vBulletin 3 upgrade questions, problems & tips

[Yellow Rose]

System Reset

First, let me provide an observation which will lead in to my questions at the end.

Like most PRIME addicts, I surf the forums virtually daily - Monday thru Friday, and usually (but sometimes not at all) one of the weekend days. Let’s say the last time I checked PRIME was around lunch time. When I would check PRIME first thing the next morning there would be, say, 130 new posts. Let’s say the last time I checked PRIME was late in the afternoon. When I would check PRIME the first thing the next morning there would be, say, 90 posts. This makes sense because posts increase as the day grows long, but in both situations something happens around mid-morning.

Let’s say I checked PRIME a 7:30 AM (it is sad when you check PRIME before work related e-mail) and there were the above 90 or 130 posts. A couple of hours later, the posts drop to zero, and will gradually increase throughout the day until approximately the same time the next day. Sometimes I have seen the post count reset itself twice in one day, and happens more than just rarely.

Let’s say I don’t check PRIME all weekend long. When I check it Monday morning there are something like 250 posts.

Question 1 - is this because I did not check on Saturday / Sunday, and since the last time I checked PRIME Friday afternoon the total daily posts accumulate until I check PRIME again Monday morning?

Question 2 - if I go on vacation, does that mean there will be 700 posts since I last checked PRIME when I return?

Question 3 - regardless of the two previous questions, why did the system not reset itself like it does mid-morning every day?

 

[NSX Prime]

The system just looks at your last logon time and shows you all new posts since then. There is no "reset hour". It resets your last logon when you log out or after 900 seconds of inactivity.

 

[johntwolff]

As long as one platform is used on over 99 percent of new computers, that may make perfectly good sense.

Let me ask you Ken, as vastly more people buy Accords than NSX, should that mean that Honda simply close down the NSX assembly lines, or might there be alternate requirements for some drivers?

Ask a biologist what worries them most in an ecosystem and they'll reply -- a monoculture. One pathogen and the ecosystem crashes. Biodiversity is the goal of Nature... so it should be for the Internet (and for Microsoft, since they want to play God.)

NSX required info: I use a Mac for the same reasons I drive an NSX. It is simply a better solution to the entirety of the proposed problem.

Now if we could only fix the CSS/font sizing issue...

 

[NSX-Racer]

As long as one platform is used on over 99 percent of new computers, that may make perfectly good sense.
NSX. Spread the word.

MAC - spread this word too, please...

 

[nsxtasy]

as vastly more people buy Accords than NSX, should that mean that Honda simply close down the NSX assembly lines, or might there be alternate requirements for some drivers?

It amazes me that Mac devotees can continue to trot out the same old tired, INVALID analogies and expect them to be accepted because they sound like they might make sense. Come on, John - you and I both know that any company can build whatever kind of computer they like, just as they can build whatever kind of car they like. And you know as well as I do that that's not even what I was talking about.

The simple fact is this: If you are making parts and accessories - whether it's software for a computer, or tires and brake pads for a car - when you decide which products you are going to sell for, you are going to look at the size of your target market. Are you going to sell and stock parts that fit 8,000 cars on the road, or 8,000,000 cars on the road? Are you going to sell software for over 99 percent of personal computers sold, or are you going to sell software for less than 1 percent of personal computers sold? The answer is, that depends - it depends on whether you want to compete for a larger customer base in a market with more competitors, or in a niche specialty market with fewer competitors, but bigger risks and less opportunity for economies of scale. In most cases, you can make a profit by appealing to the mass market, even to the point of ignoring the niche specialty market. And this is my point, the one that you ignore in your reply. Are you blaming companies for making money where the market is, and ignoring a tiny sliver of the market where they wouldn't make a profit? I sure don't. I find it perfectly understandable that companies may make software that works on Windows machines and not on Macs. Those who choose Macs can find smaller vendors that specialize in them... or may have trouble doing so. Just like those who own an NSX in Fargo, North Dakota, may have a tougher time (or may have to travel further) finding an experienced NSX mechanic than those who live in Chicago. It's the simple economics of supply and demand. You can rail all you want against it, but those economics are not going to go away.

P.S. I'm not even wasn't even starting the old "which is better, Mac vs Windows" debate from the 1980s. That war was fought in the marketplace and ended a decade ago. The Mac lost. Don't like it? Don't waste your time arguing on the internet about it; it's not going to change the results.

 

[Yellow Rose]

Cold Shower

This thread is about PRIME upgrades, nothing else.

As Mr. Wolf would ask, "Gentlemen, is there a problem?"

 

[burbel]

Hey Lud,

One quick question about the searches; you mentioned that you changed them to allow numbers (as in allowing searches for specific Zanardi NSXs). Two of my most recent NSX projects, the AC system repair, and new O2 sensors - I couldn't search for either of these terms. Would it be possible to change the minimum search term size from 3 to 2 characters? Or would that have other unintended consequences?


Just a thought...

 

[CokerRat]

Hey Lud,

One quick question about the searches; you mentioned that you changed them to allow numbers (as in allowing searches for specific Zanardi NSXs). Two of my most recent NSX projects, the AC system repair, and new O2 sensors - I couldn't search for either of these terms. Would it be possible to change the minimum search term size from 3 to 2 characters? Or would that have other unintended consequences?

At first glance, I thought that "ac" would turn up a million hits for every time those characters came up together (eg. ACura, ACcept, reACt, etc). Turns out it finds only isolated occurrences of the text (not attached to other characters). So yep it ought to work fine if permitted. There are lots of 2-letter acronyms and abbreviations we use here -- sounds like a good idea to me if possible.

 

[NSX Prime]

I do not think 2 characters is practical on the database side. I'll look into it a little more but I think it is unlikely.

 

[nsxtasy]

One quick question about the searches; you mentioned that you changed them to allow numbers (as in allowing searches for specific Zanardi NSXs). Two of my most recent NSX projects, the AC system repair, and new O2 sensors - I couldn't search for either of these terms. Would it be possible to change the minimum search term size from 3 to 2 characters?

You can do that already, using the wild card character (asterisk). If you want to search on the word "O2", enter this into the search:

O2*

I tried it. It works.

 

[burbel]

Hey, thanks Ken, that works great! Didn't think of that...