It's time to FIX it!

[bellgamin]

I just read the following THREAD (http://www.support-forums.com/showthread.php?t=613&page=2&pp=15&highlight=avatar)

I read referenced thread in a vain attempt to find out how to get my avatar back. I see that others have encountered the same problem.

The thread ended last October with the problem unsolved. It remains unsolved. Also, I emailed AOH a message about this a few months back. In it I asked why my avatar was deleted. Their reply said the avatar problem would be fixed. However, it remains UNfixed.

A significant reason why I selected AOH is that I am a great believer in a *community* of the users of a web host. Back then, AOH had such a community, with a much more active forum than is the case nowadays.

I am very disappointed that AOH hasn't fixed this problem long ago. I suggest AOH devote some time to fixing this or else tell us to forget it.

regards........bellgamin

[admin]

A community of users and their activity is based upon a collective of individual involvement. Most of the customers that were around over a year ago are still with AOH, just not as active in the forums. I dare say even you yourself, albeit for personal reasons, are not as active as you were a year ago. Regarding the avatar issue, the reason they disappeared is we were beta testing vb3 and continue to follow its development for the benefit of our customers. To that end we upgraded to the current version about 2 weeks ago in an effort to resolve the above issue as well as a few others we were seeing. I am curious if anyone who was having this issue has attempted to restore their avatar.

[Gnomercy]

I'm sorry to hear that you're disappointed that we didn't fix this "long ago". Unfortuneately, as Madox indicated in that thread you referenced, the problem related to the beta version of vBulletin that we were running. Since you were so kind as to bring this issue back to my attention, I went and did some digging and found a fix for this issue that was posted on Christmas Day. I've implemented it and believe that the issue is resolved. If you can confirm this for me, I'd appreciate it.

I do apologize that we didn't at the very least update the thread with some kind of information. Unfortuneately, we turned our attentions to other issues that directly affected our customers to a greater extent than an avatar here. Regardless of this fact, we told you we would do something and we didn't do it adequately. You have my most sincere apologies for this oversight Bellgamin. Being true to our word and doing what we said we would do is what got us to where we are and we should have followed through better than we did on this. Thank you for bringing this back to our attention.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

[bellgamin]

I am curious if anyone who was having this issue has attempted to restore their avatar.

Yes, I attempted on 1/1/04 for nearly 30 minutes. No success. Perhaps I am lacking the necessary skills. However, I frequent many forums & have no such difficulties elsewhere.

As to my reduced usage, perhaps it's a chicken & egg issue. Is this forum less managed because it is less active? Or is it less active because it is less managed?

Unfortuneately, we turned our attentions to other issues that directly affected our customers to a greater extent than an avatar here.

Gnome, I expected a comment of this sort. Bit of a groin kick, wot? :o

Many months ago, when I shopped for a host, I had *availability of a forum* as a significant selection factor. Many hosting outfits claimed they had a forum but, when it was visited, it turned out to be little more than a sad shadow of a real forum with active community. Back then, AOH's forum was very much alive & kicking. Nowadays that is much less the case.

If this forum is unimportant, then why do many of AOH's promotional posts at WHT make mention of it? If a prospective client follows up on such info, & visits these boards, then clicks on a thread, only to be confronted with "No activity in the last 30 days" -- what will he or she conclude?

@AOH- I fully realize that many customers {myself included} seldom have much to say when things are going well. And things ARE going well at AOH. AOH is technically superb, reasonably priced, instantly responsive to requests for help, and honest to a fault. I never meant to say you aren't. But if a friend won't say, "Psst, your fly is unzipped," who will?

Every group has its own corporate personality. Perhaps the overall persona here is just that us AOH folks aren't very voluble. Or it may be that a *general feeling of well-being* {which AOH has abundantly earned!} has reduced activity in this forum.

Or perhaps Gnome is right -- avatars are nonsense, so nobody but me gives a rip. In any event, I have deposited some FUD here. The seeds of confusion & dissatisfaction have been sown. For the moment, my work here is done. :p ;) :D :hatpimp: :p

grace & peace to you all......bellgrumpy

[Gnomercy]

I actually spent a good bit of time trying to figure out how to write that without it being a groin-kick. Seems I failed miserably, yeah? I will stand by the statement though… One of the issues we addressed was a sporadic and difficult to nail down server stability issue that you were one of the few to point out to us. (I can feel this one coming… put on your cup) I’m sure you would have preferred having no avatar and getting your ftp issue resolved than having us focusing on your avatar and not on your stability issue. Granted, it’s a single example, but one that illustrates the point well, I think. Like I said, we should have followed up better than we did, but I wanted to be honest about why we didn't and hopefully help you to understand that we were focusing on what we thought was most important. That said, I would also like to reiterate my thanks for telling us our fly was unzipped. We did neglect something we said we’d do, and it would have likely stayed forgotten unless you said something. We are a community, albeit a quiet one, and our vocal members like you do a wonderful job of keeping us honest, as it were.

I'm also not saying that the forum isn't important. This is a very valuable resource that I wish more of our customers used, but like you say, it's a support forum, and when things are good, people don't seem to post here. I try to put fun stuff in the lounge when I come across something in an effort to stir up some general interest, but that doesn’t seem to work very well. When we ran our promotion in November, there were certainly a good number of people that responded indicating that they read the forum post, so it seems that people read; they just don't talk... a community of lurkers, perhaps.

Again, I created a dummy account and tested the avatar function after you created this thread, having found a fix at vBulletin that was posted on Christmas and would really like you to try again and confirm for me that it does indeed work. It did for my gnometest account, but knowing you’re satisfied with the fix will put my mind at ease.

[bellgamin]

Thanks gnome. I now have an avatar. What went right, I wonder? :)

The reason vBull's avatar putter-inner works now is {I think} because someone fixed it so the bottom section of vBull's avatar edit form shows up. I couldn't get it to show that section as of yesterday.

Also, even though vBull did the avatar thing, it gave me an error pop-up, as shown below. Wonder why?

NOW- I would appreciate it if you would check my thread at...
THIS link (http://www.support-forums.com/showthread.php?t=654)

...& give me the benefit of your HTML know-how. My old amigo Gade gave me some useful comments, but I really need mowa. Tasukete, dozo. Ayuda me, por favor.

By the way, *the move* of my stuff that you made a while back went VERY smoothly. Also, FTP zips along very fast now. It sometimes takes at most 20-30 seconds to grab a connect, & then authentication zooms right through. Email works fast, too.

{As you may recall, it was the authentication process that occasionally would hang for a while -- before *the move* that is. My sites loooove their new home. Great job AOH. Domo arigato gozaima****a! {Many thanks!}

shaalu shalom America!
bellgrumpy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PS- I kinda think Invision is a better board than vBull. Plus it's free, right? But what do I know? -- I can't even walk & chew gum at the same time. :cool:

PS2- I had to edit this because vBull censored 4 letters out of a Japanese word I used. In English those 4 letters mean "defecate" -- s**t. Be aware that s**t occurs VERY often in Japanese words written in romanji. In fact, s**ta is tacked onto many Japanese verbs in order to make them past tense. S**ta is pronounced "sh TAH" -- the "i" is all but totally silent. NOT nasty at all.

{It's not a problem -- just an interesting *inter-cultural* anomaly. My race is chop suey -- Spanish & Italian on my Dad's side, English & Irish on my Mom's side.} Boring! :zzz:

[Gnomercy]

It *appears* that in the lastest version we've installed, it's been added as a usergroup option that is, by default, turned off... I just had to go turn it on; an option that I was unable to locate in previous versions.

I'm not sure what the problem is with the upload error... I didn't try uploading an avatar for gnometest, just verified that the option was there.

vBulletin is actually a much more full featured package from the admin side. Unfortuneately, when you run a beta version like we've been doing, you tend to encounter some issues.

Glad to hear that you're sites like their new home and that the transfer was smooth for you. Especially given the problems we had with your sites when you first moved here... that was a nightmare.

I'll look at your other thread, though I must warn you, my html skills, um... aren't. I'll see if I can find something for you though.