DTCA website upgrade 2023

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1 year 3 months ago #24300 by binnsboy650
I'm saddened by events that seem to be unfolding with regard to the DTCA website and forum. Whilst I understand that the committee may not feel that the website is relevant to them they should be apprised of how important a web presence is these days. Anyone who has seen the massive growth of the Facebook Dinky Toys Collectors group in recent times (14.2k members and rising) will be aware of the widespread interest in Dinkys that still exists, with many people keen to ask questions and glean information. Some of us are spending more time there than here and if the website goes by the board then the DTCA will be missing a trick and be the poorer for it. None of this is to denigrate the efforts of Al Keeling and I know we all wish him well.

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1 year 2 months ago #24303 by bakalkeeling
To update everyone on the progress toward a new version of this website, it has now become clear that we will need to change this platform to something else. There is a plan to procede with manageable resources, so I'm hoping that the migration can get started very soon. Thanks again for your patience everybody. Meanwhile, to insert images into your posts, I'd advise again to use third party websites like postimg.cc/ where you can upload and then copypaste links or thumbnail links.

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1 year 2 months ago #24304 by RaviBee
Replied by RaviBee on topic DTCAwebsite upgrade 2023
Al, do you expect the site to move to WP?--Ravi

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1 year 2 months ago #24305 by bakalkeeling
From the platform options, Joomla looks like it will be the better option. This is quite similar to WP, but the wp forum, like most useful wp addons, seems come with a ballast of premium features. Meanwhile, the Drupal advanced forum (this one) and the Joomla kunena forum don't need subscriptions. As a preview of what a DTCA website with Joomla could look like, here's an example /index.php/forum/placeholder-category-title/1-dtca-test-post

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1 year 2 months ago #24306 by johnnyangel
Thank you for the update, Al. The Joomla preview looks clean and very promising.

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1 year 2 months ago #24316 by kasvd
Replied by kasvd on topic DTCAwebsite upgrade 2023
After uploading a picture on postimg.cc these two options can be used. Copy it and then paste here in your comment.

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1 year 2 months ago #24320 by Jan Oldenhuis
it's very simple. You just need to know that when you copy the link into your comment, only the text of the link will appear in the comment and not yet the image. Only when you push the preview or directly the save button, the image will appear neatly in the text of your comment. With this tool it is now very easy to add an image via postimg.cc. I hope everyone will try this and the forum will come to live again. There is only one condition. Only if this free tool continues to exist will the photos remain visible on the website forever. Jan O. https://i.postimg.cc/cJXw4tHP/Firez-One-Oil-blik-Droogbak-1-3.jp

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1 year 2 months ago #24321 by johnnyangel
As I already pointed out here many messages ago, the problem with using postimg.cc or any other third-party image hosting site is that over the months or years, the images may not stay hosted on those sites. (The third-party sites may close down entirely, or start charging for image hosting, etc.) There are plenty of prior examples of this phenomenon, leading to what is known as en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_rot ' target=_new]link rot.Therefore, use third-party hosting for casual sharing of new acquisitions, etc., but be wary of using it for an article you have put plenty of time into and which you would like to have be a permanent part of the DTCA Forum. Hopefully, the new forum platform that Al Keeling has announced will again be full-featured and put paid to this dilemma.

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10 months 3 weeks ago #24349 by Jan Oldenhuis
Dear Al, can you tell us something about the chances of having a properly functioning website before the end of the year, including a forum with easy to place photos? If nothing happens before the end of the year, a lot of members will cancel their membership. Have any possibilities been explored? We are all eagerly awaiting news about what is being done about the website, but we have heard nothing about it. I see you as the only point of contact for us who could let us know the current state of affairs. It is underestimated that good communication and honest disclosure of matters in this regard are crucial for the continued existence of the DTCA at this time. Members must now decide whether they want to renew their membership. It is now make or break. Best wishes, Jan Oldenhuis

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8 months 2 days ago #24376 by bakalkeeling
To give an update about the site migration, and following up on where I've mentioned moving to the Joomla system. This current system, called Drupal, is in a chaotic phase of development to the point where it's not viable to pursue as an upgrade option. I had informally agreed with the committee to buy a piece of assistance tooling to move all the data that's here into a Joomla platform, to which I've linked above. On final investigation, and at the point of installing this tool, I find that it doesn't work. In fact there are no automation tool available at the moment, which only leaves a manual method. This is what I had to do to get this current site to work originally. (now having developed some unwanted quirks). In a way, this is good to know because it settles what the approach must be. It does leave a possibility of some choppy transfers - such as we saw some broken up threads and titles before. This might mean some retrospective sorting of pages, but hopefully nothing too major. there's no chance of breaking anything else here meanwhile.

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8 months 1 day ago #24377 by RaviBee
Replied by RaviBee on topic DTCAwebsite upgrade 2023
Hi Al,I spent a few months learning WordPress and find it to be a very good CMS even with using only free plug-ins. You may want to consider re-evaluating it as a possible alternative to Joomla. As you probably know, 30% of the world's top 1M websites run WP, while only 3% use Drupal and 1.5% run on Joomla. IMHO, the WP ecosystem and community is amazing. www.cloudways.com/blog/wordpress-vs-drup...joomla/Thanks,--Ravi

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8 months 1 day ago #24378 by bakalkeeling
Hi Ravi, It might come to a wp installation because I see there is an available migration assistant. My main reservation with wp is that absolutely everything above the most basic features is premium (including a forum and even the theme... so it has a bit of a blank cheque feel about it), I know the joomla standarad forum is solid and joomla is more configurable generally. That's possibly offset by wp being maybe more portable in the sense that it could be shuffled to a managed host elsewhere pretty easily - and one of the plugin forums might be perfectly adequate. At any rate, I've popped up a wp demo site which I'll be evaluating dtcawebsite.live-website.com/

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