Switching hosts for this forum?

[Eric Marth]

Hi all -- I'm relatively new in these parts but I do love and appreciate the community, information, gear swaps and laughs of the RBW Owners Bunch. 

But, man, Google Groups is awful. I'm a member of a few other forums that use phpBB which is, to my mind, real nice and easy to use. 

Problems I see here: 

• Generally difficult to keep up with rolling posts, format doesn't lend to quick scanning and visual organization
• Threads don't have pages! Infinite scroll
• DMs get lost
• Sharing images is a total pain
• We don't have discussion folders for broad categories. Spitballing here but we could have: General discussion, For Sale, Repairs and maintenance, etc. 
• A For Sale folder with a tagged/pinned mega thread with frames for sale would be cool, supplemented by our rolling gear posts. 

I believe phpbb would add some much needed functionality, editing capability, sharing capability and browsing capability! I have not done any research into the cost or what it would take to set up a new forum but I'd wager that a few of us would gladly chip in to cover the costs. 

Food for thought. Perhaps this has been discussed previously. But I think there are better ways for us to get together. 

Did I mention Google groups is awful?

Okay, peace and love!

Eric

[Marty Gierke, Stewartstown PA]

Go ahead and start a new group of your own Eric. Nothing stopping you. I for one am perfectly content with this awful Google group, and have been for many years. 

Marty

[Brian Campbell]

I would join. I mostly use my iphone now and laptop less so. This format does not lend itself to well to iphones. 

On Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 10:09:29 AM UTC-4 eric...@gmail.com wrote:

[Eric Daume]

As always, the answer is to read this by email. No real issues then.

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[David Person]

I support your suggestion, Eric.  Getting consensus and actual movement will likely prove difficult though.

[Patrick Moore]

I'm quite happy with the present arrangement, except that anything that takes even something tiny away from Google is good in my book, but I'd support a change if enough other listers want it. This is solely for the record, in case anyone ever wants a show of hands.

[Cyclofiend Jim]

Thanks for asking, Eric - at this point, it's a "known Known" and is unlikely to be changed, barring Google dropping the entire Groups format.

Despite drawbacks and quirks, it provides decent bandwidth with a minimum of management and zero out of pocket cost. I've hosted, managed and run Listservs, BBS's and their related offspring over the years and none of them are without hassle. 

The attachment size for photos into Google Groups has been 25 MB for some time now. Yeah... but the other option is to set up a nice photo album and share that link. 

I have posted before that if things are not working correctly, the one helpful "to-do" is to access the Settings panel and use the "Send feedback to Google" button. Some things have actually been addressed over the years. 

There is a "For Sale" tag (Or "Label" in Googroup parlance). Periodically I remind folks, but honestly, almost every list member seems to label things clearly enough in the subject that it's hard to be confused.
There are actually three labels - "RBW-Emphemera" - "RBW-History" and "transations-sell-buy-trade"

I"ve been relatively slow to implement them, as I did not want to impose too much structure on this group. 

I would also say that basic searchability is pretty strong - that's been refined a great deal over the last couple years. As with Gmail, it uses tools which are pretty refined. 

As one more vector, there is a Rivendell Owners Bunch On Facebook group which I set up a while ago, where For Sale/Trade is not allowed, and photos are more the coin of the realm. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rbwownersbunch

There's another one which I'm not an admin of called "Rivendellicious" which also includes Bridgestone topics and allows transactions. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/19202914712

again, I appreciate your input - thanks!

- Jim / group admin

[Jon Dukeman]

Thanks Jim for all your hard work to keep it going

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[Joe Bernard]

I'm just glad we still have a forum/list/whatever-it's-called for Riv stuff that hasn't been absorbed into the Facebookization of everything. I don't visit that place and am becoming increasingly wary of Instagram because they own it, too. Google Groups, kind of annoying but good enough! 

Joe Bernard

[Garth]

I appreciate having this group as it is. I access it exclusively from a web browser and have never had difficulty messaging members or posting photos. The search function has improved to the point where I use it frequently. 

I can see where posting things directly from a mobile device can be frustrating but those challenges are inherent within the ever changing and unstable Android or Apple formats, not necessarily this Google group format. 

This from someone who has not forgotten Life before computers/cell phones. Who still leaves the house without either. Who doesn't find Life in a computer.  It's right here, at-hand. 

What's not seen here is in composing this message, all that I wrote and erased. That I took my sweet time to read ....  listen to what was being said "between the lines".... and edit from there.

[Nick Payne]

I'd agree. Every change to Google groups has been for the worse, the mobile interface is now pretty unusable, and it's become more and more difficult to include images in a post.

Nick

[Eric Marth]

Thanks everyone for the replies and to Jim, especially, for all the hard work in setting up and administering the group!

I realize nothing is perfect but the other forums I frequent are smooth to the point that I don't even think about functionality. And that's great! 

And so that I'm understood: I don't want to start a new group, rival group or anything like that. I'm suggesting we switch formats. I understand that's potentially a huge switch and might not happen but worthy of discussion. 

Peace!

[Johnny Alien]

How is it difficult to post photos? You create a post and use the attachment link. It couldn't be easier. If its a problem with size my suggestion would be for users to learn how to resize a photo. For people on mobile devices those large photos can take a long time to download and then force a user to side scroll awkwardly to see. Google is right for limiting file size.

[Eric Marth]

You highlight the problem with the suggested solution and also point to other photo problems. Yeah, you can post downsampled and resized photos easily. But that's an added step some users can't swing! You'd think all-powerful google would build a solution into Groups. Nope. Sometimes photos post to actual size and you get insanely huge images that you can't zoom out or easily scroll past! Especially when browsing on mobile, as you point out. 

[Joe Bernard]

Apparently my post last night literally ended Facebook and Instagram. Sorry everybody! 😬

Joe "social media killer" Bernard

[Benjamin L. Kelley]

Yep Joe, it would be a darn shame if we had to go actually ride bikes instead of talking about bikes on the internet.

:)

--ben

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