Location and name?

[Repairman77]

Hi all,

I do enjoy this forum and have found a lot of help from members here over the past few weeks; however one thing that frustrates me a little is not knowing where some of the members are; in this country or somewhere else in the world.
If members are not happy giving away their exact location they could surely list their County in their Profile.

Also some prefer to keep their first name secret which puzzles me. It's a lot easier to reply to someone by their first name rather than a strange user ID; and a lot more friendly.

Am I the only one who thinks this way?

Mike.

[M1DUL]

Hi all,

I do enjoy this forum and have found a lot of help from members here over the past few weeks; however one thing that frustrates me a little is not knowing where some of the members are; in this country or somewhere else in the world.
If members are not happy giving away their exact location they could surely list their County in their Profile.

Also some prefer to keep their first name secret which puzzles me. It's a lot easier to reply to someone by their first name rather than a strange user ID; and a lot more friendly.

Am I the only one who thinks this way?

Mike.

Hi Mike,
No you are not the only one who thinks that way I prefer to to know their first name and there location as well.

[steve]

I agree with you, and it would sometimes be useful from a support point of view to know where people are (to county or state level, or whatever). And although it's a slightly different issue, it would also be useful to know, without asking, what flavour of Windows people are using; I think I'll create a field in the profile for that.

Regarding first names, I don't know why some people don't want to disclose them. It would feel odd only knowing you as 'Repairman77' . I suspect that many people just don't bother to sign their real names, rather than wanting to keep them secret, whereas others clearly just want to be known as 'beteljuice' (for example), and I have no problem with that. I'm beginning to think that is actually his (her?) real name

We have to remember that there are some seriously weird people on the internet, and sometimes people may have genuine reasons for withholding information about themselves. I don't mean that the people doing the withholding are the weird ones, by the way!

Steve

[Repairman77]

Glad it's not just me then.

Does get a little strange when you chat to someone and don't know if they are living just up the road or on the other side of the world.

I do agree that the OS system that people are using and perhaps the speed of their computer etc. could be quite useful to you when bugs are found in the software.

Mike.

[daj]

I have been so bold as to suggest to the new members who introduce themselves that they complete their location as a starting point

[Repairman77]

I have been so bold as to suggest to the new members who introduce themselves that they complete their location as a starting point

Good idea David.

Mike.

[gemini06720]

Steve may I recommend, if it is even possible, that a few additional fields be created where one must enter his/her first name (at the very least), his/her location, and the operating system used by one's computer.

At least for me, it is difficult to reply to someone just using a nickname.

On another subject...

This is probably my first complaint about the Cumulus forums and the Wiki... Not a complaint about the information contained in either the forums or the Wiki... But a complaint about the access speed to both the forums and Wiki!

I usually access the forums between the hours of 21:00 and 05:00 pacific time (UTC -8). Early in the evening, the access speed is adequate. But as the evening and the early morning continue, the access speed becomes appalling - it took 2 minutes and 37 seconds (I timed it) before I got my screen back after clicking the 'Submit' button...

Over the months I have access the forums, I have noticed the same slow access speed situation almost on a daily basis - on my end, I access the Internet through a high speed cable connection and the Cumulus forums are among the slowest to access...

[Repairman77]

Ray, I've notice the slow return speeds when posting on this forum, but I thought it may have been set up this way incorporating perhaps some anti-spam system.

It takes a long while for me on a 6Mb ADSL connection, whereas other forums I visit load in less than a second. Obviously not an Internet speed problem. The main forum index does seem to load quickly in a second or two; it's just posting that seems so slow.

It would be nice to know what the reason is. I'm rather curious myself?

Mike.

[gemini06720]

It would be nice to know what the reason is. I'm rather curious myself?

So, I am not the only one being affected by the appalling (most of the times) access speed to the Cumulus forums...

And I thought it was my distance (pacific west coast of North America) but I have been active on a forum in South Africa where access speed has been much faster than expected ... and that is way further for me...

[Repairman77]

Ray,
The main forum index does seem to load quickly in a second or two; it's just posting that seems so slow.

[steve]

Steve may I recommend, if it is even possible, that a few additional fields be created where one must enter his/her first name (at the very least), his/her location, and the operating system used by one's computer.

It is indeed possible, and I do intend to add a field for OS, and make that and the location fields mandatory.

But a complaint about the access speed to both the forums and Wiki!

Yes, David has also commented on the speed of the Wiki in particular. The speed does vary a lot, most of the time I find it fine, and I tend to be on at all times of the day, UK time. The server is in California, as it happens. I think it is MySQL access that is the main problem.

Unfortunately I simply cannot afford to switch to another provider that gives me all that I need for anywhere near the same price. Basically, everything is 'unlimited', but it is mainly the unlimited domains and unlimited MySQL databases that I need.

[beteljuice]

Steve may I recommend, if it is even possible, that a few additional fields be created where one must enter his/her first name (at the very least) ...

Bet LeJuice

[steve]

most of the time I find it fine

Admittedly, posting does seem to be very slow! I'll see if the database needs cleaning or something.

[daj]

Bet LeJuice

Yeah, we get to call you Bet!

[steve]

PaulC has a forum on 'my' server; it's quite new, with not many posts yet. I've just tried posting there and it's pretty quick. So I guess the problem here is the size of the database. Is there a MySQL expert in the house?