FAQ / Getting Started IPVM Discussions

JH
John Honovich
Feb 13, 2013
IPVM

Here's how to get the most out of the IPVM discussion group:

Ask Questions / Get Help

Use this group to get help and advice from IPVM admins and thousands of other members around the world. Feel free to start your own discussion now or anytime.

Comment Covertly

We recognize that in a small industry like security, some public comments can cause problems. Because of that, we support a covert feature that hides your names fom selected comments. Here's what it looks like:

If you use this, your name will never be disclosed but we will know who you are and can privately verify that there is no abuse / promotion being done.

Explain Why?

However you comment, if you are going to recommend something, explain why it works and what limitations it might have. This helps everyone understand better.

Disclose Affiliations

If you are recommending something you manufacturer, mention that in the first line of your comment. Then explain why it fits.

Share Links and Images

Include a link for more information or embed an image to show what you are talking about. In the commenting pane, there are icons / buttons that enable you to do that. They look like this:

Doing so helps all readers.

Display Your Company / Personal Website URL

We allow displaying your website URL so you can share more about who you are and others can learn more about you. By default, it is disabled. Edit your profile page to enable it now.

Termination from the Group

Feel free to criticize us, take a controversial stand, disagree, etc. That is welcome.

The main thing not to do is promote your own products without (1) disclosing your affiliation and (2) explaining why (see above). If you do, we will delete it. If you protest, we will terminate your membership.

Getting the Most Out of this Group

This is the physical security industry's best forum as it is moderated and staffed by experts who are dedicated to helping answer your questions and providing you help. Leave a comment below if you have any questions about the group in general. Thanks!

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2013

We have made 12 new improvements to discussions. Check them out.

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Luis Carmona
Mar 20, 2013
Geutebruck USA • IPVMU Certified

Is there progress is being able to get email alerts when new discussion topics are created? Thanks.

JH
John Honovich
Mar 20, 2013
IPVM

Luis, it's moving now to the top of the queue. We spent a few weeks building out the back end for course registration and management. We are done with that are now optimizing the mobile version of the site, including discussions (which we just rolled out this morning)

I suspect we'll be able to implement the auto-subscribe feature in the next 2 weeks. I've set it up so that there are options to get alerts for both new discussions and posts.

Thanks for bringing this up!

[UPDATE: Email alerts are active.]

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Luis Carmona
Mar 20, 2013
Geutebruck USA • IPVMU Certified

You're welcome. I just get so wrapped up in other things then I come backa week later and see all the new discussions and I feel so disconnected and left out.... kind of like gym class in elementary.

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Ethan Ace
Mar 20, 2013

This is officially the saddest comment on iPVM Discussions so far.

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Luis Carmona
Mar 20, 2013
Geutebruck USA • IPVMU Certified
SO
Sayed Omar
Apr 21, 2013

How to search the discussions, I posted a new discussion and I want to follow it, since one hour I'm not able to find my post.

Thanks

Sayed Omar

JH
John Honovich
Apr 21, 2013
IPVM

Sayed, do you recall the name or topic of your discussion? I can't find it. Our site search (at the top right corner of every page) searches discussions (as well as all IPVM articles).

In the near future, we will add a discussions only search option.

Also, I think it's worthwhile to display a list of all discussions one has started on the member's page so that each person can better track their topics. I'll add that to the list.

SO
Sayed Omar
Apr 22, 2013

Thanks John, adding the feature you mentioned of tracking the topics and discussions by the member's name or page would be very helpfull, thanks again for all your efforts and improvments.

DG
Dwayne Grant
Jul 10, 2013

John what does the envelope to the left of some of discussion headinh mean? Thanks in advance.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 10, 2013
IPVM

It means a discussion that you have commented on has had follow up comments since your last comment.

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Luis Carmona
Aug 22, 2013
Geutebruck USA • IPVMU Certified

My personal preferance is links in discussions open new tabs instead of taking the discussion tab to the linked page. Others of course may weigh in.

JH
John Honovich
Aug 22, 2013
IPVM

Yes, that is our standard. I apologize for any links that do not open new tabs. We'll look to fix.

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Luis Carmona
Sep 16, 2013
Geutebruck USA • IPVMU Certified

Seems often IPVM Discussion related emails are ending up in my SPAM folder. I tell my email client to permit emails from the domain, but it seems it's looking at the originating domain which is some vaiation of ***.***.mandrillapp.com. So if you, for instance, you tell your program to allow the domain in one of the emails, it will whitelist that domain next time, but a new of variation of the domain will be caught by the filter. I'll try allowing wild cars such as @*.*.mandrillapp.com in the whitelist, but not sure how easy this would be to resolve on the IPVM side.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 16, 2013
IPVM

Luis, sorry about that. This is a little tricky. We've been having some issues with multiple providers over the last few months. I think it's that receiving email servers are getting stricter because our spam rates are extremely low.

We can switch to using a dedicated domain for IPVM but when we did that before, quite a number of people had issues because it was an 'untested' / 'new' domain as an email sender.

The challenge is - I am not sure what to do for a universal fix.

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Luis Carmona
Sep 23, 2013
Geutebruck USA • IPVMU Certified

It sounds like it's a problem at Mandrillapp (which as I understand is a device of MailChimp). If they don't police their clients and let a bunch of spammers (I mean the Viagra type) use their service, everyone suffers.

What they should do is when they send IPVM emails, they should be sent indicating the client name in the DNS name, like *@ipvm.mandrillapp.com. instead of some random @<host name>.mandillapp.com. That might help on the SPAM filters, though if a lot of SPAM is coming from the mail servers IP address, the IP address might get black listed regardless of what the DNS name is.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 23, 2013
IPVM

It's not just Mailchimp, we have seen similar issues with Sendgrid and Constant Contact. It was even worse when we used our own domain, not because we had any real spam issues, but because the domain had no previous history.

Overall, it's not a huge problem but when you are emailing 32,000+ people, even if 1% have problems, that's over 300.

I am not sure how to solve this. The issue is definitely better overall with Mailchhimp than Sendgrid but obviously it is no 100%.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Dec 27, 2013

I am not sure if this discussion board is a place where I can inquire about the Final score.

When will I be able to receive the final score? not the preliminary score I have gotten.

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Robert Baxter
Nov 11, 2013

It is still not clear how to imbed video or images in a post. What am I missing?

The pop up window is asking for information that is not clear what to fill in all the fields: For General tab:source, alternative source, dimensions __ x __, constrain check box, For Imbed tab:Paste: Paste your imbed code below. I have videos on my computer not a url. If you try and copy paste into the box with out the icons, nothing helps either. Can you provide more information on how to make posts of video or images.

GT
Gary Taylor
Jan 27, 2014
Hi my name is gary i work for a great and small intagrator in california and i need more training on ip camera"s
JH
John Honovich
Jan 27, 2014
IPVM

Gary, have you seen / read our IP Camera Training Handbook? I recommend starting there.

RW
Rukmini Wilson
Feb 22, 2014

Sharing limited excerpts of IPVM content is allowed under the 'fair use' doctrine.

John, just curious, considering that IPVM's sharing is limited to excerpts only to the degree allowed by law, what is the intention behind the prominently displayed entreatment "<Member Name> E-mail this to:". ?

1. To send to one's alternate email for later reading or as a form of bookmarking

2. To send to other members as a way to alert them to an article's publication

3. For occasional distribution to qualified non-member associates as a teaser

4. For use only if article is declared to be sharable, i.e. not Pro

5. Vestigal remains of a previous incarnation of the site when content was less restricted and talk was cheap

6. Doesn't email, actually redirects to U.S. Library of Congess, Office of Copyright Enforcement Division :)

Thanks

JH
John Honovich
Feb 22, 2014
IPVM

If it is a member's email address, it sends a fully copy of the article. If it is a non-member, it just sends the first paragraph.

RW
Rukmini Wilson
Feb 22, 2014

Unanticipated and elegant!

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Luis Carmona
Mar 03, 2014
Geutebruck USA • IPVMU Certified

Don't know if you're aware, but sometimes there are font size issues in article and the forums; some lines come out in irregular sizes. I've seen it both in Firefox and IE. I can post or send an example if you want.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
Jul 15, 2014

Does anyone have any experiance using a RainX type product to reduce camera's from fogging up on the exterior?

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Ethan Ace
Jul 15, 2014

We have a couple of discussions on rain coatings: here and here.

JH
Jim Hall
Jul 15, 2014

This really is the best site around for discussions. Bullseye John! Hate them ones where everbody automatically includes everybody elses quotes, til you cant make hide nor hair out of it!

if there were two improvements i could offer it would be:

Make the mail notification say who the post is a reply to. Sometimes on short replies its like 'you talkin to me?'

make the articles start to show up on as a discussion as soon as somebody comments on them.

the home page comment list is delayed and doesnt say who posted last.

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John Williams
Sep 21, 2014

John,

What a resource you offer. What our business would be without it - and you keep it interesting and fun.

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