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Posts posted by Frank Hagan
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Except for posts and photos requested to be removed by the original poster, all posts and photos remain available in the forum software.
Gaps are where individual posters have requested that all their posts and images be removed.
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I visited to this site it contains lots of beneficial information for the development of websites which is very useful for the people.
Not sure what that has to do with the topic at hand. Usually I think that people know what their own website is about. You think your site has a lot of information on developing websites. But evidently someone hacked into your site and changed it from a "How To" site about web development into a site advertising a yoga retreat! I suspect you have been infected by the famous "Yoga Retreat Virus".
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Just an update, the archiving is completed (sort of; each day it archives the posts that are 366 days old). The server share load is .42, so we're under the threshold for the account we are on, and we've had a few days with more than 100 people online at the same time.
So, crisis averted, and I think we are good to go!
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Thanks, frank! This place is an irreplaceable collection of information. I definitely think a donation button is in order.
Thanks, Mark. I'll go the donation route only if it's really needed. At least with the new set up I'll be able to see it coming and have time to plan.
I have been really encouraged by everyone's comments and emails. Thanks.
The archiving of threads over a year old is at 92% right now, with 7,253 of the old threads archived. When that completes, I'll be able to see how much of the "server load" archiving saves. The threads remain visible, with all the pics, etc., with the only impact that you cannot respond to a thread that's been dead for a year or more.
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Now that the substantial expense of maintaining the forum is know, I have suggested to Frank that he establish a pay pal account that some of us can use to donate to the cause.
Perhaps we should conduct a poll, using the poll option on the forum to gauge the level of interest in this? Might help to know the number of those would would contribute and some idea as to amount. I know what "dinner for two" costs these days and I'd gladly give up one or two of those a year to be able to have this forum continue.
Not a bad idea; but we should have plenty of time to figure this out. My host has me on a new server with only a few other accounts, so I'm almost getting dedicated server performance. That will degrade as more accounts get added, but he's promised I won't see issues like I did ... the errors were frequent enough that I was worried about trashing the database. A fully managed dedicated server costs around $180 a month. That could drop to less than $100 a month for an unmanaged server, but the time commitment can be huge. I may be able to find someone to share the server with me (perhaps one of my new SMB clients for my consulting business). In any case, the crisis was averted, and I have time to consider other options to keep the forum up and running.
BTW, I always upload my photos to photobucket and post links to my photos in the body of the message. I presume that helps take the load off this site and to me, anyway, makes the photos larger and more visible.
I think most people are used to doing this, so that's a solution that's "in the mix" as we move forward!
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I guess I have not said Thank You in a long time but I really appreciate your hosting my forum. I hope you work things out because I really like having this here.
Just in case I did set up a Google Group that I can actually imbed into a web page on my site. I like having a back up plan.
That's completely understandable - you should have a contingency plan in place. Beyond what just happened with my server, something like a natural disaster or someone pulling the plug upstream from me could have the same impact.
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Frank- I don't see any of this showing up on the B and B Board. I assume the changes will affect that one also, but many there don't look at this one. Might need a heads up there also.
Was quite a shock to see the "unavailable" I tell you for sure. Good luck
People who didn't visit during the "Internal Server Error" messages (every other page load) and the few hours the forum was actually offline may not know the difference. At least now, if it doesn't work, I'll be able to transition things in an orderly manner.
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Google groups work, but remember that this website came about because of the sudden demise of the old MSN Groups. Google has been known to pull the plug on their offerings too (remember Wave?). The only way to ensure that you have control would be to pay for it; you might look into hosted forums done by the software companies. Invision has one using this software at http://www.invisionpower.com/hosting/select_package.php (the $20 a month plan would work for you, I think) and vBulletin has several partners that offer forum hosting with their software.
But with control, comes the management issues you ran into before. I do have to say that the management features in Invision Power Board (this software) is the best I've seen. Their spam service keeps most of the spammers away, but you have to pay for the software ($175 I think) and then pay yearly to renew the license ($49).
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I would think not having to serve photos off you server would cut down on the load. Of course your stuck with all the currently posted photos, but if we have to link to new photos from another host, that will go down as the new post become old post and are not served up as much. Or I am totally missing something?
That's probably the next step if the archiving feature doesn't work as planned. So far, it seems to be doing OK here on the new account. I'm really happy with the response from my hosting company to help me resolve the issues.
As most of you know, I'm now self employed as a SMB consultant, and a large part of my business is helping small companies with their IT/Web needs. Honoring Murphy's law, the old server's problems happened just as I was trying to showcase a new web design for a potential client. I have to have a stable platform for showing my work, even if I'm not reselling hosting on my server any longer. That may mean going the dedicated server route in the future anyway, but I have to get my business there first.
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Well, the disk space is one issue, but the real problem is the CPU load and memory usage when a lot of users are online at the same time. The archiving of the older posts is supposed to help with that. So we'll see what happens.
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Well, to paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of the forum death may have been exaggerated.
I moved my accounts to a new server, and the host has agreed to let me try archiving off posts older than a year old. Archived posts will still be accessible, but you won't be able to post in them. That saves about 30% of the load on the server.
We'll monitor the resource usage and see if the new server can handle the load. If not, I will try pruning some of the older messages to try and see if that helps. We still may not be able to keep the forums open long term, but at least we have a few things to try.
Thanks to all of you who wrote to me with suggestions; I didn't think about archiving as a way to solve the issue. We'll see if it does. Here's hoping.
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Everyone should check out your blog post where you go over costs, too. That's a great boat for under $2,200! http://176inches.blogspot.com/2012/05/reckoning.html
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Computer will no longer allow me to upload pictures.... why? I dont know, works fine everywhere else.
See if you can upload now. You may have hit the upload limit I set a couple of years ago. I increased the limit from 75MB to 150MB, and the individual post upload limit from 5MB to 8MB.
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Well, it is now accepting the edits to the stylesheet without throwing the error,so whatever was causing it will forever remain a mystery. You may need to refresh your brower's cache, but you should see two changes ... the seach box is now below the black bar at the top, and the logo area has been reduced a bit to allow more forum content on the screen.
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I'm late to this one, and I know ilnadi has found it. But for the benefit of others who might use the now-fixed search box to find this post, here is how to set your signature:
1. Click the your name in the upper right of the screen to reveal the profile menu.
2. Select "My Settings"
3. Select "Signature" in the vertical tabs along the left side of the screen.
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I haven't been able to find a fix on the software support forums. When I try to edit the template, the software is throwing an error that the support staff doesn't understand, and can't help me with. I am waiting for a converter that can reliably convert the forum back to either phpBB or SMF. I don't mean to whine, but I thought paying for forum software would give me better support, but that's not the case!
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Thanks for the input, I just need to make up my mind and let her know what to print.
I have a hat from Cafe Press and it is my favorite hat. Super comfortable but the quality of the printing is just so-so. Actually it's not very good to be honest. Maybe it was the logo or the material for the hat. But I was not impressed.
Yep, I no longer offer anything through them. Really spotty quality. The coffee cups faded. The mermaid designs were from my sister, who is an artist, and she gets upset everytime I bring it out in front of her. So I bring it out every time she is over, of course.
The designs look good, and I agree on the navy and kahki. If I get rich in my new venture, maybe I'll even buy one from you (don't add that into your sales forecasting model, though!)
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For my Weekender, I used a large car cover. They are cheap ... about $40 at the time at Costco ... and are made of a breathable fabric that never stuck to the latex paint I used. They lasted about three years. PeterP's solution would be much longer lasting, and you could really make it fit well if you sew.
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Back when I was working for a manufacturer, we had occasional stainless failures due to mixed materials. We had stainless roll pins that had steel roll pins mixed in the batch. We tested them with a magnet as stainless is non-magnetic (except for some low grades of stainless).
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Wow! That's a great shot of a bat flying. I love bats.
We had bats in our bedroom walls, but our bats here are quite a bit smaller than that one. The Mexican Fruit Bat is a mouse-sized bat that, like all bats, forages starting at dusk. They also have a very active social life that starts around 2:30 AM, when they return to the nest and party like college kids. I had to get rid of them because I was jealous of anything getting that much more action than I was. The solution was to hang bird netting over their entrance that descended about a foot down from it; when bats fly out, they fly down, But the netting prevents them from flying back into the space. Then you seal up the space, and the bat problem is solved.
I never got anywhere close to that good a picture of them flying out at dusk.
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Hi edyson2! Thanks for sharing the tips.
I know you are promoting your site, but you did it the right way. You gave US something in return for your link, and I like that approach. Feel free to post other tips as you get them, and yes, you can include a link to your site when you do so.
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I can't find a fix for it, I'm afraid. At least not yet. I'm unhappy with both the cost and the difficulty of running the software, but up until recently it did really well at keeping spammers out. That changed in the last few days. I'd like to revert to either SMF or phpBB free software, instead of paying each year, but there are no converters available for this version of the software yet.
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Hmmm ... just noticed it myself. I'll see if there's a solution at the vendor's site (I reverted to the default layout with the last upgrade.)
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I like the colors; it really gives definition to the shape.
Forum Changes
in Main Forum
Posted
It looks like the crisis is passed, so we are all set to continue doing what we've been doing since 2,000 (on the old forums, way back when).