USFA Website Down Again

[davesaint]

Another day, and the site is down again. Although the funny thing is I e-mailed webmaster@usfencing.org like NoahZ said and got an undeliverable response back.

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: USFA Website
Sent: 5/3/2006 12:46 PM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

webmaster@usfencing.org on 5/3/2006 12:38 PM
The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address.
<mail.USFencing.org #5.1.1>


Go figure.


Dave

[noahz]

Another day, and the site is down again. Although the funny thing is I e-mailed webmaster@usfencing.org like NoahZ said and got an undeliverable response back.

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: USFA Website
Sent: 5/3/2006 12:46 PM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

webmaster@usfencing.org on 5/3/2006 12:38 PM
The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address.
<mail.USFencing.org #5.1.1>

Step 2: PM dknj

(done)

[nyacfencing]

I don't understand, why don't we all start spamming the USFA when this happens? This is the only way they are going to hear our displeasure (since clearly the ones going to the webmaster are having no effect on improving performance). Anytime the site goes down, everybody should email info@usfencing.org as well as all other available national office email addresses, asking for info on why it is so impossible for us to keep the site up and running.

[KD5MDK]

Emailing everyone in the national office everytime the website goes down, from dozens or hundreds of people, is probably not going to do much besides annoy them.

[RoninX]

Annoyance is a powerful weapon.

[KD5MDK]

Not for motivating them to do what you want.

Emailing one person, that might be helpful. Emailing all of them? Not as much, I think.

[sjpfencer220]

Depends how important that one person is. If they were important, they could spread the word, however it probably wouldn't make a difference to them. If you emailed everyone, they probably would just completely ignore you and consider it a joke.

[dknj]

If it goes down, just email me at: dkellner@rdstr.com and i'll fix it.
Jeff Savit and Craig also know what to do to fix it, if i'm unavailable.

[JEC]

Dan,
Are you going to be able to post the PDFs from Reno and Sacramento? Truly, posting the PDFs has been a nice improvement over the previous website. After all, the PDFs provide considerable additional information about the tournament.
Thanks,
JEC

p.s. I am aware that PDFs for wheelchair events from Reno were posted.

[eac]

Jeff Savit and Craig also know what to do to fix it, if i'm unavailable.

Does this imply that it goes down regularly, for a known reason, which has a known fix, or are they just generally proficient at server-fixing?

[occasionalfencer]

Not for motivating them to do what you want.

Emailing one person, that might be helpful. Emailing all of them? Not as much, I think.

Which person? I have tried several different people, with different questions, over a period of months, and the only response I have gotten on the subject has been for Dan to tell me that the website is back up, when it is. Sometimes. I have repeatedly asked different people in the National office, both by email and personally, who is responsible for the website (the websmaster has disclaimed ultimate responsibility. He says he only posts the information they give him). I have never gotten an answer. I have asked what does it mean to have an "official" website if it is not the source for necessary information in a timely manner. I have never gotten an answer. I would really like to know what one person I could email, and what I could say or ask that would make any difference, even the small difference that I would know what is wrong. I am not a computer person, so a highly technical explanation is not an answer for me, it is an evasion. I think the fact that I can't get an answer might be the answer. No one is responsible. So why not?

[Craig]

Does this imply that it goes down regularly, for a known reason, which has a known fix, or are they just generally proficient at server-fixing?

It just means that we have gone through the DKNJ server reboot black belt training class.

Craig

[dknj]

Dan,
Are you going to be able to post the PDFs from Reno and Sacramento? Truly, posting the PDFs has been a nice improvement over the previous website. After all, the PDFs provide considerable additional information about the tournament.
Thanks,
JEC

p.s. I am aware that PDFs for wheelchair events from Reno were posted.

Yes.
I just received them and will be posting the, soon.

[nyacfencing]

If it goes down, just email me at: dkellner@rdstr.com and i'll fix it.
Jeff Savit and Craig also know what to do to fix it, if i'm unavailable.

Dan, if you had responded by saying "x is wrong with the server and we are doing y to fix it and should have that done by z", then this would be an adequate temporary workaround. But at the point that clearly either the website itself or the infrastructure it is sitting on is so poorly designed that it goes down regularly and actually requires a team of 3-people to be on-call to restart it, only indicates that we should be persuing this with the national office even more strenuously. No?

I am not laying any blame here, but clearly the situation itself is in critical need of improvement.

[indigoscot]

as a professional geek (ie they pay me to make sure my company websites stay up), i'd like to point out that unless someone is being paid to fix, debug, upgrade, monitor..etc, the hardware, software, network infrastructure of the site, or be on-call 24x7/365, the support for the usfa.org website is probably catch-as-catch-can by a "volunteer" or "volunteers".

now, if someone is being paid, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.

just my 2 cents,
g

[JEC]

now, if someone is being paid, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.

That's the whole issue many of us have with the BOD of USFA. The majority of USFA members (we) are not ELITE fencers and are not receiving subsidies or special training sessions. I am glad that USFA is doing that to help our ELITE fencers. But for the majority of us, what we get out of paying the USFA membership is: the magazine, the website, the opportunity to attend some national competitions, and a small subsidy to our local division/section.

Improving the website has been a thorny problem that has NOT BEEN FIXED yet. Why? It appears that they paid Dan to redesign the website, but not for keeping it up. That was poor judgement from the USFA official that thought maintenance was not needed, or it was a freebie. The membership wants a good website with current information.

IMHO, providing PDF results were a good improvement, but other than that, the information available in the NEW website is pretty much was present in the old website. Adding a few videos to explain the public why we have fun, why the sport is competitive, how is it played, explain the basic rules, now that, will be an improvement.

[JEC]

Yes.
I just received them and will be posting the, soon.

REMINDER!
It is 4 weeks since this post, and they are not posted as of yet.
Thanks

[Poulet]

REMINDER!
It is 4 weeks since this post, and they are not posted as of yet.
Thanks

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that he has indeed kept his promise to post a comma to the site.

[JEC]

His reply (message #13) was in response to my request for posting PDF results, which includes rounds of pools and DEs, for the Reno and Sacramento NACs.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

To me, it just sounds like Dan Kellner just does not have enough hours in the day to maintain the website.

Enough with this nickle and dime crap.

The USFA needs to hire a competent webmaster who has the time to maintain the website, even if it costs more than $5.