Board Status

[Dave Ambrose]

As some have noticed, the board has been rough around the edges for a while. I apologize for the delays in getting things fixed. I’ve been fighting a major medical issue since May, and after surgery a few weeks ago, am finally on the road to recovery. 

 

We have a bunch of things to fix. Some of them are under the hood, and some will be all too visible. We’ve had significant growth in our user base, and performance has sometimes been slow. It will take us a while to fully remedy this situation, but I think you’ll like the final result. 

 

Initially, I’ll address some server issues that are affecting our page load times. Anyone dying for the gory details should send me a PM. If anyone out there knows a lot about mySQL, please send me a PM. 

 

This is going to take more than a few maintenance sessions. I'll try to keep them short and off hours, but that won't always be possible. Please bear with me. 

 

There will be another major forum software update. There are bug fixes, security updates, and updates for European data privacy requirements that we need to implement. The way the board works will change. I will do my best to minimize the changes, but I can't make any guarantees. I don't have all the details yet, but will announce what I know before I make the update. 

 

I have not forgotten about the 404 problem. Hopefully, this release will alleviate that, but I'm not counting on it. I am beginning to believe that the problem has something to do with the content of the posting though. 

[Dave Ambrose]

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to post them here. 

[iBorg]

I appreciate all you do to keep the board running smoothly.

 

Thanks!

[afx]

Appreciate all your efforts Dave.

[Codi]

Good to hear your surgery was successful and you're feeling better Dave.  I can only echo what others have stated and thank you as well for all of your efforts.  Everything you describe is very time consuming and takes true dedication to keep after it.   Cheers, Tim

[TarheelRick]

Don't know what you said, but I am glad you said it - that means I am pretty much computer illiterate.  Also glad to hear you are recovering.  I'm sure there will be some grumbling along the way, yet the finished product will be worth the wait.

[crazyjim]

Happy to hear you're feeling better, Dave.  When is all this going to happen to the forum?

[Dave Ambrose]

2 hours ago, crazyjim said:

Happy to hear you're feeling better, Dave.  When is all this going to happen to the forum?

Thank you.

I'm hoping to have the forum software upgrade done before the end of the year. Unfortunately, it's somewhat dependent on my recovery. My energy will disappear at unpredictable times, and I won't work on the server under those conditions. It's too easy to make catastrophic mistakes. 

[peteski]

Dave, thanks for the update. Your health comes before anything else (especially a silly free online forum).  Take care of yourself, worry about the forum later.  Like you said, if you are not 100%, you do not want to deal with the problems.

[socal76]

 

Dave is it possible to have two servers in the event of a system crash like what happened over on Randy Ayer's Nascar board? It took over a month to try to fix and most of the content, pics and member profiles were lost. Everyone had to re-register because all members info was gone. Some articles were like of work under construction that were amazing. Especially the projects Henrik did. Made some modifications and made them seem quite simple. And his detailing was fantastic. Anyway the reason I asked about two servers is you could just switch back and forth and not have to worry about a  crash. Just switch at a set time and you could do the updates you need to do on the one that came offline. Insures that only one das posts might be lost, if any problems arose. Just an idea I had.

And I wanted to offer my hope of a speedy recovery

Edited November 3, 2018 by socal76

[TooOld]

3 hours ago, socal76 said:

 

Dave is it possible to have two servers in the event of a system crash like what happened over on Randy Ayer's Nascar board? It took over a month to try to fix and most of the content, pics and member profiles were lost. Everyone had to re-register because all members info was gone. Some articles were like of work under construction that were amazing. Especially the projects Henrik did. Made some modifications and made them seem quite simple. And his detailing was fantastic. Anyway the reason I asked about two servers is you could just switch back and forth and not have to worry about a  crash. Just switch at a set time and you could do the updates you need to do on the one that came offline. Insures that only one das posts might be lost, if any problems arose. Just an idea I had.

And I wanted to offer my hope of a speedy recovery

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ !

[Dave Ambrose]

 

5 hours ago, socal76 said:

 

Dave is it possible to have two servers in the event of a system crash like what happened over on Randy Ayer's Nascar board? It took over a month to try to fix and most of the content, pics and member profiles were lost. Everyone had to re-register because all members info was gone. Some articles were like of work under construction that were amazing. Especially the projects Henrik did. Made some modifications and made them seem quite simple. And his detailing was fantastic. Anyway the reason I asked about two servers is you could just switch back and forth and not have to worry about a  crash. Just switch at a set time and you could do the updates you need to do on the one that came offline. Insures that only one das posts might be lost, if any problems arose. Just an idea I had.

And I wanted to offer my hope of a speedy recovery

 

I don't know the specifics of Randy Ayer's situation, so I can't comment on that. A backup server of the requisite size would break our budget. However, we do run nightly backups which are not directly accessible, so if some scoundrel breaks in and trashes our site, we can recover with relatively little loss of content. 

Thank you for your good wishes. I'm recovering well. 

[1930fordpickup]

Thank you for the updates Dave. I am glad you are on the positive upswing with your health. 

[carmad1957]

I would imagine running a forum such as this is quite time consuming, and for what it's worth I very much appreciate all your work and efforts! Of all the forums out there, this is by far my go-to for many reasons. The inspiration, tips and suggestions, making a new friend (or two!) This is priceless for me and I'm sure a lot of others as well~ The resources here have no doubt helped me in my quest to build quality models, and I appreciate it!

First I've heard about the health issues and good to hear you're on the mend! Thanks again