[ jetwhiz ]
Posts: 75
First post: 2006-01-06
Join date: 2001-11-17
Location: New Hampshire, USA
Group: Administrator
GAViCs: 91.35
GAC Cards: 7 cards Total Value: 93.00 GAViCs
Max Value: 20.00 GAViCs
Avg Value: 13.29 GAViCs
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2114
Sticky MessageLast Updated: 20 May 2009, 6:57:16 PM Date Posted: 12 January 2009, 9:14:14 PM Hey everyone, just a quick update ... I should be having lots of free time through much of 2009, and so I'm going to be making some changes around the site: I'm debating moving the entire website to the gacorg.com domain name (considering globalaircraft.org is a mouthful and is a pain to type). If I do this there will be not only some extensive downtime for the site, but the site will probably drop off of search engines for a time while the engines transition the site over (things would be almost completely back to normal in a month or so). Does everyone like the new domain name gacorg.com enough to do this move? Something that I've been thinking about deeply for the past year ... allowing users to create their own quizzes. The tests that GAC currently offers are lacking in many ways, and I feel this would be for the best. Also, members can earn GAViCs by using quizzes (more below). I've also been debating what to do about GAViCs. I want a quick and easy way for members to consistently earn GAViCs, and I don't feel that the contests are maintainable long-term. I'm thinking about allowing people to earn them in a new way: - 0.25 for posting to the forum
- 0.25 for each member that takes your test
- 0.50 for taking someone else's test
- 1 for logging in?
- 0.25 for updating your profile?
- an undetermined amount for using the GAC Calendar, MyPics and MyFiles
- a certain amount for inviting friends to join the site
- another unknown amount for sending private forum messages?
And since people will be earning lots of GAViCs after that, hopefully people will start acquiring trading cards and that can start taking off. Any more idea on what could be done with GAViCs earned are appreciated. Finally, allowing moderators to upload photos and stats/achievements to the website is still on the drawing board. Implementing this would require extensive changes to the website, however. And as always, any ways to improve the forum are always welcome!
~JetWhiz Wednesday, May 20, 2009 -- 6:57:16 PM PDT
[ jetwhiz ]
Posts: 75
First post: 2006-01-06
Join date: 2001-11-17
Location: New Hampshire, USA
Group: Administrator
GAViCs: 91.35
GAC Cards: 7 cards Total Value: 93.00 GAViCs
Max Value: 20.00 GAViCs
Avg Value: 13.29 GAViCs
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2190
Sticky MessageLast Updated: 11 May 2009, 3:06:20 PM Date Posted: 13 March 2009, 7:49:54 PM Firstsgt_cap wrote: Good to hear from you Jetwhiz, I kinda dropped off the map for a while, quite busy with multitude of things, but I'm back now. Welcome back. Yeah I've been swamped with things, too; hopefully we can slowly start getting everything rolling again soon though. MyPics still hasn't left beta status yet ... I changed some things in the design so I'm still getting around to updating the implementation. Still on the drawing board: - Bulk image upload
- Image upload via e-mail / cell phone
- Allow sorting photos (by user choice)
- Allow members to choose # of images per page to display
- Allow (public) searching for albums and photos (by name and tags)
- Add tool to modify pictures
- Allow moving entire folders around
- Give option of untagging yourself from a photo
- Allow tagging of GAC members
- Tag suggestions (show your previously used tags and member names)
- Break images up among multiple pages (# images/page)
- Move others' deleted files to their lost+found (right now they are deleted)
- Show more info on picture view
- Navigate between pictures on picture view
- More user-friendly terminations (on upload failure, etc.)
- Folder cover images
- Don't allow (new) tagging on private pics?
- Default picture (for profile & forum avatar)
- Allow descriptions/captions on images
- Filter folders by contributor
I'd appreciate it if you could play around with MyPics a bit and see if you can find any problems (not including the known to-do things above).
~JetWhiz Monday, May 11, 2009 -- 3:06:20 PM PDT
[ f6hellcat ]
Posts: 150
First post: 2008-08-11
Join date: 2008-08-11
Location: Virginia, USA
Group: Junior Member
GAViCs: 31.85
GAC Cards: 0 cards
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2115
Message Number 1Date Posted: 13 January 2009, 3:05:40 AM Hey jetwiz, great to see you back!!! Anyway, I think that all of those are exellent ideas, the downtime thing would be unfortunate but hopfully totally worth it. I also think that people should be able to submit new pages without a volunteer status. Like for example, you are a new member, and you notice your favorite aircraft is not their! (say the Bombardier CRJ 700) so, as an option, you can research all the specs, find some pictures of the CRJ 700 and then submit the page for approval and accuracy of facts. Anyway, I think that these are all great ideas!
[ jetwhiz ]
Posts: 75
First post: 2006-01-06
Join date: 2001-11-17
Location: New Hampshire, USA
Group: Administrator
GAViCs: 91.35
GAC Cards: 7 cards Total Value: 93.00 GAViCs
Max Value: 20.00 GAViCs
Avg Value: 13.29 GAViCs
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2121
Message Number 2Last Updated: 17 January 2009, 8:23:51 PM Date Posted: 17 January 2009, 8:17:49 PM Thanks, it's good to be back working on the site. Some new updates ... - Moving the website to gacorg.com is postponed for a while.
- Posting messages to the forum will earn you 0.25 GAViCs each
- I'm going to see how things work out with this for now and watch for any bugs or abuse, but eventually you'll be able to automatically earn GAViCs by doing lots of things around the site
- The past few days I've been making tons of progress redesigning the back-end of the website, and hopefully in the next few days volunteers will be able to edit aircraft achievements and specs
- In the next few weeks I'll hopefully have made enough changes that volunteers will be able to add new planes to the site, as well
- I've moved all common content to a CDN, so now all images and such are hosted on cdn.globalaircraft.org and not www.globalaircraft.org. Your old links will still work, but everyone is encouraged to update (I may take the old ones down eventually). This is a significant change, so please report any issues that may crop up ASAP so that I can take care of them.
- I'm also considering moving the "Ask JetWhiz A Question" page to the forum, so visitors can post their questions on the forum and anyone (me, too) can answer them. With the number of questions submitted daily, I don't have nearly enough time to get around to them all. Maybe people who answer questions (with good answers!) will earn GAViCs (maybe 2-3 each answer)
F6hellcat wrote: I also think that people should be able to submit new pages without a volunteer status. Like for example, you are a new member, and you notice your favorite aircraft is not their! (say the Bombardier CRJ 700) so, as an option, you can research all the specs, find some pictures of the CRJ 700 and then submit the page for approval and accuracy of facts. Thanks for the suggestion! The big issue I have with allowing members to change the website is abuse. When I implemented the GAC Editor (which allows people to make changes to any page and submit them as a suggestion), it seemed like 90% of the submissions defaced the website rather than added to the site constructively. I wouldn't feel comfortable allowing pretty much anyone to modify the site unless I trusted them to be a volunteer, but non-volunteers are still encouraged to use the GAC Editor to submit a new page. If there are any more suggestions (especially regarding GAViCs or the forum) be sure to get in touch with me!
~JetWhiz Saturday, January 17, 2009 -- 9:23:51 PM PDT
harry [ v_bomber ]
Posts: 187
First post: 2008-08-01
Join date: 2008-08-01
Location: UK
Group: Volunteer
GAViCs: 0.60
GAC Cards: 2 cards Total Value: 26.00 GAViCs
Max Value: 18.00 GAViCs
Avg Value: 13.00 GAViCs
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2123
Message Number 3Date Posted: 18 January 2009, 2:12:33 AM Hello all im off squadron service for a while. Good to see you back jetwiz and love the sound of the new changes ...Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers Lightning, my pilot, sits; In a cavern under is fettered the Thunder...
[ f6hellcat ]
Posts: 150
First post: 2008-08-11
Join date: 2008-08-11
Location: Virginia, USA
Group: Junior Member
GAViCs: 31.85
GAC Cards: 0 cards
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2129
Message Number 4Date Posted: 18 January 2009, 4:28:40 AM I also think the Private Message board is a great idea and that should be a very useful thing to add! keep it up Jetwiz!
[ jetwhiz ]
Posts: 75
First post: 2006-01-06
Join date: 2001-11-17
Location: New Hampshire, USA
Group: Administrator
GAViCs: 91.35
GAC Cards: 7 cards Total Value: 93.00 GAViCs
Max Value: 20.00 GAViCs
Avg Value: 13.29 GAViCs
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2131
Message Number 5Date Posted: 18 January 2009, 7:53:08 AM V_bomber wrote: Hello all im off squadron service for a while. Good to see you back jetwiz and love the sound of the new changes Nice to see you around again, hope all's well! Now we just need to track firstsgt_cap down. Just thought I should inform everyone that I have just finished redesigning the trading cards back-end, and so if you lost a bunch of cards then that could explain it (I did a lot of testing before the move so I'm pretty sure no one was affected)! Or if you try to buy one and something goes awry. If you notice any issues just get in contact with me. F6hellcat wrote: I also think the Private Message board is a great idea and that should be a very useful thing to add! keep it up Jetwiz! Yeah I've been trying to toss that around in my mind for a while now. I would rather have a site-wide private message system than just a forum one, so it's going to be a bit more complicated to implement. The way I see it, if you want to trade cards with someone, it might be easier to PM them and negotiate before actually requesting a trade.
~JetWhiz Sunday, January 18, 2009 -- 8:53:08 AM PDT
[ f6hellcat ]
Posts: 150
First post: 2008-08-11
Join date: 2008-08-11
Location: Virginia, USA
Group: Junior Member
GAViCs: 31.85
GAC Cards: 0 cards
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2132
Message Number 6Last Updated: 18 January 2009, 4:10:19 PM Date Posted: 18 January 2009, 3:50:49 PM Jetwhiz wrote: Nice to see you around again, hope all's well! Now we just need to track firstsgt_cap down. getting the band back together eh? lets try it! Jetwhiz wrote: Yeah I've been trying to toss that around in my mind for a while now. I would rather have a site-wide private message system than just a forum one, so it's going to be a bit more complicated to implement. The way I see it, if you want to trade cards with someone, it might be easier to PM them and negotiate before actually requesting a trade. wow, thats WAY more than i had in mind, but its way better idea. I'm looking foward to it! this may be slightly off topic but im gonna throw it out there since it has to do with the thing i said earlier about adding pages: this website seems to be very military aviation oriented. if i could suggest adding some more civil aircraft? I understand we have boeing and airbus, but maybe a buisness class section that includes Learjets? or Cessnas? I am strongly for the Cessna section because they are one of the largest selling aircraft in the world today. just a suggestion. I can look them up for you if you want... one other thing that might be cool is a Who's Online thing. you can see who is online and open a private chat with them. not only send them a private message.
harry [ v_bomber ]
Posts: 187
First post: 2008-08-01
Join date: 2008-08-01
Location: UK
Group: Volunteer
GAViCs: 0.60
GAC Cards: 2 cards Total Value: 26.00 GAViCs
Max Value: 18.00 GAViCs
Avg Value: 13.00 GAViCs
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2135
Message Number 7Date Posted: 21 January 2009, 8:03:36 AM That would be good also could we have a small space for european military aircraft i would like to ask if i could this as i have a vast knowledge of aircraft in this cornerstone of world. Welcome back all and hello to all people who are new ...Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers Lightning, my pilot, sits; In a cavern under is fettered the Thunder...
[ jetwhiz ]
Posts: 75
First post: 2006-01-06
Join date: 2001-11-17
Location: New Hampshire, USA
Group: Administrator
GAViCs: 91.35
GAC Cards: 7 cards Total Value: 93.00 GAViCs
Max Value: 20.00 GAViCs
Avg Value: 13.29 GAViCs
Subject: Website changes
Post ID# 2151
Message Number 8Last Updated: 27 January 2009, 4:20:42 PM Date Posted: 27 January 2009, 4:13:32 PM Alright, another update everyone: I'm going to try something new here. I'm in the middle of working on a new photo uploading system (similar to GAC MyFiles, but geared towards pictures). The new system will allow users to tag their photos (with aircraft, or other GAC members), and possibly the public photos will appear to visitors. For instance, if you upload pictures of the F-14 and tag it with "F-14 Tomcat", it may appear on either the F-14 page or search results or something (I still haven't decided yet, possibly only volunteers will have their tagged photos show up). Also, the new system will be directly accessible through the GAC Forum, so you can easily upload pictures on here to share with others. Right now the system is about 75% done and should be completed in the next few days. How does this sound for a way for volunteers to upload photos?
~JetWhiz Tuesday, January 27, 2009 -- 5:20:42 PM PDT
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