Astromart

August 21, 2018 08:18 AM Forum: Politics

Cool.....

Just noticed something that might lead me to use the forums more here.....

At the top of the forums list there is an option to only see the forums that have new posts for a specified time period.....Setting it to a week or even a day makes it easy to see whats new. More than once I have responded to something that was posted in 2017 before noticing it was old as hell. smile

August 21, 2018 08:21 AM Forum: How to make AstroMart BETTER!! My idea is.....

Posting a classified is getting absurd

Posted By Greg Shaffer

Hi Neil

Did you get your issues with new ads resolved?

I have not posted any ads since the new system went public but I posted quite a few during the testing phase and and didnt notice any of the problems you mentioned.

August 21, 2018 11:42 AM Forum: How to make AstroMart BETTER!! My idea is.....

Posting a classified is getting absurd

Posted By Greg Shaffer

You are correct that you cant copy and paste for the description......I would definitely prefer one could still do this.....as would anyone who wants to repost an ad that was getting old.

As for the rest.....I entered about 10 pages of text by just holding down keys and putting in large spaces with no apparent slow down.....

I attached 10 images with no issues, was able to use the edit function to verify it took all the text along with the huge space sections and review that it took all the images.....the images ranged from 95k to 300k each and the upload was fast.

What OS are you using?

What hardware ie desktop, tablet, phone?

What browser?

The only thing I didnt do was the final save after review.

August 21, 2018 02:52 PM Forum: Telescope Making

10 inch F10 Refractor

Posted By Greg Shaffer

Originally Posted by Keith Lawson
The scope hurt me bad enough that the I sold the lens. Took me couple of weeks to recover from the weeks of handling the instrument and scope rework. I thought I could deal with it like many of the other monsters I have had in the past but, at 65, the body says no. The optical tube assembly alone was about 60lbs. After weeks of use I realized that it's not something I would enjoy to putting up every night I want to observe. If the deal wasn't so tempting I probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

It was a good performer. The planets were well seen. Building a 8" cass currently.

Keith (Scopejunkie)

I totally get that....I am 64 and my 8" f/16 is a bit of a bear to deal with as well at approx. 50lbs and 11 foot long but I am gonna hang in there for a while yet as the views are just too good smile

I use a GM-200 equatorial that breaks down into 2 pcs. and I worked out a system for mounting it while standing on the tailgate of my truck....Haul it on a ladder rack lol. Besides its a good excuse to keep working out with weights lol

August 21, 2018 02:59 PM Forum: Mounts

older G-11 mount with encoders for hand slewing on gemini 1

Posted By Greg Shaffer

Originally Posted by Jonathan Lingel
Thanks Greg. I will try Losmandy again to see if they can supply the "Y" cable.

You can probably get a compatible Y cable here..... http://www.skyeng.com/ Both my GM-100 and GM-200 losmandy mounts have losmandy encoders and work fine with my Sky Commander and its Y cable....

August 21, 2018 10:15 PM Forum: How to make AstroMart BETTER!! My idea is.....

Posting a classified is getting absurd

Posted By Greg Shaffer

Originally Posted by Neil Barnett
Just a test here. So the string being replied to can not be seen while making a post.
Single space happens here when hitting the enter key, I couldn't get this while posting an ad.

This was a double enter key stroke and I got the double space and normal. While posting an ad, this would create a 4 line blank - double space for each hit on the ENTER key. It would be nice to be able to make a list in an ad without double space.

Confirmed it puts blank line between lines in an ad, don't see a way around it and I agree it needs to be addressed.

If you want to see what you are responding to in the forums you must use the quote function instead of just hitting reply. While it is sometimes nice to be able to quote all of a prior response including a quote in the message you are replying to I know with the prior software it could make for a real mess as reply chains could get VERY long.....Even CN recently changed to limiting this.

As for image sizes, storage space costs and I am pretty sure there is probably a cumulative limit both in ads and in the forums. I don't see any advantage to single images over 500k and I usually keep mine under 300k. I do wish the forums would allow for direct upload of multiple images in a post like CN instead of just one....That limit has been one of the main reasons I am not more active in the forums here.

I don't know what the future plans for improvements are but I am sure over time improvements will continue to be made and hopefully Herb is continuing to monitor these types of posts and make notes. Being able to copy and paste in ads is definitely something myself and MANY others want to see.....

August 22, 2018 12:32 AM Forum: How to make AstroMart BETTER!! My idea is.....

Posting a classified is getting absurd

Posted By Greg Shaffer

Originally Posted by Neil Barnett

Ha, kind of ironic that using quote will work well for this one thing. This is something to address but minor.

Typically (not here) the string is listed directly with a reply, and only the reply is posted. Typically (not here) the quote function is only to list the entry referenced (like yours above) directly in the reply. Yes, it is good to limit the quote to just a single given previous post or the cascade can get absurd. It amazes me that people would just keep doing that cascade while watching the ad nauseum repeats fill a screen. However, the situation here is different and somewhat counterproductive since seeing just one reference post REQUIRES the quote. AND no other previous post can be seen while replying in any way. Correspondence in a complicated or involved string, which is the interesting kind, could require notes before responding.

You referenced using 30K to 300K test pictures in a previous response (that I can't now see). I'll agree that 300K is a nice picture on a typical desk screen, but the 30K reference was almost like trying to hide an overly conservative limit. That's no bigger than the sample showing in an ad. I guarantee that those clicking on a 30K initial picture are nothing more than disappointed in the same size picture showing up. I'll run some test in the 300K range, a modest 4 to be specific to see if a total slightly over one meg goes. That's fairly minimal for usual accommodations. I'll experiment and let you know.

Actually what I previously said was when I entered a test ad with 10 images attached they varied from 95k to 300k. Dont understand why you can no longer see it since all I had to do was scroll up to see all of our previous messages all the way back to your original post. I know for a fact the 10 images totaled up to far beyond 1 meg.....probably close to 2.....

I can easily check again using larger images.....will do so.

August 22, 2018 06:57 AM Forum: How to make AstroMart BETTER!! My idea is.....