Mods: Website repair

Hey fellas, first off I can't find an appropriate contact link or forum for this. Please move where appropriate.

Secondly, I love this site, but I'm constantly having trouble making a simple post. Recently I tried to post something with a basic cell phone picture. It wouldn't let me because of a 2mb file size limit (is this 1997?). I removed the pic and tried a screenshot from my phone....even that was too big. I removed attachments entirely and it wouldn't let me post because I had already submitted the post within 30 seconds. I waited a couple minutes and resubmitted, it said I had already submitted this post. I checked and it was not appearing in the forum....waited a few more minutes, still didn't show up. Tried changing a few words....still won't let me post, thinks it's a double post. I've had issues with attachments in the past. It seems like this website is stuck in the 90's.....and not it a good way (like craigslist). Any way to update or fix these issues? Thanks!

There is little point in posting a 2Mbyte picture. The sensible thing to do, on any forum, is to use a graphics program crop it and shrink it to  about 800 by 600 pixels and about 90% quality when it will easily be well under 2M.

If you want the 21st century answer then should sign up to an image hosting site (there are plenty of free ones) , upload your images to it and simply post a link to the image. That way it can appear in line with your message.

This group consists of many thousands of users. Every 2M picture posted requires another2M of permanent storage to be paid for for the remainder of the life of the forum. Posting a link requires a few tens of bytes. This group has no income other than from advertising and that is barely enough to cover its costs. Before accusing the group of living in the 90s perhaps you should think about what the group provides for free.

Cheers

Ian

But that isn't the only issue. Even when I try to post small pix, well under the 2 meg limit, it gives me a "security error" or something like that. For a JPG. It's aggravating.

The brewery is the place for general whining....  Try not to corrupt the sub forums with content.

JR

Ricardus said:

But that isn't the only issue. Even when I try to post small pix, well under the 2 meg limit, it gives me a "security error" or something like that. For a JPG. It's aggravating.

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That is true and it often happens. I think it is part of the security measures where the file is scanned for possible viruses etc. Maybe your phone is corrupted. . Safest bet is to post a link.

Cheers

Ian

ruffrecords said:

Safest bet is to post a link.

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As much as I'm aware that posting images as attachments incurs extra storage requirements for GDIY, I'm also wary of linking to external links which, as time moves on, may not show up anymore.
Not all posters (I'm as guilty as anyone here) maintain or keep up-to-date their offline hosting sites, even free ones, and it can be annoying for folks if they search through the archive and then find dead links.
Not trying to make a big statement here, just sayin' 

All those wisdom-of-yore threads where folks used photobucket. :/

https://archive.org/web/petabox.php

Ricardus said:

But that isn't the only issue. Even when I try to post small pix, well under the 2 meg limit, it gives me a "security error" or something like that. For a JPG. It's aggravating.

Click to expand...

Yup, I've had the security error several times too. And 2mb is not large at all by modern standards.

I've had a few occasions when posting pics where the forum software didn't give any errors, but the post itself never showed up.

Yup, had that happen too. I really don't like complaining, but overall the system just seems very old and clunky and outdated. Anyway, thanks for moving to the correct forum!

ruffrecords said:

That is true and it often happens. I think it is part of the security measures where the file is scanned for possible viruses etc. Maybe your phone is corrupted. . Safest bet is to post a link.

Cheers

Ian

Click to expand...

My phone is not corrupted. The images I'm uploading are not corrupted. It's very difficult for a virus to actually be activated in a JPG because it is not an executable file.

I mentioned to Ethan that some were having issues posting images.

I just take out the garbage around here, but he does plumbing.

JR

Ricardus said:

My phone is not corrupted. The images I'm uploading are not corrupted. It's very difficult for a virus to actually be activated in a JPG because it is not an executable file.

Click to expand...

https://www.bullguard.com/blog/2018/01/jpeg-files-and-malware

Cheers

Ian

ruffrecords said:

https://www.bullguard.com/blog/2018/01/jpeg-files-and-malware

Cheers

Ian

Click to expand...

With due respect, what seems more likely; that multiple people's phones are injecting very rare and relatively ineffective viruses into images taken with their phone's camera and no other forums are catching it except this one....or that this is just another bug among several in a faulty file attachment script?

I mean, either is technically possible, but c'mon.

John, thanks for passing this along! Whether it actually gets fixed or not, it's nice to know it's being addressed! Thanks again!

I totally appreciate both sides of what’s being expressed here.

I just want to say Ethan is providing his time and talents for free. And I’m sure he spends a lot of time just keeping things going, let alone fully upgrading the whole site to newer more modern standards.

I am not trying to criticize anyone; just to point out the reality. This isn’t a paid site and the admins are overtaxed as it is.

Mike

Phrazemaster said:

I totally appreciate both sides of what’s being expressed here.

I just want to say Ethan is providing his time and talents for free. And I’m sure he spends a lot of time just keeping things going, let alone fully upgrading the whole site to newer more modern standards.

I am not trying to criticize anyone; just to point out the reality. This isn’t a paid site and the admins are overtaxed as it is.

Mike

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I totally get that. Just pointing out a bug....if folks can't get to it, or it's a huge PITA to fix, I totally get it. I've done a lot of IT stuff and I completely understand. Again, I'm just glad it's at least being looked at. Thanks again!

Ethan just made an adjustment so see if that works better...

JR

PS: Thank you Ethan...

Thank you for all the comments.
Our moderators volunteer their time and do a great job of keeping things in order, squashing spam, and alerting me to technical issues that I may not always be aware of--thank you for all that you do!!

I'll take full blame for the site being a bit behind the times.
It's hard to believe that GroupDIY has been online for 18 years!  Over the course of those 18 years the codebase has become a messy patchwork of (spaghetti code) countless quick fixes/workarounds/new features/etc and as a result, increasingly difficult to maintain.  It works...but it's fragile.  Making a small change requires a lot of consideration for what it might break. 

With that in mind, 2 years ago I decided to rewrite GroupDIY from scratch.  I had hoped to have it ready in about a year but a lot of LIFE stuff happened and it became tough finding time to work on it...but I still intend to make it happen.

Anyhow, here's a peak at some of the new more modern features. One big improvement will be with photo/file management: uploading multiple files, drag and drop, larger file sizes, and basic photo editing, Take a look: https://cdn.groupbuilder.com/groupdiy/u/0/groupdiy-core-update.mov

ruffrecords said:

https://www.bullguard.com/blog/2018/01/jpeg-files-and-malware

Cheers

Ian

Click to expand...

So.... a site that wants to scare you into buying their anti-virus pkg is your source here? I of course know very little about the Zeus malware, but a basic Wiki search yields that it is a very specific attack, that only runs under windows, and it targeted at banks and banking transactions. I saw no references to executable code being able to be run from a JPG image. It seems like it was distributed in the normal way where you get an email with an executable attachment, and morons click on it.

Ricardus said:

So.... a site that wants to scare you into buying their anti-virus pkg is your source here?

Click to expand...

It was just the first one I came to. I am sure there are plenty of others. I simply wanted to counter the blanket statement that jpegs are considered safe. Clearly there are cases where they are not. Presumably the mods feel the check is worth while for their safety and ours.

Cheers

Ian