OK - let’s try inserting the NER railcar drawing - then editing the post to remove it.
I’ll have another go in a minute & try deleting the whole post!
Here goes!
You’re second post shows the image in the roll back fine, so that works.
OK - I’ve tried that.
If they get restored, I’ll try to repeat the process some time tomorrow.
Ultimately, I’d like the drawings - and the one in my post from Monday - deleted!
On my laptop, it just shows as (post deleted by author).
Look for the 1 and pencil symbol at the top of the post, that shows the history. I’m not sure if that shows for everyone though.
Thanks - that works!
Saying that, I’m glad that the test site is due to be “stripped” before the transfer!
Although the drawing - in various forms - has been on the internet for ages, my version was scanned from a reprint of an old NER diagram book (the original was over a century old). I’d also straightened it - but hadn’t cleaned it up. This shows - the roof domes finish at different points both ends!
The PDFs I was trying to load were a homebrew variant - with dimensions removed - and an initial attempt at generating panel overlays (albeit with measurement errors).
Unfortunately, I lost the software I generated these files in when my old computer went the way of the dodo - and converting them to other formats / choosing scale I print them at is a bit of an issue at present!
You can usually convert PDFs to JPGs for free online following a quick google search, they usually have file size limits however (usually something like between 10-25Mb).
I might look into that some time - but probably not for this purpose.
I might also need to look into “The GIMP” or something similar. I’m not sure if it also handles vector files - probably best not to “watch this space”.
“In other news”, I’ll probably try botching up some cheap passenger stock bodyshells - not sure if any will be ready for next week, though!
I also emailed MERG about the stuff with those kits the other day - they’ll do a swap and cover the postage. Suits me just fine - I wasn’t really confident about working with SMDs. (Years ago, I worked with strain gauges - which require similar soldering skills and also have solder tabs that lift if the iron stays on them for more than 2 seconds - I suspect that SMDs might not have been beyond me!)
Inkscape is a good free program to try for vector graphics. I use Affinity Designer as thats part of the UPDate suite, and intergrates well with Affinity Publisher and Photo for editing UPDate issues.
You’re not alone in not wanting to do SMD soldering! I tried with the gas light twinkler kit and gave up with it. I have a CANCAB kit that will probably go unused until I get the through hole components needed for the PCB I go to replace the SMD PCB. Anyway these points are getting off topic for here.
Thanks.
I’ll check that stuff out - probably not immediately, though, as I’ve been doing a thorough “quality control” test on some Thatchers.
I’ve got a few of those “gas lamp” kits - both through hole and SMD - from a previous order. If I get chance, I might have a go at building them, as part of the carriage lighting demo. (OK - if I’m involved, that might be more like “carnage” lighting demo …!)
I’d like to generate some material for a VAG meeting - even if it’s not the first one!
Of course, it might also take me a short while to get used to some of the controls in Zoom … .
Guys and Gals: we’re wandering off the core topic here. I’ll take the opportunity to ask how we’d like to deal with interesting offshoots on a topic: how are posts extracted to be best placed elsewhere, and how we maintain etiquette without losing information.
Part of that answer will possibly be a large set of tags we can use: do we subcontract ideas out to folk to create useful lists that any admin can just pick up and insert.
I can see that all TOPS codes would be useful: so OTA, OTA-A, OTA-B. Also diagrams eg 1/472, 1/485, and Class 01, Class 02…
As these are “predictable”, can there be any tweak to allow a tab to be created by anyone with certain “heft” as long as they are in these formats. Might save a lot of time…
Also N-gauge, 2mm, 4mm. 7mm, EM, P4 etc are obvious candidates, as are East Coast, West Coast, Regional Rail, BR, LNER…
So, happy to help out. Can provisional lists be set up here, so we can all chip in?
a@y
Rich: At least one person was acting deliberately, as they wanted to take information from here, and leave nothing behind when they left. It was a scorched earth policy. So I would respectfully suggest that the open edit period is restricted. The length of that probably should be nearer a week than a month.
a@y
In my tests last night, there hadn’t been enough time to allow the original posts & image files to reach a site file backup - this probably explains why the image couldn’t be retrieved in the post I edited (to remove the image).
I don’t know how long it normally is between backups - actually, I don’t particularly wish to know!
As for the post I tried to delete, the software only allows ordinary members to hide posts, so they actually stay on the system, even if they’re not immediately visible.
I suspect that my test posts have probably served their purpose now - so nothing to stop mods / admin deleting them for real
These days, sites like ours will have backup copies of what was on the site more than (perhaps) a week ago, this would allow people with suitable clearance (mods / admin) to restore pictures etc…
I suspect I might be looking at the “scorched earth” malarkey from a slightly different angle to some people.
Any jerks who’d even consider pulling these stunts probably never really had our interests at heart - good riddance to them.
However, if they now know that anything they post, leave online long enough to be backed up, then try to delete / edit away, can be restored later by someone else - and there’s absolutely nothing they can do about it - this is going to kick away their perverse pleasure at source.
As for heavily restricting how long ordinary members can restrict posts, this probably achieves very little. Anything that can be restored can still be restored - whether we’re allowed to edit for five minutes or five years. Anything that can’t be restored still can’t be restored - again whether we’re allowed to edit for five minutes or five years.
If anyone’s determined to resort to “Kindergarten bully” behaviour, very short time restrictions on editing posts won’t deter them from trying. In fact, they’d probably extract some Schadenfreude through knowing that some of this site’s efforts to defeat them are more likely to make life difficult for the decent majority here.
Do we really want that?
Personally, I reckon it would be much better to allow us to edit our posts for much longer. Thanks to backups, it wouldn’t impact attempts to stop “I don’t want to play nice with you guys anymore - so I’m taking my ball away” style tantrums.
It would, however, allow for posts that impede threads to be edited.
Changing the subject slightly, I’ve noticed the “badges” Discourse generates for people on here. Some of them strike me as fair enough - “stepping stones” connected with using the setup, like having added or edited posts, using reaction flags, stuff like that.
I’m not so sure about others - I’m on a thread with more than 100 replies, so here’s a “reader” badge. “OK - the point being what, exactly?”
Well, that’s my personal opinion - for what it’s worth (probably not worth much - anywhere!) … .
I’m logging in from an android tablet and I decided to quote this (1) to see how quoting worked; and (2) because that logging on twice thing was, indeed, a massive pita. Anyway, I like the method of quoting, although I still need to investigate how to quote multiple posts; and also multiple sections of the same post in one of my posts.
Jim
You are right Alan. It will work similarly to how you suggest. However, please hold back from setting anything more up on this test forum as I am about to start using it for testing the migration and may well wipe the content. I don’t want wasted effort setting up a tagging scheme that gets wiped!
We’ll put proper tagging in place once the migration is proved to work. Note: We may still need to find an alternative to discourse if migration is unsuccessful.
Guy
2 Likes
Regarding edit times, let’s just see how we go with the defaults, shall we?
Admins can always edit if need be to add any missing tags.
As you say Huw, I think deletion is soft-delete anyway so the content is still there.
Guy
How many admins will be required, and will there be the ability to give admin rights for say a “set” of topics/tags?
I can see some have more technical ability than others, some have more time than others, - how do you assign tasks. All questions to be answered in good time, and I guess the answers will evolve over time.
a@y
When i sign in, I get a box asking me: " Do you want to install DEMU on this device?". What does that mean? The site seems to work okay without it.
How do “suggested topics” arise? They don’t seem to use tags, are they random?
a@y
Am I right in thinking that the first photograph in each topic magically becomes the header photo for the whole topic after a few minutes (it didn’t happen instantly when I created one)?
Also, I fell foul of the tags issue: i wanted to add a couple that don’t exist and i couldn’t see a way of doing it.
Apart from that, I found adding photos really easy: much more so than most forums.