Is this it? Are we back?

I can see my post.

I can see 4 others on line.

I can see Karlos as a mod on line.

It's looks like we're back....

In reply to Post #2
Not on purpose....I was mucking around getting things ready for later tonight and I seem to have accidentally rebuilt the site!

If only I could accidentally catch carp so easily

In reply to Post #3


Nice one Karlos

In reply to Post #3
Great work Karlos thanks have really missed the forum

working for me, font size is small but if you increase the page size on google chrome (desktop) it remembers the setting for just this site.

In reply to Post #4
Good Job Karlos, many thanks

In reply to Post #3
good stuff

Ahh good to be back

Way to go Karlos thx for getting back n running again 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

In reply to Post #1
Bleep, bleep, bleep.

In reply to Post #1
Hey guys I found my way here

I managed to stumble back as a complete IT technophobe 🤷‍♂️

In reply to Post #6
Yes, I seem to have found an older version of the code from before I tried to make the site slightly more mobile friendly with buttons/colours/icons and of course the font size that Google suggested I use to comply with it's guidelines.

I am going to have a look around at home and see if I can find a newer version of the code, so things might start looking weird/funky for a while if I find a newer version and put it in place.

If you spot something broken, and it's not fixed for 5 or 10mins, feel free to send a WhatsApp / iMessage photo/description of the issue to me just to ensure I am aware and get it fixed. 07463 284728

Great stuff

In reply to Post #1
Really pleased to see the site up and running again.
I'm not on Facebook and have struggled for my fix of carp fishing .
I've also had to talk to the missus
Well done Karl

In reply to Post #1
It's true what they say:
You dont realise how much you miss something until it's gone!

In reply to Post #1
Woohoo it's back!!!

nice to be back in Karlos, thx for your hard work

Whoop thank you

In reply to Post #14
Well done mate 👍 I can only access it from your link.

In reply to Post #21
Back in the room!

I too can only access from your FB link . . . nice work Karlos!

Oi oi

Happy days, well done 👍🏻

Yes God I didn't realise how much I looked at it till it was gone. Lol

It is very sad how happy I am you are back in my life. Don't leave me again x

In reply to Post #1
Wahoooooo. Massively missed the bargains share the knowledge thread 😆

In reply to Post #27
It's good to be back! 🙌🏽

Few things I am aware of, that I will fix:

1 - Site needs it's secure certificate sorting so we're running on https again, instead of http. It's not a huge issue (we're not using the site for financial transactions etc) but it's nice to have it in place.
2 - Like functionality for posts isn't in this version of my code. I think I just found a newer code version which has it in. If so I will put that live in a while
3 - Font size and even more mobile-UN-friendly than before. Hopefully I find a backup with those changes in, if so they will get put live
4 - Any profile pics that were done in the last few months weren't backed up :( I can do them again if needed.

In reply to Post #29
One thing noticed posting times are out ?

In reply to Post #30
Noice:XD

Did you all see that video? They all should be banned!

But great to see it back online.

In reply to Post #30
Glad we are back and at it lads

In reply to Post #30
Thank you!
Server is based in UK, but for some reason the company have set it up with Central America as it's time zone!? That's a first...

Changed to London...

In reply to Post #32
Actually missed it

In reply to Post #33

Great to be back, nice one Karlos

I was about to post a question when the site went down and it was so long ago I've forgotten what it was

Hi Karlos.

Nice one thank you.

Yay.......so good to be back, Grand job Karl....now what's the best bait available......

Thanks for the perseverance to get it back online, I didn't realise how much reading I did on here until it was gone.

Thank you

Will make my days at work slightly more bearable now.

Thanks for getting it back online.

Shane.

In reply to Post #33
Well done mate
glad to see you finally got your data back and we are up and running again seems super fast too
EDIT
JUST SEEN THE THUMB in the middle of the posts great idea

Yay Thank you

YAY! Thank you Karlos

Thanks for getting it sorted again, since getting back into fishing this has been my only goto for info.

Oh and Old Geezer - yesssss dishwasher tablets to clean a flask is amazing 😀

Thanks for sorting Karlos

In reply to Post #38
High up there has surely gotta be starting a bite alarm thread.

In reply to Post #33
thanks Karlos

In reply to Post #46
Are Fox better than Delks? 😎

Well done that man! Thanks Karlos for getting our community back up and running.

Good to be back!!!

In reply to Post #51
Great stuff Karl

In reply to Post #48

Glad the forum is back. Haven't been fishing for 8 months (family situation) Then thought I was going mad as couldn't find the forum.

Glad the forum is back. Can't wait for the first troll to appear.

In reply to Post #3
Great to have the forum back Karlos, well done

In reply to Post #44
Oh and Old Geezer - yesssss dishwasher tablets to clean a flask is amazing

Glad you took my advice David and it worked as I said it would I have told loads of people since I found out

In reply to Post #1
Welcome back all , thanks Karlos for all of the associated work you have done to get the forum up and running again.

Thanks for getting things back up and running Karlos

Great to have it back at last. Well done people.

In reply to Post #1
I had various pages saved in my book marks as this website is such a great resource of information, experience and ideas.

Great to be back, I missed it, and suprised myself how much I was visiting most days just to get a fix!

Thank you Karlos, good ol boy.

In reply to Post #1
Well, about fecking time, no ones had the gonads to say it, thought I'd do it

Now Karlos, you even had me check on f**book you are the spawn of the devil....must be in cahoots for rankings and revenue :-0 ......:-)
That lame excuse about being busy with family or work, even worse....fishing...fgs....hmm...servers..that sort of ********, been there,done it....never took us that long

Seriously though, good to be back and as 4 the ass hole on Xx I won't glorify a t××t,) I hope the CF here to stay

In reply to Post #63
@Vossy:
What can I say? I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you...

@everyone:
I just found the latest version of code, and as you can probably see (unless your browser has cached the version from a year or three ago) the site is back how it was March 11, 2024 ... or Maroon Monday as I will call it from henceforth...

Its good to have this Forum back.
Thanks for your effort.

In reply to Post #64

Thanks for taking the time to bring it back online Karlos.

In reply to Post #67
I didn't think I'd miss the site, but I actually did!
Was fun remaking it...I need to spend some time making it faster now.

It's been pointed out to me that posting a message is slower (we're getting multiple/repeat posts in some threads)

The new server is actually slightly more powerful than the old server, so I will see what I can do to make it faster

In reply to Post #69
And the old 'top of the wish list' is direct photo upload (auto resize) with no fannying

In reply to Post #70
Seems to be way faster

In reply to Post #71
Oh my thumbs gone 😪😪😪

In reply to Post #72
All sorted Ryan 👍🏼

In reply to Post #73
thank you

In reply to Post #69
Thanks for your efforts, Karlos. Really missed the place.
As far as you are aware, was anything lost (posts, threads) ?

In reply to Post #75
Any new threads or posts between Jan 10 and Mar 11 were lost.

In reply to Post #76
Ok m8 thnx... could've been worse.

In reply to Post #76
Hi Karlos, could I suggest a couple of 'little' changes? When you tap on the heart button it instantly takes you back to the start of the thread, this is a right pain in the arris. It would also be nice if people could see who is agreeing with them by tapping the heart button.

yay!

In reply to Post #78
Yes, going back to the start of the thread is lazy programming by me. I hate it myself.
To get around it, I middle mouse click the heart to pop the thread (with heart added) to a new window so I can carry on reading.
That's a bit of a pain though as you then have to tidy up (close) the window once you can see it's loaded.
I'll see if I can do something about it


As for names, obviously the names (userIDs) are recorded against the post in the background, to stop users from clicking it a hundred times...but I wanted to avoid 'gang warfare' where little clicks of people loved each others posts.
I thought that the anonymity would encourage 'real' likes


I do need to create a screen where we can see a report of what posts are most popular this week/month/year. It might be of interest...until I write it I'm not sure if it will unearth anything surprising. Low priority task that one though

In reply to Post #78
So I have just spent a few hours trying different ways to do the LIKE functionality without needing to refresh the whole page.

I'm nearly there.

The one bit that's not correct, which I hope to fix tomorrow, is that the heart being hollow/filled is not updating correctly.
It should be filled if it's a post you liked.

That said, you can see the like count go up/down when you click the heart, so you know whether you have liked the post or not....and once the page is refreshed, it then fills in your liked posts hearts red (although it then leaves them red if you unlike it!)

Now I have learned this new technique and refactored how the like functionality works, it should be reasonably easy to get the filled/hollow working tomorrow. I would do it now but I should get some kip.

Still enjoy the old style forums. Welcome back.

In reply to Post #81
OK, I think I have got the LIKE functionality working nicely now.

The heart icons are the correct colour, filled if it's a post you yourself have liked and hollow if you haven't liked it.

The call to the database, to store that you liked the post, now happens nice and fast without refreshing the page

The like counts appear to be correct

I can draw a line under that now. I guess I should back my code up so that next time the server dies due to the hard disks wearing out I don't lose the feature/functionality!

What feature/function do people want to see next?

In reply to Post #83
Direct picture uploading and auto resizing

In reply to Post #84
Hmmm, something quick and easy then 🤪

It would be good to have photo uploading, I have already written the code to do it - it's how I upload profile pictures once I have airbrushed them.

One problem it will cause is storage. The server has a limited storage capacity and I fear once people realise they can upload photos easily (even from your iPhone, not just PC/Mac) the space will be used.

I can buy additional storage but I'm already paying hosting fees each month out of my own money.

Maybe time to write some premium features?
I've never wanted to charge anything being such a tight ar53 myself....but if users liked the features and wanted to use them I guess £1 a month or £10 for the year wouldn't break the bank.

Ideas for features, off the top of my head:

Image uploading

Immediate access to classified section (even for new members with no posts - because they would have paid and would therefore be traceable in some way if a classified deal went 'sideways')

Reimagine the classified section to make it easier to use, set up saved searches so you can be 'nudged' when a certain bivvy / brand has a new listing ... and obviously the ability to upload your photos of the items for sale (first bullet point above)

Advert removal? So that no google ads are served to the site, I know they can be annoying but as I mentioned above they help numb the hosting costs sting!

Other ideas you'd like

In reply to Post #85
Although sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words I don't want to see this forum littered with loads of useless photos, I'm really not interested in seeing a picture of what someone had for breakfast compared to yesterday.
There's Facebook for those that want likes for doing that.

Just by chance I checked my profile and today it's exactly 20 years ago I joined this forum.
In those days people were mainly using computers and posting pictures was much easier.
People may think they are more tech savvy nowadays because devices are more powerful but I believe it's the opposite, if they have to do any more than tap a button then it's too difficult for them.

So I suggest a compromise.
Rather than hosting photos on the forum server and filling it up with crap, why not make it easier for people to post pictures from elsewhere but making it easier.
Rather than having to type say
< img src=http://www.carpforum.co.uk/Image/Characters/KArlOS.jpg >
design a button that makes it easier

Same with links
Do away with the Web Link >> button.
If you use that button you get
< a href="http://" target="_blank">< / a

most people find it too difficult ('cos they are using a phone?) to break into this and add an url and add a link name between the ><

Make that action easier

Not essential but maybe over time do that for all the 'Message Tools' ?


This forum is not a generic off the shelf forum that you see elsewhere offered by some faceless conglomerate.
It may not be perfect but at least you can talk to the owner/creator.


Edit
Having said all of the above I do have an idea for extra feature.
If someone edits a post can it be shown that it has been edited?

In reply to Post #85
Quote function perhaps, seen quite a few replies that have been basically a miss quote of what somebody has posted because they have just hit the reply button on a randon post to make a reply.

Links that are live straight off, still see loads of links pasted that are just text and not clickable.

Thanks for the replies so far, they all make sense and I will reply to them fully this evening. The weather is nice so I need to get some gardening done right now...