A suggestion for a Gallery....

[electra225]

As most of you know, Mark has put the kaibash on the Gallery extension due to " not updating the code" and security concerns. So, until something better comes along, I propose this compromise. Not perfect, admittedly, but perhaps better than nothing. I want us to hash this out a bit. I want your opinion. If I can't get good participation in this topic, we'll do nothing. You guys are the forum. All I do is to provide the platform. Your participation will make or break it....

My idea is to start a Gallery board. One like the other boards, only dedicated to our pictures. If we have enough participation, we could have one board for member collections, one for individual pictures. We could combine them, but I'd like to showcase members collections. You guys have done a great job with Downloads. Not so well on Console Tales. That was a board people wanted, but very few utilized. My idea is to meld a Gallery board with Console Tales.

Basic rules, pending additions by you guys, would be these:
*A max of ten pictures per gallery. Only electronic items to start.
*No comments by other members
*The only comments by the poster would be technical facts pertinent to the item
* Comments by the poster would then be on Console Tales. You could link your gallery to Console Tales and vice versa
*comments by membership would be on Chat or the appropriate branded board.
*The downside would be editting. There is a 15 minute editing limit. This necessary so the forum in general can't be altered. If you wanted to add more pictures to your gallery, you would have to start volume two of your gallery.

This idea is not perfect. Like some of our members have indicated, a Gallery is pretty much a must if we want to be a resource. I'd like each of you to put in your two cents. I will do nothing until we have had a well-rounded discussion and the regular members are in favor. If you guys would like to give this a try until we can come up with a better solution, let's talk about it.

Mark has offered a possible solution. It would involve considerable work to the forum and, of course, some expense. Instant messaging, a high tech Gallery, the ability to post audio, the ability to post video, are a few of the goodies we have hashed around in the Moderator team. In retail, the key to hours is sales. In forums, the key to expanding the capability of the forum is participation. I can suggest, it's up to you to execute the plan.

[electra225]

Does anyone have input on this topic?

[TC Chris]

I was just reading the RCA portable TV post and wondering if i had a photo at hand of my parents' version, a year or two older than that one. A gallery would be convenient.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Do the rules I have posted in this topic sound reasonable? Do you have suggestions, deletions, additions, etc???

[hermitcrab]

15 min limit to me means have all your pictures ready to upload at once ? or am I misreading this? also how many galleries would be allowed?. At the limit of 10, I could fill a couple easy...also why does there need to be any comments? I would assume a picture with a brief description is all that is needed ...just my two cents...

[electra225]

The 15-minute limit I referred to was the time you have to EDIT your post. This limit is in place so a bad actor can't post inappropriate content in quantities that it would be a mess to clean it up. I haven't heard about anyone having too limited a time to post. Most members who are posting a collection for their gallery will have an idea of what they want to post and where to locate it on their device.

The reason I chose ten as the maximum number of posts in a gallery is that if you make it much larger than that, people tend to lose interest in digging thru a large number of pictures. Better to leave them wanting more. You could have an unlimited number of galleries as far as I'm concerned. Let's say for the sake of this discussion that I have three brands of items in my collection. RCA, GE, and Magnavox. I could feature the RCA stuff in one gallery, the GE stuff in another and the Magnavox stuff in yet another. I could call them "Greg's RCA Collection", "Greg's General Electric Collection", and "Greg's Magnavox Collection". If I posted all of them in one Gallery, that might be confusing.

Members on this forum like to comment on someone's projects. The Gallery boards would be "no discussion" boards where only the poster could comment on his gallery items. Anyone else's post would be deleted. If someone wants to comment on an item, they would post on Chat if the comment was general, or on the appropriate brand board if it was of a technical nature like any other post.

We would have one board for members' galleries, one for miscellaneous pictures. Pictures in your gallery should be those of items in your collection or ones you have worked on then rehomed. Pictures you have downloaded from other sources should be in the individual pictures gallery. Each picture in the miscellaneous gallery would be in its own topic with the only comments by the original poster. Others would be deleted.

If you forgot something in your gallery and wanted it added later, a moderator can do that. This may ease the 15-minute editing restrictions a bit. I'd like to keep the rules fairly basic and simple. I'd like posters to personalize their gallery. You can put the description above or below the picture as you see fit. Obviously following forum rules and using good taste would be factors, as well. We don't have trouble with that kind of thing, but I need to mention it. There may be growing pains that we don't see yet, but we'll work thru them. And this may have to be redone if Mark comes up with something more permanent. And if the cost of improvements can be amortized. When ARF did their updates, they had five pages of people wanting to donate funds for the project. When we did the forum migration, we had three people donate. So there is a cost factor to consider if we find something fancier to replace this idea.

You could post the items in your gallery on the individual pictures board as well. If you have a "tale" you would like to share about the item, you could post on "Console Tales", then link that to the picture and vise versa. We would use the same posting rules as on Downloads, which have worked well and members are familiar with them.

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Could the gallery be enabled so we could delete old photos,
and post new photos ?

[electra225]

Yes and no. Remember we are using a regular board as a Gallery. There may be features we wish we had, but we won't. Editing will have to be done by moderators after the 15-minute limit. We really can't omit this setting and maintain forum integrity. When it comes to editing, adding or subtracting text or pictures, we will have to work together to make it work. This setup will be a "better than nothing" compromise until something better comes along. If you notice, ARF lost their excellent gallery because it was not compatible with the newer versions of the forum software. The author of the Gallery extension apparently is not interested in updating the extension so it will be secure and will work with the latest versions of the forum software. We are not the only PhPBB forum that has this issue.

[electra225]

Another thing I thought of was what do we do with components? Changers, receivers, amps, speakers, that kind of thing. Why couldn't members post those in their galleries? Then also add them to the individual pictures gallery.

If you are posting a picture of a combination instrument, one with a record player, radio tuner and TV chassis. You can post that on your gallery or on the individual gallery and show the different features. One picture with the TV hidden, one with the TV screen shown, for example. Does this make sense?

[electra225]

What if, in the members' gallery we allowed members to post whatever pictures they would like (in good taste, of course) in their gallery? Not only pictures of their electronics, but also pictures of their "other" toys. They could do one gallery with their electronics, another of their other toys if they would like. We want the members' gallery to showcase the talents, electronic and otherwise, of our membership. What do you think?

[electra225]

I just spoke with Mark. He has approved our little gallery project, so let's forge ahead and have some fun with it. I will make every effort to get the boards set up today or tomorrow. We are having our garage insulated, there is a huge mess to clean up. I have already had to pressure wash the garage floor and most of the driveway, so that may keep me busy. I appreciate your patience.....

Mark is also working on the "something better" project. This is his busy season and he hurt his hand, so I reckon that will slow down his typing fingers. Let's keep a good thought for his speedy recovery.

[electra225]

I didn't want to be the first one to post on this forum, but I wanted to illustrate something. You will notice that the topic is about my Concert Grand. It shows various features of the instrument. This might be helpful to someone trying to identify an instrument they found, or it might help them during restoration with certain details. I think if we limit such additions to five pictures, this will be a resource without appearing to compete with the Members' Gallery. The important thing to remember is that each item needs to be posted to its own topic. Don't put multiple pictures of different items in the same topic, please. Have fun!!