is using the same by the way, he just calls it webhosting).
We bought it, when it came out fresh on the market in summer 2002. We are trying since 2 weeks to upgrade it to a new version number without loosing old images, but so far without a success. The code seems to have changed so much, that the upgrade fils do not work properly. We are still working on it.
Once this is done, we want to add a field in the user profile within the forum for the photogallery albums - as far as the user has some. This would be like an own webspace with only your own images on it.
"Navigation to specific subjects on this forum is the most complex procedure of any forum I participate in. There are all kinds of threads and sub-threads to wade through if you come here without an e-mail link."
I hear your point, although I do think that this is question of personal taste (so please more feedback everybody).
There are basically 2 different ways of structuring a forum. The one way is Freds way by just adding new subtopics on top of each other within a topic on the first level.
i.e. here:
The topic path is: Canon mount SLR's and then people just post a new subopic/thread title in that category. Ex&le:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/board/2
We have a step inbetween: You choose a topic as on Fred's site but after that we have some pre-defined subtopics. And only on the third level you can add your own subtopics/threads.
We have opted for that in the past, because we wanted to give new members a clear structure where to post what, so that it is faster to find in case of questions. If we would not have this second level structure inbetween, you would have to scroll through all threads to see whether there is i.e. threads about Contax N-zooms between the G-lenses and the manual focus lenses and the bodies.
At Fred's site (which is very good by the way) there is not differentiation between bodies, lenses etc. So you have to walk through 14 pages with 30 threads on each page in the Canon section, before you know whether there is information for you.
What I do not know is what happens with old postings there. Fred's site is already there for a long time, but I do not see these very old postings. Maybe he deletes them regularly, which might be an option to consider, especially for speed and traffic improvements, but less atractive for the "knowledge base" that gets lost.
We are open for any suggestions. We just thought the current structure would be easier. If you think differently, feel free to add your comments here.
