Ive reserved until now waiting to see if anything would change but its going on a week and most things have settled down. Im on dial-up and things here seem a bit slower than before. I dont know if the PTB are catering to broadband but it seems illogical that Renderosity is a US based site and people overseas are getting a faster connection. Does anyone fill the same? Not that Im saying that overseas people should have less but that we should all enjoy the same. It seems to me that we, as a graphics forum, have lost forum character and uniqueness since this PHP changeover nothing distinguishes us from all the other run-of-the-mill message forums. We are no longer distinguished, we have joined all the rest! Theres really nothing new here except CSS for the PTB. We are now the same as all other PHP sites. We have no forum chat and no way of knowing who answered your post without having to actually go into the thread which takes forever to see who has responded and if youre on dial-up, too bad! You have no control over how you view the forum. You cannot control the color scheme and your eyes are at the mercy of the PTB. If you offer a pictorial tutorial for Brycers, they are no longer viewed in their entirety but compressed beyond recognition unless you decide to click on the figure and if youre on dial-up that takes longer still to download since you are downloading twice. Know that they plan to stick it down your throat regardless and they know that after a while everyone will either condescend (fall in line) or move on to other forums. There are a few other things but they keep promising they will correct over time and still remains to be seen. Basically, theres nothing new here just more chaos. Im thinking that theyll selectively and conveniently tell me my comments are off topic and will be deleted as they often tend to do when it doesnt conform to their sales pitch. Does anyone else see a problem with setup and what is it?

Quote - "You have no control over how you view the forum. You cannot control the color scheme and your eyes are at the mercy of the PTB. "

Visit the Community Center forum. You'll find that there is big user control over forum appearance. They're also busy addressing lots of other issues.

Where the admin screwed up (and screwed us members over) was in failing to test the new system properly behind the scenes; and in failing to communicate effectively about the changes. As your post demonstrates, they are still failing miserably to communicate with the members. There are so many people, the vast majority I expect, who have no idea of the options available to them. It's pathetic.

Sorry PJF, but we shouldn't have to resort to extraneous boloney. Imagine for a moment you are new to computers and you happen along onto the Renderosity Artist Community Bryce Forum, wouldnt you expect to simply log on and have all the benefits? Theres nothing here being offered thats new.

I to have noticed a significant slow down ( and I'm on broadband ) the first few days it was so bad I didn't even browse long enough to read any post. Although the speed has increased since the first few days, I still find it much slower than other PTB forums I frequent. You do make some valet points, I wonder how many other Renderosity members fell the same. I have the feeling the majority want the new Forum. I do like the fact that I can put in a personalized signature. But I do hope the speed comes up some.

Stephen Ray

Thank you Stephen Ray, you like me are entitled to our opinion. Fact of the matter is, Ive heard through certain well placed people that some of our higher up Bryce artists are not happy with this new adjustment and plan not to post further. That would certainly be a real pitty and a great loss to us.

LOL

"Site speed" -This will continue to go back and forth as the forums program, which is running, is being worked on at the same time. This has been stated before. "We have no forum chat" -Again, I have stated over and over, since before the PHP switch...chat rooms will be back. And, again...I do not know when. Probably after all the absolute neccessary things are taken care of. "You cannot control the color scheme" -Yes, you can. "If you offer a pictorial tutorial for Brycers..." -The image is NOT compressed, but resized within a placeholder. -The image is NOT re-downloaded, but should just pop-up in a new window from your Temporary Internet Cache. Check your browser settings. "There are a few other things but they keep promising they will correct over time and still remains to be seen" -Keyword you may want to see there is TIME. We never said it would be done in a week, it just can't be done that quickly. -We would LOVE to be able to quote a timetable for everything. But, as everyone knows we won't, because if we fall behind, we will look like we don't care, and that myth is perpetuated enough by itself as it is, lol. AS

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

I am reminded of the immoral words of Robin Williams who so appropriately stated that "There's no place like Rome! there's no place like Rome! There's no place like Rome!" Coding of any sort is hard to get right; it takes a long time to make even small changes. I'm looking forward to what Renderosity's gonna look like in a month or so. I'm also looking forward to taking advantage of att's $12.99 DSL (I'm paying more than that now for dial-up.) I'm also looking forward to the day W is out AND HILLARY is in. Patience my friends; all things come to "He Who Waits". -TJ (an old T-shirt of mine read: "patience my (beep!) I'm gonna kill something!! (beep-beep)")

Yeah, I was/am unfamiliar with PHP myself. Meaniing, I thought that the coding part would be ridiculously fast compared to the old software. And, while PHP is more modern/faster, it still isn't as fast as even I want it, lol. Later on, it will be the Modules that can be more readily "dropped in", customized, and then ran. My own holy grail is the ultimate (PHP) Challenge archive. see all the winners, the themes, browse by user names, or whatever we want.

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Did you know that if you look at AS's post up a bit and remove(via some very selective cutting) anything that gives any contextual or informational meaning at all to what he said you would be left with ->

" ... can't be done ... we don't care ... AS"

No wonder everyone thinks that the PTB don't care - its hidden in their own words. :tt2: wanders off to find the hidden meanings in other communications and uncover other top secret rosity conspiracies

Dreams are just nightmares on prozac...
Digital WasteLanD

You just have to look hard enough at the Matrix to see what is hidden...sorta like those stupid posters at the Mall that make you dizzy.

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

I think the weirdest and dizzy making things I've seen recently are on some of the sportsground advertisemnts that they paint on the grounds themselves. Not sure if they do this in the US yet, but over here in Australia they've started painting the signs on the grass field but instead of painting a rectangular sign on the field, they sort of skew the shape of the sign so as to remove the effect of perspective that you would see from the television camera position. When viewed on TV, the sign painted on the grass looks perfectly rectangular and appears to be standing up from the ground so all the advertisers writing and logo are really easy to read, as though you are looking at an erect billboard, rather than a billboard lying on the ground.... a bit like what that sidewalk chalk 3d artist was doing. This all works fine until someone walks over the sign and things then take on a surreal look.

Dreams are just nightmares on prozac...
Digital WasteLanD

I LOTHE intrusive advertising. LOATH, LOATH, LOATH! Ugh...don't get me started. But, no I haven't seen that as of yet on sports tv here (usa), but then again I don't get to watch a lot of it, I'm usually too busy, lol.

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

"and no way of knowing who answered your post without having to actually go into the thread" Actually, if you open the ebot, the replier's name will be in there. But, that will be kinda unneccessary when we fix the bug of everyone receiving an ebot absolutely everytime someone replies to a thread you are subscribed to. But, they will probably keep that (the members name) in the ebot anyway. Why not?

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Obviously I'm very new to the forum though I'm a Renderosity member for quite a while and I must admit that I didn't really liked the old forum-style, maybe cause all other forums I use are just like this new one, it's more clearly arranged ;-)

I think Flak may be on to something here! Did you know that the letters in "Forum Moderator" can be rearranged to spell out "A Mode for Rum Rot", "A Rodeo for Mr.Tum", "Form a Redo Tumor", and "A Forum Mort Doer"? I'll leave the interpretation of these anagrams to my fellow Brycians, but it's clear to me that "Dark Forces" are working behind the scenes here!:scared:

"Forum Moderator" equals "Rat Murderer...Fomoo"

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Fomoo was the previous moderator?

Dreams are just nightmares on prozac...
Digital WasteLanD

I just wish I could get over this writer's block . . . you could derive "redrum" from some of the letters in forum moderator - Ever since that restaraunt scene in "5 easy pieces" Jack, like Bogie before him has been 'the man'! My only question so far is who killed Kennedy - is the question in the answer? and . . Does anyone have a copy of "desmonema.br5" so I can run a benchmark test on my old 900 P2 celeron running Windows Me? of potential intererst: I just noticed someting neat - If I press the center button (wheel) on my Belkin optical mouse I get megafast scrolling. Is that the PHP or my center button settings (never noticed it before.)

That's the center button setting, the os default action for mice with a center button/wheel.

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Thanks! :b_confused:

Attached Link: http://us3.php.net/manual/en/introduction.php

I've done some reading on PHP because I had no idea what it is. There are lots of advantages to using this system; they just haven't been set up yet. To quote from the PHP website; What distinguishes PHP from something like client-side JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server. If you write a script, the client would receive the results of running that script, with no way of determining what the underlying code may be. You can even configure your web server to process all your HTML files with PHP, and then there's really no way that users can tell what you have up your sleeve. What this means to the user is you won't see any more complaints about, " I quoted a post I made before, Now someone has stolen my user ID and gone in and deleted my gallery, Whaaaa!" The coding that makes things work stays with Bondwire, you only see the results, so you can't pass your personal information to every Tom, Dick, and Harry by accident.

That's one of the best attributes to using php, imho, the session id security stuff.

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Well, thank you! Oh, so what you’re saying is, a week isn’t long enough for a sequence of events that should have been in the many months of preparation. That this is an ongoing process and that the site will be overhauled over time. Perhaps a substantial amount of time, we can’t give any dates because we simply don’t know. In the meantime, you all will have to bear with us. Is this more correct to the truth?

 

But I still haven’t heard anything about what makes this site different from all the other PHP sites then it once was? Let’s say different from CGTalk, Devientart to name a few and the so many other cookie cutter PHP sites, what makes us different? Would love some answers here and not answers like some ditzy answers saying I’m different because…

 

Oh, PHP language? Yes, any new Internet learner would know that this is server side programming. I’ve studied a few computer languages in College including C++, Java, Script, Javascript, HTML, DHTML. Even have a certificate in networking. You mean these other PHP web sites have been around all these years and still we can’t get it right but Renderosity will?

 

The point being that this whole operation should have already been preplanned and scheduled like a well oiled working machine before changes went underway with little makeovers afterwards. Don’t tell me this is not possible, I work in a field where it’s mandatory no and/ifs/or buts about it and the glitches can only take hours at most.

 

It seems to me that Renderosity portrays a semblance of : ”don’t worry you’re not paying for it…but we’re using your talent to run this operation subliminally and you’re buying our stuff and maybe you think you’re getting exposed as an artist. It’s a very contrived network operation even though there had been many pre-Renderosity artists selling their wares way before Renderosity came into being.

 

In the final analysis, Quest, you have to assess what is in your best interests. If these changes, and the slipshod manner in which they have been introduced, negatively outweigh the advantages of Renderosity (the ones that kept you here before the change) - then it makes sense for you to look for another site (or sites) that better meets your needs.

For myself, despite finding the changes (and manner thereof) deeply frustrating, I'm currently sticking with Renderosity. I'll bitch and moan - but in the context of fighting for improvement. I'll try and make the best of it and I'll try and help other people make the best of it.

When some arsehole lets their dog shit on the pavement outside my house, I swear and curse and get out there and clean it up a.s.a.p. Writing a letter to the local paper demanding to know why  the council hasn't removed the turd doesn't help me much.

I'm....gonna go take a break.

That would be best.

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"

Quote - Where the admin screwed up (and screwed us members over) was in failing to test the new system properly behind the scenes; and in failing to communicate effectively about the changes. As your post demonstrates, they are still failing miserably to communicate with the members. There are so many people, the vast majority I expect, who have no idea of the options available to them. It's pathetic.

 

Hmm i would just like to point out something here on behalf of all the admin and their lack of communicating with us members about changes.

Talking as an admin myself, you'll find the biggest problem behind the lack of communication is the fact that admins have a dozen jobs to do behind the scenes and in the midst of doing those jobs their mind strays from their main reason for this site being here "its members".

I have fallen into that lack of communication bracket also with the members of a game i'm admin on and not due to any other reason than being busy organising things or making sure everything is going to run smoothly.

So come on all give the admin a fair go, its not easy being in their position and having to stay up until all hours of the night fixing problems on here that crop up out of no where. So they forgot to communicate with use about the changes...big deal, build a 3d bridge and get over it.

 

I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them.

 

Give 'em some time...  Sure, it's a little bit unnerving to be made a beta tester without being asked first. :sneaky:  But look at it this way, they don't have to pay for the testing (other than risk some loss of client base) and due to our vocal nature regarding the situation - the bugs get spotted that much faster.

I'm sure there's still some more tricks up their sleeves, like the Java based reply thingy I see they installed today. For now I'll try to exercise some patience since I consider the place a WIP, hopefully more things will be fixed than broken as time goes on.

---

Barbequed Pixels?

Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.

Quote - "You cannot control the color scheme" -Yes, you can. "If you offer a pictorial tutorial for Brycers..." -The image is NOT compressed, but resized within a placeholder. -The image is NOT re-downloaded, but should just pop-up in a new window from your Temporary Internet Cache. Check your browser settings. "...  AS (excerpt from AS's reply to Quest)

Well "In My Humble Opinion" these two items while perfectly true, are just not helping things, since they are both making the forum harder to use.  The bit about colours while it isn't impossible, is still not easy and not all colours work, some colours when you try them simply revert your display to the ghastly forum default of glaring white and grey.

The images.... (deep sigh) now I sincerely hope that this is just temporary, since having to click on an image to see it properly may be manageable for just a single image, but think about some of the wonderful tutorials we have been gifted by from members in the past.  Some of them had a multitude of images - now just imagine the laboriousness of having to click on each one individually, and save each one individually and then save the tutorial and then having to replug in each and every image from the bigger saved visible ones... it'd be a ruddy nightmare!!!

The range and scope of the tutorials in this and the Wings forum have been the main reason for me staying here and liking it so much here, so if this is ending, it's a poor excuse for a forum that Renderosity will become and no amount of avatars or fancy signatures will EVER make up for it.

I thought the idea of changing over to php was to make things easier - not harder.

So please just lets hope it's all just temporary...

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com

Fran, you should make your concerns known in the "Community Center" forum too - more direct chance of the admin seeing them there.

Let me know what colours you're trying for and I'll see if I can fumble up a CSS thingie for you.

.

Even I hate to admit it, but with hardly more time committed, a "Forum" tutorial can easily be made into a normal Renderosity Tutorial.

Although, yes it was nice in the old Forum to be able to scroll up and down and see/read everything (at a 1:1 RATIO) all at once.

But, this will help force me to take my future tutorials to the tutorial area, lol...

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"I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now"