what was broken and needed fixing?

[crackt]

so im getting on in my years as a satguys member... subforums seem to be getting the axe and moving to special hiding spots. im starting to get a bit adjitated. what if any is the reason for all the forum shake ups lately? ive always been a supporter of the search option. i even get somewhat upset when new threads are posted that have been covered thousands of times before. we had a nice groove and many threads should have been moderated (deleted) and referred to stickies or well written posts. lately we seem to be losing subforums (mergers are pollution) and fta sections seem to be hidden. as a paying supporter of this site im protesting. i dont give a rats ass about dish or direct. i came here for fta talk. it seems mods even allow posting of feed info in the general fta section these days. this isnt the satguys i paid for. i have alot of gear and i post my knowledge when appropriate (i dont inflate my post count with useless bs). i dont feel at home with the new changes and dont feel im going to condone these changes with another yearly membership. im protesting the latest changes. i know people appreciate what i contribute but i can take it elseware if the fta section keeps getting backseated to dish and direct.

crackt out,.

 

[Bongu]

I am not a subscribing member, but I almost choked when I couldn't find the FTA section using the Android app. It took me a good 5 minutes of futzing with it to finally stumble upon the FTA forum.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The FTA section is where it always has been it hasn't moved at all.

What was moved was the Classified forum was moved up to make it more visible as requested by a few other members.

 

[Pixl]

Crackt,

My main interest is also FTA. But I have strolled thru the Dish, DTV, Pub, and a few other sections. I get the feeling these people vastly out number us and probably carry a large part of the cost of the board. Maybe Scott could give us some numbers on this so we know where FTA stands.

 

[stogie5150]

so im getting on in my years as a satguys member... subforums seem to be getting the axe and moving to special hiding spots. im starting to get a bit adjitated. what if any is the reason for all the forum shake ups lately? ive always been a supporter of the search option. i even get somewhat upset when new threads are posted that have been covered thousands of times before. we had a nice groove and many threads should have been moderated (deleted) and referred to stickies or well written posts. lately we seem to be losing subforums (mergers are pollution) and fta sections seem to be hidden. as a paying supporter of this site im protesting. i dont give a rats ass about dish or direct. i came here for fta talk. it seems mods even allow posting of feed info in the general fta section these days. this isnt the satguys i paid for. i have alot of gear and i post my knowledge when appropriate (i dont inflate my post count with useless bs). i dont feel at home with the new changes and dont feel im going to condone these changes with another yearly membership. im protesting the latest changes. i know people appreciate what i contribute but i can take it elseware if the fta section keeps getting backseated to dish and direct.

crackt out,.

You're growing as a FTA guy, that's all. We all were newbies once, and I know some of you older guys were hams or other electronic technicians before you got interested in FTA, but nowadays we younger guys (say under 40 or so) that didn't grow up in an era that things had to be FIXED, we just REPLACED them instead. So we don't have a foundation of electronic understanding that you older guys have, so when we got into this we had to learn EVERYTHING, all the way down to stripping coax.

NOW, I agree with you on the forum part of it, but you have to remember this, and I know you already know, this isn't the only site out there that caters to FTA. But you wont find another site that CARES as much about what we have, and is interested in PROTECTING it. Other sites out there have lots of good information, and good people, but the free flow of information and the immediacy of the internet are going to kill this hobby quicker than if you put the proverbial bullet in its proverbial head. We already see it in encrypting, and NOTHING is more disconcerting than to lose something because os people not being able to keep good things to themselves, or at least not stand on top of a building and scream about it. People that don't agree with us and don't like what we are doing ARE watching us, make no mistake.

Whats happening, I believe, is that some of we older guys are keeping our mouths shut about what we may or may not be watching, or what we are doing. Now, other sites don't care, and are doing the same thing they have always done, and then complain about things starting to go bad.....uhhhhhh.....fellas....I was around in the 80's when the sky went dark.......and if y'all can't figure out that you need to keep this under wraps...its gonna happen again.

Enough of all that, lets tune a dish and watch some free TV! ( it's never free, but lets not tell the newbies that...its an addiction...lol)

 

[T4Runner]

I am an avid FTA guy. I also subscribe to Dish for my wife who says my system is too complicated for her. She wants one remote... but I digress... FTA is the ONLY reason I read and post here.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Crackt,

My main interest is also FTA. But I have strolled thru the Dish, DTV, Pub, and a few other sections. I get the feeling these people vastly out number us and probably carry a large part of the cost of the board. Maybe Scott could give us some numbers on this so we know where FTA stands.

The numbers are not hidden, look at the main forum listing and you can see how many people are in each forum

The FTA section is the second most popular section on the site outside of the DISH Network forum. (Even more popular then the DIRECTV forum!)

If you have been a member over the past 8 years you will notice forums come and go all the time, we try things and if they don't work we get rid of them.. but we try.

Believe it or not there are a number of folks who are upset that we have too many FTA subforums and want them all combined into just the main FTA forum... imagine the mess there?!

The only changes made to the FTA forums this year was we got rid of the Ebay Listings Forum which got buggy due to changes on Ebays side, we combined the 4DTV in with the C Band forum and we got rid of the DVB PC Card discussion area (and moved those posts into the main FTA section since there wasnt a post there for over 5 months)

Other then that nothing has changed in the FTA area.

We are PROUD to be Amercia's Largest and Most Popular FTA Satellite Forum! And personally I am excited because I have a feeling the FTA Hobby is about to get a lo more exciting.

Scott out

 

[SatelliteAV]

I really like the fact that all major media providers are grouped in one group called Entertainment Service Providers. This should increase the visibility of the FTA forum to all site members. I see this as a very positive change!

As new media services evolve we risk the chance of not being viewed by visitors if they enter the site and bypass the group containing FTA. If we want a secret club by invitation only, I am sure that FTA could be hidden in some obscure subforum of the site.....

Yes, when I opened the iPhone SatelliteGuys app it took a moment to realize that the name of the group was changed to Entertainment Services, but the FTA forum was still there... alongside DirecTV and Dish Network. Changes often catch us off guard, but often they are good!

Just as Subforums are opened for popular subjects, those that have minimal activity should be combined back into the main forum. Member interest and participation peaks and wanes on many products and services.

Unfortunately, the search function on the site is very crippled and it does prevent me from referencing the great knowledge base that has been built here over the past 10 years. I usually exit the site and use Google to search for items on the site with results filtered to the satelliteguys.us URL.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Brian,

Thanks for the feedback. When we moved over to the new server we also switched the search engine from the built in resource intensive vBulletin search to Sphinx Search. I think this move to the better search engine caused a lot of confusion including comments that posts were missing. The new Sphinx search is different then the old vBulletin search as it is a full text search engine.

The sites uses FULL TEXT search, thus you can just use quotes.

Under Search, Search This Thread, or Advanced Search - typing in "FTA HD" will find any post that has the phrase inside the quotes.

Example: Doing a search for "more productive searches" (with the quotes) will find this post.


Go to Advanced Search<--- click here

Search by Keyword(s) - you can enter several keywords you know should be included by using + sign in front of each word and the * behind the word (i.e. +fta* +hd* )
Search Entire Posts or Search Titles Only - choose which is best for you - Note that Search Titles Only also searches POST TITLES and not just THREAD TITLES (for you can title a post that is inside a
thread)
Advanced Search Help - click on this for more search tips
Show Results as - click on Posts or Threads
Search in Forum(s) - choose which forum or forums you want to search (i.e. the FTA Forum)

Once you learn to use the quotes you will find it much easier for what you are looking for.

 

[Bob2011]

I see this kind of frustration on many other sites when the format changes. Mostly it is a generational thing but for many people who use a product that rarely changes it eventually becomes so familiar it becomes part of them. Its kind of like the car buyer who drives the same car for a decade or more versus the one who trades in every two years. The frequent upgrader stays current with technology while the other stays trapped in an old world. If Satelliteguys doesn't change a little it will look ancient to new generations and probably in their view filled with outdated info. There are many thousands of technical sites that still look like they were coded with basic HTML back in the 90s.

One thing I do agree with Crackt on is the discussion of hidden channels and feeds in the open area. Its not that the topic shouldn't be talked about but at least cloak or use code words for the channel names. Maybe use police phonetics like Frank-Ocean-Xray News or a fake name that can be figured out like Faux News, MSNbeesee, Communist News Network, etc..

 

[hwm]

"Unfortunately, the search function on the site is very crippled and it does prevent me from referencing the great knowledge base that has been built here over the past 10 years. I usually exit the site and use Google to search for items on the site with results filtered to the satelliteguys.us URL."

I find myself doing the same thing, and for the same reason. Most of my searches for FTA tech info on Google will lead to this forum, even without URL filtering. That's how I found the satelliteguys.us forums in the first place.

 

[RT-Cat]

.....One thing I do agree with Crackt on is the discussion of hidden channels and feeds in the open area. Its not that the topic shouldn't be talked about but at least cloak or use code words for the channel names. Maybe use police phonetics like Frank-Ocean-Xray News or a fake name that can be figured out like Faux News, MSNbeesee, Communist News Network, etc..

An interesting idea if the reason is to hide info from search engines. But, when a station goes on the air they know there are many out there that are going to pick it up on their home dishes. If they really do not want you to see it, they will scramble when they first go on the air. I do not see where talking about a channel is going to cause a problem. The channel or station should be happy we are watching. Just that many more that are exposed to the paid for ads.

RT.

 

[stogie5150]

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

On the feeds issue...

Here is my feeling on it... (Some may not agree with me and that's ok!)

If a station is broadcasting 24 /7 In The Clear then they know they are doing so. I personally don't have any problem talking about those feeds in an open forum.

However when it comes to feeds, such as football, baseball, NASCAR, hockey, wrestling etc. those SHOULD NOT be posted in an open forum, but rather one that is protected from Bots. While the uplinker knows they are in the clear there are many other down the chain who do not and when they find out through a search bot that their feed is in the clear then that feed is scrambled. Some idiots even ruined thing slike NASCAR by bragging to Speed that they were enjoying watching their feeds without commercials on their dish... those feeds are now all scrambled...

We need to protect the feeds. And say as a community this should be our goal to protect these feeds.

And thats my take on that.

 

[Anole]

I long ago decided I needed a cheat-sheet of links into the forum, for basic help info.
So, I created a simple notepad file (which has grown to maybe three pages) to do the job.
It's not well organized, and doesn't carry everything I should have, but it lets me answer questions a lot quicker than trying to search for or re-write something that was already well written.

So, as long as the new forum doesn't break those old links, I'm not complaining. - :up

As far as FTA having a lot of departments, I think those have been justified.
It's a pain to drop some, but if they're not really that relevant or active, I understand.
The up side is, when we needed an AZforum for a very unusual receiver, we got one!
Having C-band and Ku in different areas makes perfect sense.
So, if Ka were suddenly to become active, and we decided we needed a Ka-forum, I have confidence we'd get one.

I believe the thanks for the FTA support is largely due to our dedicated moderator.
Big thanks to Iceberg for making such a large forum department work so well! - :up

 

[turbosat]

People tend to resist change, its just human nature. I did get used to seeing that 4DTV section on its own, even though I don't have one I like to read what folks were still doing with it. Then I realized it wasn't gone. I AM glad that ebay thing was taken down though, lol. Years ago , when the guy called tv a 'vast wasteland', that is what I'm reminded of when I look at ebay. I try to roll with the changes, the fta place is still much as it was when I first came here. And I was so dumb then, I didn't even know a symbol rate from a PID.