Fencing.Net - Your Guide to Fencing & Fencing Equipment

LUDICROUS · 12-26-2006, 02:00 AM

What's with everything vanishing?

Over-zealous modding or a system error?

New smiley's!

(<-- doesn't look so uncool now)

Inquartata · 12-26-2006, 02:24 AM

I disagree on the smilies; the new ones look dopy.

, for instance, is just too dratted "cute". When I want to convey that particular reaction, I don't usually mean it to be "cute". Likewise

and

Also, I can no longer tell threads in which I've posted to those in which I have not. ( Yes, believe it or not there ARE a few of the latter. )

LUDICROUS · 12-26-2006, 02:32 AM

Each to his own, but

is not MSN-Messenger ":-p" enough (I put the - in for smiley obstructing) to convey a sense of sarcasm

For instance, I've been repped 3 times for a post that Can't be seen on my computer? Whenever I click the post in the Rep Section, it takes me to a page without my name on it..

Inquartata · 12-26-2006, 02:58 AM

I think the Grinch had a hand in this latest "upgrade".

***Craig*** · 12-26-2006, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inquartata

I think the Grinch had a hand in this latest "upgrade".

Not an upgrade - a server error. See the thread in comments and suggestions.

Inq - I don't know why you think every upgrade is an error and vice versa.

Craig

Elendae · 12-26-2006, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig

Inq - I don't know why you think every upgrade is an error and vice versa.

Because he's a curmudgeon.

The Rose Knight · 12-26-2006, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LUDICROUS

What's with everything vanishing?

Over-zealous modding or a system error?

New smiley's!

(<-- doesn't look so uncool now)

I thought some posts were missing since yesterday.

Katman · 12-26-2006, 04:44 PM

I liked the old yellow smilies. But, long as we still have good ol darwin monkey, then I'm happy.

Inquartata · 12-27-2006, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig

Not an upgrade - a server error...

Inq - I don't know why you think every upgrade is an error and vice versa.

NOT an upgrade? And yet, behold, all of these new features and changes. Coincidence? I think not!

Anyway, you've heard the sayings "If it ain't broke don't fix it" and "Leave well enough alone"? Wisdom by which to live, IMO...

Admit it, you just enjoy tinkering for its own sake.

BTW, pages are still taking longer to load than they used to do. Not uniformly; sometimes it's almost immediate, but other times it still drags.

EDIT: For instance, that last "BTW" was an edit. It took just over 3 minutes to "save".

Second edit, for addendum: The past 2 nights, the site has been completely inaccessible for several intervals, from minutes to more than an hour. Continuing repairs, or technical difficulties?

***Craig*** · 12-27-2006, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inquartata

NOT an upgrade? And yet, behold, all of these new features and changes. Coincidence? I think not!

What new features? As I explained in a prior post yesterday: Backups causing disk space go bye bye. Caused site crash. We now move site, bigger space, keep eye on backups.

Quote:

Anyway, you've heard the sayings "If it ain't broke don't fix it" and "Leave well enough alone"? Wisdom by which to live, IMO...

And when it breaks, you take actions to fix and try to not just duct tape it but futureproof things.

Quote:

Admit it, you just enjoy tinkering for its own sake.

I will admit that I strive to provide a valuable and still FREE service to the fencing community. The last (and final) move was made necessary by my desire to futureproof fencing.net. The shared host we were on was going to fail sooner or later and this site is now on a dedicated server - something that will allow for much better reliability in the long term (which I measure in years, not days.)

Quote:

BTW, pages are still taking longer to load than they used to do. Not uniformly; sometimes it's almost immediate, but other times it still drags.

Would like to see some stats on that. The fact is, there are so many variables in an Internet connection between a server and the end user that it is oftentimes difficult to track down. If you can point to specifics that are repeatable, then I can take a closer look.

Quote:

Second edit, for addendum: The past 2 nights, the site has been completely inaccessible for several intervals, from minutes to more than an hour. Continuing repairs, or technical difficulties?

Haven't touched the site's back-office, and haven't received any error messages alerting me to server outages. Don't know what that is.

Craig

passata_sotto · 12-27-2006, 11:35 AM

Inq is correct - night before last I could get to the fencing.net page and the store but not to the forum for some time.

noodle · 12-27-2006, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig

Haven't touched the site's back-office, and haven't received any error messages alerting me to server outages. Don't know what that is.

Craig

i suspect its a DNS thing, but i've been getting this, also.
will investigate further next time it happens.

edit: wow, thats interesting.
i was getting a

Quote:

Last edited by Durando : 12-24-2006 at 09:17 AM.

at the end of my post. an artifact from the missing posts?

***Craig*** · 12-27-2006, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noodle

i suspect its a DNS thing, but i've been getting this, also.
will investigate further next time it happens.

DNS did get changed to a new IP, so I expect a week for all of the changes to fully propogate, though I have changed it at the registrar and most ISPs should have it now.

Quote:

edit: wow, thats interesting.
i was getting a
at the end of my post. an artifact from the missing posts?

Most likely.

Craig

Inquartata · 12-28-2006, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig

What new features?

Oh, you know...different icons for showing whether there are unread posts/threads in a forum ( now it's a little bulletin board that turns pink when there's been unread activity )...different smilies...

Quote:

As I explained in a prior post yesterday: Backups causing disk space go bye bye. Caused site crash. We now move site, bigger space, keep eye on backups.

Yes, I understood that. I didn't understand how a crash changes icons and smilies and so on. To the unsophisticated ( like me ) those look very much like changes, call me crazy...

Quote:

And when it breaks, you take actions to fix and try to not just duct tape it but futureproof things.

Again, I understand that...but when nonessential features change how is that merely a repair, and not an "upgrade"?

Quote:

I will admit that I strive to provide a valuable and still FREE service to the fencing community.

And that is very much appreciated...even by querulous old fussbudgets like me.

Quote:

Would like to see some stats on that.

I'd love to oblige, but have no inkling of how to go about it...or even what sort of things constitute stats where this sort of thing is concerned...

Quote:

The fact is, there are so many variables in an Internet connection between a server and the end user that it is oftentimes difficult to track down. If you can point to specifics that are repeatable, then I can take a closer look.

Well, this evening ( about 10:30 pm, Mountain Standard Time ) I tried to access the fora again, and was unable to do so. After about 2 minutes I got an "unable to find server" page. At about 12:15 a.m. MST I was able to connect, no problem...

Inquartata · 12-28-2006, 05:13 AM

There! Just happened again!

I wrote an entry on the "Proverb" thread in the "Games" subforum. I hit the Submit Reply button. After about 9 minutes, I hit my browser's Back button. This took me to the end of the thread. I hit Refresh. After about a minute the page went to white. After 9 minutes or so I got the "Unable to find server" page. I hit Back again. Got "The page cannot be displayed". I got that every time I hit Back, until I was out of the fnet site altogether.

I then tried repeatedly to go to the fnet forums. Every time, after about 5 minutes, I got the "cannot find server" page. I kept trying. After an hour, I suddenly got back in.

Is it possible that the company which you're using does some sort of daily scheduled mainenance routine? Because this seems to be happening at the same time every night, now that I think of it.

Zilverzmurfen · 12-28-2006, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inquartata

I then tried repeatedly to go to the fnet forums. Every time, after about 5 minutes, I got the "cannot find server" page. I kept trying. After an hour, I suddenly got back in.

Is it possible that the company which you're using does some sort of daily scheduled mainenance routine? Because this seems to be happening at the same time every night, now that I think of it.

I'm thinking there may be some back-up routine or something running at that time.

Ever since the site went offline (you know, a while back when it was gone for like 2 weeks or so) the entire site goes down at about 10 o'clock CET (Central European Time) and won't come back online again until about an hour or so later. It's quite annoying.

Inquartata · 12-28-2006, 08:36 AM

A-HA!

It may be that I just didn't notice it until this week, as I'm usually on the day shift. This week I'm filling in for a vacationing night-shifter, though, so I'm trying to access the forums just at the magic hour...

Goldgar · 12-28-2006, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inquartata

Oh, you know...different icons for showing whether there are unread posts/threads in a forum ( now it's a little bulletin board that turns pink when there's been unread activity )...

It does that? No wonder I'm finding it difficult telling the unread groups from the active ones! I'm red/green colorblind, so I can't readily distinguish the color difference. I have to look closely to see the slight difference in the icon.

qatet · 12-28-2006, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goldgar

It does that? No wonder I'm finding it difficult telling the unread groups from the active ones! I'm red/green colorblind, so I can't readily distinguish the color difference. I have to look closely to see the slight difference in the icon.

Heck, I'm not colorblind, but I'm having a hard time seeing the difference between the new icons.

Zilverzmurfen · 12-28-2006, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qatet

Heck, I'm not colorblind, but I'm having a hard time seeing the difference between the new icons.

I'm not praticularly fond of them either. I think the old ones were much clearer.

And what's with the 'Hot Topic'? Hot according to who? IMO it's just another annoying icon that we don't particularly need...or does anybody else see a use for it? (And if you do, please explain as I really don't get it.)

Edit: Oh yes... [rant goes on] ...I liked the old smilies better. Especially the rolleyes-icon is particularly iritating; it now looks amused instead of annoyed. Lookie: