Site outage

[Marty]

In case anyone was wondering, I went into admin mode last night with the intention of figuring out how to place banners on the site.  I noticed a board update was available, so I figured I'd backup the site and install that.  Unfortunately, that messed me up until I had a chance to call tech support a little while ago.  Hopefully I'll have a chance later today to work on the banner modification.

Marty

[JeffroM]

So that is the 'official' cover story?

Marty, I know you like your porno collection but seriously dude you need to store it on different servers than this site.  You think you would have learned after what it did to MittenState.

 

[Ron]

I thought about giving you a shout out this morning when I noticed trouble, but figured it was something associated with a site update that caused it in the first place.

Best wishes with attempt #2.

[Marty]

So that is the 'official' cover story?

Marty, I know you like your porno collection but seriously dude you need to store it on different servers than this site.  You think you would have learned after what it did to MittenState.

 

Well, we all know that your extensive collection of furry videos would be too much for any data center, which is why you never started up your own fish forum.......

I thought about giving you a shout out this morning when I noticed trouble, but figured it was something associated with a site update that caused it in the first place.

Best wishes with attempt #2.

Ron,  I may call you yet to have you walk me through the banner mod.  My brain hurts from looking at code that is waayyy beyond what I know about this stuff (which is pretty much nil)

[Ron]

Ron,  I may call you yet to have you walk me through the banner mod.  My brain hurts from looking at code that is waayyy beyond what I know about this stuff (which is pretty much nil)

I still suspect there's a way to do it from the admin control panel. Editing the code will work, but it's something to be aware of when making future SMF updates (just in case an update were to revert the changes).

[Arturtle]

I want to say there is a simple way to do it with smf, but it's been a while since I've been behind the scenes on a smf board.  I seem to remember being able to replace a file in regards to the images the skin uses, but you would have to do that through a ftp, that option might have been due to using a custom skin as well.  I would suggest thumbing through the admin cp before modifying any code, simply because it would be less of a headache.

With a quick search I found this, and it sounds familiar, "or you could just go to admin then current theme, and then click themes and settings and put the HTTP code in (logo image url)...this will take the place of your forum name thats so plain..."

[Marty]

 I saw what you're talking about, but it's looking for a url.  How do you actually get the logo onto the site?  Do you have to upload it to a site like photobucket and use the link that way?

[Ron]

I saw what you're talking about, but it's looking for a url.  How do you actually get the logo onto the site?  Do you have to upload it to a site like photobucket and use the link that way?

You should uploaded it to the server aka "michigancichlid.com". You can either make a new directory (aka "folder) or place it in a reasonable location within the existing directory structure (I'm pretty sure SMF has a folder or two dedicated to images). As you saw, it's not critical where you place it, because you only need to point the forum to the URL once it's uploaded somewhere.

For example, if you made folder called "images" at the root directory for michigancichlid.com and uploaded siteBanner.jpg, the resulting URL should be www.michigancichlid.com/images/siteBanner.jpg .

Of course Photobucket or some other site would work as well, but since you have your own server space, I'd highly suggest using it. We'd hate to see the banner disappear once the Photobucket max bandwidth cap is reached each month  (a real possibility unless you've got a paid account with them).

[Arturtle]

Ron covered it pretty well.

I think the option in the admin cp limits where the banner is positioned, so if you don't like where it is you'll have to end up coding it in.  If you end up going the route of modifying the code, it may be a good idea to copy and paste the original code on to clipboard or something like that so you can save a backup to go back to if something gets screwed up.

[gmaschke]

Ahhh.......... you guys must be talking in chinese cause I understand nothing that is being said!