General Forum temporarily disabled

[Milacron]

PM went down Friday at about 22:00 EST. I didn't realize it until the next morning due to a red herring (amazingly, I was getting the exact same error page trying to access Google all of Friday evening so just assumed the problem was with my ISP or the net in general)

After much back and forth chatter with the limited weekend staff of web host, they conclude site was simply near resource limits of the server with only cure being to change from current CGI based forum to PHP based forum like V Bulletin.

The web host rebooted the server this morning, so PM is working well now, but 'just in case' I have temporarily disabled the main resource hog...the huge General Forum. Don't worry, all 240,000 posts are still "there", just not visible for now.

In the meantime, please use this new General Forum for the general topics. When a resolution is found to the resource limits issue, all your posts at temporary General will be moved to the original General Forum.

Anyone that posted a new topic right before the crash and wants to repost that same topic, ok by me. If it was a long post and you are desperate for the original copy, email me and I can access the General Forum and make a copy for you to repost.

Sorry for the trouble, but the situation happening on the weekend was both a blessing and a curse.

 

[d1camero]

Well thanks for all your effort. I did not realize how much I enjoy using the list until it wasa down this weekend!

Don

 

[rivett608]

Don Thank you for the quick fix, Sunday mornings are not the same without a "fix" of PM...... my normal routine is to watch CBS's Sunday Morning while surfing PM or ebay...... PM is much cheaper!, so thanks again for your weekend efforts.

 

[Milacron]

FWIW, folks love to blame the ads for the troubles, but best I can tell, previous slow response time and the crash had absolutely nothing to do with the ads.

 

[wippin' boy]

fwiw
all the talk about lockups,slowness,virus,yada yada
don't seem to be happening at my end.
this little event this weekend is the first i have noticed anything
the panic when the thing does burp just shows that you SHOULD have the blessing of the masses to do what it takes D.
thanks again

 

[Gary E]

Don,
I agree that the ads seem to not be the cause if the slow responce. I disabled some feature that was said to help, and it made no change at all.
There are time when it's normal, and times when it's slow.

Posting this was the fastest it's been in ages.

 

[jackal]

MY connection is always slow. I'm in a small town with the only dial up available. 26k is the fastest I can get.

I didn't know what to do, I actually had to watch TV. hahahahha

My wife came in while I was trying to load up the PM page, and said " Are you just going to stare at that blank screen?"

Glad to have it back Don!!


Jackal

 

[johnoder]

Many thanks Don:

If money would be of some help do let us know.

John

 

[Orrin]

I'm glad the forum is up and running, again. It and a pot of coffee is what gets my day off to a good start. I learn more, here, than anywhere else.

Best regards,

Orrin

 

[Dave A]

Will add my thanks also. Was forced to spend some time on other forums and am glad to be back home.

Now for my morning coffee.

Dave

 

[JST]

The ads DO have some effect on speed..... I have in fact seen it hang for some time while a message at the bottom shows that it is fetching an ad from a server.

Usually that is not very long, a matter of 5 seconds or 10.

That clearly might be dialup issues getting it down the pipe to me, except that I have seen similar things while on the T1-fed machine.

However, I agree, it is not the major cause of 2 minute posting times etc.

I actually wondered if there was an ad or graphic that was being fetched, but that was moved or messed up... if it could not handle the error, it might hang. Apparently that wasn't the problem, or at least the boffins don't think so.

Do you have to change software again? Or can you archive a big wodge of the posts from the distant past, as last time?

That did the trick until very recently.

 

[Gary E]

Don,
Here is a BB that has well over 22,000,000 posts and has never had a slow responce in the over 10 years that I have been there.

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/

You might ask Si Bob who owns it how that works.
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/profile.aspx?userid=2904430

He also own this BB
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/default.asp

 

[Evan]

I can still access the old forum. I can even post to it.

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> Topic Topic Starter Replies Last Post
[old closed] [important] Off Topic Post Guidelines D. Thomas 1 05-10-2006 08:40 AM
[new] old forum test post Evan 0 08-27-2006 10:15 AM
[new] Accuracy and Precision stainless2steel 16 08-27-2006 10:14 AM
[new] Where do you advertise? cvman 16 08-27-2006 09:33 AM
[new] Bring your own tools to work? ZipSnipe 5 08-27-2006 09:15 AM
[new] 16" G&E Shaper al macdonald 12 08-27-2006 08:58 AM
[new hot] ot. you know your a machinist when Pages: 1 2 3 chas 86 08-25-2006 09:32 PM
[new] OT- Blatant Sales Propoganda targeting</pre>[/QUOTE]added:

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</pre>[/QUOTE]

[ 08-27-2006, 09:52 PM: Message edited by: Evan ]

 

[Jackmo]

D.T.

Thanks for all your efforts.

Jackmo

 

[Milacron]

I can still access the old forum. I can even post to it.

I used the term "disabled" loosely...in reality it is just hidden from normal view. But even that was enough to make a huge difference in forum performance.

Since your informing the members of tricks that can defeat the intended purpose I presume your main point was actually a "Hey look everyone...I know stuff and can do stuff" post ?



(also, can you reduce the size as it's causing horizontal scrolling on the whole thread, at least for my resolution setting)

 

[common762]

Hey Don, why don't you post an address for donations, I have yet to see an AD on this board and thank God for no pop ups, I know keeping this thing up can't be free. An address for anyone who felt like donating would be good, people could just donate at their own discretion.

 

[common762]

I see the ADs now, they are so tiny though.

 

[mrainey]

I've noticed intermittent slowness and flaky behavior for the past few weeks. I don't think it's been caused by the ads.

 

[Lca078]

Don-

Many thanks again for your repeated donated time and services to keeping this board up and running. If money will help ease any of these problems, please let us know.

 

[Thermo1]

Don,
Thanks for getting things back up so quickly. I missed my Saturday mornng PM fix.

I cannot really comment on speed. Maybe the aether wind blows in a different direction here in the DC area. At work, I use a Federal Government site. Stating up in the morning makes PM look fast. It is almost as though the SERVER needs the coffee, not the users.

Thermo1