The forum lives.....

**Panomaniac** · May 28th, 2011, 10:50 AM

Things seem pretty stable today and faster than they have been in quite some time. Let's hope it holds. We shall see what the work week brings. The interwebs are slow on the weekends when folks are not goofing off at work.

**Team Hostboard** · May 28th, 2011, 10:52 AM

This was one of those known problems on the old system (duplicated forums/posts/threads) where if someone wanted to be malicious (we had a few cases) someone could have created a forum with the same name making the original forum unaccessable. It would not change or ove write the information but the way the URL structure was read just mean you would not be able to access it. This was one of those discussions on how do we fix it and not disrupt the site and honestly this was the best solution as it resolved some issues with duplicate names that already existed that we were fighting but it also eliviated the problem going forward.

The current structure is locked and will nto be changing so you can bookmark this and know you will be able to come back painlessly.

Sorry for the inconvinience

**Team Hostboard** · May 28th, 2011, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Panomaniac

Things seem pretty stable today and faster than they have been in quite some time. Let's hope it holds. We shall see what the work week brings. The interwebs are slow on the weekends when folks are goofing off at work.

One of the primary goals when we re-wrote the site from the ground up was the need to decrease over head by a large margin. I think overall reduction was about 65% We utilized things like ajax when ever and where ever possible as well as caching lots of information that is static instead of needing to reload pages. One of the other things we were able to do is all the custom code has been modularized and we implemented debugging code. This allows us to easily see exactly what and how the system is processing information allowing us to pin point issues much much quicker.

Server loads have decreased more then we have anticipated.

But this is not to say we do not have alot of work ahead of us and even though this is a holiday weekend we are monitoring the site and everyone is on call just in case there is an emergency. We will be trouble shooting some of the lesser problems starting Tuesday (avatars seem to be broken, etc.) and think we will have those ironed out before weeks end. As for the core system it is up, running and zero issues.

Have a great holiday weekend...

**Altec Best** · May 28th, 2011, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by Steven

We will be trouble shooting some of the lesser problems starting Tuesday (avatars seem to be broken, etc.) and think we will have those ironed out before weeks end. As for the core system it is up,running and zero issues.

That's Debatable !

Hi Steven, I know you have been working hard on this, but it just seems it has been one thing after another.

The biggest issues was just trying to log-In a month or two back.As many folks have said they had issue with too.

Recently you had to fix the donation awards for me,looks like they are gone once again.Now the avatars,we can't upload signature images anymore,friends lists are gone,photo albums gone Poof ! Visitors to your page looks like has been reset to show 0.And these new smilies leave a little to be desired.They are all the same color and all look the same to me.Progress Hmmm ?

Now wouldn't it have been an easy fix to just not allow similar Forum names/titles when someone wanted to create a new forum ?

Like with a simple page that loaded "Forum Name Unavailable" when someone tried to create a new forum that was very similar to one already owned ! To prevent duplicates.

I just don't understand why this forum has so many issues when other forums with 10x the membership are so painless.

I don't want to sound like I'm giving this a hard time, but I was completely shocked when I told you about the problems in the Help desk awhile back and you didn't know anything about them.Because they were going on for some time.

Problem ? What Problem ? Insert "Wink Smiley Here" wherever you are located now,or just close one eye on this one here.

Thank You Steven, for the replies and explaining what's going on, It's Appreciated, Thanks !!

Have a Great Weekend & Holiday !

All the Best ~ AB

**Earl K** · May 28th, 2011, 02:21 PM

Hi All,

Does the forums' search function work for anyone here ?

I can't get it to return anything, even when I know the info should be there .

An Example ; A simple search for threads started by Altec Best returns nadda ( & I'm pretty sure John has a started a couple

) .

<. EarlK

Oh Well, teething pains, I suppose

**Team Hostboard** · May 28th, 2011, 02:52 PM

Unfortunatly I did not ge the errors you were seeing but as soon as someone posted the error message I think we got it fixed in under an hour, give or take. And I can not agree more that Hostboard has been have HUGE growing pains. We have been chasing our tails for a very very long time. 10 years ago HB was first developed on UBB version 5. It was a 100% manual headache. We had to do everything from copying images that were emailed to us to manula forum approvals, etc. Site was also very slow. We then did what back then was unthinkable. We built a database backend and ported to UBB 6. Things were better in terms of speed but the manual process was still a massive headache. Next on the horizon was moving to VB (also known as Hostboard3 as our third itiration of the site) It was again much better as many things were automated but as the site continued to grow we ran into more problems. Most of which were just things we did not think about or consider. Now we are on HB4. We have learned alot to say the least. The custom code took over 100 man hours. We took suggesitons and looked back at our notes during the HB3 time period. The new system is 100% modular. It utilizes ajax where ever possible. We cache as much static information as possible. The template system over head has been reduce by 65% which means less server intensive and much faster delivery of the pages since it is much less information it needs to send.

On top of all this as HB4 was initially being laid out in phases for this year, Adam who has been the lead programmer for HB since we moved to VB sold his development company to another larger company, Trinnovations. Tony who owns Trinnovations, was presented the HB concept and what it is supposed to do and was asked if he would help out. Well Tony stepped up to the plate in a major way by providing all the resources to make the HB4 project become a reality much sooner then if it was just myself. So now only do we have a head programmer who understand HB and where it is going but a development company with a team of individuals that are available if and when needed. But Adam has also now seen the issues that have plagued the site. This has lead to a complete restructuring making the site more modular allowing us to add functionality much easier, allowing us to debug any reported problems since there is debug code in the system that allows us to see each and every process. This new HB has gone through more testing then any other version. I am not saying there no issues that need to be addressed. What I am saying is we are more then ever pushing for a more reliable/robust site that delivers abilities that have been asked for and talked about.

As for the donations yes we are aware and will be fixing that this week. After a 72 hour move/port we really just ran out of steam and with the holiday weekend we ran out of time.

Please continue to hound me about anything you see or come across as it is very important to me that I address yours and everyones issues in a timely fashion.

I am far from perfect and will continue to make mistakes but in August it will be 10 years for HB and we truely want to make this the year the site turns around with less headaches and become a far better place.

I appreciate your critisisms and comments!

Have a great holiday weekdend...

**Todd W. White** · May 28th, 2011, 05:12 PM

I'm working on a solution to this problem - more as soon as I know more...

**Cal Weldon** · May 28th, 2011, 06:31 PM

If you guys are having trouble with the linking you can always google "altec users board" and it brings you right here. Sorting through the Hostboard table of contents can be less than rewarding.

**Altec Best** · May 29th, 2011, 12:02 AM

Originally Posted by Earl K

An Example ; A simple search for threads started by Altec Best returns nadda ( & I'm pretty sure John has a started a couple

You know Earl I did the same thing and came up with Nadda as well.When the site first came back I had a time just trying to find the site so I did a search of my posts and to my amusement Nadda, Butkus

**Audio_by_Goodwill** · May 29th, 2011, 02:24 AM

Originally Posted by Altec Best

You know Earl I did the same thing and came up with Nadda as well.When the site first came back I had a time just trying to find the site so I did a search of my posts and to my amusement Nadda, Butkus

I've already reported it. I only have two posts come up under my name, and they were made after the changeover, yet I've posted more than that, so it's not simply only new posts that are showing.