biker.net site down? PLEASE say it's not so

Quote:
"I used to meet most new members with a few links to get them started but i must admit i have been worn down over time because 9 times out of 10 these same people would back a few days later asking questions relating to information i had posted links to.....................just to lazy to read and the funny thing is they would post a question and spend 2 or 3 days getting,waiting for answers/information when they could have had 90% of that info within 30 min of reading the links............"

Skull..................yes I've seen the same thing, when I post links for the lads. Lots of people are just lazy, and like to be spoon fed.
I don't see that changing anytime soon. Every possible question has been answered in the TECH section or by "search". The good news is that it generates more traffic on the site, as the same information is re-hashed over and over again, and that makes the advertisers happy, which makes Travis happy. Its all good:bike:

.
 
You'z guys are right there is nothing new under the sun.
Do you notice that even public TV has ads, NPR has pledge drives. I'd rather this site gets commercial support and we keep feeding the SOS to the newbies. Especially compared to "forum lite" IE face book. Us old farts with big ole puters and lap tops don't get that most of the younger guys are on phones with really limited screen views. Its' tough to find anything when you are only ablee to see a couple short lines at a time. Yes it has been all said but hey it's a community, we're here to help and get a bit of fun, see our old and new (we NEED new) buds, and catch a bit of relaxation. IMHO this site is the XS mothership If trav can get that site's info here it's better for everyone. I do fix ups of lots of different stuff a whole new to me forum is functional overload. Straight up if it's too easy to find EVERYTHING the reason for it being a forum kind of disappears. Lots of dumb question guys end up being great contributors afterthe y get to know the place. Oops gotta go run that new buffer s'more, mmm Shiny aluminum!
 
DogBunny said:
... I'm pretty sure that TooManyXS1Bs has the XS1B diagrams in his album...
Click to expand...

I have some of the service bulletins in albums, but the rest is just far too massive. My collecting has been mostly for the 70-73 '256' stuff. Have some of the '74-on stuff, but that's terribly enormous. Previous forum software had limits, requiring image shrinks and loss of clarity.

I wonder if this new forum software would support huge (1-12mb) .PDF downloads.

Several members here were involved in the english translation of Hans Pahl's manual (8.5mb .PDF). The result of that may also be on a at-risk website. Don't know who runs it...

Edit: Then there's 5Twins' photobucket behemoth. Egads...

Edit2: My tablet's XS650 directory is currently holding 1.4gb of data. Probably small by many standards, but far beyond any reasonable organized uploading.
 
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I'm like you 2M, My bike file is 28GB but that's a lot of personal stuff and most of my pics are taken on the max settings, and things do get doubled up on.

Just the Manuals file is 3gb, that is mostly from thexscafe but also a lot from other XS650 clubs from around he world

Wont use a cloud, i have 2 back up external HD's and then some is also on my computers HD.
 
gggGary said:
Do you notice that even public TV has ads,............................ Straight up if it's too easy to find EVERYTHING the reason for it being a forum kind of disappears. Lots of dumb question guys end up being great contributors afterthey get to know the place. Oops gotta go run that new buffer s'more, mmm Shiny aluminum!
Click to expand...

Well i didn't want to have to admit this...........................But................i don't have a TV and haven't watched a commercial or Pay TV for well over 12 years now ............Do they have adverts???............Fred going to be right up me now saying i don't have a funny bone because i don't watch the cartoons on Saturday morning.

And admitting you make the Tech menu difficult so we have to keep the forum more interactive, kinda like saying ...............what did you say............ah........What did you say...............I said tickle you with a feather ah..................AH.................I SAID....PARTICULARLY NASTY WEATHER TODAY
 
I tried to create an album to upload the parts diagrams and service bulletins that I have for 77D-79F from biker.net but got this error:
"The uploaded file does not have an allowed extension." I guess the software won't recognize a PDF file format.
Don't really want to post them in a thread yet until we see how Travis makes out. There are about 50 files.
 
Sorry skull adding moving, tech menu stuff is above my pay grade, (zero). Worked the buffer so long my arms are sore this morning. I went about 10 years without a TV, before the web too! but wife wants one.... 'Sides internet sucks time worse than TV.
PS I have the engine overhaul PDF, in german and translated.
 
robinc said:
I tried to create an album to upload the parts diagrams and service bulletins that I have for 77D-79F from biker.net but got this error:
"The uploaded file does not have an allowed extension." I guess the software won't recognize a PDF file format.
Don't really want to post them in a thread yet until we see how Travis makes out. There are about 50 files.
Click to expand...
I could likely convert those files if you need something more extension friendly for the site, I know I have a copy of 77' for sure saved as an offline HTML. 5twins is the man, I literally have his entire xs650 photobucket collection saved to hard drive (5 twins fanboy). Even some of us young phone jockeys still keep a solid laptop computer with massive external storage around ya know.
 
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retiredgentleman said:
Quote:
"I used to meet most new members with a few links to get them started but i must admit i have been worn down over time because 9 times out of 10 these same people would back a few days later asking questions relating to information i had posted links to.....................just to lazy to read and the funny thing is they would post a question and spend 2 or 3 days getting,waiting for answers/information when they could have had 90% of that info within 30 min of reading the links............"

Skull..................yes I've seen the same thing, when I post links for the lads. Lots of people are just lazy, and like to be spoon fed.
I don't see that changing anytime soon. Every possible question has been answered in the TECH section or by "search". The good news is that it generates more traffic on the site, as the same information is re-hashed over and over again, and that makes the advertisers happy, which makes Travis happy. Its all good:bike:

.
Click to expand...
^retired gentleman hit this on the head, clicks keep things going in a modern day, ads generate revenue, that's why the Facebook push has been important. Facebook, which I'm not a fan of but understand, and it's xs650.com group, is probably one of the best sources of site link to this forum, more people-more clicks-more xs650.com.
 
Thanks ECE. I could probably convert to jpegs or some other compatible format but will wait for further direction from Travis or gggGary. Will sit tight for now to see what Travis can arrange. In the meantime if someone urgently needs them they can PM me an email address and I'll fire off a few emails with files attached.
 
retiredgentleman said:
Quote:
"I used to meet most new members with a few links to get them started but i must admit i have been worn down over time because 9 times out of 10 these same people would back a few days later asking questions relating to information i had posted links to.....................just to lazy to read............"

Skull..................yes I've seen the same thing, when I post links for the lads. Lots of people are just lazy, and like to be spoon fed.
I don't see that changing anytime soon...
Click to expand...

Ditto, somewhat.

Ramble of the day:

In retrospect, I've had to think back on my experiences with folks in the computer/electronics industry. For new folks, there's much too much to learn, in a short timeframe, to solve immediate and complicated issues. A task may seem simple to an experienced (and equipped) member, not so for a first-timer. I can fully understand how a seemingly simple question implies a need for a 6-month training program, and invokes a feeling of exasperation in senior members, as they try to bridge this wide chasm.

I admire 5Twins and XSLeo's abilities in effectively reading and communicating with new folks "at their level". With this in mind, I think I'd rather take Grizld1's backseat approach, and let the sophomores take a crack at it. I see a better "meeting of the minds" in those exchanges...

Edit: One example I can remember was when a member couldn't start his bike. A stream of highly technical testing procedures and engine repair discussions followed. Only to find out he forgot to turn the petcock 'on'...
 
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I appreciate the efforts by a few so far to share files and contribute to Jean or Travis. Hopefully Jean and/or Travis can work something out.

Yes, until the old site gets resurrected or transferred there are work-arounds. But make no mistake, biker.com was thorough, comprehensive, complete, accurate, very user-friendly and awesome. There is no comparison.
 
There's an old back in the day analogy to this, I've been on both sides of it myself. The newbie searches out the guru of what ever project he's embarked on and blurts out a question. The guru ignores him or makes it plain the newbie should leave his presence. The newbie is INCENSED! From the newbies question the guru discerns the gap in knowledge and needed skills is so vast that no palatable "answer" is possible. We have all dealt with that on carbs; I don't want to rebuild them OR learn about how they work, I just want it to run good, tell me the "trick!"
2many's let the "intermediate guys" bridge the gap is a very wise course of action. again it's a community. We want to encourage all (that have a some chance of winning the coming battle) to enjoy owning these classics, don't we? I perhaps have more patience than most, 30 years of retail, guiding "sheople" to the light of decent home construction practices will do that to you.
 
Hi guys,
and what about us old guys? I was over 50 when they took my drafting table away and put a computer in it's place.
When's the course to drive this thing?
There's no money for a course, here's this book.
Press enter, it said.
Well, I would have except my keyboard didn't have a key that said enter.
Turns out that my keyboard called it return.
Who knew?
So no, it's not that we are too lazy to follow links and such, it's that we don't know how.
 
gggGary said:
Sorry skull adding moving, tech menu stuff is above my pay grade, (zero). Worked the buffer so long my arms are sore this morning. I went about 10 years without a TV, before the web too! but wife wants one.... 'Sides internet sucks time worse than TV.
PS I have the engine overhaul PDF, in german and translated.
Click to expand...

gggGary i was making a play about your comment on why i a good tech menu is counterproductive to interaction between members. Where we used to get new threads, (plural), every day now we are all huddling around a couple of threads with a new one every few days.................Especially now that Yamaha77 has gone.

Truth is, when ever you look at how many are on the site, signed in members are usually a very small portion to robots and non robots.

Jeans site would be counter productive in another format, As it is, it is easy to navigate and bring up any information. Any other form, if it was integrated on here or another site, it would loose a lot of its value.

For those thinking of making up a thread, go through the ID/Manual sticky and have a good think about how it could be done. If the PDF files, per model, were put into a thread the thread would end up pages long. It would need a menu on top to navigate to whatever page the model was on. The time it would take to do this would take ..................I know how long it took me to build that thread
 
fredintoon said:
So no, it's not that we are too lazy to follow links and such, it's that we don't know how.
Click to expand...

Its was the host of the new members and often the young crowd who want all and every bit of information now, and given to me now. these are the ones who would rather wait days for information to be posted, than look at a link or tech Menu or do a search................gggGary points out its due to the size of their devices and lack of screen space.....................Maybe to a point, but i also think in part,its the memewantitnowhaventgottimetodoitmyselftellmenow attitude
 
650Skull said:
If the PDF files, per model, were put into a thread the thread would end up pages long. It would need a menu on top to navigate to whatever page the model was on
Click to expand...

Ya, thanks for the info Skull. That's what I was thinking and why I didn't do any more with it. A thread with 50 pages of info just for 3 model years would be unweildy for sure. I totally agree with you, Jeans site was well organized and easy to navigate. Maybe there is a way we can help support his site and preserve the great work he did. I once hosted a fairly popular website so I have an idea of what's involved.
 
650Skull said:
Jeans site would be counter productive in another format, As it is, it is easy to navigate and bring up any information. Any other form, if it was integrated on here or another site, it would loose a lot of its value.
Click to expand...
Okay, I'm not very smart, but I don't see why the entire site, in it's exact familiar form including it's original navigation, can't simply be pasted into this site. Again, I'm not very smart, but it seems to me that all it would cost would be a one-time out-lay for some memory, or server space, or something, you tell me, I'm not an IT guy. So, from any page on xs650.com, you would click on an item to be added to the menu bar that we already see at the top of each page, and you'd simply be taken to the XS650 home page of biker.net, from where you'd navigate to all the rest of the stuff, just like we did three days ago. The only difference would be that each page's HTTP address would now begin with www.xs650.com.

I and others would contribute, and additionally, banner ads could be added to each page. I am equally willing to contribute to have biker.net put back up on it's own original site, under the control of it's original webmaster, and again, banner ads could be added to each page so that maybe it would pay for itself.

I do see one advantage to the first scenario, i.e. pasting the XS650 portion of biker.net into xs650.com, and that is that I think xs650 com is, in light of what just happened, a more reliable host. Said with due respect to the webmaster of biker.net who created an awesome site and peerless resource.
 
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Jean got back to me today and said he plans on getting the site back up soon. :bike:

I asked about a way to donate and will pass that information along when I receive it.
 

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