SSC 2008

[Ben]

I was going to do some stuff like that but I didn't. I actually just posted the articles without reading through them. I read them all before, and I assumed they were spell checked and at least good. I might read them again some other time, but it's not the top of my priorities.

You might want to check out the Tactics FAQ that's online right now. I remember Drenchenator said he worked on it based upon responses he saw on the forum. If you can change some things in that to be better, that'd be great.

Also, as a note, I'm doing some experimentation with forum settings, so things might seem a little funky for a while. Let me know what you like and what you don't like.

[Drenchenator]

@DX: Please completely redo the Tactics FAQ. Many of the answers are quite weak because I really only worked off previous responses to the questions. In fact, one question I answered in a cut and paste job from one of your previous responses; I hope you don't mind--it was a really good answer.

[Ben]

To those who want a new forum skin, go here to switch your skin: http://forums.sscentral.org/?styleid=7

The old skin broke the skin switching feature. That's another problem with that skin. Luckily, we'll be switching soon.

I'm not completely satisfied the the new skin, but it does have the site header and colors. I'm changing some graphics to be a little more like what I want, but finding graphics can be a little hard. Right now I'm browsing loads of forums for graphics.

Edit: After a few hours of work, the new skin is looking great! I'm still willing to make some more changes in the future, but right now I like it a lot. It's integrated with the website pretty well.

This new skin might look neat, but it feels pretty weird. It doesn't feel like home, probably because we used the old skin for over two years. I'm sure in a month we'll be used to this skin.

[Silence]

Woah...nice new skin! The change is really unexpected, and even if you barely changed any defaults to get it here, it already looks perfect. It's amazing to finally see a skin that fits in.

The only striking problem is that all the text in the forums is way too small. Text size definitely needs to be bumped up a notch. Of course, it's weird to see a few things I've seen elsewhere but not here (like the bar of links at the top), we'll get used to those.

Also, it's good to see a quick reply box.

Edit: Ah, a quick edit function is also useful.

I just wanted to mention that the actual post text is fine. But all other text is way too small, which makes for especially bad first impressions.

[Ben]

The change took less time than I thought it would. I started last night about 10:00, worked for about 2 to 2.5 hours, and then worked essentially from 9:30 until about 2:00 on it. Originally I was afraid of modifying a skin because I didn't know what it needed, but after doing enough modifications to the board back in the IPB days, I felt I knew enough to get some things done. Most of the changes are in the colors and text. Luckily I had a few things like the graphics I wanted to use organized already.

I know what you mean about the size. One pixel larger seemed too big, so I left it as is. Maybe I could try that again and see what people say.

Edit: I tried it out again. One pixel higher is too much. Half a pixel doesn't change it. I then switched to putting the sizes in points to see if that was any different, and it's not. Right now I have it at 8.5pt, which appears the same as 8pt as far as I can tell.

[Specter]

I have some error reports for you. I didn't read a lot of the new site (by the way I think it looks awesome), but I went to the internals page (I also give you permission to use the pictures I have of the Storm 600 internals) and almost every link is broken. Instead of trying to go to .../internals/*gunname*.html it goes to .../internals.html*gunname*.html
Hope you can fix it. I would like to help make the new site a great success by giving any information possible.

[Ben]

Thanks for reporting those problems.

Drenchenator was working on the gallery. It's not complete from what I know. I've told him and he'll get to fixing it. From what I know, not every image is uploaded. It can be annoying when you have to upload literally hundreds of megabytes of images and the server cuts your connection off.

Actually, now that I look at it, it seems to be an error with the redirects I was doing. I'll have to turn those ones off. That might fix it.

Where are your Storm 600 pictures? I did a quick search in my email and threads you posted, and I couldn't find them.

Edit: Yeah, it was the redirects screwing it up. I've turned the problem ones off. Thanks again for letting us know.

[Specter]

I thought I had posted the internals pics on here before, but I guess since you didn't find them, I didn't post them. I'll go through my Imageshack account to find them.

I found another error (I think, not sure). On the repairs section, the link for 'When pumping, pump retracts (is sucked back) and no water is pumped' goes to the 'Pump is hard to move' link. not sure if you did that on purpose, or a link got skipped?

[Ben]

I did that on purpose. Originally I made them two different pages, but they're nearly the same problem, just with slightly different symptoms, so I combined them.

Edit: If you want to, email me the photos at the email address in my signature.

[Specter]

ok, that makes sense rather than having 2 nearly identical pages.

and heres the images I have. (i thought these were the best out of the few I had, use whichever you like)
full gun open: http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/827/sspics004es2.jpg
internals close up: http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/4483/sspics006ak0.jpg
close up w/flash (might be a little bright): http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1...pics005cp3.jpg
nozzle assembly hanging out (the wires go to the led that used to light up the stream when fired): http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/8658/sspicsfw4.jpg

[Ben]

Thanks for the submissions. Drenchenator will add them in a few hours.

These pictures are interesting because I thought all Storm guns pumped on both strokes. This gun seems to use standard pumps.

Also, just as a general note, if in the future you could take a few more pictures to make sure they come out right, it'd help. We're trying to make our website as high quality as possible. Read this page for some more information: http://www.sscentral.org/submissions.html

[Specter]

thanks for the info. i'll try to take better pictures in the future.
Those are in their native resolution and all. My camera can take "high definition" if i set it to the highest resolution (2272x1704) and finest quality. Which you can crop, edit, or resize how you like (in the future) .

[Ben]

Yeah, well, the images you gave us are okay in resolution, but I would prefer more. A lot of the images I worked with on the website were at that resolution (640x480). What I really don't like are the ones that are so dark you can't see anything or so small that you can't see anything, and sadly those account for a significant portion of our submissions.

I actually don't own a digital camera, but I've used a variety and regardless of the model, basically all you can do is take a few of the same picture if it seems you screwed it up. I've done that on all my articles, and if you look through, you'll see the images all are pretty decent. Some have a problem or two (not the best focus, flash being too bright, etc.), but I only used those images when I didn't have another one.

[Specter]

i understand. I'll be sure to take as many pictures as possible, at varying angles etc.

and i forgot to mention this in my last post. It's just a little suggestion. On the homemades section,( I'm probably bringing out my 'wanting everything to be neat and organized'-quality), but I think you should order the homemades by date. From newest at the top to oldest at the bottom. just a little suggestion.

-edit: i also like the quick reply area.

[Ben]

That's an interesting suggestion. Right now the homemades are ordered in some progression and/or how interested I think most people would be in them. Ordering by date would make sense too though. I'm not sure what we should do. I'll have to give it some thought.

Maybe we could order by date and then say in the beginning that the beginner's homemade water gun is the APH?