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Update regarding our hosting/server/everything situation
I hear ya, and I know the website has been ridiculously slow for a while now. Thank you to everyone for sticking around and your willingness to deal with this temporary, albeit lengthy, transition phase to something better.
I’m writing today to provide you with an update on things. After talking with a few experts and scheduling them to help me, I’ve developed a plan of action. We are currently getting our ducks in a row and hope to act on that plan within the next couple of weeks. I was hoping we could get something done sooner, but I’d also rather focus on quality versus speed. Normally, I try to get things done as quickly as possible, but then have to deal with some aftermath to recover from the hastiness. This current situation is basically a more severe version of that.
Still, the forums have grown FAR and away more than I could have ever imagined they would. This is essentially just growing pains, and we are growing faster than ever (despite the current slowness). Just looking at the Advertise page, you can see how sharply we are growing, and 2023 has already proven to be an even steeper slope than previous years.
Some of you might remember the early days, when I never expected this website to be more than a hundred or two members. Once we got into the thousands, the forum software just couldn’t handle it. So, we had to make some big changes to accommodate the growth. This time, the changes we are making are different, and more intimidating than before, especially with all the traffic and registered members we now have. It’s not just about software, it’s about hardware, policies, features, and other aspects, too.
Hang on, it WILL get better. But not until a bunch of money changes hands. I’m seriously considering some kind of fundraiser, at the request of many of our regular members (more of you have come out of the woodwork to suggest this than ever before). I haven’t really done anything like that since I had a partner in this venture (which didn’t work out too well for other reasons, as many of you might remember). I’m still not sure I want to do a fundraiser, but I’m seriously considering it.
Some folks have reached out to ask if I’ve considered using some sort of cloud-hosted SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform — I’ve looked at those, but they concern me greatly, much in the same way that I dislike Facebook Groups. We would be at their mercy in pretty much everything we do, plus the privacy issues make it no-go for me — I’m a huge advocate for protecting your/our privacy, so I really don’t want some big corporation taking advantage of you and selling your personal information (like POB used to do and Facebook still does). I will NEVER sell or give away your personal information.
Thanks again for everyone who has ever donated, subscribed or supported us in any way. Several folks have recently signed up for BeerLeggers Club or sent one-time donations. Let me just say that every penny counts and goes right back into keeping this website online, not into my pocket. My time is still 100% volunteer at this point. ????
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21 Replies
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Thanks for the update.
Access speed for Belgium is smooth.
Christof.
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Wendell – suggestion. One surveyors junk is another ones treasure. What do you think about an auction forum where we can donate survey stuff and the treasure hunters can bid? FYI, I have some stuff that is perfectly good that I don’t use and don’t want the hassle of placing on eBay but would donate to a worthy cause. Just a dumb thought
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@hpalmer I also have a gently used Leica TS02 that I could throw in.
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Wow, you guys are amazing. That’s a great idea and much appreciated. I’ll see if I can get something setup this evening. I’ll keep it simple. It will likely just be another forum to post and bid in, and we’ll just have to manually handle leading/winning bids, payments, etc.
Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster -
Well, I went and did it.
You guys are cool.
https://rpls.com/community/fundraiser-items/
I setup a standard forum and then added a couple of custom fields to help with posting items for sale for the fundraiser. Feel free to post your items there!
Again, you guys are cool. The coolest.
Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster -
@wendell I’ll have to run to my office to grab the gun, it may be in a week or two as my office is 65 miles away.
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Hey man, no rush. Beggars can’t be choosers. 😉
I’ll probably let this go for a month or two. Maybe more if it becomes a “thing”.
Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster -
Wendell, you need to add something for when auction ends. I put a July 4th on an item when if a robust auction, might just put a week or two. Many may not go searching for something they do not need so a longer time would be good for those. Maybe set up a night for ‘live auctionsl’ as has a short time period.
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@hpalmer Good point. I’ve added a field for end date. Also added a location field.
Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster -
When we post something for auction how is the buyer supposed to pay? Do they send payment to you, and then you authorize shipment to the seller? Or what? I’m ready, just need some direction. This is going to be fun!
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When we post something for auction how is the buyer supposed to pay? Do they send payment to you, and then you authorize shipment to the seller? Or what? I’m ready, just need some direction. This is going to be fun!
When you post in that specific forum, you’ll see instructions at the top. 🙂
Basically, buyer pays SC directly. If you want shipping costs covered, there’s an option to specify that and then you’d arrange with buyer to receive that payment separately.
Thank you!!
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Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster -
Made some server updates this evening. Hoping it’s at least a little bit better while we continue working on everything else.
Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster -
Fetching of posts is a lot faster on my Android.
Edit: Can’t say posting of new one has changed.
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Much faster for the site to load down here.
Uploading posts and edits seems about the same.
Thanks for your efforts
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Wendell, maybe add a ‘closed auction’ or ‘sold’ folder to move those posts
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Wendell, maybe add a ‘closed auction’ or ‘sold’ folder to move those posts
You should be able to click the “Solved” button above your original post. 🙂
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Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster -
I thought it might be time for another update on what’s happening with SurveyorConnect. So, here we go!
Development and configuration of the new website is coming along nicely. In fact, I’m getting really excited about it. Here’s a few (but not all) of the new features it has:
- The homepage, instead of the current “dead” and slow-loading forum index, will be more of an “activity feed”. The activity feed is basically a log of things that are happening all across the website, i.e. new forum posts, new photo uploads, new document uploads, new events, new job listings, etc. This activity feed also allows you to post comments to the feed items, as well as create new activity posts. It’s kind of like Facebook but without the worries of your data being stolen and sold to nefarious firms.
- Photo and video galleries. When you upload photos or videos, they can be collected in various galleries on the new Photos and Videos pages.
- A document repository. This is something many have asked for for ages. You’ll be able to upload documents that can be shared with other members.
- A classifieds system. Yes, you read that right. No more forcing the forums to do what we need them to do to post stuff for sale. With the current system, we basically had to shoehorn stuff in there to get the pricing, shipping and other settings. And still, it’s just not very robust because it’s stuck in a forum. The new classifieds system is robust and has all the features you’d expect on a really good classifieds website.
- A jobs manager. Much like the new classifieds system, the new jobs manager allows us to break out of the forums and into a great job posting and searching system that could rival websites like Indeed.com. Employers can post job listings and job seekers can post their resumes and respond to job listings.
- An events calendar. Events can be fed into it by the community (you). I will try to add new events when I see them somewhere, but I think this could be really great if we can get visitors/members to submit them. This could be a great way to reach out to various surveying associations.
- Improved user profiles. Totally new user profile system, with more features and, quite frankly, a lot easier to use. You’ll be able to follow and/or connect with other members. You can also block other users, which is something many members have long been asking for.
- Improved private messaging. Completely new PM system that is way easier to use.
Stay tuned, I think it’s gonna be fun. 🙂
Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster -
Dang it. I hear he’s going to cancel our current listing of posts by a participant and start over at zero. Otherwise, he will need to have a new symbol indicating 25,000. Perhaps a Mercedes Benz.
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Dang it. I hear he’s going to cancel our current listing of posts by a participant and start over at zero. Otherwise, he will need to have a new symbol indicating 25,000. Perhaps a Mercedes Benz.
  With a little less than 200 more post to go, He has until tomorrow to come up with something.Â
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Oh, there is indeed a new symbol at 25k. But just wait until you hit 50k! That’s the holy grail.
Your friendly, virtual neighborhood Webmaster
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