Author Topic: whats the current problem with the forum?  (Read 8126 times)

mobile_bob

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whats the current problem with the forum?
« on: May 20, 2009, 02:08:35 AM »
whatever it is, it is becoming too shaky for me
perhaps it is time for me to spend time on more stable pursuits

thanks guys

bob g
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(useful forums), utterpower.com for all sorts of diy info

LowGear

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2009, 02:45:52 AM »
Gosh, I think it's really great for the amount of money I'm being charged.  It is free - right?  I haven't been sneaking in under the tent curtain have I?

I to wish it were more regular but the interruptions help me remember other things that might profit from my attention.

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Doug

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2009, 03:50:28 AM »
What do you mean by shaky Bob?

Local connection problem maybe at the server.

I don;t read much these days but I noticed its a little harder to log in
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billswan

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2009, 04:24:09 AM »
hello forum
May be we will get a run down from ADMIN about what happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If it is a problem of money may be we could take up a collection so the powers that be could purchase time on a more powerful and reliable server??????

I for one think this format is just fine!! There are no pesky ads driving us nuts. I would send money through paypal to keep the lights on, on a better server that IS. On this server maybe not. Not trying to tick off ADMIN if he owns the server, just groping for an answer to the problem. And please don't shoot the messenger if the outage was not server problems ;D ;D ;D

Billswan
16/1 Metro  in the harness choking on WMO ash!!

10/1 OMEGA failed that nasty WMO ash ate it

By the way what is your cylinder index?

AdeV73

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2009, 08:53:21 AM »
The problem this time had to do with a router, somewhere between the server which hosts this forum, and the rest of the world. At first, a bad configuration caused data to be routed in a circle - until it gave up; then someone evidently turned the router off, because the data just stopped dead short of the final destination.

I'm also cheesed off at the reliability, or lack thereof, of the forum; mainly because of all of the various engine forums (fora?) I've looked at, this is by far the most interesting for a Lister CS owner. Some of the technical stuff that is discussed in here is brilliant - and much more useful than the engine polishing tips you see in some of the other forums [in fairness to those forums, that is their focus]...

This is also why it would be a disaster if this forum were to disappear for long enough that the community fell apart.

AS far as finding a solution goes.... Towards the end of the last long outage, I set up a brand new forum, with the hope - if listerengine.com died completely, that something could be salvaged from the ashes. I've discussed with Andrew (aka t19) ways forward, and whilst we're a bit hamstrung at the moment, hopefully a solution will be in place before the next outage (if, indeed, there IS a next outage...).

carlb23

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2009, 02:21:12 PM »
This is the best forum for listeroids bar none! While i don't  like it when the forum is down, it's pretty hard to complain about FREE!
I for one would be happy to send money through paypal to help keep the forum up and running correctly.

Carl

jimmer

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2009, 04:54:33 PM »
Well, let me see. It's free, has great content and is up and running the vast majority of the time.

Works for me.


jimmer

Dail R H

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2009, 10:56:50 PM »
   During the last great outage,I tried in vain to get hooked intothe yahoo forum. Nothing on God's green earth should be so difficult or frustrating. It's kinda like riding a Greyhound------"Ain't nowhere I got ta go so important I gotta ride no dawg" And if I gotta dick with that mess on yahoo,I'figure my Metro out all by my ownselff.
   I'll go back to being nice,and behave now

billswan

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2009, 11:24:53 PM »
hello adve

You seem to have a handle on this here internet stuff. Can I ask what would be the cost of server space to serve up this site. 2000 + members 50000 + posts and by the looks of the stats it seems there are just as many guests per hour as hard core users????????? I am just curious not at all interested in getting into the business!!!!!
 
Hello DAIL r h

Yes it took me forever to get approved on that yahoo listercsog. Don't give up if you jump through the hoops some one will eventually let you in.
Even though I am a member I have yet to post over there..........


Billswan
16/1 Metro  in the harness choking on WMO ash!!

10/1 OMEGA failed that nasty WMO ash ate it

By the way what is your cylinder index?

AdeV73

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2009, 12:09:17 AM »
Bill,

It rather depends on how you do it:

1) You could have a dedicated server; this costs lots of money, but is ideal if you have a very popular or very big website.

2) You could have a "virtual server" - which looks just like a real one to me, but is actually a very clever program running on another machine; so you could have 20 or 30 "pretend" servers running on one real one, if it were powerful enough.

3) You could have space on a shared server - regular web hosting. The disadvantage to this is having sufficient control to be able to run a complex forum program AND database, etc.


I plumped for a virtual server last time listerengine was down (I bought it the day before it came back online!) It's the cheapest one I could find, but it's easily powerful enough to run this forum - which is actually quite a small one, as these things go. It costs me £10 (about $15) per month; and I get unlimited bandwidth with that.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say each message consumes, on average, 4KB (it's probably less than this; 1KB of pure text is said to be around a sheet of A4 (or Letter) of single-spaced typing; but there are inefficiencies in the storage). So 50K messages would use 200,000KB; or 20Mb [roughly]. I have 9.1Gb of disk space available, so I could fit the forums in 400-times over with space to spare.

I know it'll run the forum software, because iit already is. So: if I had a backup of the forums as they are now, I could have it all up & running in a couple of hours. The problem is, getting that backup: So far, that's not been possible...

The reason I know all this stuff? I've lived & breathed computers for 22 years (since I was 13 years of age)... the irony is that I'm now thoroughly enjoying tinkering with a super-low-tech diesel engine which is nearly 25 years older than me!

t19

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2009, 03:24:46 AM »
Guys
Lets keep the plans to a min.  I have sent a message to the Owner to see what can be done to stop this before we lose clients on mass/

I will let you know how I do by Fri

There is plenty of room for all of Gods creatures... right next to the mashed potatoes...

mike90045

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2009, 06:53:28 AM »
At the last Great Disappearance, I tried making a copy of the site, and came up with  3GB of files.  I could burn it to a DVD and postal mail it to someone, who would have to sort it all out. (it's one giant HTML tree)

compig

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2009, 09:59:25 AM »
This is a very frustrating situation because , as I've observed before , this is the ONLY forum that I use that routinely has this problem.  There has to be some fixable cause which is probably very simple !!
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lowspeedlife

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Re: whats the current problem with the forum?
« Reply #13 on: May 23, 2009, 04:15:10 PM »
From recent converstions on here it seems the real problem is the server host, who seems to think what ever they do will have no effect upon thier customers. this obviously is not true. what can be done about an uncaring host, not much short of dropping them.


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