33 replies to this topic

[rhudeboye]

Went to quote a sentence today and reply to that thought and I got this

"You have posted more than the allowed number of quoted blocks of text"

So I trimmed it down to about 6 words and the message above was still there. No more could be trimmed off so I just removed the quote all together.

So just how much/little can we quote?

[94SilverCab]

Went to quote a sentence today and reply to that thought and I got this

"You have posted more than the allowed number of quoted blocks of text"

So I trimmed it down to about 6 words and the message above was still there. No more could be trimmed off so I just removed the quote all together.

So just how much/little can we quote?



Very observant of you. We are preparing an upgrade to the website and over the next couple of weeks various parts/services of the website may close down or change. Please bear with us while we improve the site.


For the moment, you can cut and paste if its pertinent to the discussion...


Thanks,

Jay

[968forums]

Yes. All the excessive and frequently unnecessary quoting that has been going on has created a heavy load on the search engine. It is called "quote embedding". What it does is cause the search engine to have to search twice for everything.

At least until we get the software upgraded, and perhaps until we step up to the next service level (lots more money) the quote function has been disabled. You can still manually create quotes, but the button has been disabled.

It was that or lose the search function ("view new posts" uses the search function, so that would have been disabled too).

Until then, please use the following protocols:

1. Assume all responses are directed to the thread starter

2. If a response is not directed to the thread starter, and rather to someone else, merely start with their name (just like turning to look at someone in a real conversation).

After operating like this for a while, you will likely find that quoting is no longer necessary in almost all cases. If you do still find the need to quote something, you can always merely cut and paste that which you need to quote, and place it manually within quotes.

Our apologies for the inconvenience, but the site has grown far faster than we anticipated, and the database provisions have again been exceeded. It may take a bit for us to catch up to the needs and get back on track.

When we do the upgrade, the site will be down for a while, as it is a completely new package, and not merely a step up upgrade. You will also see a number of large changes in the appearance, which will also be shifting for a while after the upgrade.

We will let everyone know when we are ready to go.

[rhudeboye]

Change is good.

Never thought about how quotes effect the search. learn something everyday.

[flash]

lol - don't feel bad - me too - i learn something new about websites and what makes them tick (or not) far more often than i expected

[Mark]

Poorly designed software if the quotes are causing issues with the search engine.

[flash]

not really - the software is not as much of a problem as the overloading of the database - we are taking huge amounts of space and we are not provisioned for it, consequently the prioritization is not what we would like - the search engine is not as good in this package as the one to which we will be moving, but the fact that it has to essentially search everything twice to get an answer is a large part of the problem

search is the single most important feature of this site - anything that slows that down or disables it must be controlled

as an example, "view new posts" is a search - every time anybody hits that, it engages the search engine - we use that engine thousands of times a day - the more material we add, and the more members add, the more the engine has to search through - it gets busy

frankly i never understood the need to quote much anyway - if you pay attention, it seems pretty obvious (at least to me) to whom people are talking and what is going on in the conversation - it would make me crazy if i was speaking to somebody who felt it necessary to repeat what somebody just said before saying something themselves - i used to know somebody like that - definitely short bus special - lol

regardless, we all want the feature working, and we're working on it - so, for those who need the feature and either can't seem to keep up with the conversation, or feel they need to repeat things, or for whatever other reason, we should have some fashion of the feature back up fairly soon

we will be paying attention to it though, and making sure that nobody abuses the feature, posts ridiculously long quotes, or ones that serve no purpose, so that we don't have this problem in the future

[gryphon]

I wrote this 100 times on my blackboard:

"I will never quote on 968 Forums"
"I will never quote on 968 Forums"
"I will never quote on 968 Forums"
.
.
.

I am cured.

Tom

[flash]

roflmao - it's not that bad, but thanks for the chuckle

[Mark]

quote
not really - the software is not as much of a problem as the overloading of the database
quote

That is bad software design. I won't argue with you about audio if you won't argue with me about software and databases.

[flash]

it's not bad design at the level of use intended for that package - however we are way beyond that level

that's like saying that because a volkswagon bug can't go 160mph it's a bad design - on the contrary, it's a fine design, for its intended use

lol - what we really have is less than perfect website management - we should have upgraded service levels, but the costs are high, and we have consequently been polishing a turd for a long time

but, no worries - we'll fix it

ps - for the record, obviously the quote was not necessary, and any village idiot would know what you were referring to, but wanted to clarify in case they didn't get your humor, but i get the joke - thanks for another chuckle

[rhudeboye]

ps - for the record, obviously the quote was not necessary, and any village idiot would know what you were referring to

[flash]

lol - yeah - sometimes you have to spell things like sarcastic humor out or somebody will take you seriously

[94SilverCab]

Mark,

Jump in and help us on the database and I'll make sure Flash works on your audio the next time he's here..

Jay

[flash]

i'm on it already - geez - some people's kids - lol

[jeff968]

"ps - for the record, obviously the quote was not necessary, and any village idiot would know what you were referring to"

I noticed this issue too and Bob pointed me to this discussion thread. I feel the quote is necessary. With any thread, you may have 10 posts on top of the post that you want to reference and sometimes those later posts take the thread topic off to an entirely new direction. Having the quote referenced in the latest post gets the reader back on topic or your comment attached to a post that is now 10 posts deep. Bob told me that he is working on it so I'm sure it will be fixed soon enough. In the meantime, I'm quoting as I did with this post.

[flash]

well, the better solution is to keep threads on track, which is where moderators would come in (now accepting applications by the way)

while we are working on a solution, whenever we get it sorted, what we don't want to see are entire posts quoted - it just isn't necessary - a brief reference is really all that is needed in almost all cases - certainly there will be exceptions, but they will be rare

for example, the quote above is totally unnecessary - the post would stand alone just fine without it - we all know what he is talking about

[Kim]

Flash - PM me if you want a moderator "from away".

[PorscheDude]

Any chance to keep quotes in pm's?

[flash]

lol - and i'd like to figure out how to prevent that altogether, because i have to delete it to respond, and i almost always already know what they are talking about, so i really don't need it

but i'll look into it - the software is pretty limited though