| Author |
 Topic  |
|
Davio
Development Team Member
Jamaica
12217 Posts |
 Posted - 10 March 2005 : 01:33:44
|
Hey, all this arguing will give you all ulcers!!! 
EEEPman and Barry Sumpter, we have over the years made the setup as easy as possible to the layman who doesn't have a clue what ASP is. Sure, there could be even more improvements to make the setup even easier, but there still will be some persons who will have a difficult time with it. That's where the forum community comes in.  |
Support Snitz Forums
|
 |
|
|
Roger Fredriksson
Average Member
Sweden
556 Posts |
Posted - 10 March 2005 : 04:50:43
|
It's very easy to set up the forum, after reading instructions it took me a couple of minutes to be up and running the forum. Well done, Snitz-team!
However I have had difficulties to modify files for using universal-login function. I would have appreciated explaining comments in the base-files, esp inc_header. By trial and error I at last got it to work but I am not yet sure that it works properly althoug it looks that way. Have a look at http://www.avgifter.com/forum/login_universal.asp (u:hellan,p:pellan) . I am pretty sure that this is a problem for many more focused on content on their own site then programming and now wants to include a powerfull and easily administrated forum. Does anyone know of an expert-version of universal loggin? |
rf/www.avgifter.com |
Edited by - Roger Fredriksson on 10 March 2005 04:57:58 |
|
|
|
TStewartFan
Junior Member
190 Posts |
Posted - 10 March 2005 : 06:09:11
|
Gotta thro in my 2 ¢ as well. When I first decided to add a basic forum to my website I opened up my favorite webpage Google.com and ran my basic search. Unfamiliar with the various technologies needed for a forum I read and read and read. Finally I decided to go with ASP simply because it was very similar to a few of the other programming langages I have learned on my own. After a bit more searching I found this forum and gave it a go. I can't say it was actually "easy" because I felt a few more greys appear while I attempted to get it up and running...but luckily I stuck it out and now can install this software blindfolded. Now adays I take it for granted how easy it seems to me but once upon a time I too was the forum HuH?!? Change this...change that....don't forget to move this...oh you gotta add that...but with a better understanding of how the forum works I can now see why all the changes were crucial. Many folks do different things with this forum. I use Access....some use SQL....some use free hosts...some use paid hosts...and blah blah blah. However this packaged forum is for a more diversified end user base. Why limit the forum for only SQL....because I would go elsewhere had it been that way! After only a couple of months of tickering with the forum I can now mold it and shape it into what I want rather then what I am given. Perhaps I have had to reinvent the wheel a few times (because at first I never backed up my forum) and have had to reinstall the forum numerous times. However it has been worth the few grey hairs I have grown....not only am I now more distinguished but I have been able to do some amazing this with th rest of my website just because of what I have learned with this forum alone. I hope everyone will benefit as much as I have with this forum and more importantly can be here tomorrow to help the future HuH candidates that may drop a line or two while they become a future DuH candidate! This is a programming language and for those that attempted a programming course in college (raising hand) you will know it was never any fun! The To do is much more of a challenge then the To Teach To Do so welcome to the fun world of future BC Powder Members! |
|
|
|
Gremlin
General Help Moderator
New Zealand
7528 Posts |
Posted - 10 March 2005 : 19:37:28
|
Must be time for my 2c .. the difficulty in setup does NOT lie with the forum, lets be real here, with no more than one file to edit, which requires nothing more than removing two apostrophe symbols and selecting an appropriate connection string from the half dozen provided is not hard, My 60 year old mother has done it.
Where the complexity comes into it is in how every webhost seems to do things a little differently, some have permissions already set to read/write, some don't. Some have special folders to put your database in, some dont. The developers can not second guess every possible way a host can set your website up and thats where people get stuck. |
Kiwihosting.Net - The Forum Hosting Specialists
|
|
|
|
Davio
Development Team Member
Jamaica
12217 Posts |
Posted - 10 March 2005 : 19:47:19
|
Really Gremlin? Your 60 year old mother has setup a snitz forums by herself???
That's cool. I should get my 53 year old mother to try it.
Hey Mom!! Want to set up a forum??
|
Support Snitz Forums
|
|
|
|
taropatch
Average Member
USA
741 Posts |
Posted - 11 March 2005 : 09:56:48
|
I've been reading this thread and until now have just been lurking. After reading Huw's reply, I was waiting to hear from Barry or EEEPman "how it was too complicated."
After a few days, I re-read the original post and it seems to me that the subject title is causing some confusion.
I was tempted to jump in a couple days back to say that I also believe the installation process was easy. Now that I read the original post again, it sounds like he's looking for more tips on how to use the forum and how to administer the forum rather than how to set it up?
Just wanted to put forth my $0.04. (inflation) |
|
|
|
laser
Advanced Member
Australia
3859 Posts |
Posted - 11 March 2005 : 16:04:40
|
quote:
Does anyone know of an expert-version of universal loggin?
Nope, congrat's if you got it to work ... I gave up & wrote my own.
BUT - you cannot compare the forum quality to the MOD quality. The quality of MODs varies a LOT. One of my moderators that has been around for years using Snitz (purely as a moderator) decided to setup his own to learn ASP & help out. He has NEVER programmed before in ANYTHING. I did help him with some mod's, but he's probably got more off-the-bitz mods than me!. Most of his mistakes were misreading the instructions, then some mods have no instructions and would be best described as "best guess code insertion".
Is the forum setup easy ? yes
Is learning to administer the forum easy ? not in all cases, but there's a LOT of stuff to learn & do. |
|
|
|
EEEPman
Starting Member
USA
20 Posts |
Posted - 11 March 2005 : 16:20:41
|
quote:
Originally posted by taropatch
I've been reading this thread and until now have just been lurking. After reading Huw's reply, I was waiting to hear from Barry or EEEPman "how it was too complicated."
......... it sounds like he's looking for more tips on how to use the forum and how to administer the forum rather than how to set it up?
I thought I did explain all the difficulties I ran into, but when HuwR dismissed them with rhetoric instead of reason, I realized that the emotional vesting people have in this software make a rational discussion impossible. I mean, when you tell a person the problem you had and he says he doesn't know what you are 'wittering' about, it ends there for me. Interaction after that is waste of my time.
I do agre with the people who say "It's simple...there's only one file to edit and that lightly...", But the database connection line is a problem vis a vis the hosting providers. None of the lines provided in the file, nor the ones suggested by the host, for that matter, worked as is, and if you're making modifications without understanding the syntactical structure of what you are editing, you are bound to get into trouble. If Classicmotocyclist hadn't been kind enough to volunteer to go to my site and correct the tiny but telling defect that was stopping it from working, I'd still be struggling with it.
Perhaps the answer is a minicourse in connection line syntax, so you feel grounded in what you are doing.
As for me, I've stopped doing anything until I've read a book on asp.
There was another thing that hapenned I didn't mention, because it really wasn't relavent to startup. I gave my name and password to Classicmotorcyclist and then I went on the site and it wouldn't let me in so I registered again with the same name and password and it accepted both registarations, one as Admin, one not. But then it acted completely wierd for a while: didn't open to full screen, didn't show admin options, etc., until Classic went into the database file and editied out the one user. Anybody have any idea what that was about? Isn't it supposed to reject a user aplication with the same name and password? Perhaps the fact that the second application was not as Admin that allowed it, but then, what made the site go nuts?
Just an observation. If it were important, I would have started a new thread.
Paul |
|
|
|
laser
Advanced Member
Australia
3859 Posts |
Posted - 11 March 2005 : 17:40:20
|
| If your hoster can't give you a connection string that works I would start to get worried. |
|
|
|
EEEPman
Starting Member
USA
20 Posts |
Posted - 13 March 2005 : 02:04:30
|
quote:
Originally posted by laser
If your hoster can't give you a connection string that works I would start to get worried.
Well, it's not that they can't. They just won't. Looking at your code is officially something they DON'T do. It's one of those viscious circles: the host says "not my job," the software providers say, "It's free; Do as you will, We owe you nothing," which is OK. Free is free, who can argue?
So, if someone on the forums isn't kind enough to answer or if you ask in the wrong way, you are out of luck.
Again, I think a connstring tutorial would do the trick. |
|
|
|
ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
Posted - 13 March 2005 : 04:04:58
|
Snitz is not about giving a whole course on the web, having your site, install IIS and use it, or even learning to program in ASP.
It's great to come here, get the software, get the support, and then lecture us on how setup is difficult (which is a ridiculous assumption, since editing two lines is hardly a difficult task, and SNitz even provides an example of almost all the possible strings - Snitz even provides whereami.asp that).
I have seen thousands of users who had no programming experience whatsoever and managed to get their forums running without much trouble and surely without the fuss you're creating here about our 'difficult' setup process. If Snitz created the need for you to learn more about ASP and web development, that's great, but just don't blame Snitz for not providing all the info you need and that is readily available elsewhere in the Net. There is a great resource available - google. Just google and you will find all the info you need (try 'connection strings', for example, and the first hit will be a whole site dedicated to, of all things!, connection strings!!
Of course, wouldn't life be easier if we provided all the info here?! I guess it would, but that is not quite compatible with the things we all need to do at our jobs. Sorry if we disappointed you! |
Snitz 3.4 Readme | Like the support? Support Snitz too |
Edited by - ruirib on 13 March 2005 04:05:41 |
|
|
|
Gremlin
General Help Moderator
New Zealand
7528 Posts |
Posted - 13 March 2005 : 06:55:34
|
I'll even save ya the trouble of using google :) http://www.connectionstrings.com/
But it's still like I said, different hosts provide different paths for the database, so you still have to do some work to figure that out, Snitz just can't second guess that. |
Kiwihosting.Net - The Forum Hosting Specialists
|
Edited by - Gremlin on 13 March 2005 06:57:22 |
|
|
|
Classicmotorcycling
Development Team Leader
Australia
2085 Posts |
Posted - 13 March 2005 : 07:53:23
|
And I would do it for anyone that needs a hand again.quote:
Originally posted by EEEPman
If Classicmotocyclist hadn't been kind enough to volunteer to go to my site and correct the tiny but telling defect that was stopping it from working, I'd still be struggling with it.
I have no issue with helping people out with their site or help to setup their forum, but people can not say that the forum is hard to set it up, if they do not understand basic html, because that is all that is required to change a couple of lines and can not be the fault of the forum, because the host will not let them know what the connection string should be.
Did you look at using the whereami.asp file in the root of your web site and see what it comes up with?
THis was what I beleived to be the result of a failed setup of the forum originally.quote:
Originally posted by EEEPman
There was another thing that hapenned I didn't mention, because it really wasn't relavent to startup. I gave my name and password to Classicmotorcyclist and then I went on the site and it wouldn't let me in so I registered again with the same name and password and it accepted both registarations, one as Admin, one not. But then it acted completely wierd for a while: didn't open to full screen, didn't show admin options, etc., until Classic went into the database file and editied out the one user. Anybody have any idea what that was about? Isn't it supposed to reject a user aplication with the same name and password? Perhaps the fact that the second application was not as Admin that allowed it, but then, what made the site go nuts?
I seen that there where 2 users with the same name, so it was quite a normal guess to go in to the DB (which Brinkster allows through your control panel) and removed the user with the least amount of information. Then set the config file to set the user that was left as SuperAdmin.
If people need a hand in setting their forums up, then they would get help here. There should just be a few basic rules in place.
- 1. Know basic HTML programming (I am not even talking about ASP).
- 2. Read the instructions and understand them. (notice the UNDERSTAND reference)
- 3. Don't bag the software for not knowing the above.
- 4. Remebr this site GIVES you the forum software and helps you to get it running, but don't demand anyone here to get it running, even easier for you, as it is easy for most to setup already.
I hope that helps some more.
(Time to lock this subject Mr/Ms Moderator/Administrator) |
Cheers,
David Greening |
|
|
|
Shaggy
Support Moderator
Ireland
6780 Posts |
Posted - 14 March 2005 : 06:02:46
|
quote:
Originally posted by EEEPman
Well, it's not that they can't. They just won't. Looking at your code is officially something they DON'T do.
Maybe it's just me, but that sounds like a completely ridiculous attitude for your host to take. A database connection string isn't just something Snitz uses; if you're building a db driven site, a connection string is kind of essential and for them to just turn around and say they won't give it to you (it's not like it's difficult for them to do so) smacks of a wholly unprofessional company to me.
|
 Search is your friend
“I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the
fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had
taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” |
|
|
|
dpf
Starting Member
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - 28 March 2005 : 16:37:39
|
| I just learned about snitz the other day, downloaded it and came here when i had a problem. I came accross this thread while searching my problem ( for which I found an anwer here w/in 15 minutes). Frankly, I find it sort of shocking for people to say this set up was too complicated. and the line about not telling people that spaces arent allowed in a connection string just because "other languages you have used allow spaces". anyone with any programming experience knows that you cannot make assumptions as you go from one language to another. You know,it still astounds me that you can aquire software of this sophistication FOR FREE and get free help. Good job snitzers. |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
Topic Locked
