main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Server Move and Forum Outage

Discussion in 'Communications' started by JoinTheSchwarz , Jun 5, 2017.

  1. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    DarthIshyZ - you can get a limited list of posts by using the 'Recent Activity' tab instead..
     
  2. DarthIshyZ

    DarthIshyZ Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Jan 8, 2005
    I figured that out. Just wanted to make sure you guys had it on your punch list. Thanks, though!
     
    LAJ_FETT likes this.
  3. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    This issue is still happening...
     
  4. Jedi Knight Fett

    Jedi Knight Fett Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2014
    Maybe the search function is cursed?
     
  5. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 7, 2010
    Grahame clearly said that the search issue cannot be fixed until XenForo is upgraded. And work on that upgrade has been in progress for over four years and may or may not ever reach the point of actually performing the upgrade. So live with it.

    On the other hand, I'm noticing today that the issue with slow server responses is back. Specifically, submitting a post takes several minutes to respond, or sometimes it displays a timeout error. However, the post does appear after a minute or two if you reopen the page in a new tab to check for it.
     
  6. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    That's what Jedi Knight Fett was talking about, and what I was talking about. He commented jokingly that it's because the Search function is back.
     
    pronker and jcgoble3 like this.
  7. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 7, 2010
    Then may I suggest being a bit more specific in future posts? You just said "This issue is still happening", without specifying which issue. Since multiple issues have been discussed in this thread, I assumed you meant the one most recently discussed, which was the search problems. Sorry about that.
     
  8. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Well it's the thread title, and after a long break in posting, and people keep complaining about it on other subforums, so I thought it was clear.
     
  9. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    I went about my business of looking over other web pages for the past 15 minutes. I have been trying to post a vid in the what song are you listening to thread and it won't go through. Two pop up windows of the server. I'm not sure this post will go.
     
    Master_Rebado likes this.
  10. Darth Punk

    Darth Punk JCC Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2013
    Add more hamsters to the server please
     
    tom, jcgoble3 and EHT like this.
  11. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    So, I remember reading that this version of Xenforo is woefully out of date. So why not update it? The issues seem to be getting progressively worse.
     
    Master_Rebado likes this.
  12. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 7, 2010
    They've been working on the update. Allegedly. For four years now. I put the over/under at 10 years.
     
  13. Jedi Knight Fett

    Jedi Knight Fett Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2014
    They work on Valve Time....:p

    it's probably all very complicated so I'll be patient.
     
  14. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Far be it for me to suggest people with responsibilities over the technical support and administration of this forum do something to fix the technical **** ups occurring with periodic regularity. How outlandish and novel.

    Can you please just admit you're hoping we'll get used to this third rate system; you couldn't fix it if you wanted to because you don't know how, and how it'd be a massive help to you if we just learned to live with quadruple posts and timeout errors?

    It's a world better than the alternative of "we're fixing it but it's hard to update code when you're sitting on your hands"?
     
    jcgoble3 likes this.
  15. Blackhole E Snoke

    Blackhole E Snoke Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2016
    It has got really bad. I wait 2 minutes sometimes for pages to load, and Ive sat and watched the black loading box waiting for my post to appear for over 5 minutes in large threads. I know you don't have to wait for it to appear but still, not everybody does and they spam the post button instead and end up triple posting. Maybe the search could be turned off again? It's pretty useless and also maybe that would bring back the ability to see our non recent posting history.

    Couldn't even post this a minute ago because the whole forum was down.

    Edit: And took 45 seconds to appear as posted.
     
    Violent Violet Menace likes this.
  16. Grahame

    Grahame Former Server Admin star 2 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012

    The technical people running this forum do so for free, when they have time. I don't monitor the forums constantly, so I don't know when these issues occur. I know it's slow sometimes, and I know we keep saying there's an update coming but that update is in the hands of another admin and there doesn't seem to be a timeline for completing it. I don't know what else to tell you.
     
  17. Bravo

    Bravo Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2001


    Grahame

    I totally get what you're saying here. The boards are free to us to use and its been a great place to have fun and socialize over the years. :) In light of that, I've been here since 2001. I remember the "good ole days" of the old boards, the dying days of the same boards, the chaotic times of the Temp Boards, and the launch of the new boards. I've seen a lot of members and admins come and go over the years.

    Just wondering---from a what in the Force is going on around here---with the boards? A few things for constructive criticism (not argument)....

    1) Back-ups & Audience; Why are the boards backing up (I am told) on Sundays, when Friday nights seem dead around this place (a better time to do back-ups)? Secondly, everyone is in different places in life. And not one member or admin is above anyone else, regardless of situation. With that said, I'm a professional working adult working forty plus hours a week (& drive over an hour one way to & from work a day) and having a wife & child, leaves very little time to get online to the boards to enjoy them outside of the weekends (especially Sundays). I understand a large part of our audience is probably high school & college kids, etc, etc. But, would it be worthwhile to explore options for back-ups, board maintenance, etc on days other then the weekends? I understand the admins working for free, but I'm just thinking out-loud for constructive criticism, if we are ignoring our older fan base (raises hand) with these board back-ups and frequent crashes (see membership fees below), that seem to happen more & more on the weekends.


    2) Membership Fees; Back a few years ago, I wouldn't of given all these problems we're having a second thought. But with the board back-ups, off-and-on crashes, etc, etc, it seems like we should go back to IGN boards (and suck up a small "membership fee" since, if memory serves, they were going to charge us and that's why we went to the new boards). Is a $5.00 or $10.00 monthly membership fee a worthwhile venture if these problems continue? Five bucks a month is a cup of coffee. I understand we alienate a younger crowd and/or lower income folks who may not be able to afford that small fee, but as a working professional who lives paycheck to paycheck, my answer is simple: balance your books and budget for the boards if they mean that much to you. If not, then wait until you can afford them or find an alternative means of income to pay for them (just like Netflex, Hulu, etc.). Once again, are we alienating the older crowd for the sake of the younger crowd? Are we sacrificing quality for making people happy on the surface? Its the age-old OT fans verses PT fans (who helped or hurt SW more---the old guard of quality with the OT or the new style of flashy with the PT?).
     
    Sith-I-5 likes this.
  18. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 7, 2010
    Backups are daily, not weekly. Any serious IT person backs up daily. Weekly is not even an option that is considered.
     
    Bravo likes this.
  19. Outsourced

    Outsourced Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 10, 2017
    If membership fees are instituted, I guarantee enough people will leave for them to become unnecessary.
     
    pronker, BookExogorth and jcgoble3 like this.
  20. Master_Rebado

    Master_Rebado Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    May 31, 2004


    Thank you to all those who do so behind the scenes with their free time,it is appreciated by the majority I am sure.
     
    Iron_lord likes this.
  21. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    The thing I would like confirmed, prior to our latest move, did the daily backups take the Boards down?

    Because I am sure we have reported issues, whilst still able to read, post and lurk, and been told that we had run into the backups; whilst the current situation seems to be that all Board function ceases during the backups.

    Is that my imagination?
     
  22. Grahame

    Grahame Former Server Admin star 2 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Bravo, there is no IGN to go back to, IGN shuttered their forum hosted software back when we first migrated to Xenforo. Honestly we were lucky to get any data out of them at all, they were under no obligation to provide it. jcgoble3 is right, our backups are nightly (and if I could spare the disk space, it would be every 12 hours). You can't run an active community like this with the risk of losing a full week of posts in a crash.
     
    jcgoble3, Master_Rebado and Sith-I-5 like this.
  23. Grahame

    Grahame Former Server Admin star 2 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    if the problems were isolated to the backup window I would 100% agree with you, we did change backup strategy when we moved to the virtual hosting (vs physical servers) but the problems occur at all times so the backup problem is a symptom, not a cause.
     
  24. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    Oh, I am not referring to the problems that occur outside the backup window.

    With my time zone, same as LAJ FETT's, before the the current instability, but since our move to cloud, the the Boards have been inaccessible to me from 8am, every morning.

    Were the backups prior to the cloud, taking the Boards down?
     
  25. Grahame

    Grahame Former Server Admin star 2 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    No, but like I said it's not the backups taking the boards down, it's the general flakiness of the boards in general. The backup running doesn't help matters but yesterday I ran a backup in the middle of the day without issue and the boards stayed up and working the entire time.