New home page.

[PaulC]

Re: New home page.

Unfortunately, the member homepages were a victim of the code they were written in. In order to consolidate web servers we had to upgrade the new site to be compatible with the forum software -- which the old site was not. We could not integrate the member pages into the new site.

The good news is the forum upgrade we are looking into has member features akin to the old member homepages. But just so there is no confusion, the forums have not been changed at this time.

[tom dougherty]

Re: New home page.

Unfortunately, the member homepages were a victim of the code they were written in. In order to consolidate web servers we had to upgrade the new site to be compatible with the forum software -- which the old site was not. We could not integrate the member pages into the new site.

So all of the material on the Member Homepages is gone? If it is a permanent loss, would it not have been a good idea to have members download personal photos etc. before the changes were implemented so we don't lose things permanently and the material could be transferred onto new Homepages? I had about 60 photos & plans on my Homepage.

We just found out that we lost a lot of irreplaceable material (e.g. lots of information & photos of Russian subs and a whole lot more) with a photo hosting site that dumped material. Didn't Matt Thor just address this very issue of loss of material in the December issue of the SCR? Is the material on Homepages also now gone, or can it be retrieved?

[PaulC]

Re: New home page.

Tom, all the material from the old site is backed up. Nothing has been permanently lost. I've made several announcements this year in the SCR that the member pages were going to be discontinued.

[tom dougherty]

Re: New home page.

Paul,
Thanks for the clarification. I recognize that it was time to consolidate servers and bring all of the material into one system to preclude losses such as we have had in the past. I also recognize that this represented a lot of effort on your part as well as work by others to get this set up for the rest of us. I appreciate those efforts, and am only trying to clarify the situation with regard to member's Homepage files.

I am happy to hear that the Homepage material is retrievable, but it seems from what I understand that the new system precludes user Homepages? Am I correct in that? So, in terms of the SC website, the materials on member Homepages are "lost" to the SC membership (but not the owners). While I still retain my personal files (on my own computer) of the photos of the Jimmy Carter Commissioning, the NR-1, the SSBN TAB book, the GUPPY Boat, Russian Julliet class SSG, & Albacore photos, and the Azorian research materials, they will no longer be available to the membership through a homepage that I can set up on the SC web site.

I confess I was not aware of the imminent demise of the Homepages. Upon inspecting prior SCR issues through last year, the only announcement I found about possible changes to Member Homepages was in June:

Consolidation of ISPs is a primary budget consideration and may preclude the retention of some of the existing website features such as the member homepages.

If there were other announcements, then I missed them.

Regards,

[PaulC]

Re: New home page.

Tom,

Thank you for the kind words. You are correct: the member homepages were a proprietary feature of the old site and cannot be brought forward. We are looking at out-of-the-box alternatives to replace the homepages going forward.

We do share your concern about content no longer being available for member access. I will PM you with a possible solution.

[boss subfixer]

Re: New home page.

So what about someone like me who had to forgo membership this year for personal reasons, I had information on my home page but now it's gone? I don't recall any warnings on the forum about changes effecting members home pages. And before someone chimes in and says "but it's only $15" I don't want to hear it. I've been supporting two house holds and some other issues have made me scale back on a lot of things. Don't read this as I'm mad, I'm not.
On a side note the new home page does look sharp. Nice job!

[JWLaRue]

Re: New home page.

Don,

So technically as a 'lapsed' member your homepage probably should have gone away. But since no one was performing web site maintenance your homepage is still there. (I just checked, the site hasn't been taken down yet)

Let me work with Paul to see how we can best move the homepage content to where folks can access it.

-Jeff

[boss subfixer]

Re: New home page.

Thanks Jeff,
None of my bookmarks work to get to the old site, I'm sure I have most of what was posted there but I would have liked to check to make sure. I'm hoping to re-up for next year.

[Guest]

Re: New home page.

Speaking from my own perspective, the members homepages were set-up at a time when services like Photobucket, Flickr etc. were still embryonic or non-existant, and so they served as a good way to host images with a little description. I don't think many members updated their pages regularly, including yours truly.

But from what Paul is saying, the data has not been lost, and I would think it's available to members who request it, where you can host it externally on a free account, or wait until the additional forum features kick-in.

Andy

[JWLaRue]

Re: New home page.

Thanks Jeff,
None of my bookmarks work to get to the old site, I'm sure I have most of what was posted there but I would have liked to check to make sure. I'm hoping to re-up for next year.

PM sent.......

-Jeff

[boss subfixer]

Re: New home page.

Thanks Jeff. Another question. Most if not all of my pictures on my home page are linked to threads on the forum, are the pictures still going to show up in those threads? Just wondering if anyone thought of this.

[JWLaRue]

Re: New home page.

Don,

I took a look at the structure of the old site and literally all of the photos that we've linked to our homepages are in a single directory (yuck!) with no naming structure that allows one to untangle which member a photo belongs to (yuck, again).

However, since everything is in a single location and is linked from the forum via the www.subcommittee.com web address, I'm thinking that we might be able to copy over the photo directory (preserving the directory tree) and this might allow forum links to correctly resolve to the photos.

Let Paul and I have a deeper look into this.....

-Jeff

[boss subfixer]

Re: New home page.

Sorry about the extra work.

[herrmill]

Re: New home page.

Nice look, gents!

[Guest]

Re: New home page.

On the chapters page, I notice my contact details have been printed up the same as for the Australian chapter, perhaps someone could modify that. Email address was correct, just the mailing address.