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General >> Administrative >> demotions
https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1366666440

Message started by walter on Apr 22nd, 2013 at 5:34pm

Title: demotions
Post by walter on Apr 22nd, 2013 at 5:34pm
Heh, I was a funditor, but now I see i've been demoted.  :-/ Whats up wigh that?

Title: Re: demotions
Post by Masiakasaurus on Apr 22nd, 2013 at 5:49pm
:noidea: We've been having some behind the scenes issue with out software version and our host. Could be related to that. http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1362702471

Title: Re: demotions
Post by wanderer on Apr 23rd, 2013 at 4:47am
Just in case we suddenly find slinging.org 'gone', or 'unavailable', would anyone in the know care to enlarge on just what the problems are?

Is it space? Bandwidth? Processing power? Something else?

Title: Re: demotions
Post by Masiakasaurus on Apr 24th, 2013 at 12:38am
The problems are age related security issues that impact the server that hosts us. For a little while we were using more shares of CPU time than we were allotted because of spambots even though they were being blocked from registering accounts. Outside of that we've been noticing small, a solutely non-critical bugs and incompatibilities, such as: newer versions of java not working with the chat, random topics becoming stickied for no reason, and getting error messages about reaching a process limit. Chris shut down the specific page the spambots were trying to get to on the site, so we're back down to below our CPU threshold but we still want to do the upgrade... eventually. Until then the mods have a little work to do to clean up the place and make the move smoother.

We're not in danger of going down. If we were then Chris or C_A would make an announcement.

Title: Re: demotions
Post by wanderer on Apr 24th, 2013 at 4:04am
Masi,
Thanks for the excellent explanation.

So it seems an upgrade to YaBB coming at some point, but no imminent dangers of some service provider clobbering the site.

That would be good!

Title: Re: demotions
Post by curious_aardvark on Apr 24th, 2013 at 12:20pm
there shouldn't be any level demotions. The numbers set haven't changed for a couple of years and there are currently no actual functional issues with the forum software.

But it's 7 years old and needs to be updated. I'm currently looking at somewhere towards the end of may when it's just me and the dogs here and I'll have a bit more time on my hands to spend a day upgrading.
IE: I can ignore the phone without being nagged about it.  ;)

It looks (lol) fairly straightforward. I install the new forum software on the server (found a dummies guide for that) then I copy the existing databases to the new folders and change the url redirects over and viola - new forum software with no loss of data.

I don't actually expect it to work as simply and hassle free as that. But the beauty of the method is that the old forum still exists in it's functioning entirety. So should the new stuff just plain not work I can go back to the old setup untill the problems are ironed out.
I will also make a complete backup of the entire site to several of my computers - you can never have too many backups  ;)
And that takes about half a day on my pretty feeble 3mb connection.

I will post a warning before I start and the forum will be totally shut down for at least a couple of days, depending on how well it all goes.
Hopefully 1 day for the backup/upgrade process and another day for myself and the other mods to try and crash the new forum before we let the real vandals back on :-)

The other issues we've had recently were traffic/cpu oriented, as mas said - completely removing the registration page and clearing out junk posts seems to have fixed that for the timebeing. But the server providers are concerned that our yabb is so old.

So reluctant though I am to change anything while it still works - I'm going to have to. Hopefully there will be some cool new stuff in the latest yabb software.
A points system and the ability to attach multiple pics to one post are things I'd like.

We'll all hopefully find out in about a month :-)
Consider this the first 'Announcement' :thumb:

promotion Levels shown below. Haven't changed the levels for years - so looking at your post numbers - not sure why you were at the 500 plus level at all :noidea: 

And the new grades were implemented AFTER the last post levels change.
slingercategories_001.jpg (16 KB | )

Title: Re: demotions
Post by Masiakasaurus on Apr 24th, 2013 at 5:00pm
I think he means that his post count seems to have decreased resulting in demotion.

Title: Re: demotions
Post by walter on Apr 24th, 2013 at 5:38pm
Went from Funditor with 900+ posts to Descens with 300+ posts. It's not that important to me. Just wondering why :-?

Title: Re: demotions
Post by curious_aardvark on Apr 25th, 2013 at 9:33am
ah - I'm guessing this is probably related to the recent clearout of old posts.
Can't think of any other reason why post count would decline.

Don't honestly think any of us considered deleting old posts would actually reduce members post count - guess the system software must keep a live count off the forum database and not - as I would have suposed - keep seperate accounts for each member.

No other reason that I can think of - mind you 600 odd posts is a lot to disappear.
So we owe you an apology - but it was in a good cause and we genuinely had no idea it would effect rankings and member post numbers.

Yep just tested it - we delete old posts then it's knocked off members post counts.

But it was in a good cause - we basically had to cut cpu usage or the forum was in danger of being shutdown.

So I am sorry - but it couldn't be helped.

Title: Re: demotions
Post by curious_aardvark on Apr 25th, 2013 at 11:51am
mas pointed out that we can change the post numbers.

so I've added an extra 600 to yours walter. If you want more or less let me know :thumb:

also anyone else who's lost posts let me or one of the other mods know and we'll put it right for you :-)

Title: Re: demotions
Post by walter on Apr 25th, 2013 at 4:52pm
Thanks :)

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