Extra IT hands available here.

[BonBon]

Admin

Fellow IT g33k here. I have been following this site and the former via proxy (my wife). Just wanted to offer my assistance if you ever want help, second set of eyes, or another IT guy to bounce things off of.

I noticed you mentioned possible DB performance issues. Wonder if you considered locking down the sub-forums to members only. The boards I have been involved with in the past doing that has helped considerably. This would also help with the opposition trying to flood your site with non-human connections.

[Name_Null]

You don't happen to be any good with javascript are you?

I'm trying to decide on locking down pieces of the forum, I like that people can get a bit of an idea of the site before they create an account, partially because it helps people see how active the community is that they won't join and be one of 10 people, and partially for the selfish reason that it reduces the number accounts I have to delete when someone joins and 10 minutes later decide it's "not what they were looking for". Currently Groups are locked down and I recently locked down Blogs so neither are available to guests, the main forum is visible for the time being.

The DB issues were primarily on writes, I adjusted the performance on the write speed and we seem to be doing better now, it was getting behind on storing to disk which was causing it to bottleneck.

[patty]

No, sorry.

[BonBon]

Admin
Sorry but I am not a javascript SME. The Only "code" I really spend time on at work is scripting in powershell, and python. MSSQL admin work, but typically not writing SPs or creating schemas from scratch. I am embedded in a development team at work but I am not a developer. Hybrid modern sysadmin type.

[wheat]

Admin

Fellow IT g33k here. I have been following this site and the former via proxy (my wife). Just wanted to offer my assistance if you ever want help, second set of eyes, or another IT guy to bounce things off of.

I noticed you mentioned possible DB performance issues. Wonder if you considered locking down the sub-forums to members only. The boards I have been involved with in the past doing that has helped considerably. This would also help with the opposition trying to flood your site with non-human connections.

Are you suggesting that for example, posts directly to the "General" could remain publix
but sub-cats like "tech support" can be closed?

(i am digging into some experience with vB years ago - so not completely clear)

[Name_Null]

Yup, that is possible with the permissins, like the Moderator and Subscription areas are locked down and non-public. If there was a compelling case for closing off areas from the public I'm open to hearing it but I'd rather not shut everything down because a lot of people will find this place by searching for something online and if we close it off those searches won't hit.

[wheat]

I think a poll is in order so members can share their thoughts
I know of many who are concerned there is no control on who can see thier posts
yes, the SMT (social media terrorists) will come, but no reason to make it easier for them to annoymously access users

perhaps some of the "General" should remain visible -
but the other forums posts & comments Not be visible unless a person is signed in.


Meanwhile, I have to go work on the advert - my vote is close most if not all to registered users.
it has not harmed the growth of other social media/forums that I know of.

[WeeBizzom]

wheat I agree with a poll. My tuppence worth (2 cents!): the main forums should be visible to potential members to a certain extent, maybe just the titles of the forums and, when you click on the titles, the names of the topics, because a lot of people will hesitate to sign up for something without knowing anything about it, especially since the R furore (I can’t believe it has been a whole month!). I know I wanted to know what I was getting into before I signed up, because I didn’t want to swap a rock for a hard place. I don’t think they should be able to read the actual posts, though, because that has the potential for harassment of the members. The same for the groups - the names of the groups and the topics, but no information about who is a member or what they said.

On the other hand, information on profiles, number of posts, membership of groups, etc, should not be visible to outsiders, even to a limited extent - it is fine to share things with other members if you want to, but It is easy to forget that the World Wide Web is just that, world-wide, and what is suitable for one audience is not necessarily suitable for the whole, wide world. To put it another way, it is no-one else’s business!

This is just my personal opinion, and I am happy to abide by the results of a poll.

[wheat]

damn, I wish I wrote that

[WeeBizzom]

wheat Thanks, I am not really all that wise and erudite, but I used to work as a secretary for a lawyer whose first piece of advice to me as “the new girl” was never to put anything in writing that I could not swear to in court. That was back when I was a teenager and the lawyer was a fusty, dusty old gent in a suit that was older than I was, so I smiled politely while thinking “Yeah, whatever, Grandad.” but as the years have gone by, I have come to realise that he was right, don't tell anyone anything they don't need to know

[wheat]

and keep copies of what you did write - because in today's world, it is easy to change -