BDCarrillo
Full Access Member
True, but a categorized/indexed was my main emphasis, sorry I wasn't clear. Instead of recommending new folks asking repeated questions to "search" their topic, they could be directed to the "Tech Index"
IDI Tech Articles
- Thread starter ToughOldFord
- Start date
True, but a categorized/indexed was my main emphasis, sorry I wasn't clear. Instead of recommending new folks asking repeated questions to "search" their topic, they could be directed to the "Tech Index"
Someone with privileges would have to unlock the article for it to be updated. There seems to be some willing moderators on here but it would put all the load on them. Maybe they could "free up" the tech threads for a little while if people wanted to fix them.
The tech articles are great, but you have to remember these forums are for people to interact with other people and more importantly, interact with the sponsored ads on the site. If the site became just a large knowledge base with mainly articles being accessed and downloaded, the traffic would not be what is considered "profitable" by the people who own it. We ride along with a free subscription, and there are a lot of volunteers who give their time to the site, but you can't forget the bottom line is the companies paying for the ads, and they want the most traffic to the site for their ad to have the most exposure.
You need a good mix of tech articles and interaction/chatting on the board at the same time.
The tech articles are great, but you have to remember these forums are for people to interact with other people and more importantly, interact with the sponsored ads on the site. If the site became just a large knowledge base with mainly articles being accessed and downloaded, the traffic would not be what is considered "profitable" by the people who own it. We ride along with a free subscription, and there are a lot of volunteers who give their time to the site, but you can't forget the bottom line is the companies paying for the ads, and they want the most traffic to the site for their ad to have the most exposure.
You need a good mix of tech articles and interaction/chatting on the board at the same time.
Like any good data source, keeping the articles fresh would be the best option. If someone wanted to take an old article for example, and re-write it with new pictures and any new/updated info, that would be the best way in my opinion to proceed. We could target specific articles for updating and just go from there. If anyone has a particular favorite that they would like to do, just PM me or one of the other mods, and we will help you in whatever capacity we can. We will then put the new article up and take the old one down, giving credit of course to both authors.
Gandalf helped me out in the past with a tech article he had copied. That really might be the fastest way to get them back together although I agree completely that freshening up would be a great idea. There are always new developments. Some of the articles are several years old and there are probably some incremental improvements and/or tech developments that would be of use to the general population.
I have a lot of pictures of various things and will be taking more through completion of my build. I'll donate whatever I can if folks need them for fixing tech articles or whatever. Not all the pics are in my build thread but most are. Just tossing that out there.
I have a lot of pictures of various things and will be taking more through completion of my build. I'll donate whatever I can if folks need them for fixing tech articles or whatever. Not all the pics are in my build thread but most are. Just tossing that out there.
riotwarrior
Full Access Member
well if there is something I can do..photos or writing I would be pleased to do so.
gandalf
Senior Member
To quote a phrase: "Houston, I think we have a problem."
The Tech Articles which I have on my hard drive are in MSWord format. I did a simple copy and paste to grab them before they disappeared. So, I have them, some of them, and I can email them as attachments, as individual files, but I can't put them into html format, so they cannot go onto a server. Our server cannot deal with MSWord files. This will take some thought.
I tried posting one of the tech articles in the TEST section. The text is there, a bit messy, but the pictures are not there. The picture address are there, but not the pictures themselves. The addresses shown are for their location on MY hard drive. Tracking down each picture is a slow and tedious job. It will take a fair amount of time. Even then, I do not have the server access needed to update, repair, and refurbish articles, and insert pictures.
What I think I will do is take up Corey, Dieselcrawler, on his offer. I will email him each article I have, along with the pictures I can unearth on my hard drive. Corey, in his great amount of spare time, can rebuild, repair, and refurbish, each article. Corey, with his server access, can then replace the old article with the newer one.
Will that work? Can anyone think of a better, quicker, way?
I started saving the pictures differently, actually saving them as jpg images, knowing that each article was safe, that only the pictures were at risk. I did that for 8 articles. I switched to copy and paste when time started running too short. Those 8 will be the easiest to deal with. We would start with them.
Several things to look at, and be aware of. I'm not sure that all 74 files I mentioned are tech articles. Some may be postings which I deemed important, potentially important, for my own use.
I'm not sure that they all have pictures. The other side of the coin: I'm not sure that all tech articles, as they are currently posted, are lacking their pictures. This may require a, literally, side by side comparison.
Its now late, I'm tired. I'm not even going to proofread all this. You all can muddle through all my typos and interpret what I am trying to say.
The Tech Articles which I have on my hard drive are in MSWord format. I did a simple copy and paste to grab them before they disappeared. So, I have them, some of them, and I can email them as attachments, as individual files, but I can't put them into html format, so they cannot go onto a server. Our server cannot deal with MSWord files. This will take some thought.
I tried posting one of the tech articles in the TEST section. The text is there, a bit messy, but the pictures are not there. The picture address are there, but not the pictures themselves. The addresses shown are for their location on MY hard drive. Tracking down each picture is a slow and tedious job. It will take a fair amount of time. Even then, I do not have the server access needed to update, repair, and refurbish articles, and insert pictures.
What I think I will do is take up Corey, Dieselcrawler, on his offer. I will email him each article I have, along with the pictures I can unearth on my hard drive. Corey, in his great amount of spare time, can rebuild, repair, and refurbish, each article. Corey, with his server access, can then replace the old article with the newer one.
Will that work? Can anyone think of a better, quicker, way?
I started saving the pictures differently, actually saving them as jpg images, knowing that each article was safe, that only the pictures were at risk. I did that for 8 articles. I switched to copy and paste when time started running too short. Those 8 will be the easiest to deal with. We would start with them.
Several things to look at, and be aware of. I'm not sure that all 74 files I mentioned are tech articles. Some may be postings which I deemed important, potentially important, for my own use.
I'm not sure that they all have pictures. The other side of the coin: I'm not sure that all tech articles, as they are currently posted, are lacking their pictures. This may require a, literally, side by side comparison.
Its now late, I'm tired. I'm not even going to proofread all this. You all can muddle through all my typos and interpret what I am trying to say.
Does this site have the capability of storing the pictures? That would keep all the stuff in one place, instead of having the text and the post here, and the pictures over there. I have a feeling this is not going to be the end of it, this all could happen again with any picture hosting site. Or the picture hosting site could re-organize itself, and all the url's change. The pictures would be there but all the links in the article would be dead(the red x thing).
This may be a really stupid idea, but I think that word has a save as html function. Don't know if it will give you all the markup but it might sort the text. Pictures are another matter. If you have them, they will probably need to be saved as jpgs or something and uploaded somewhere. This should not be that hard a problem to solve. It's all text with different markup. Word has its own markup just like html or TeX (am I the only person here that ever used that??)
If you guys need help I'll pitch in when I have time.
89Laredo
Underemployed
I'm thinking Gandalf doesn't want help. I have offered twice and been ignored. The short version is that you can't just copy and paste from word, you have to host the images somewhere.
79jasper
Chickenhawk
gandalf
Senior Member
Update.
I'm working with Dieselcrawler on this at this time. As much as I might like and appreciate help, I think it would be less hassle, less confusing, for him to have a single input. I appreciate the offers, though. I WILL need help in another way, though.
Save in MSWord as html? Crap. I never knew that, never had a need to do that. Thank you. Knowing that, I can pretty well add pictures, repair and refurbish an article, and send it to Dieselcrawler in html format. All he will then need to do is review it, make any changes and/or correction, and upload it to OB. The final stumbling block is access. I don't have the necessary access to do that final step of uploading.
I have gone over page 1 of the tech articles, and found only 3 which need attention.
[h=3]C-6 to ZF5 SPD Conversion Part 2[/h] [h=3]Invalid thread—nothing there[/h]
[h=3]zf five speed info for the world[/h] [h=3]Links are dead[/h]
[h=3]Got delayed-exit headlights? I do![/h] [h=3]Needs pics on 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] page[/h]
If anyone finds more articles which are missing pictures or in some other way need attention, please let me know, or let Dieselcrawler know. I'm hoping that the problem is not as serious as it was initially thought to be. I' think only the one picture hosting site, Webshots, has done this to us. If that is the case, then only a limited number of articles will be affected.
As soon as we're done with page 1 of the tech articles (delayed-exit headlights is the last one on p1 in MY computer), we'll move on to page 2.
Again, if anyone can point out problem articles, that would be great. I could easily miss some.
I'm working with Dieselcrawler on this at this time. As much as I might like and appreciate help, I think it would be less hassle, less confusing, for him to have a single input. I appreciate the offers, though. I WILL need help in another way, though.
Save in MSWord as html? Crap. I never knew that, never had a need to do that. Thank you. Knowing that, I can pretty well add pictures, repair and refurbish an article, and send it to Dieselcrawler in html format. All he will then need to do is review it, make any changes and/or correction, and upload it to OB. The final stumbling block is access. I don't have the necessary access to do that final step of uploading.
I have gone over page 1 of the tech articles, and found only 3 which need attention.
[h=3]C-6 to ZF5 SPD Conversion Part 2[/h] [h=3]Invalid thread—nothing there[/h]
[h=3]zf five speed info for the world[/h] [h=3]Links are dead[/h]
[h=3]Got delayed-exit headlights? I do![/h] [h=3]Needs pics on 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] page[/h]
If anyone finds more articles which are missing pictures or in some other way need attention, please let me know, or let Dieselcrawler know. I'm hoping that the problem is not as serious as it was initially thought to be. I' think only the one picture hosting site, Webshots, has done this to us. If that is the case, then only a limited number of articles will be affected.
As soon as we're done with page 1 of the tech articles (delayed-exit headlights is the last one on p1 in MY computer), we'll move on to page 2.
Again, if anyone can point out problem articles, that would be great. I could easily miss some.
89Laredo
Underemployed
While we are on the subject... I see my caliper writeup never made it to the tech section. Was it not worthy? If so, what needs to be changed?
i got your email. will work on it tomorrow while rrelaxing from tonights activities
towcat
Full Access Member
I guess it's time to put up a new tech article section.....
"IDI Tech articles KBV 2015AD"
"IDI Tech articles KBV 2015AD"
going thew them, I found 8 with issues of either dead links or missing pics. will try and see what I can do.
