I don't see the issue of having a few non-hobby related threads going. The website is primarily of course model boats, so I can't imagine other topics will ever dominate.

It would be nice to get back to fun and humourous non-hobby threads mind you, and away from COVID a bit 😊

Stephen

Hi Ed,

The link is fixed. The space in the URL is deliberately added to avoid some web browsers trying to stretch the page width. The gallery works a bit differently to the rest of the site (different code), but I've just enabled the displaying of links.

Thanks
Stephen

I have to say I've been fairly surprised to see a lot of people still voluntarily wearing masks in shops. I was fearing there would be a sudden shift to everyone not wearing any on 'freedom day'. Obviously there are some (usually the younger population who don't care), but many people do appear to still be being cautious. Perhaps that will dwindle, lets see!

Stephen

Rest assured, he who will not be named has gone too!

Stephen

What a cuffufle.

For twelve years we didn't have any moderators on the site.

We may have moderators again, it's still a trial. For a period of time I want to let the site run itself, like it did in the past, unmoderated.

All posts have a flag button, anyone can flag things they don't think is appropriate. Changes or removals will be done by exception.

Martin & Bill were 2 of 6 mods, all volunteers. It's no reflection on them. Both great members of the community in my eyes and I hope they stick around.

Stephen

Shop is back 😁👍

Stephen

Well it’s wrong to be coming up blank. That said, I do wonder if the shop will need to be closed at some point. I’ll fix it and see how we get on with orders and the time I have 👍 that’ll explain why there hasn’t been much coming through!

Will look into this as soon as I can. I’ll update you when it’s back online.

Stephen

Having done this successfully on my Hartley cabin boat, I thought (at Martins, suggestion) I would put a few bits of info here to make it simple (and it is) If you can pair a BT speaker or similar with your phone, it should be no problem setting the music or radio from that medium.

You can use a Micro SD card with pre-installed music, (uses the remote) or plug the board into your computer and download to the card, - or play music from your computer through the board (or perhaps by BT from your computer to your boat - at a show maybe) I use a 1s 200mAh LiPo to power mine which is quite adequate if the music is recorded at a decent level ( the higher the recorded level the louder the volume available) - it's only 3W without an amp but loud enough to annoy the fun Nazis😁

I started with good 3W 4 Ohm speakers which worked well in a boom box (plastic jar) but took a bit much power to drive, and were a bit heavy (ok in a 40" boat with more room). I then changed to cheap 4 Ohm .25W speakers, and these gave plenty of volume but are a bit sharp (even in the mini boxes I made for them), but again, that can depend on the quality of the recording. The pictures should give a good idea of what goes where. Speaker wires should be copied to each set of terminals (+ and - of each speaker to each of the L+R terminals ) to keep the speakers in phase ( see pic -don't cross them between sets of terminals)

For the BT radio side, I use a Ruizu BT player which is an amazing little bit of kit. It can play from a Micro SD card, play radio (even has an auto search and station store) has an earphone jack which can be used as an aerial socket for an external aerial on the boat (see my set-up in the recent Hartley blog) has a voice recorder and a number of other features in a tiny package, (around $30 NZ)

I have mine strapped out of sight under the cabin roof, and connected to the external aerial as the radio, and it works well. It can also be used externally as a BT player (card) or remote radio when paired to the board, so you can change stations, music etc on the go in your boat. Also works with BT speakers.

All Items available on Ali Express (the cheap speakers I bought from my local electronics store for $5 ea)

Wow, let’s calm it all down guys. I think as a whole we can all agree we want normality back and we all hate lockdowns, masks, restrictions and being told we can’t visit loved ones or even sail our boats at times.

However COVID came about, it’s here now and will be around forever no doubt. Normality can’t come soon enough for all of us.

Whatever the route out of this mess, let’s try to keep this thread neutral and support those who are having a hard time or feeling isolated.

Stephen

Man tries to get phone fixed. You won't believe click what bait happened next

▶️

Hi Colin, thanks for testing it out. Pleased to hear it’s working!

For anyone who has the old app, you will need to find the new one in the Android Play store. The old app won’t automatically update.

Search ‘Model Boats’ in the Play Store.

Any feedback appreciated from those who install it 😁

Stephen

Posting files:
The fatal error when you submit posts with attachments has been fixed now. Indeed the newer server software caused this. Seems it's not happy with some elements of code that the previous version used to ignore.

Likes notifications:
All notifications were ones that should have gone out in the past but didn't at the time. To avoid bombardment, I did cancel the remaining 'old' notifications from going out. Of course all new ones will still come through as and when they happen.

Some good news:
Maybe I'm speaking too early here, but it looks like emails are working well at the moment. They're arriving within a minute of the event occurring on the website. Now I've said it, it'll probably all change!

Attempting not to adjust the sails so much today and to leave things be as much as possible 🤞😎

Stephen

Were they “people who have liked your post” ones or something else?

Hi Martin, just checked this one out and it's fixed 👍

Thanks,
Stephen

The best thing you can do is mark them as not spam and back into your inbox. This teaches the system that they are valid emails and applies the logic to others using the same email provider.

I'm trying to fix the domain verification part also, which doesn't help the case.

Stephen

Good spot 👍 - Fixed.

If anyone else sees anything strange, let me know.

Stephen

I'm not sure if it's magic touch or blind luck 😁

It seems to be operating normally at the moment. Let's hope it stays that way 🤞

Thanks for the kind words.

Stephen

It's been a headache few days and I'm not sure we're through the storm yet.

Ultimately the ship will be more stable once I've stopped meddling with the sails.

Changed:
- Server software updated v7.3 - v8.0 (apparently faster)
- Database capacity doubled (space to grow and also a newer version)
- Emails (still slow as ever and being received as "could not verify model-boats.com actually sent this", increasing the likelihood they'll land in SPAM) - so still working on this part.

Apologies if the site goes offline here and there 😔 if anyone is good with setting up DKIM protocols, let me know 👍

Stephen

The situation is... 😆

Last time (two weekends ago) the web host (IONOS) blocked the sending of emails from the server directly - this was resolved after a communication with them.

This time (this weekend) there's no explanation from IONOS and they insist to continue sending emails that I must setup a webmail account and link up the SMTP details of that to a new mailer function - all fine, except you're limited to 50 recipients per hour and we have new topics that go out to 300 at a time. I'm trailing an idea to get around this.

This morning the code was updated and notifications did work for a while, but as mentioned, it stopped (this is the only one I'll accept responsibility for! 😋). The code wasn't binning out failed sends, getting itself stuck in an endless loop of trying.

Another code change has just been made and it looks like today's backlog is gradually coming down. So they'll be a few old notifications coming through until it catches up.

Hopefully that'll be the end of it once it's caught up 🤞

Stephen

Makes sense, there's only one record for a private message. Deleting it would delete it for both the sender and receiver. So only the function to delete your own PM's is available.

Space wise - PM's are not really using much space or causing issues.

I'm working on the emails (still). I can assure removing PM's won't help on that front 😊

Stephen

Thought I’d start this thread off to find out what weird and wonderful boats others have seen or made.

This was at New Brighton today.

What unusual boats have others come across? 😎

Rowing Boat

▶️

I agree, certainly it does help with engagement. The email notifications should be back on again. The web host blocked them over the weekend due to a surge on Friday, so I had to prove it was a normal event and not spam. (I also think they want to sell their marketing solutions, so they’re quite indifferent about blocking emails for any reason!)

Stephen

Alright, so it may be a little while before emails are working again. The web host blocked all outgoing mail due to yesterdays spike in notifications (Martin555 - you weren't far wrong with the hammering!)

I phoned the company up, instead of re-enabling emails they tried to sell me their email marketing packages... the real reason for the "security" block perhaps? 😠

...so trying via email instead which always takes time.

Stephen

Just a quick update to inform you all there’s no update 😆

Will hopefully get chance to investigate it later this evening 👍

Stephen

If anyone prefers to PM me directly rather than post publicly - that’s fine too 👍

Stephen

Hi All,

We've decided to put a shout out to see who may be interested in becoming a moderator and helping with general day-to-day upkeep of the website. Most of the time there is little to be done, but on the occasions others post adverts, personal contact details or when items are flagged, action needs to be taken.

This is completely unpaid (but the hours are flexible, no travel is required and you have unlimited holidays!)

========
Moderator
A moderator plays a vital role in establishing the tenor of a forum and guiding its conduct. The duties of moderators include facilitating introduction of participants in a forum, encouraging robust discussion of the forum’s agenda, maintaining order throughout the proceedings, ensuring that the interactions remain within the identified theme. It includes editing, moving and even deleting postings.
- Discussion Facilitation
- Thematic Control
- Orderly Conduct
- Content Relevance
========

All applicants please raise a hand 👍

Our current moderators: RNinMunich (DE), Martin555 (UK), figtree7nts (US)

Stephen

Hi Rick,

I’ve only heard from Martin very briefly since he left, I did share the well-being thread with him and mentioned the support everyone had left.

Without knowing what it is, it’s hard to say, but it seems clear something has happened and he’s no longer able to give any time to reading and replying to messages.

I think we all hope he’ll be back one day. Fingers crossed 🤞

Stephen

Hi All,

I'd like to pass along a message from Martin555 who originally started this thread and who has helped a great deal of members over the years;

----
I am extremely sorry to have to leave the site but I have personal family problems that will require a lot of my time.

I have absolutely enjoyed communicating with all the members and looking at their fantastic models.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone for making my time on this, the best model boat site on the internet, so enjoyable.

And also a big thank you to Stephen and the Admin Team.

It has been great.

Thank you,
Martin
----

I believe he'll occasionally come online as a guest, so I'd like to send a big thank you for all the fantastic knowledge, camaraderie and support you've offered over the last few years, and I wish you all the best for whatever the issues are. I've no doubt others share the same sentiment.

Stephen

You could put the two 6v batteries in series (positive of one to the negative of the other) that would give you 12v.

Alternatively yes, the 11.1v battery will also work. I’d think a 12v fan would likely work down to around 8v.

Stephen

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

Stephen

Message from Scamp:

Thank you for notifying me that I have been lucky to be a prize winner.
I wish all the Model Boats website members a New n merry Christmas and a safe new year.
Looking forward to the new year when we will be able to meet and go sailing again.
Happy new year.
Scamp.