Thread for potential library assistants...

[Rami]

Good afternoon,

Since I couldn't do this via PM, I decided to use this chamber to facilitate out little discussion.

Mick et al,

Mick - First, which sim do you normally populate? Combat Flight sims or non-combat sims?

Second, you would not be. I know at least two members are on board, possibly three, so you wouldn't be alone.

The library responsibilities would essentially be as follows. 90%-95% of your daily activity will consist just of these steps...(I will provide screenshots)

1) Log in.

2) Check the "New" button on the Warbirds library link on the home screen.

3) Look to see which uploads are new; usually you'll see a "new" icon in the top left-hand corner of a recent upload. Also, these will always be displayed as the most recent files to download, and the "hits" number (listed on the right side of the page) will be zero.

4) Click on the red "moderate" tab, just under the name "Warbirds," next to Administration. If there are uploads to approve, they will be listed here, by category.

5) Click on the category. It will list the upload consisting of the upload name, (On the left) the description, (In the center) the file size, location it will go into the library under, (On the right) as well as the file size. (I will include screenshots the next time we have new uploads)

6) Download the file and examine it. Look to see that everything is there. Sometimes, it's just an empty file; it can happen to the best of us. If it is, just send the uploader a PM letting them know.

7) There is then a box that you highlight. It gives you several options, but the primary one you use 99% of the time is "accept and announce in the forum." (I will discuss the others when we have uploads)

A thread then gets automatically generated in the Warbirds library. That's the basics, and especially as a backup, that's all you'd need to do.

Oh yeah...admins and staff get a "free pass" on what they upload, you don't have to approve them. They go right through.

Now, for those who will be the primary roles, a little helpful hints on the way I've been doing things, and some things to watch out for.

1) The "edit" screen when you moderate and approve a download (screenshot will follow in the next PM) is the exact same screen you have when you upload a file. So it should be familiar to many of you.

2) Watch out for downloads that use links to external sites. (Google Drive, etc.) These are not allowed at SOH. They always need to be uploaded to the server. I also don't allow .rar files, and use .zip or .7zip files if they are large. To do this, I just download the file, re-zip it, and re-upload it, and make sure that the filename box (see pic #2) is left blank when I click on "submit."

3) The editing screen for downloads has a bad habit of not copying the download description into the large box you see when you upload a file. So I usually copy and paste it before I approve an upload, just in case I have to add the description back in.



4) Watch out for commas in file names and rename boxes. (the ones that are circled in the screenshot) If these are included, some web browsers, such as Google Chrome, will not be able to download the file, and show a 404 "file not found" error. Spaces can do that too, so I use underscores.




5) Sometimes, certain users can be notorious for using multiple categories for upload placement. If this happens, pick the one you think is the best fit. If you have questions, PM me and I'll put it where I think it should go. You'll pick things up quick.

6) Picture sizes are supposed to be 300 x 225 in their dimensions for uploading. Sometimes, users may not be able to upload pictures larger than that, but sometimes they can. Occasionally, they will send you a PM on the subject, so it's important to know what advice to give. Tell them to resize their picture to fit those approximate dimensions if this happens.

Certain users will also use Flikr or other tools to use a URL that is incredibly large. If that happens, right-click on the picture, download it, and put it in the "upload" image section of the edit/uploading screen, and click on submit. It will resize it automatically to SOH standards.

7) When people upload patches, I usually like to include them in the original upload. I download both, add the fix or update to the original upload in a separate folder, with any additional documentation included, add the underscore "with_fix" to both the file name and the "name" section at the very top of the edit/upload screen, and then click on the "Update to current date and time" before scrolling to the bottom and clicking "submit." This moves the file to first in the library order.



8) I also usually move the threads from the Warbirds Library to the CFS2 forum to make stickies for the announcements. We can discuss that in another PM.

Before I go any further, let me know if this makes any sense!