What the heck is going on with the forums?!

[Mania]

We've been having a lot of problems with the forums lately. Unexpected downtime, SQL crashes, features disappearing ... You are probably wondering what the heck is going on.

Well, there's a couple of things. First, we were having some gawd-awful lag - on all of my websites, but it was especially noticeable here. After going back and forth with our data center providers for awhile, they decided to replace our network interface card. The first replacement didn't help but the second one apparently did.

Unfortunately while they were working on that they managed to take down our server - the physical box that hosts all my sites - a couple of times ... and rather unexpectedly. That messed up some of the SQL tables, which caused the errors a bunch of you have reported over the last couple of days. I figured out how to manually repair the tables but I seem to have missed a few. (I've just manually repaired 68 tables, by the way. This makes me grumpy.)

As an aside: The extended downtime yesterday and today is entirely my fault. I was out of touch all day yesterday, came home and went straight to bed, and just got up a little bit ago. I know (from the many e-mails I've gotten) that looking at an incomprehensible SQL error for over 24 hours was extremely frustrating to many of you and I'm really sorry you had to deal with that.

But that was just one source of unexpected downtime. The other problem that popped up involved an update to the forum software (phpbb). I've had some problems in the past updating the plugins, but not the core software.

This time, though, what should have been a 3 minute update turned bad and we were down for half an hour while I figured out how to manually fix it. And because my fix involved over-writing some of the template files, we lost a lot of the plugin functionality (like the topic title in the most recent post field on the main page).

When I tried to fix that, I broke the board again, threw up my hands, admitted defeat, and went looking for new forum software. (Only to find that if I want a decent forum I'll have to write the bloody thing myself ... which is just silly.)

So that's where we are. None of these circumstances should happen again anytime soon but ... things happen. And since you are unlucky enough to be part of a community that is pretty much run by an amateur - me! because even our hard-working moderators can't help when the SQL tables blow up - I can't promise that everything will be smooth from here on out.

But we will do our best. An amazing community like this one deserves everything we can give it.

[Jelani]

*hugs Mania* Thank you for all the work you have been doing to keep up pet addicts..well addicts XD

*clings to the forum* How I missed you..

[Congafury]

Dear Mania!

i'm glad you've coped and i do appreciate all the effort you and the moderators put into this website. You have all my possible moral support!
me <3 you! ^_^

sincerely,
Conga

[zedxrgal]

Thank you so much for all your hard work. Was foaming at the mouth over here not having my Petopia since yesterday morning.
Ah good to have it back. *does same white knuckle clutching as Jelani*

[Saturo]

Awesome that the forums are back. Thank you for spending so much time fixing it!

I woulda' helped... :P

[TygerDarkstorm]

*hugs Mania* Thank you for all the work you have been doing to keep up pet addicts..well addicts XD

*clings to the forum* How I missed you..

I second this sentiment!

[Kalliope]

Eeee, we're back! Thank you, Mania, for all that you do! <3<3

*happydance*

[Tudyk]

Ugh, makes me wish I'd taken a computer science minor instead of learning how to solder stuff ...

But your work is NOT going unappreciated!

[Lisaara]

Thanks for keeping us posted, hun. You're doing your very best and i know how coding can be extremely difficult and frustrating. Hardest part is always finding the exact problem and hope it's one you can easily solve.

[Sarayana]

I know (from the many e-mails I've gotten) that looking at an incomprehensible SQL error for over 24 hours was extremely frustrating to many of you and I'm really sorry you had to deal with that.

Not remotely as frustrating as what you've had to deal with, by the sounds of it. When we whine and complain that we're missing our forums, it is only because we're spoiled. Really, we'll live even if the forums are down for more than 30 seconds. I promise.

Thanks for the work, sounds like the kind of thing that would have made me pitch my computer out the window.

[Teigan]

.

[Cialbi]

Talk about an awful few days

[Raederle]

+1 voice of thanks for all your hard work!!

[Rawr]

Huzzah! I can get on again Thanks for fixing it, I was having Petopia withdraws

[Adam-Savage]

Awesome that the forums are back. Thank you for spending so much time fixing it!

I woulda' helped...

Oddly enough I did think of you when she mentioned nonone being able to help with the forum software. I thought.. I bet Saturo would know how to tinker with them.

[Saturo]

I could do some small-scale tinkering, yup. Probably best left to the professionals, though. ^^

[Ardawen]

I am just glad we are able to use it again, i did miss it.

[Mania]

I'd love to get some help with installs and updates especially. Unfortunately phpbb requires a lot of work with the files on the server - for the most part it can't be done through the forum software itself - and our server admin is not so sanguine about opening up the box to other people. This is one of the reasons I've been looking at other forum software - to find something that isn't quite so manual.

[Adam-Savage]

Had a 502 bad gateway error a few minutes ago.

[Mozag]

Had a 502 bad gateway error a few minutes ago.

Likewise.