Info Database: *NEW NEWS: TUESDAY 23/05/2017 PLEASE READ*

[Cavcraft]

We're on it, and hope to speak with EL this evening.

 

Please PM Billy or me if you can offer constructive/practical assistance.

 

Let's do this once and do it RIGHT.

 

This.

[daveb47]

Just popped on  one last time,Chaseracer & cavcraft both have access to latest server backups,just done them.

Just buy a server,can be done instantly.install cpanel whatever,get electric leyland to change ip address to that of your server.

takes about a day in all.

I will loan Ipb software if needed for 28 days but you will have to purchase your own by then.licence is not transferable.

Sorry for doing this but  have spent 20 solid hours non stop trying to get board back up,would have been up to date with no lossof posts but i can only put up with so much crap,so knocked it on head for my own health & sanity.

Sorry all but tried my best,obviously not good enough.

 

Just to clarify this downtime was not a server error or anything,it was taken down by me to rebuild server,took a bit longer than expected.

Was notified this was happening first post in this thread.

 

See this thread for why i have had enough

 

http://autoshite.info/topic/28055-database-errors/

[beko1987]

 

We need to have a fag and a drink and a ponder...

[oldcars]

Has someone got a list of all email addresses if we lose the site then at least updates for any new site can be shared by email? Will also contribute to the pot if needed.

think they are out and about anyway from what i read on .info 

[tooSavvy]

Why is xenForo a clone/login for this place?

 

.... its a bit 'blue' coloured

 

Fahl... It seems to have popped

 

TS

[Ghosty]

That was a bit out of the blue!

I think you mean beige.

[Rod/b]

Thanks for all your efforts Dave/Mike. Nothing's worth your health though. Good luck

[Kiltox]

Not sure what kind of server specs are required but I've just leased a dedicated server from www.soyoustart.com (OVH) for a very reasonable rate for some lab / testing stuff

 

EDIT - sadly not an offer of somewhere to host, it's paid for through my company solely for business use however it's a recommendation of a vendor that might cut costs.

[sporty-shite]

Seriously, and flame me if you like, but would it not be easier to just go to proboards? I know they carry some ads, but is that such a bad thing if it brings stability at no cost?

[beko1987]

Or Simple Machines.

 

We are a simple forum really, do we need anything technical? It's not like we are a website anymore

[Slartibartfast]

Seriously, and flame me if you like, but would it not be easier to just go to proboards? I know they carry some ads, but is that such a bad thing if it brings stability at no cost?

Yes, that's a bad thing in my opinion. I've never been a member of a free forum that hasn't had restrictions that make it unworkable for anything more than a short term test board.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Has someone got a list of all email addresses if we lose the site then at least updates for any new site can be shared by email? Will also contribute to the pot if needed.

 

 

Yes, everyone on the internet has the email list, apparently.  Dave helpfully put them all up there yesterday, which was thoughtful of him.  

[beko1987]

I thought it was confirmed that didn't happen?

[Eddie Honda]

We have 4 days...

 

Plenty of time. Flash Gordon only had fourteen hours to save the earth.

[Captain Furious]

Seriously, and flame me if you like, but would it not be easier to just go to proboards? I know they carry some ads, but is that such a bad thing if it brings stability at no cost?

 

I think the problem with proboards is there is no mechanism (I don't think) to import the current forum, so you'd be starting from scratch and lose all content

 

If you went to IPB (who make the current forum software) and had it hosted in the cloud it would be an easy transition, but its costed based on number of concurrent active users, so it could be well north of £100 a month (though its probably still cheaper than a dedicated server, and the cost is fixed, transparent, all inclusive etc

 

Guess who hasn't had a lot to do at work today,

[5speedracer]

I know the square root of FA about the technical side but one thing pops into my mind.

How do other free forums fund themselves ?

Ads, sponsorship by interest related businesses, lottery winner paying the bills...

[Ghosty]

It's a shame really as I see proboards, vBulletin and phpBB work nicely, but we can't migrate easily.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I thought it was confirmed that didn't happen?

 

Was it?  If it didn't happen, fine, and me very sorry.  I have been off doing blah all day and may have missed a meeting.  

 

Presumably, Junkman was dreaming when he saw the addresses being available on the net yesterday.  Or maybe Junkman was fibbing.  Gosh, naughty Junkman. 

[Captain Furious]

I know the square root of FA about the technical side but one thing pops into my mind.

How do other free forums fund themselves ?

Ads, sponsorship by interest related businesses, lottery winner paying the bills...

 Other forums I've been a member of in the past have been funded by a combination of traders fees, donations from members and out of the owners pocket.  A lot of them have died on their arse now and been replaced with facebook groups.  I can see why and everything, but....meh, facebook.

[chaseracer]

We've already had several generous offers of help/expertise/etc. from shiters.  More info when we have it, folks.

[beko1987]

Was it? If it didn't happen, fine, and me verys orry. I have been off doing blah all day and may have missed a meeting.

 

Presumably, Junkman was dreaming when he saw the addresses being available on the net yesterday. Or maybe Junkman was fibbing. Gosh, naughty Junkman.

I've just gone and re read the thread and your right. Whoops... Luckily my Gmail is more spam than ham anyway so I won't notice any more

[Guest Breadvan72]

RE:  addresses etc on the net.

I have checked the other thread on .info.  I am sorry if I missed a post while speed scrolling, but I could not see Dave indicating that Junkman's contention that the addresses and PMs were available on the net to anyone who wanted them was incorrect.

 

IF Dave were to say X and Junkman were to say Y,  I would probably be inclined to prefer Junkman's version (that is: Y), unless and until Dave proved X.  This is because previous stuff said by Dave causes me to doubt his credibility.  Junkman is a man whom I trust, even though he pretends to be a silly person on here.    If Junkman is wrong, and therefore I am wrong, and Dave is right, I will accept this and say sorry. 

 

IF (I say IF) the stuff on the net stuff happened, there was arguably a breach of data protection legislation.  Does Dave have a DPA registration with the ICO?  I asked him about this, but, again, I may have missed an answer while reading too fast.  

 

I don't care about the DPA.  It is a silly thing.  The ICO cares about the DPA.  How tiresome!  Some people (not me) might care about their PMs and email addresses being spaffed onto the net.  People can be funny that way. 

[Cavcraft]

Right, as it looks like we're hopefully getting somehere now we'll update when things have happened or are about to.

[Cavcraft]

Mike has kindly paid another month on the server to give us a chance to sort everything out, and has sent me details for the CPanel thing.

[Cavcraft]

After the recent disruption Stanky and Slatibartfast have kindly offered to take ownership of the hosting of the forum on an ongoing basis. This will require a change of DNS which could cause up to 24 hours downtime while the changes propagate.

 

We'll update you all before anything changes and appreciate that there has been a lot of disruption recently, but this has to be done as the site is currently sitting on a server which Daveb47 runs and pays for.

 

Going forward, we'll try to keep the forum stable and move from the current paid-for software to an open-source solution to reduce running costs. This will be discussed in due course once we have got to grips with the current setup.

 

On the contentious subject of donations, we plan to set up a GoFundMe page for the site where we will disclose the running costs on a monthly basis and set a funding target. We envisage this to be in the region of £100 per month. Members can donate if they so wish, and choose to have a name or handle displayed, or remain anonymous.

 

Thanks for bearing with us during the transition.

 

 

 

More as it happens! 

 

 

*Edit: We have been overwhelmed with offers of help and support from 'shiters and it's been very much appreciated, thank you.

[Cavcraft]

Hi, as some of you may have seen, there are concerns that the mysql password that the board uses was made public recently. As a security precaution we are changing it. This shouldn't cause downtime but then again the sump plug should just undo easily. Will advise when this has been done. (Slartibarfast)

[Cavcraft]

Planned for 22.30 today, so AS may disappear for a while as it's being worked on.

[chaseracer]

No 'dark side of the moon' radio silence so far......... 

[Cavcraft]

Slarbartisfast is on fire here, first operation a success!

[Cavcraft]

Thanks for bearing with us, there has been a lot going on behind the scenes with the transition in hosting of the forum and we wanted to update you all on whats been going on and what still needs to happen.

 

We have a new server to run the forum, have taken backups of the current forum and are in the process of restoring the backups to the new server to ensure that it all works as expected. We've bought the IPB licence (software that runs the forum) and are using this to test that all works correctly.

 

We've set up reliable external cloud storage for automated forum backups which will be scripted to run daily, and as part of the process we will also regularly test restores from these backups to the test forum to ensure it all works as expected in the event of a serious problem.

 

The next actions are for some testing to be carried out on the new server to ensure that the backup restores correctly, then to cut over to the new server for the 'live' site. Stanky and Slartibartfast have a plan for this which should only require about 15 minutes of downtime and no lost posts, timing of this will be announced once we are ready to make the change and we'll give as much notice as we can. The plan is for nothing to change on the surface as a result of this changeover.

 

Once the changeover has taken place we'll get a sticky post added to the top of the main forum with a breakdown of running costs and a link to a GoFundMe page for those who wish to contribute. We'll also welcome suggestions for improvements going forward.

 

 

Again, peeps, this has been the hard work of Stanky and Slartibartfast, and Mike is still helping us out.