This is doable. Let me look into it.

Would it be possible to get the breadcrumb trail at the top of the page also at the bottom of the page? Please? I hate scrolling back up the page all the time.

That is very possible. I'm going to add more controls to the bottom of the page soon, including a "recent posts" buttton.

Any chance of bring back the gas Buddy that used to be on the front page?

If there is a desire for it, yes. The downside of that was that we were gathering data from MSN, which was often a week behind the actual prices.

I can add that functionality again if there is a desire.

Is it possible to change the search restrictions?

I find I keep running into the 3 character limit. I was just looking for a thread I know to have "EBH" in it, but got spanked for being below the letter limit.

How 'bout 2 letters? ;)

I can change that somewhere. I'll change it later tonight. Thanks for point that out. I even think that 2 letters is too restrictive. If I wanted to search for "VX" I would be out of luck.

Any luck on this, Matt, or was it not possible?

Lots of data, lots and lots of annotated data! :D

I got this impression from you with your first post, if you want we can collaborate on putting something good together for the archive, there's a lot out there, just needs to be collected.

That'd be awesome. I've got the time now, so I might as well. Is most of it in the vbGarage, or are there some other sources?

Ah, hell, Iono where it is, it's scattered all over. Lots of good graphs and stuff and things that could be graphs and la la la.

Aw crap, I'm gonna regret having free time! :D
Yeah... organizing it is probably doable, make a sticky in each section with links, or something. Graph whatever looks interesting.

Eh, I figure to just put it in the main one except mehbe one for DIY to show what's done what and one for aero since it's its own can of wurms.

Another suggestion: can we have the "originally posted" date appear on the forum summary page?

Sometimes "old" threads get resurrected, and it would be useful to know if it's a new one or not, at a glance on the "recent threads" page.

Maybe put the original post date beside the original poster's name?

Bump!

Matt are you ignoring me? I feel neglected.

(Didn't hear a peep from you on the 3-letter search limitation either.)

Usurper!

D'oh... totally missed that last one. Gimme a sec to see what I can find.

Done and done. The 2 character thing might end up hurting us though, as the search database is now HUGE. I might have to figure out another method sometime in the future.

Do what teamswift did: add a Google search box above the GS search feature which adds "site:gassavers.org" before submitting it. People are more familiar with how to structure a Google search to get what they want anyway. (The only downside being it won't be as up to date as the GS search.)

That is an option. For now our database isn't that big, and having a giant server to play with also gives me a lot of leeway. I think we'll just have to revisit the search problem at some future date. It's also possible for me to hook up my own search server like honda-search.com just for gassavers.

Anyway, it's great. Now I can search for "EBH" and "VX". Nice. Merci, monsieur.

Place to upload forum related pics, would be useful.
 

How about an option for registered users to upload pictures directly into the forum threads (as some forum software allows)? If that is too much work given the current forum software, how about a "picture gallery" for registered users, where we can upload pictures related to what we are doing (and then link to those "gallery pictures" in our forum threads)?

As they say, "a picture is worth a 1000 words". Many times, a picture would be handy to illustrate something we are talking about. And IMHO doing a separate signup for some 3rd party hosting site, and then linking in the images is a PITA. Worse yet, those threads later break if/when the 3rd party hosting company changes their rules. :(

IMHO I much prefer the way https://www.dslreports.com/forums/all (another forum site) handles pics (for registered users of their site). With DSLreports, you can actually upload the pics directly into the forum message you are posting, and they will be automatically "thumbnailed" in the message (with the hot link in the message bringing up the full pic). As I see it, this has several advantages: 1) It's "easy" for the (registered) forum member to upload the pics, as it's part of the forum software (not some process involving a 3rd party upload, followed by a hot link). 2) The pics are "thumbnailed", so that those on slower connections just (initially) see the smaller "thumbnail" of the pic, not have to download mult-megabytes of pics, just to read the text of the forum thread. 3) For anyone who does want to see the full pics, they are just a click away. 4) And since no "3rd party" is involved in hosting the pics, the forum threads don't "break" over time (as the pics are fully under the same hosting site doing the forums). 5) And finally, for the same "hosting" reason, the pics can be "moderated" by the forum moderators if/when needed (as they are uploaded into the same site).

Of course, this does require giving the users some (easy) way to upload pics to this site. And it also (potentially) involves some extra bandwidth/hosting costs for the pics. So it's not entirely free to do this.

But you did ask what would make the site more useful...

Bookmark the link:
https://www.gassavers.org/search.php?do=getdaily&days=2

Change the query string param 'days=2' to be 3 or 4.

help with offensive spam
 

Is there any way of adding a button for members in good standing to tag a message as quarantined, or embargoed-for-moderation?

It might make it easier to keep the site respectable until a moderator can evaluate and clean it up, and not require offensive material to soil the reputation of the site in the meantime.

That's a good idea, in my latenight browsing, i've seen a couple recently, I'd bet it is because Ben is at school......

Hmmm... I kind of like the idea of this, but it might require more custom hacking than I'm comfortable with. Custom hacking like this makes it difficult to upgrade in the future.

I'll have to sleep on this one... it might be easier to do than I think.

BTW, there is a "report to moderator" button on each post. I'm thinking I cna change the routine to hide the post IF the user posting it meets a certain criteria.

Is that something that's turned off, or am I missing it?

Eh, it's kind of hidden

It looks like this: https://www.gassavers.org/images/buttons/report.gif

I get it: only if logged in.

enable the audit function on bogas spam posts for qualified members

If uploading photos to you rserver was done , you'd have to set some format and size restrictions.
Otherwise people would be uploading 20Mb BMP files (waste of space and Junky windows format) and probably by the dozen.

Your space and bandwidth woudl soon be used up.

A limit of say 500kb per pic and in JPG format would still allow very high detail full screen pics., but even 300kb at half screen size would be more than good enough.

Ok, here is my idea matt. The garage is getting a bit large now. I would like to be able to search the garage by make, model , and year. Just a suggestion.

Agreed. One thing I've neglected is the search feature in the garage. I'll have to work on that soon.

One more suggestion for the garage
may have been mentioned earlier i dunno


Users should be able to sort the garage.

By highest mpg, most views, hybrid etc...
will bring more attention to the highly modded cars so other users can see their mods.

Also....
Make a pick of the month car.
This months featured car is.......
then a picture on the front page.

I feel this will also encourage modders

Something simple that is something I would like is a way to print out a custom sticker/paper to stick on the back window.

Something that could be cut out of a normal page and says something like



Formatting is prob all messed up on this example but I was thinking of a 4x6 inch or so oval shaped design with that information in it. I think the MPG number should be very big and either blue or black to help visibility to attract attention to the sticker. I could stick it inside the back window instead of printing it on something for a sticker. This way I could just put a clear plastic holder in the back and swap it out every so often. It would also be very cheap to do it this way.

Of course the top could be the logo from the top of the page or something. Since it would be a low use item bandwidth would probably not be a problem. The only thing that looks like it needs added would be a short link to the member gaslog/garage. The rest of it could be done individually but it would probably get a lot more people using it if it was automatic. Click here for your graphic, it opens in a window by itself and you print it cut it out and stick it in the back window or wherever.

Just an idea, I know people want stickers but this would be a very customized sticker and probably attract a lot more attention. Or maybe make people mad at you cause you get such good mileage.

I like this idea. I interested in knowing if others like it as well.

I like it.

I would simplify it though. Can't have too much to read on a window "sticker"- would rather use the real estate for bigger letters:

I made up a rough looking idea of it at 4x6 and if the scale stays about what it is on the screen the MPG is very readable and will definately get attention. I also like bright blue text/white background for it. That seems to stand out and be easier to read at a distance but maybe it is just me.

Either way creating a script to generate a graphic can't be any harder than the small banner currently being made. I might play with the design some but I really suck at artistic type stuff, I have no style :)

I was figuring that the sticker will get attention in a parking lot more than on the road because nobody going by me at 80mph is going to slow down long enough to look at a strange little metro driving slow to care about something on the back window. With the moon hubcaps I get a lot of attention in a parking lot so with that in the window I think we would have a good 30 seconds or so for someone to slow down walking by and read the writing. The extra text would help attract them to visiting the site. But either way it looks good to me, maybe add the filler text in a smaller font so it is less noticable but still there for someone taking their time to read it.

Since proper maintenance is essential for good fuel economy, I'd like to see a system linked to the gaslog miles & date to send maintenance alerts to users. A standard form to allow frequencies for miles/time for both inspection and replacement would be needed. Some accommodation for a "first time" interval would be useful as well, as well as the last time a particular event was done (for initializing a vehicle that isn't new). Maybe a "maintenance log" would be needed to log when you actually get around to doing things, rather than just assuming the user did it when the alert was sent. Adding odometer readings to gaslog entries would cover the case where the user missed logging any tanks (keeping total miles traveled accurate).

Since I don't drive much, I'm always governed by time, not mileage so I just set up Google Calendar events that email me. Very convenient!