Attachments redux

[Joe4]

That's fine if you have other opinions - on how you would set it up, run it, and charge for it.

But that is not how Bill Jelen decided to run his site. It was important to him to offer a free service that was available to everyone to help people with Excel. It is not a money-making venture for him. He relies on advertisers to pay for the cost of hosting the site. As such, he does not have the an overflowing chest of capital to throw a lot of money at it.

Your opinions have been heard. Now we just ask that you respect the way he wants to run his site.

 

[Macropod]

Of course, given that you also subscribe to at least one other board (http://www.msofficeforums.com/member.php?u=11514), you might ask a question there, attaching the file when necessary and, if you feel the need, cross-post here (with the relevant links for both boards) and mention the fact your workbook can be downloaded from there...

 

[JenniferMurphy]

Of course, given that you also subscribe to at least one other board (http://www.msofficeforums.com/member.php?u=11514), you might ask a question there, attaching the file when necessary and, if you feel the need, cross-post here (with the relevant links for both boards) and mention the fact your workbook can be downloaded from there...

Hmmm... I thought cross-posting was discouraged, and often highly discouraged or even forbidden. Posting there just for a place to include an attachment seems like an abuse, or at least a misuse, of that board, no? I wonder how the powers that be here would feel if the situation were reversed.

If I really need to post an attachment, I just upload it to Dropbox and post the link. It's more work for me and for anyone reading the thread and it's harder to follow, but it works.

 

[Macropod]

Hmmm... I thought cross-posting was discouraged, and often highly discouraged or even forbidden.

In that case, you need to read Mr Excel's policy on Cross-Posting in rule 13: http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/board-announcements/99490-forum-rules.html. While there is certainly a preference against cross-posting, it is not forbidden provided the relevant links are supplied. That said, I'm also not encouraging cross-posting as a means of getting around the rules. The intent of my suggestion is that, if you really do need to attach a file, do so on a board that allows attachments and cross-post here only if you can't get a satisfactory answer on that other board.

 

[MrExcel]

Hi Jennifer,

You make a compelling case for including images.

vBulletin has two ways to store images: In the database table and in a file structure. I made a bad choice 15 years ago by storing them in the database table. Storing a 30K image instead of text clogged up the database and brought us to our knees. That feature got turned off. Can we switch from one to the other after storing some images in the database? I am not sure.

My #1 goal here is to keep things fast. Last year, I enabled some new mods (that seemed innocuous) and one of those caused the server to slow to a crawl as bandwidth quintupled. I had to move to the fastest tier server that my host offers and the speed was still intolerable.

And then there is the issue of security. We had the data breach of 2016. Hackers are constantly trying to get in. Allowing the uploads of attachments gives them another way in.

I am very aware we need to move to a modern forum in 2019 and images is in the wish list for that new forum.

As an Excel guy, my inclination is "let's just pull the trigger and switch to storing images in the file system - what could possibly go wrong?". That is the the exact same thinking that caused things to slow down miserably here last year. So they've put up firewalls to prevent me from pulling the trigger. People smarter than me say, "It is stable and running fast. We already have plans to replace it. Don't introduce new problems." My inclination is to trust that. In spirit, I am with you on this.

Bill

 

[shg]

What a thoughtful response.

 

[JenniferMurphy]

Hi Jennifer,

You make a compelling case for including images.

. . .

Thank you for a detailed and substantive reply.

The last thing I want to do is degrade MrExcel in any way. As I have said many times, it is one of the best boards on any topic that I have ever used, and I subscribe to dozens.

There must be solutions to the problems you list. Many other boards provide this capability and many others, such as equation editors. I hope you find something that works and is workable. I will await news.

Thanks for providing this valuable service.

-jm

 

[RoryA]

I am very aware we need to move to a modern forum in 2019 and images is in the wish list for that new forum.

Please don't move it to vBulletin 5!!

 

[MrExcel]

Thanks RoryA

vBulletin5 would crush under the weight of the database we have here. It is not being considered.

 

[shg]

It seemed like vBulletin owned messageboards 10 years ago, and then just face-planted into chaos and drowned. Is it because the business is inherently low revenue? It isn't that the interweb is declining in use ....