Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Screen Shots and the Water Cooler

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations | Screen Shots and the Water Cooler

DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club

"Col. Panic"
Marietta, GA

2,347 legs, 9,466.0 hours
240 legs, 553.9 hours online
2,005 legs, 8,259.1 hours ACARS
75 legs, 196.3 hours event
2,383 legs, 9,600.9 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4 hours

Posted onPost created on December 04 2004 06:21 ET by Luke Kolin

One of the most popular features at the Water Cooler is the ability for pilots to post screen shots to share with other pilots. I think this is a lot of fun, and of great benefit to me when I put together manuals and need some artwork. This is definitely going to continue.

At the same time, screen shots really are somewhat peripheral to the whole mission of the Water Cooler. While a picture may equal a thousand words, we're here to do more than exchange pictures. DVA and AFV are exceptionally rich communities whose members have so much to share with each other. I'd like to emphasize that a little more.

Within the next day or so, I'm going to be modifying the "All Threads" page to no longer display message threads with attached images. There should already be a Channel labeled "Screen Shots" off of "All Threads" that you can switch to, in order to view the screen shots.

DVA has both the blessing and the curse of a custom-developed message board. While in some ways it limits us, in other ways it gives us an evolving organic object that is constantly mutating to meet the needs of its members. We have the freedom to experiment a little; we've done that with the screen shots in the first place, and we're evolving back a little bit. We'll evaluate and see how this turns out.

As always, feedback is welcome.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA341
Senior Captain, B737-800

Joined on October 15 2001
Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett Century Club

Kefar Sava, Center District Israel

143 legs, 463.5 hours
36 legs, 79.1 hours online
39 legs, 77.6 hours ACARS
1 legs, 2.0 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 05 2004 10:49 ET by Oren Geva

Luke, why not do a seperate screenshot forum?
This way you allow people who are interested in showing and seeing pictures to go and look specifically for that, while discussion continues on the general forum?
And while at it, why not utulize a mechanism to allow several pictures in a single thread (even if they're not hosted on the DVA/AFV server, but are links to external surces)? That way you can prevent the KATL=KJFK Pic 1, 2, 3, 4 threads for each picture seperatly?
Just my two cents.

Oren Geva

Senior Captain, B737-800

DVA851
Senior Captain, B777-200

Joined on September 22 2002
Online Quadruple Century Club
Million Mile Club
Flying Colonel
50 State Club
Globetrotter

Imlay City, MI USA

1,758 legs, 3,929.8 hours
487 legs, 1,005.8 hours online
1,314 legs, 2,966.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on December 05 2004 16:43 ET by Brian Kolbuch

Bigtime

One of the major things i like about the " All threads " is being able to read threads...and also have screenshots intermixed between things, it creates a nice variety for someone who is reading.

Read a thread... check out someones screenshot, etc.

Needless to say... i think it wont be fun to post screenshots anymore, even though it'll be in the screenshot forum... Mainly because i doubt anyone will go there to view them ( or at least not as much as in the " all threads " ).

I remember when i was in AVA ( American Virtual Airlines ) ... they had a seperate Screenshot forum...nobody posted anything there anymore, it was like 3 people in the whole VA who ever posted screenshots... and nobody really looked at them either.

At least when someone is reading the " all threads " ... they might see like " ATR-72 Flight 1 landing "... and they might think " Oooh lets see this "... while if they could care less about screenshots, they'll never bother to go to the screenshot forum, and additionally, they'll never find the ATR-72 Flight 1 landing that they may find interesting.

I probably wont post anymore screenshots but it depends on the publicity of the screenshots board... if it was like the AVA one where 2-3 people are posting and nobody is really looking then its not worth it anymore...but if a lot of people are interested then i'll still post mine.

But anyways... thats what i think.

Brian Kolbuch (DVA851)

Posted onPost created on December 05 2004 18:12 ET by Luke Kolin

Thanks Brian for that feedback. I spend a great deal of time browsing the forums for other virtual airlines, and what you said about AVA is spot-on. Again, the beauty of the DVA forum is that unlike other forums we can customize it as we see fit.

Your concerns are valid. Let me mull them over for a few days to see if I can come to some sort of arrangement that meets them.

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA1320
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM

Joined on August 29 2003
Online Six Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Everett Millennium Club
Flying Colonel
Three Million Mile Club

Arlington, VA USA

1,752 legs, 7,042.0 hours
610 legs, 2,627.6 hours online
272 legs, 966.9 hours ACARS
5 legs, 12.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 06 2004 03:21 ET by Daniel Ward

I can see both sides of this discussion. I think the ability to post screen shots to the water cooler to help solve issues is important. As has been said in the past, one picture is worth a thousand words. Being able to succinctly show the problem helps so much in a debug environment. And to be totally honest, seeing screen shots from others (even those "vacation" shots) is entertaining. I get to look at screenshots in one place, rather than going to other pages to look at them. Although I would definitely miss the screenshots on the forum, I won't upset if you decide they must go.

Posted onPost created on December 06 2004 09:00 ET by Brian Kolbuch

Luke - By the way...lol, can you put an Edit feature on the message board? I think we all want that, thats like the top priority thing we need right now wink

DVA1044
Senior Captain, B767-300

Joined on January 12 2003
Century Club

"Fly Delta Jets"
Roswell, NM USA

127 legs, 388.8 hours
62 legs, 199.3 hours online
2 legs, 5.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 06 2004 11:37 ET by Lloyd Arms

I also like the screen shots the way they are now. I would like to make a suggestion however. Once logged in and in the water cooler it would be nice to be able to click the events link as well.

Lloyd Arms (DVA1044)

DVA1008
Senior Captain, B757-200

Joined on December 14 2002
B757 100 Club
Everett 250 Club
50 State Club
Six Century Club
Online Six Century Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"Fly 'till the map turns blue"
Kokomo, IN

633 legs, 1,731.3 hours
613 legs, 1,689.9 hours online
212 legs, 792.3 hours ACARS
35 legs, 77.7 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 06 2004 14:01 ET by Matt Young

Why not make it an option in the profile whether or not you want to see the screenshots? That's what we orignally discussed and it seemed like a good idea.

Matt Young

Senior Captain, B757-200

DVA1427
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on December 14 2003
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Tri-Jet Triumph
Globetrotter
Moose Club
US Capital Club
Everett 250 Club
Quincentenary Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

"Livin' in the Dog Pound!"
Kannapolis, NC

558 legs, 1,984.3 hours
250 legs, 611.8 hours online
384 legs, 1,530.5 hours ACARS
38 legs, 82.7 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 06 2004 14:38 ET by Lewis Gregory

I like Matt's suggestion, if it's possible to code that in.

Lewis Gregory

Senior Captain, MD-11

Posted onPost created on December 06 2004 15:19 ET by Brian Kolbuch

Yeah i like Matt's idea too...thats the best... it satisfies everyones concerns regarding screenshots here at DVA.

Brian Kolbuch (DVA851)

Posted onPost created on December 06 2004 16:51 ET by Luke Kolin

This sounds like an excellent idea. I should be able to do this with a little bit of programmatic work. I have been leaning towards updating user profiles with some preferences such as IATA vs. ICAO airport codes (since we now have both in our databases - thanks Trevor & Tony) as well as proper time zone and language settings. This could be yet another attribute. Let me think about it, and see what I can do.

I will probably unleash my creation on the AFV folks since there is less scope for me to truly mess something up. (I bet they feel like the children in the Monty Python sketch where the father announces they're all being sold to medical research.)

Cheers!

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA1892
Senior Captain, MD-11

Joined on September 13 2004
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Eurocap Club
Online Triple Century Club
White Pearl Accomplishment
Quatercentenary Club
Everett Century Club

"Fly Douglas Jets!"
Buenos Aires AR

460 legs, 1,384.1 hours
336 legs, 1,086.5 hours online
271 legs, 726.6 hours ACARS
12 legs, 24.6 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 17 2004 19:23 ET by Gaston Doval

Luke,

Would you consider the idea of adding the possibility of HTML tags, so people can use the VATSIM indicators, or either, can bring the images from a saved album like, photobucket.com

When I say HTML "tagging" I mean this...

And the image displays. This I think could easy up the load on the Servers HD and the bandwidth (not that much).

Well...

That's my idea, just a suggestion.

Cheers!

Gaston Doval (DVA1892)

AFV011
Senior Captain, B777-300

Joined on September 19 2004
GVA 5 Year Anniversary
Online Two Fifty Club
Triple Century Club
Historic Triple Century Club

"Remember...140, 250, and REALLY FAST"
Midwestern United States

394 legs, 606.7 hours
274 legs, 430.6 hours online
86 legs, 126.5 hours ACARS
8 legs, 16.0 hours event
501 legs, 763.5 hours total

Posted onPost created on December 18 2004 03:44 ET by Michael Carter

It would be a Godsend to be able to edit posts because of spelling errors, pictures not loading correctly, an afterthought to a previous post, etc.

I this is the only board I've ever been on that did not include an edit feature for posts.

DVA2191
Captain, B777-200

Joined on March 14 2005

"Dreams subside; Reality prevails"
Western Europe

89 legs, 261.0 hours
68 legs, 203.5 hours online
49 legs, 123.7 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on March 31 2005 03:22 ET by Matthew Niederberger

any new changes on this? i just found this site: http://www.vatsimindicators.net/ind.pmd/lib/indicator?id=51

and i think it would be great if we can choose to have this banner! make a standard option and have the ability to enter your VATSIM id number in the profile editor to have the tag included if no signature is uploaded, or deleted.

just an idea. smile

DVA2086
Senior Captain, B767-300
E-MAIL

Joined on January 12 2005
Online Double Century Club
Six Century Club
50 State Club

Sharpsburg, GA USA

643 legs, 1,866.3 hours
505 legs, 1,417.9 hours online
418 legs, 1,380.2 hours ACARS
63 legs, 196.8 hours event

Posted onPost created on March 31 2005 04:40 ET by Chris Williams

On an semi related note. As a general geek and .NET web programmer, I'm always interested in the technology websites use. I noticed this site uses Lotus Domino. Are you a domino programmer? I've never used it nor seen any code. Will the new site use the same technology?

Chris Williams

Senior Captain, B767-300

DVA953
Senior Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL

Joined on November 17 2002
50 State Club
Double Century Club
Online Double Century Club

"V1 means V1..."
West Lafayette, IN USA

214 legs, 376.8 hours
211 legs, 373.0 hours online
117 legs, 223.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on March 31 2005 05:13 ET by James Brickell

New site is JSP. http://dva2006.deltava.org/

James Brickell (DVA953)

Posted onPost created on March 31 2005 05:31 ET by Chris Williams

Nice. I think it would be interesting to have an article outlining what technologies were used i.e. Database, any type of framework, etc. Most VA's are small PHP sites with little programming. I'm really impressed from what I've seen here. It rivals enterprise level applications.

Chris Williams

Senior Captain, B767-300

For flight simulation purposes only. Not a commercial website. In no way are we affiliated with Delta Air Lines, its affiliates, or any other airline. All logos, images, and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Delta Virtual Airlines is a non-profit entity engaged in providing an avenue for flight simulation enthusiasts.