Xenforo conversion thread

Yeah man, i'm glad i have the license to share this code and hope nobody has to build an image recompressor to such difficult and exacting specifications.

This is the most hardcore thing we've built in a while!

In the end images should load 50-200% faster than usual and we should be able to reduce our $125/mo bandwidth habit to a fraction of it. What i'm really happy about is that it contributes to the financial viability of running a website this big ( and growing! )

Huge shout out to Grin for funding it and also to the Big Kahuna for working on the upgraded version of this contraption!
 
Nick Obermire said:
This shows how dumb I am. I didn't even know that it was necessary.
Click to expand...

Unfair to compare yourself to a senior web developer who has a thing for compression technology!

But yes, we have had to patch on a lot of technologies to phpbb and xenforo to make it work at our scale, most web forums today are pretty small and the software is designed for that situation.. not ours!
 
Last edited:
Random question. Do any of these systems incorporate AI now? I'm wondering if AI can evaluate old threads and determine which ones have a clear resolution, and flag those threads. That way, the flag can be used along with the search tool to increase the chances that the user will find a resolution to their question. I seem to see posts where the user replies to an old thread with "I have the exact same problem. Did you ever get it working?" or something like that. This indicates they are using the search tool, as desired, but probably finding tons of unresolved threads, not necessarily because the issue wasn't resolved for the OP, but because the thread was never closed out. Those threads, while having some good discussion, become less useful, and in the case of searching, detrimental to users using the search tool.

Maybe we need a sticky that's not so much about how to ask a question, but more about best practices to benefit the future of the community.
 
Nope.. AI has a way to go before it has sufficient reasoning capabilities and can therefore be trusted to do the job of a human.
It would mostly be an annoyance RN.

It's also super expensive, resources wise, and using commercial cutting edge AI introduces all kinds of data and privacy risks to the site and it's users; we insist that we control the hardware, software, and data if we ever implement it in the future.

We're basically waiting for the state of the art to improve.

There is a long list of design changes to the software we could make to bend some behavioral factors towards making the site more useful that we want to work on after our knowledgebase system is done.

Your ideas are good BTW!
Should we open a second thread about a 'best practices' post? if so, i'm really interested in the community's feedback and ideas on that.
 
neptronix said:
Should we open a second thread about a 'best practices' post? if so, i'm really interested in the community's feedback and ideas on that.
Click to expand...
I'd be interested to hear what others think, and then maybe make a separate sticky from the feedback. I noticed one issue with the stickies is separating the actual sticky from the discussion (which is helpful to have, but sometimes detracts from the sticky).
 
neptronix said:
Unfair to compare yourself to a senior web developer who has a thing for compression technology!

But yes, we have had to patch on a lot of technologies to phpbb and xenforo to make it work at our scale, most web forums today are pretty small and the software is designed for that situation.. not ours!
Click to expand...
I think it would be nice to get another qualified opinion on this other than yours.
 
Too unqualified of a statement to entertain
 
Okay here's where we're at as far as the site build goes.
  1. The zeropress knowledgebase software is funded and work has started. We're working on a technique where we load zeropress inside Xenforo so we can hopefully cut a corner with the integration and keep it solid/simple:

    1721938489319.png

    I will follow up with a new thread about zeropress progress when we have something substantial to show.

  2. imageTender, our bolt-on image processor, is getting some final bugs shaken out of it; and thank heavens we already tackled the hard ones. Final work & deployment is imminent!
We are really happy to get these projects moving/done and move on to the rest of the Your wish list for ES in 2024 items!
 
We have the image processor bugs fixed.

1722882978937.png

I'm using the below image as an example of our processor in a difficult situation - this one has scads of natural detail; nice worst case scenario!

soco 7.3mb compressed.jpg

At a glance, <1% difference between the original and the reprocessed version at 100% zoom.

Here's what 2x looks like ( click on each image to see it in 4x ). You need to squint to notice the difference at 2x, so we call that pretty good!

Processed: 1.1mb, 1440px height ( rescaled by processor )
soco 1.1mb uncompressed.png
Time to load 0.49 seconds		Unprocessed: 7.3mb 3024px height, resized to 1440px height
soco 7.3mb uncompressed.png
Time to load 3.14 seconds

The only negative is that on ~5% of images, there can be some slight desaturation in difficult areas like grass and rocks interspersing; if you look hard enough at the patch of grass/weeds the top left of this image, you'll see it.

I'm very impressed with the results here @ again a tip of the hat to the Kahuna for doing the upgrade :)

Image Tender is approved for deploy, and as far as we know, done! :cool:
Knowledgebase up next!
 
Last edited:
neptronix said:
Should we open a second thread about a 'best practices' post? if so, i'm really interested in the community's feedback and ideas on that.
Click to expand...
Best Practices as in best ways to use ES/Xenforo technologies and features?
 
That was a response to:

E-HP said:
Random question. Do any of these systems incorporate AI now? I'm wondering if AI can evaluate old threads and determine which ones have a clear resolution, and flag those threads. That way, the flag can be used along with the search tool to increase the chances that the user will find a resolution to their question. I seem to see posts where the user replies to an old thread with "I have the exact same problem. Did you ever get it working?" or something like that. This indicates they are using the search tool, as desired, but probably finding tons of unresolved threads, not necessarily because the issue wasn't resolved for the OP, but because the thread was never closed out. Those threads, while having some good discussion, become less useful, and in the case of searching, detrimental to users using the search tool.

Maybe we need a sticky that's not so much about how to ask a question, but more about best practices to benefit the future of the community.
Click to expand...
 
Strange behavior recently, I had two email notices for the same thread, 2 posts a few minutes apart, (normally I only get one per thread until I visit it again), and the site was very slow to open the links, never did open the first one.
These posts:
endless-sphere.com

Yamaha YZ250F

There has turned up a bunch of pictures from "ränneslättsloppet", I have some that I have bought: Dont know, somewhere on the track.. Coming down from "the mountain". It dosent look like anything in the picture, but it is a decent drop going from the rock down on the gravel. I think the...
endless-sphere.com endless-sphere.com
endless-sphere.com

Yamaha YZ250F

There has turned up a bunch of pictures from "ränneslättsloppet", I have some that I have bought: Dont know, somewhere on the track.. Coming down from "the mountain". It dosent look like anything in the picture, but it is a decent drop going from the rock down on the gravel. I think the...
endless-sphere.com endless-sphere.com
 
Thanks for the report, i actually got an alert about that and intervened by resetting the server. It was in a really strange state.

ES' server has choked up twice in a week. I consistently get an email when it does. I will nurse it along until next week when we have some time to diagnose this known issue.
 
Is there a log or something that shows when patches or upgrades are applied? I always wonder when something changes whether it’s the browser, forum software, or OS causing it.

I noticed a change in the iPhone interface this morning. The old behavior when navigating to the Home Screen, was all forums would list, and then a members online section, then new messages. Today, the new messages section disappeared, so navigation requires the pull down menu. Nothing changed on the iPad or PC. An IOS update was available, so I applied it, but no change. I’m guessing there was a patch that affected only the iPhone interface.
 
That's interesting. Can you send me screenshots?
 
Turned some knobs. How's that?

I removed the new members thingy, and share page thingy, just kind of cluttery
 
Just some updates, fellas..
Our image processor is ready to deploy next week! Thank heavens,

Work has started on Zeropress.. we had to redo the method we use to plug into Xenforo.. as you can see, the job site is messy.. BUT.. it is moving.. :)

1724434874886.png
 
I'll just leave this here.

1724788599350.png

1724788892091.png

I think the forum is doing fine and i'm glad you're here to motivate me. :mrgreen:
 
Last edited:
Checking in. Team busy with zeropress.
Site is stable except for an occasional mystery bug that running the old ES archive produces when it gets lots of traffic for whatever reason.

We have a ton of stuff we built this year that needs to be deployed over winter. Expect heavy construction in December/Jan.

Xenforo has a 2.4 update coming sometime around winter. They are rejiggering how dark/light mode works, so the update will be involved.

At this point i want to do a small design refresh that:
- Displays a higher density of content/text, especially on 1080p screens
- Has a 1440p / wide screen mode that scales up the display & therefore doesn't look as narrow.
- Unifies the dark and light mode's features.
- Takes the design another 5-10 years into the future.

..among the various other things backlogged!

Will report in about zeropress in a few weeks!
 
Last edited:
Really good news. Zeropress is further along than i expected. We're ahead of schedule and within budget!

~90% of the functionality is there, so basically the hard stuff is done. I need to deliver icon images, CSS touchup ( as you can see, the jobsite is messy ), and a design for viewing the revision history.

1729111650447.png

Many times in programming, the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time, so my pessimistic guess when we'll have this functionality is by mid november.
 
Icon set and remaining design is in.

Current system uses Google's line art icons. They look nice but because they've been overused and so minimalistic, they're characterless. The upside is that they were free!

This was not in the preview of what people would pay for so i feel better if i explain my rationale for a big change i'm making.

Many of my designs, like the one you are looking at for ES, are sort of a throwback to before the software world became nasty and characterless. I think that user interface design has rolled over and played dead since the 2010's and want to invoke that period of time where software had some character.

GZ9lhHDb0AItuTa.jpeg

In order to fit mobile screens in the new zeropress, and increase information density, lines and their associated padding that currently give an oldschool feel need to disappear, making them resemble a high density take on modern apps. This removes a good bit of that mood, so i decided to pay out of pocket for a 3d-ish icon set to maintain that nudge nudge wink wink to the Windows 7 era.

1729184671479.png
If the redesign for zeropress turns out well, ES will get the same treatment in the next redesign - higher information density, less superflous borders, but way cuter icons.

That's it for now, see you in a couple weeks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
EZ Rider Kit - popped one open to see what's inside (Brompton conversion)
Replies
4
Views
1,408
E-HP
E-HP
RustyKipper
    • Like
    • Cheers
I'm in the 40,000 mile club!
Replies
8
Views
1,094
RustyKipper
RustyKipper
S
    • Like
Xtracycle Edgerunner electric conversion with Grin All Axle v3 and SuperHarness
Replies
2
Views
3,538
smitty2k1
S
Aaronrob222
    • Like
Dahon Folder Grin Kit Conversion
Replies
14
Views
3,701
docw009
docw009
E-HP
    • Like
DIY Newb FAQ?
2
Replies
27
Views
6,666
tpkidd3
tpkidd3
Back
Top