📢 Feedback Lost out on a good instruction manual

[Tracy]

I just spent the last almost 30 minutes creating an instruction guide on how to install NodeBB for users to find here.
Since there is no article system apparently in use it was made as a post.
And you will not find that post because:

Being a guide for installing NodeBB and nginx as a proxy, it was well beyond that.
So, off I go to find somewhere to post it other than the XFH site it was asked for on. 😱

I may see about busting it into two pieces, one for NodeBB and then the other for setting up nginx as the proxy.

 

[joelr]

I'm not aware of any character limit for the post, sorry for the loss of data. Any limits were carried over from the prior owner. I'll need to investigate.

 

[Tracy]

I'm not aware of any character limit for the post, sorry for the loss of data. Any limits were carried over from the prior owner. I'll need to investigate.

I split it into several posts.

So you are interested in using NodeBB?

This guide will go over the basics of installing NodeBB on an Ubuntu LTS based VPS/dedicated server. I strongly suggest using Ubuntu 24.04LTS as one install I attempted on 22.40LTS had some dependency issues. It will not cover actual Linux OS setup, as I assume if you have wanting to install...

admin-junkies.com

That amount is the default that comes with Xenforo.
It will cause issues if you run a site that might have people posting items like this.

 

[joelr]

Do you know if the Articles mode will have the same limit?

 

[Tracy]

Do you know if the Articles mode will have the same limit?

Not sure as I use the Table of Contents feature of it. It probably does, but that feature allows you to get around it usually.

https://astrowhat.com/articles/raspberry-pi4-with-ubuntu-kstars-indi-ekos.28/

It allows you to break it down into specific parts, which would have been ideal for that guide.

 

[Cedric]

I'm not aware of any character limit for the post, sorry for the loss of data. Any limits were carried over from the prior owner. I'll need to investigate.

Yes, you always like to shove things like this in my shoes.

My default character limit is much larger than the default one.

You know Joel, you could actually run all settings a quick view and refrain from saying "it's the prior owners fault". You've been merging so many communities in here, running into countless technical issues, technical issues I've often explained what you did wrong - trying to help you - perhaps you need to take the time to assess the software and its settings more carefully instead of blaming someone.

 

[joelr]

I certainly wasn't trying to blame someone, that's a big leap. It was just a default setting that was carried over, and I do appreciate anyones help to keep things running 👍. You did a great job with the prior community, so I'm thankful for that.

 

[Jordan]

So, off I go to find somewhere to post it other than the XFH site it was asked for on.

If you're interested in a guest post opportunity, I could use something like that.

 

[Tracy]

I mis-read the refrence to articles mode as being AMS.
Anything that uses the base XF posting process will be limited to that 10,000 character limit. XF articles are just a tweak on a regular post basically.
I have confirmed that AMS (from XenAddons) triples that amount in the AMS add-on, which is what my image shows an example of.

 

[Tracy]

Also, in a pinch XFRM from Xenforo can be used for this.
You can compare the hacky way I had to do it here with

https://anotheradminforum.com/resources/nodebb-install-guide-ubuntu.8/

<waiting approval at time of this post>

 

[joelr]

Also, in a pinch XFRM from Xenforo can be used for this.
You can compare the hacky way I had to do it here with

https://anotheradminforum.com/resources/nodebb-install-guide-ubuntu.8/

<waiting approval at time of this post>

I really like how XFRM is more than a downloads file manager; it was designed to handle written guides as well.

The Files app from IPS is exclusively geared towards digital files, which it does very well. But it's not for written guides.

I continue to juggle in my head about the merits of a standalone article section versus incorporating it ino the forum.

 

[Tracy]

Depending on the length of the articles, using the built in XF article format could be problematic unless you increase the character limits.
The article I created is almost twice the limit that is set here (19,829 characters). XenAddon's AMS would have handled that easily in one page. That is due to the fact that, from what the developer commented to me on, his add-on triples the base number that is set in the XF admin panel for posts, so that would be 30,000 characters.
XFRM has the ability to set the maximus resource update character length also, which is a separate amount from what the posts are.
Between the two, an admin has to decide which would be more useful. With XFRM you can host links to/direct downloads of items (similar to what I do on my Astro site) and it can also be used for fileless rsources, which a guide would consist of. It does have some limitations in it though that I personally do not like for use for writing guides.
AMS on the other hand is much better for guides and also articles that deal with a niche topic. Personally I prefer to use it for guide creation and then use XFRM for guides that may have been created by others that are either in PDF format already or hosted on another site.

Honestly, if I had not been so interested in getting that article online here, the hassle of having to make multiple posts in a thread to do it would have dissuaded me. The additional downfall to using threads for a guide like this is anyone can come in and start commenting inline to the guide thread, which then takes away from that in case I want to add more later. You lose the cohesiveness of that guide by having the possibility of other posts being injected into it.