PCKF blackouts

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keenmaster486
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PCKF blackouts

Post by keenmaster486 »

Lately (over the past month or so) it seems like the PCKF and Keen:Modding have been more down than up. Any attempt to load pages, about 25-30% of the time, will yield a MySQL error. This happens very frequently, for several days at a time usually.

So, adurdin, or whoever's responsible for maintenance of these forums, please fix it! I know you're probably already working on it but I at least want to know the status of the fixing.

Thanks!
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Post by Keening_Product »

Hi keenmaster486,

The forum is indeed very generously hosted by adurdin. There is a long history of occasional downtime for many reasons, which adurdin has always fixed. If you find repair isn't happening quickly enough, you can send a polite tweet to him explaining the issue as he may not have noticed. (His Twitter handle is his forum handle.) He responds very well, quickly, and very apologetically.

Based on conversations I've had with adurdin over the years, I believe the issues are caused by these boards sharing virtual server space with other websites. This means there is a risk of database issues when changes are made to other websites also hosted by him. It's not ideal, but as it stands we have a free, ad-free forum.

Once again, adurdin doesn't really use these boards himself, so he may simply be unaware of issues when they happen.

Will
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Post by keenmaster486 »

OK, that does make sense. I didn't know what the situation was there...
Yes, it is very generous of him, I guess I should be grateful for what we have, like you said, an ad-free forum that works the vast majority of the time.
Sorry for being a complainer :o :foot
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Post by Keening_Product »

Damn, I was hoping my post wouldn't come across as ticking you off. I wasn't meaning to. You're new and by no means expected to magically know the background of the forum. I used to be a complainer too, though more about the age of the board software.
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Post by keenmaster486 »

No, no, don't worry, you didn't tick me off at all :)
I guess I just get fed up sometimes, where I should be counting my lucky stars that we even have a Keen forum at all.
Your post was right on the nose.
However, sometimes I do wish that we could upload attachments like you can at VOGONS, which has an almost identical and similarly old version of phpBB. That's not too important though.
For my money, though, I do like that the forum runs on old software, since it loads and runs great on vintage computers with old browsers!
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Post by Keening_Product »

I like this interface. I can't say I'm a fan of more modern phpBB designs, though I guess they're entirely customisable.

Attachments would put the server under a huge load, not just locally but also from leechers. Say someone posted a popular meme and someone else (say, a popular Facebook personality or page) linked to it - that could be huge, even with a size restriction. There are probably plugins to allow in-forum uploading to other image providers in more recent versions of the board software.

A not-entirely-unrelated question: do you happen to have any spare server space somewhere?
Keening_Product was defeated before the game.

"Wise words. One day I may even understand what they mean." - Levellass
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