Ozhonda Forums - Blogs http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/blog.php A website and forum dedicated to Australian Honda enthusiasts. en Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:43:20 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg Ozhonda Forums - Blogs http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/blog.php Facebook Integration http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?14-Facebook-Integration Sun, 13 Mar 2011 03:58:30 GMT Some of you might have noticed the Facebook Connect icon up the top (and also the LIKE icon next to threads).

I'm just testing the functionality at the moment however there are some problems (ie the connect isn't working properly).

Will look into it over the next few weeks and make an official announcement once it's all setup. ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?14-Facebook-Integration Ozhonda GT5 Competition http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?13-Ozhonda-GT5-Competition Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:06:33 GMT It's been on my mind for a long time and now that GT5 is finally out (and people have had a play with it), we're looking at launching an Ozhonda GT5 competition.

As soon as the prizes are finalised, look out for the official annoucement!

See this thread in the lounge if you want to provide some feedback/suggestions on the format. Stay tuned! ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?13-Ozhonda-GT5-Competition Ozhonda Photocomp http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?12-Ozhonda-Photocomp Sun, 12 Sep 2010 02:05:36 GMT It's been a LONG time since the last photocomp.

But don't stress! I'm in the process of finalising the prizes for the next comp and within the next 1-2 weeks hope to make the announcement.

We've got some awesome prizes once again so stay tuned. I'll be making the announcement when everything is ready.

Get those cameras handy! ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?12-Ozhonda-Photocomp Ozhonda Wiki Update http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?11-Ozhonda-Wiki-Update Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:59:37 GMT Just a quick update that I've setup a test version of the Wiki. Just having a play around with it and hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to get the moderators to test things out.

After that I'll be looking at getting select members to trial it out and provide feedback. Eventually it will be open for all members to edit.

Stay tuned! ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?11-Ozhonda-Wiki-Update Ozhonda Feature is back! http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?10-Ozhonda-Feature-is-back! Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:33:35 GMT It's coming back so stay tuned. Actually got a couple in the pipleline so hang in there.

Plan is to have them a bit more often too. ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?10-Ozhonda-Feature-is-back! jdm_b16a joins the moderator team http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?9-jdm_b16a-joins-the-moderator-team Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:41:58 GMT Just a quick welcome to Peter (jdm_b16a (http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/member.php?3126-jdm_b16a)) who has just joined the moderator team. Peter will be starting off in the Civic and Motorsport sections and then look at taking further responsibilities as time dictates. Thanks Pete for putting you... Just a quick welcome to Peter (jdm_b16a) who has just joined the moderator team. Peter will be starting off in the Civic and Motorsport sections and then look at taking further responsibilities as time dictates.

Thanks Pete for putting you hand up to help out! ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?9-jdm_b16a-joins-the-moderator-team Site Bandwidth http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?8-Site-Bandwidth Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:56:09 GMT In an effort to improve page load speeds I've also been keeping an eye on bandwidth.

When we moved to a dedicated server in October last year (2009), monthly bandwidth was around 135GB. Actually it was less than that based on the reports by our previous host (more around the 110GB mark). So for the new server I figured 200GB a month would be enough room to grow. Well, it's not even 12 months on and we've clocked up 177GB consistently for the last two months. That's an increase of around 35% in around 7 months!

I implemented some cache control awhile back (actually after moving to vB4) however for some reason those changes go reverted. I've reinstated those changes now so static items should be getting cached for longer. This should see a bit of a reduction in bandwidth and also improved page load speeds for return visitors.

There's still a few things I want to look at in terms of serving static content though so will make those changes bit by bit. ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?8-Site-Bandwidth Articles http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?7-Articles Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:08:34 GMT I've been playing around on a test site trying to get the new vBulletin CMS and articles system working. One thing that the articles feature has is that it is a bit more versatile in terms of features and makes the content more appealing as an article should.

I see a few places for the articles as follows (in no particular order)

  • Feature Rides
  • DIY articles
  • Reviews
  • General Articles

One handy feature is also the fact that you can work on an article without publishing it straight away. Something that will be very handy for DIYs in progress (and articles in general) and I fell it will result in better presented articles.

This would of course mean moving all the existing DIYs in the DIY forum manually. It's a LOT of work, but should be doable (it's a good thing we have soo many DIY articles so I'm not complaining about the large number of DIYs. Just the work involved in moving them manually.

The last issue to be ironed out is how the sections and categories will be set out. I'm thinking about this and hopefully that should sort itself out after we've figured out exactly what else we're using the CMS for.

At the moment I'm thinking of the "Sections" similar to the Model Specific sub-forums and then categories for everything else.

Ie a DIY related to a Civic will be under the Civic section but part of the DIY category. ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?7-Articles m3ntAL_l2 joins the moderator team http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?6-m3ntAL_l2-joins-the-moderator-team Mon, 31 May 2010 10:51:09 GMT Just a quick welcome to member m3ntAL_l2 who has recently joined us a moderator. Chi will start off helping out in the Marketplace and then move on from there.

We're actually still looking for more moderators so if you're on frequently and would like to give something back to Ozhonda, shoot me a PM.

On another note, if you would like to get notified of my blog posts, you can subscribe to them here. ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?6-m3ntAL_l2-joins-the-moderator-team The Wiki Debate http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?5-The-Wiki-Debate Thu, 27 May 2010 03:07:26 GMT Just in case you haven't seen it there is a discussion asking for input regarding a possible Ozhonda Wiki in this thread. Actually it was Lloyd that brought iup the idea of a Wiki back in September 2008. However due to a variety of reasons it wasn't brought up again until now.

More to the point, I'm looking at a few different options based on the features of the Wiki itself as well as how it will integrate with the rest of the site. For the first point I would say without any hesitation that MediaWiki is a proven solution and does exactly what is required. The main problem however is that it doesn't integrate with the existing forum (ie searching, linking to etc). vbMedia wiki is another option however I'm concerned about a possible lack of support in the future. The last thing I want is that users create a resource centre via the Wiki and then we find we have to abandon it or more to a new system and manually move all the content across. The third option is VaultWiki which is a bit more commercial (but not necessarily a bad thing). Finally, the vBulletin CMS and its content types are what I am really aiming for, but alas it doesn't sound like vB/Jelsoft/IB (Internet Brands) will be creating a product themselves. Instead they're planing on encouraging developers to create the custom content types. This I find VERY disappointing, but that's another story altogether.

Anyway, here's the breakdown (in no specific order):

(These are more my thoughts and weighing of options more than anything else).

1. MediaWiki
Pros:

  • A proven Wiki platform that works. It is used by the Wikipedia Foundation
  • Edit history with ability to revert to previous versions
  • Referencing capability within Wiki entries

Cons:

  • Cannot use the default vB search
  • Cannot (to my knowledge) show Wiki stats in the vB user profile
  • More work required to get it to work with vB
  • The style of the wiki will be different to the rest of the site


2. vBMediaWiki
Pros:

  • Full integration with vB (includes searching, stats in user profiles etc).
  • Style of wiki and forum will be the same
  • Is based on the MediaWiki engine

Cons:

  • No guarantee that there will be support in the future
  • Might have to move to a new platform with no sure way of importing existing entries (but might be possible since it is based on the MediaWiki engine). Of course this will only happen if support for it is lost
  • It relies on the vB database for the user passwords. It does store usernames (I believe) however there is no password storing.

Just on the last point, if for some reason support of vBMediaWiki is lost we could revert to a standard MediaWiki install as per option 1. However that in itself is not a plus and might take a bit of work to get it going/working.

3. VaultWiki
Pros:

  • Fully integrates with vB (ie style and access to vB Database)
  • Can use default vB search.
  • Commercial software with what seems like good support (only forum based support however)

Cons:

  • No guarantee that the support will be provided in the future. But I have a bit more faith in VaultWiki being supported over vBMediaWiki
  • Only has forum based support and no support ticket system.
  • Since it isn't based on the MediaWiki platform there is nothing to 'fall back on if support for VaultWiki ceases.


4. vBulletin CMS (with a custom content type)

Pros:

  • Ongoing support will be available via Jelsoft/IB provided that they supply the content type
  • Layout, searching consistent and full integration with the rest of the site
  • The Sections and Categories for the articles system (not yet implemented on Ozhonda) should tie in with the content types

Cons:

  • If the content type is not created by vB and instead another developer, then support would rely on this other developer. However I imagine that once the content type is finalised there will be minimal changes / updates required as we upgrade vBulletin
  • No expected date for a Wiki content type. Custom content types won't be ready till vB4.0.4 and even after that it will take a few months (at best) before a Wiki content type is tried, tested and proven. The end of 2010 would be an optimistic date for things to be finalised (in my opinion).


In regards to my comment about the content type under the first "Pros" bullet point the reason I say this is as follows. From what I've been reading on the vB.com forums, it seems like Jelsoft is going to be creating the facility for developers to make their own content type (whether it be for reviews, a Wiki or any other type). I don't see how existing customer will benefit from this. Developers might but existing customers won't. They will then have to get support from the developer (not to mention having to pay an additional cost for using the content type). Poor form Jelsoft/ IB. What happened to providing one application that does what is required? A wiki has been requested for a VERY long time. Surely now is the time given that they have released their CMS and hyped up its capability.

So .... is choosing the right Wiki a debate?

Well probably not a public debate but one that I've been having with myself trying to weight up the options! ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?5-The-Wiki-Debate Searching Limits http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?4-Searching-Limits Wed, 19 May 2010 03:55:06 GMT It has been a few months since we moved to a new dedicated server (around 7 months actually) and this has given us a bit more flexibility. One of the main things that impacts day to day browsing is the *reduction of the time between searches*. From memory the time you had to wait between... It has been a few months since we moved to a new dedicated server (around 7 months actually) and this has given us a bit more flexibility.

One of the main things that impacts day to day browsing is the reduction of the time between searches. From memory the time you had to wait between searches (this includes clicking the old "New Posts" button) was around 12 seconds. I dropped that down to 7 second quite a few months a go and just recently dropped it down further to 5 seconds. Load doesn't seem to have gone up too much so I think I'll keep it at 5 seconds.

The other restriction was on the search minimum word length. This is a MYSQL wide variable and was previously set to 4 chars. Something I had no control over with the previous host. I've now dropped this down to 3 chars (has been like this for a few months actually) so you can search terms like 'oil'. ]]> wynode http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?4-Searching-Limits Viewer Web Browsers http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/entry.php?3-Viewer-Web-Browsers Mon, 17 May 2010 04:00:09 GMT Since the move to VB4 one of the fist major issues (apart from the style) was the slow page loads. Most of this was resolved after some tweaks to VB. The main tweak being disabling the rendering of rounded corners. Anyway, that got me thinking a bit more about improving the overall user... Since the move to VB4 one of the fist major issues (apart from the style) was the slow page loads. Most of this was resolved after some tweaks to VB. The main tweak being disabling the rendering of rounded corners.

Anyway, that got me thinking a bit more about improving the overall user experience by increasing page load speeds. This was probably also due to the fact that around that time Google announced that it would take page load speeds into account for its page ranks (although not widely in use just yet). I'll be making some blog entries in the near future with some information about changes made on the server side of things (still a work in progress) so stay tuned.

For now, I thought I'd share some stats on the various browsers people are using.

Why?

Well the reason is that the browser that you use has a fair bit to do with how quick your pages load up, especially if you are using an old browser. The feature that has the most impact in my opinion is the number of consecutive connections that the browser allows for each host. The initial HTTP specification specifies a maximum of 2 connections per hostname. However from IE8 onwards (and Firefox 3), the default value is 6 as per the browser configuration. This value can be changed however.

The following is a list of browsers (sorted from highest to lowest) that Ozhonda visitors are using. It is good to see a lot of Firefox users out there. At the same time there are a lot of users using older browsers like IE7 which only allows 2 connections per hostname (just a simple move to a newer browser will see improvements in your page load times). I put this down to either users who haven't upgraded (running an older version of windows) or people browsing from work (where IT doesn't always upgraded to the latest versions of IE for various reasons).

Anyway, here is the breakdown of visitor browser use for this month.
Ozhonda visitor browsers - Overall

This has been further broken down into the various versions below.



Ozhonda Visitor Browsers - by version

It is good to see that there are very few people using IE6 (around 3%) which is quite a contrast to other parts of the world where there are a lot more people still using IE6. Once again I put this down to users browsing at work where corporate IT departments are still running old browsers. The problem though is not only for the end users but also for web developers who have to write applications for this old browser. This article has a nice sum up of the situation. I particularly like this quote in regards to the continued use of IE6 and how it affects developers:

Five years from now, said Eich, IE6 isn't likely to be a concern. Until then, Web developers will have to continue to swim forward with an anchor around their necks.
I'll try and find some old stats and compare to see how viewers have changed their browser preferences.
Attached Thumbnails
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