Gallery and pictures., HELP Options

[awd4kicks]

I have to take responsibility for this. I have not put any pressure on my free Admin help who have been gracious enough to give of their time.

Yes the gallery needs fixed, but this is a site free to all that want to be on it and there are some short comings to things being done for free. I will work on getting a fire under this issue.

Here is my theory though...

Money = influence an pressure from those that have it.

I don't need or want any of the above when they are all tied together as they normally are. Too many strings an too much BS.

If anyone has ideas on how more timely site management can be retained in a good way, lay it out here. Nobody has ever liked the idea of dues and I can understand that, but we have to live with the short comings if we keep it this way.

Marcus

[Mike]

It's not marcus's fault, it is my own. I reasured everyo0ne that I would keep up with the site and I have failed in doing so. I am truely sorry for the lack up updates. I have been way to busy to contribute any time to the site and if anybody else has any ideas I am up for it. I can try and get some things working agian but dont have time for the complete overhaul this site requires.

Now, I am bending over and waiting for the kick. ;-)
Michael Roth.

[awd4kicks]

For the record I have not felt pressure and have given no influence to the advertizers. They pay for advertizing and get a good deal at that. So that is all square.

[Mike]

Ohhh me me me. No wait I dont even have time to wipe my own ass. let just say I have to do lots of laundry. ;-)

[xian 1g]

well,

In all honesty, i don't think this spy thread is meant to place blame or kick to the curb either mike or marcus... I could go through the pain staking process of digging up crap, to prove this, but, spy, i believe you are coming after me. And I have better things to do, such as learn the language needed to fix the front page.

and I'll take blame for some of the allegations made... my skills and time have limited me from making the improvements i want to see for this site at the pace i want it to go...

if you have a problem with me... you know my number.

[awd4kicks]

All in due time. Nothing is going to get fixed by craming it through all of the sudden and no personal issues have anything to do with DSMCentral or how it is run.

I don't think this is a personal attack on how I manage DSMCentral, but it's starting to feel that way. I am responsible for the management and dis-repair of this site, because I'm the one on this meager host of personal web interaction, making the final decisions to do or not to do something. As our well known Josh (aka: SloPny) would say...Like it or Lump it.

This is a forum open to the public though and freedom of speech can be practiced. We as modderators just try to keep things on the DSM subject. As humans at work, some things seem loosly managed while others get axed or fixed without warning. Nothing's perfect and this site goes right along with that like everything else.

I'll be hoping for some good ideas, but in the mean time I'll see what I can do to get some of these repairs taken care of.

Marcus

[natedogg]

I agree with Kicks on this one. Most of us are at work during the day and have lives outside the internet at night. We do what moderating we can when we can. The rest of the time, we depend on the members of dsmcentral to man up and act like adults, so we don't have to treat this site like 2nd grade recess. If this offends anyone, grow thicker skin.

[99Spyder]

What kind of changes were planned for the gallery?
-Browse/Upload option
-Image size restrictions
-Some kind of pic randomization for the front page

[awd4kicks]

The first two items listed were already present. The front page is supposed to pull randome pictures from the garage or a separate cash of pictures of members cars with their best ET's or features listed on them.

Ideas?

[99Spyder]

Something like this for the front page pulled from a seperate directory...



or this...

[SCCA Stang]

Wow that's a GOOD LOOKING galant! What's something like that worth? I would like a nice pimp 4 door!

"more than you can afford pal..."

"Mitsubishi".... Woooombahhh (pooosh!_)

hmmmm.......

what move was that from "Dom".... I mean Dan

[awd4kicks]

YES Spyder! You are absolutely on the right track with the second picture. I would like to pull members photos randomly from a database to be viewed on the DSMCentral homepage when it is brought up.

Can you do that? Or at least the picture database?

[99Spyder]

I can definately take care of the pictures. Let me see if my technical abilities will allow for using the ad code to randomize the front page images...

[99Spyder]

Looking for some feedback here:

I only have four example images, with made up ETs, so the randomization may appear to be a little off. It uses the same time based logic as the ads do so it should be pretty good when more pics are added.

Should the pics be a little larger to fill the entire frame?
Should the outline on the words be slightly darker?

New Front Page? - Refresh a few times to see the images change

[black92_tsi_awd]

Should the pics be a little larger to fill the entire frame?
Should the outline on the words be slightly darker?

New Front Page? - Refresh a few times to see the images change

I like it...I'd make the text a little easier to read.
Picture size looked good to me.

[awd4kicks]

I like the picture size and the randomizer looks like it's working perfectly! I wonder if we justify all the text to the lower left had corner it may help the readability. May even be able to reduce the text size a bit and maybe 'Fire' up the brightness of the best ET to draw attention to it.

Great job!

[99Spyder]

OK, I changed three of the images on the Example Page. It might make the most sense to use either the lower left or right depending on the least obstructive to the car. On the new awdnot2gsx image I placed it on the right...

I also cranked up the brightness of all of the text, shrunk it, and darkened the outline.

[awd4kicks]

As far as I'm conserned, that's it right there! You have nailed this one down.

I will PM you will more information so we can get thisinfo on the active home page.

Thanks!

[black92_tsi_awd]

Looks good!

Looks like Darryl needs to update his info!

[JBone]

WOW



That looks great, dude.

[SCCA Stang]

hey looks good.....


BTW... Kicks, I think for creating a great looking home page we should change his "below avatar saying"???? don't know what it is called???? to something other beginner, reguardless of the fact that he has 44 posts.... just a thought

Ben

[99Spyder]

I am glad that everyone likes what is going on. Once I get the info from Marcus I will start up a thread and have people submit their desired pic. To keep times accurate I would assume that we will keep to members that are listed in the "DSMCentrals Official Best"?

Should we list 1/4 mile times only? 1/8 and 60' if available?
What about members without timeslips? Picture without time?

[xian 1g]

spyder, are pulling up the images with times already photoshopped on them? or are you pulling up the times from a db table and then having them overlayed on the pics?

if it's the latter, frick'n awsome... if it's the first, that would mean that we'd have to photoshop all the pics first... = teh pain in teh ass, as well as updating them.

[99Spyder]

Yeah the prototypes where photshopped. Once all of the sizing was set up on the first one you can duplicate the text layer on to another image so really all that has to be changed is the text itself, resize the image, and save it.

I have been looking into placing text over an image. I am able to place it where I want it, in the right color, but have not replicated the shadow yet. The concept here would be to use a comma seperated text file like a database. For example each line of the text file would include:

PicName,MemberName,Car,1/4time,1/8time,60time

That way the randomizer could choose an entry from the text file and know all of the information to display. Then to add new images we just add another line to the text file.

I think that I would prefer to Photoshop them for the start though to get things started and then further this concept.

For those who don't care...sorry about the technical garbage!

[awd4kicks]

Um wow...I didn't even consider database info for the pictures. I just assumed we would have to photo shop them.

As far as which pics to pull. If we can pull from the garage and the photoshopped picture storage then that would be best. If we can only pull from one I would prefer the photoshoped pictures with times listed. If you plan to store the photoshoped pictures in their respective garages then it will be the best of both worlds.

For picture information, I think you've got it covered. I think only one Best 1/4 mile time is sufficient, but I like the idea of the 1/8 and 60 ft. times for those who use them as comparrisons.

Marcus

[mitsu90]

what about the people that have not made it to the trck yet and have no time?

[turbohcar]

NICE guys, I like it already! Keep it up.

[99Spyder]

Xian really got me to thinking earlier, Photoshopping a bunch of images and then updating as times improve could become tedious. Therefore additional changes have been made... Here is the Example Page link again.

All of the text that is displayed now is dynamic. It is currently being pulled from the main website file but should be able to be placed in a seperate text file as mentioned earlier. The shadowing effect is created by writing the same information in to different colors with the black slightly offset. The pictures are even being pulled directly from the garage now

The only drawback of using this method is that the text will have to remain on the lower left side. Given the ease of updates this will provide I think it is a worthwhile sacrifice.

[black92_tsi_awd]

what about the people that have not made it to the trck yet and have no time?

You could still have the member name and car info, just no times....right?

[natedogg]

Very nice! You a web magician, spyder!

[xian 1g]

thanks spyder. that is awsome, I've been working for month in my spare time trying to figure out how to write the code to tie the member number -> member name -> highlighted image -> car information from the db. i'm soooo going to look at the code to see how it was defeated.

Marcus, yeah, the pm i had from mike had the db as the plan all the time. I once shot a demo page for temporarily relief on the front page that was basically the random ad_var image like what spyder did...

[soccerdude61587]

id recommend side by side columns it would allow for a clear picture of the car.

[SCCA Stang]

spyder...... great work.... I like the later of the two.... although.... I hope that the times posted are just random and not already set with the pics, because i know my car won't run a 10.XX @ 139. I don't want someone that can run that fast calling me out on something like that.

Natedog is right..... you are a web magician.... hey, thats what we can use under your avatar instead of beginner.....

Ben

[99Spyder]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I don't think what I am doing is as impressive as Xian is thinking. I do not have access to the site or the database yet so I was working strictly off of a comma seperated input file. Those interested *might* be able to see the input file at this link - Input File.

I have it working great on my local system but when I upload it sometimes the database functions do not load properly. I think that I am going to use a different method to read the input file and see if that works any better.

Anyone know what type of webserver/database combo DSMCentral is hosted on?

Stay tuned... (pun intended)

[xian 1g]

I can probally get that information for you. Send me a pm as I don't believe that information needs to be public. If it takes me a day or two to get back to you, my apologies now. I've been with out internet for over week and am trying to get all caught up.

xian.