Good news, we will be posting these out tomorrow to everyone, fingers crossed you get them for Xmas.

I got mine today! Bag 3

Thanks you Graham, Lynn and all involved in editing, duplication etc.

cheers
Danny

GOT MINE:-D IN TIME FOR XMAS HAD A QUICK LOOK ALL SEEMS TO BE OK THANKS GRAHAM N LYNN ALL THE BEST

                                                                                   DD

Got mine, thanks Graham

Got mine, I can't wait to find the time to watch it :0)

We are just about to give the go ahead for some updates to be made to the forum,

Tapatalk app integration
Gallery mod for forum members
www. mod for forum members
Javascript anti spam device
Advice on how to lock down the threads to non members
External Links opening in a new window/tab

The tapatalk is an app for the iphone/android devices so that you can view and upload pictures directly

Gallery and WWW buttons will appear at the bottom of every post so people can view your website and portfolio pages instantly

The java anti spam is just for me so that I do not keep having to delete 50 spammers a day from joining the site

External new window is so that people are not directed away from the site when they click onto a link posted

And the last option, lock down the threads, that I'm not 100% sure about is making the forum viewable for members only.
We would have the balloon chit chat section viewable to everyone and then to view the rest of the forum it's members only.
Comments welcome on pro's and con's of this. I was thinking that all those who lurk would join the site and once members it's only a short step then to posting and joining in. Normally we have 2/3 members and then anything up to 20 non members viewing the site. Would the 20 non members join the site or would we miss out and the viewing numbers fall, at the moment the non members are not contributing to the site and I'm looking for a way to pull them into our little family.

Is there anything else we should think about adding to the forum for it to be more user friendly??

Hi Graham,

would it be possible so that when you upload a photo to the forum there is no need to resize the photo? Whether its uploaded from a smart phone or via the computer, it would be great to have this facility (if its possible!).

I agree about the membership seeing everything and restricted viewing for non-members, it would be nice to entice them (non-members) with photos of that particular months competition winning photo too, for example.

The other stuff sounds great!

cheers
Danny

I have put the question to the technical people Danny, that would save me hours especially when at a convention trying to keep up with things.

I was also looking into making the forum an active forum and giving new members seven days to make there first post. I have been looking at some of the early members with no posts from 2008/9, some registered on the forum and have not been back since.
Any thoughts?

Well it seems that it is possible to have an added section put onto the forum so that there is no need to re-size the pictures. If this is so and works it will save everyone and especially myself quite a lot of time so thanks for asking Danny.
I have just given the go ahead for all the work to start so things could be a changing anytime soon.

Whoo hoo!

Now I have no excuse for not posting photos!

Thanks Graham, this site is going to be EVEN better!

Danny  

I think these steps sound great.

Will the site be down at all while the work is going ahead?

He is working all the changes off line on a copy of the site and then everything will be loaded onto the site in one go, I think.
So hopefully the forum will not be off line and no one will notice anything.

That sounds great.

This is what I was thinking of posting out to all members who have never posted onto the forum;

Hello,

We are making the balloon forum; www.balloonchat.co.uk
which you are a member off but as yet you have not posted an active members forum in a few weeks.
We are hoping you may like to join in on the forum and perhaps post now and again.
The how I got started thread may be a good one to start with?
start-twisting-entertaining.html

If you are unsure how to post please ask as I'm more than happy to help out.

Should we change the wording?