Is it time to up our game?
 

I don't know exactly where to start. I joined this site for an obvious reason, I, like almost everyone else here, has something in their life that they are passionate about, a Subaru SVX. That esoteric mechanical device, and our passion for it, is the common denominator that we all share. But, there's a problem! This site is, among many other things, a unique and absolutely irreplaceable repository of knowledge. The key word in that last sentence? Irreplaceable. Sometimes, knowledge is stored in several places, kinda like when you back up your computer. Sometimes, when knowledge is lost, and there is no other copy, or, there is no practical way to retrieve it... It's gone forever. And we are all the poorer for its loss.

Today, I was surfing the site, looking for some info before I pulled the newbie "no no", and asked a question that "search" would have answered. I've read posts from years ago, and more recent posts and noticed that some members have come recently, some members have been here pretty much since day one, and some have been banned for whatever indiscretion they may have committed, and some have just, for lack of a better expression, moved on.I'm not quite sure who the poster was I was looking for info about transmissions ... it was just some dude with a long ass name, but the first thing I noticed, was that he's not around to ask anything of, and that his posts were missing one very important ingredient.. PICTURES!... All that were there were little boxes that didn't do squat. So, there I am trying to make sense of something ... and the most important information that there is, no longer exists. A picture is truly worth a thousand words. A video of that "funny sound" that needs to be diagnosed, or how to "get that little clip to let go of the other thingy" is worth a thousand pictures.

I know from posting other threads, that putting a picture in a thread requires a separate account with Photobucket, or some other similar entity. And therein lies the problem. If we, as a group, don't "have" the image, file, whatever, hosted on our own server, we WILL eventually find it non accessible. Simply put, in our own best interests, if for nothing else other than our own ease of use in posting, we need to up our game in this matter.

I'll be the first to admit I know squat about the technical issues involved, or the costs involved. I host my stuff on GoDaddy, and for what I need it to do, it works just fine, and is dirt cheap. This site, however, is probably a completely different ball game. as such, I have no freekin' idea what's costs would be involved, or what time and effort would be involved in getting this site's server and software to the point where whatever we post ( images, video, etc.), would remain accessible to all until one day in the far distant future, when there's only one member left.

Here's what I propose...

I realize that this site is privately owned and operated, not for profit, but for passion. This shouldn't cost it's operators and administrators anything beyond the time they so generously already contribute...

If possible, an administrator could find out what the cost would be to change the site so that pictures and videos can be uploaded and have enough storage and outgoing bandwidth to accommodate it properly and store it with redundant back up.

Start a fund for that specific purpose that members can specifically contribute to. When the goal is reached, implement the changes. Maybe give out a free calendar to anyone who donates more than X.. I don't know.. anything so that we stop losing information that is hosted off site.

And yes, I'll put my money where my mouth is.. If a fund is opened for this specific purpose. I'll put in the first $100.00... Hell, I'll even do it in U.S funds.

Because we've got to stop losing what we haven't group ownership of.

All in favour ( favor if you're in the U.S.A.), and who would be willing to contribute ANYTHING.. please reply with "Me too!"

Sometimes, you can solve a problem by throwing money at it... This may be one of them.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

FYI - LAN removed his pics. I seem to remember that he wasn't happy about folks just copying his efforts when he was trying to start his company (ECUTune)

Bill

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

That is what it is, I wouldn't deem to pass judgement on whether that action was right or wrong, justified or petulant, but it's not the only example of what I'm referring to.. there are a lot of valuable threads that contain, for lack of a better term, hard fought for information, and they are missing pictures, and links that they use don't work.

There is a Library of Congress.. This is the Library of SVX.

Specifically, LAN was asked for part numbers and recommendations in regards to bulding a transmission. As much as it was his choice to not disclose what would have ammounted to proprietal information regarding anything that would negatively impacted his earning potential from the fruits of his labour. Non proprietal pictures, such as the internals of a 4EAT, are gone too.

My post was in no way a "dig" at what he chose to do as far as editing his posts, or deleting the links that made the pictures "work". Just pointing out that it was an example of the valuable information that will continue to leak away from us unless we host it ourselves.

If anyone is "uncomfortable" for any reason, to post something and have it available for all of posterity, they would, of course be free to continue to utilize the current methodology, and link over from Photobucket, or their YouTube account and maintain, for whatever reason, control over the content they would, for whatever reason, wish to control.

Upgrading the current system would add both functionality and permanence, especially as some of us, for whatever reason, ... move on..

As I said, I have no clue as to whether we're talking about a couple of hundred bucks, or several thousand dollars, but I definitely feel that it's ( hosting everything on our own server) , an option that should be explored, and if viable, persued.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

I like your idea.

I too have noticed missing pictures, links etc. but had not really considered the cause or possible solution.
I plan to stay in the SVX game for quite some time. They are unique and quirky. I do most of my own repairs out of financial necessity and for the pleasure it brings when success is achieved. The information available on this site and from it's members is a treasure, an International Treasure.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

One of the first things to do is to pull the "old" lockers into the "new" system. I did a lot of R&D work years ago, but all the pics are in my "old" locker.

Bill

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

The technical info on this site is what makes it possible for me, and possibly many more, to skip the discovery phase on many repairs. It's valuable enough to me that I'd chip in on your proposal if that's what's needed.

If it weren't for this site, I'd have sold my SVX in frustration. Instead, because of this site, and all the good folks using it, my SVX is less mysterious and a lot more fun.

I also wonder if it's possible to just take what is here now, consolidating data and replacing pics, and put it all onto a searchable CD for sale. Maybe that could help pay for any expansion to the site. Of course, that takes someone's labor and I don't know if anyone is able or willing.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

I host as many of my pictures as possible on this site. I find the upload tool a but cumbersome (it claims to be able to do multiple uploads but I've only ever been able to do one at a time), but otherwise it's perfectly usable. An added advantage for me is that some picture hosting sites (photobucket in particular) are blocked at work so the only way I can see my own threads is by hosting the pictures here. A couple of my threads have dead image links that I've been trying to update.

I've gotten a lot of use out of other people's photo posts/lockers as well. It's a really unique and useful tool for this forum to have. It is a tad bit annoying to have a couple features locked unless you donate to the forum, but I do that anyway so no big deal.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

There were a few pictures I removed from a few threads once upon a time because there was one person in particular who was using the information in them in a way I felt was un-beneficial for the community. It was only that one time. The other pictures from all my other posts are missing just because the ECUtune.com server no longer exists. I actually went to great lengths to make my private knowledge about the SVX ECU and TCU public, including posting definitions files with the locations of all the important tuning information.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

My svx was my first car, I cut my teeth on simple mechanical stuff by searching and rolling through this forum. I have every "How To Documents" post saved in case the cataclysmic happens. I love this forum and the knowledge that is here. Between the people and the documents it is worth its weight in gold.

That being said, I think the reason I left for some time was in part I got a RX-7. I have become much more active over there because of the "interesting" challenge of owning and modding a rotary engine. One thing I noticed about that site (rx7club) was that rather than count on donations, they used advertisements. The rx-7, unlike the svx, have a very large aftermarket market to draw advertising money from.

I know everyone hates ads, but they do serve a purpose, and if that purpose is keeping this forum funded, well I guess I could put up with them. Obviously the best answer would for the money donated by members to be thrown together in order to buy lottery tickets. As many as possible should be bought in hopes of making millions, but alas, mankind gets skittish when it comes to opening their pocket book.

Just my 2 cents.

No refunds....

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

The How-To Documents are done so the pictures are on the document and will not go away. If pictures are linked from somewhere else, if the member does not use the host and the pictures go away, they are gone from here too. We are in the process of upgrading the software here. The only problem is that to go from one upgrade to the next is that they have to be done from #3 to #4, then from #4 to #5 etc. We had not done an upgrade for quite some time, so there are many to be done before we are upto date. This take lots of time because each level has to be fixed and make sure it is ok before going to the next upgrade. The will be many good upgrades when this is complete. We have hoped that it would be done by now, but it is a slow process and takes many hours.

As far as backup, I have a server in Washington State and the main server is in Idaho. We have a very solid site and it has not been down in a very long time.

As far as funding for equipment and software, we have raffles at Reading and also have badges for different levels of donations. They are located by the members name. I will be posting this years donation information in the next day or so. The main goal that we have had is to avoid ads. I know they have a purpose, but we have not wanted to do that.

We also have a badge for when members list their car and have it registered here. I see you have not done that yet, but if you go to the Registration Forum, you can do that.

I hope this has answered some of your questions. :)

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

Honestly though, something like photobucket is completely free and allows TONS of storage, as does flickr, and others, etc. I think it would be nice to have a profile on photobucket, imgur, or others that we ALL have access to. Such as: user name: "SVX World Network" Password: "Funky Windows" or something like that. We could all upload our pictures there, and then they'd always be accessible. That could be a free alternative.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

Its a great idea, and one that I have wanted to do for years. To be more exact, I wish to make it easier for people to upload these photos to our own systems to manage. Its too easy to link the photos elsewhere and in the process you have issues of the free use agreement you give up rights to the photo/s and or free services get limitations to outside linking when daily bandwidth limitations are reached for daily or monthly cycles.

I have a large drive array in my possession that is to be used for the SVXWN. Its came without drives, but I have used money from donations and badges to purchase some 2TB drives along with the expensive external SAS cables. The site runs on the blade chassis and has no way to connect directly to the SAS array, so yet another server would need to be added as a middleman to present the drive space of the array to the blade chassis via iSCSI or NFS, or migrate off the blade chassis to a single server with external SAS RAID card/s. The biggest hold up on this upgrade at this very time is some logistical issues I do not wish to fully address at this time. In short, we don't pay for the power, bandwidth, space we consume, or cooling as more or less a lien on my paycheck and benefits. For now, this means situation normal. But there is a very good chance that I might have to shake things up A BUNCH, and if I need to move the servers, we will have to go into a situation where we will have to pay for retail services. Some of the metered costs of this are bandwidth, power consumption, and how much space the servers take up. For scale sake, if we paid for just the power and space alone as a retail customer, this photo below of the SVX servers and equipment would be $500 a month.

We run on older, cheaper, equipment, that just happens to be larger by size. We can shrink everything down to a single server that has multiple 2.5" SAS drives, lots of memory and would only cost about $50-80 a month in space, but this technology is going to cost us thousands up front. Like how a jack leverages heavy load with increased work (pumping of the handle) right now we leverage large space usage for cheaper one time costs of used older gear. If we have to move and pay for services, we will have to trade this equation for higher single time costs, and less monthly fees.

Hope all whom care understand. :D

http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/files/Chris/44910.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

This is a very interesting conversation. I recently bought an older Toyota Tercel 4WD wagon, don't laugh...

Anyway, their fourm was old and littered with tribal knowledge, much like this fourm. The Webmaster abruptly decided to change to a new, trouble-ridden software. This instantly broke nearly every link, how-to and photo on the site. No Private Messages, no "New Posts" option, etc. When the masses revolted, even offered to buy the site from the administrator, he shut down the site. True story... www.Tercel4wd.com

How can we assure this tragedy doesn't befall the SVX community?

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

That is horrible. But I think the user/member base that has been here for quite a while or even from the beginning know that is not how I work. Yes, I am slow to add features, but we are very cautious about breaking things. The reason we have not instantly migrated to version 5 of this software is because Jim (back end server admin) has evaluated the code and is not fully confident of its release candidate status. We are still moving to version 4, but we also wont go live with that until we get better results from the test environment lab. Back in 2000 when I said I was willing to try to do thing better than what the free services of Yahoo was offering at the time, Aredubjay challenged me to do it. Then when I presented the sandbox for the new club home, he liked it. Before he was wanting to lead the Yahoo membership to the SVX World Network, he wanted a commitment from me to be a permanent home, a long term thing. We went live in 2001 and we are just a couple months from 14 years of service. I hope I have lived up to the commitment.

Re: Is it time to up our game?
 

The performance of this site is excellent, I think.

I'll see what I can do about replacing the photos that were hosted on ECUtune.com.

(I like that 2950. I have one of those with the perc6i and sas backplane. I run a solid state drive in a raid 0 array of 1 in bay 0 to boot off of and have a bunch of 2TB drives in a type 5 array. There are only a few brands of raid controllers out there that are truly expandable and Dell's perc's are one of them.)