Consolidated forum/blog downtime topic

We’ve had another little bit of downtime over the past day or so, largely due to a similar issue that happened last time. It works a little like this: our hosting company power-cycles our box, and when it comes back up, things don’t start up like they’re supposed to. Further complications this time arose from a networking issue which was out of our hands, but the end result is that the forums are back up and running now.

The blog hasn’t been so lucky. We have backups this time around, but it’s gonna take a day or so until those backups have been restored, and that’s because of my own inexperience with the way we’re running WordPress which is… unorthodox, to say the least.

I do apologise for the downtime, and for the lack of news posts. On the bright side, feel free to create your own topics in the forums and discuss things there, in lieu of actual news posts :smile:

Feel free to submit feedback via whatever method you’re most comfortable with, public or private.

Apologies for today’s downtime, which was caused by me trying to install an SSL certificate and running into a lot of issues to do with the way ATAU is set up on the back end.

In the short term this will mean that the forum remains on http for now. The long term fix for this is to move to DiscourseHosting - but as this is still being funded entirely out of Benny’s and my pockets, that’s not going to happen just yet.

I wonder - would it be feasible to set up a Patreon in order to fund the hosting and give you guys a little pocket money (especially for the effort Benny puts into the news content etc)? I know I’d rather that than advertising.

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It happens. I pretend I know what’s going on when I run my servers. I run into occasional issues because to be honest while I’m learning more and more I’m probably still a little out of my depth… but I’ve not let that stop me yet!

I have a dedicated server with a few spare dedicated IP’s which is horribly underutilised that I be happy to talk about throwing into the mix in for nix in exchange for another set of eyes helping to keep it running smoothly, even if it’s only for the interim until you decide to move to something more permanent. It is hosted out of the states (New Jersey) which is the only downside for an Aussie based forum.

All I’m running is a single vBulletin forum + WordPress front end on a quad core xeon which effectively doesn’t raise a sweat :stuck_out_tongue:

Hit me up if you’re interested.

Happy to chip in and donate if you need some support.

We’ve considered this in the past but how to set it up is the question - whether it’s just support, or perhaps special features for donors. For example:

  • Private section of forums
  • Custom title
  • Email version of Benny’s news
  • Something else?

We’ve also considered sponsored posts - max 2 per week, clearly labeled as such.

Very interested in everyone’s thoughts.

I don’t think you need to make more work for Benny and yourself by creating private forums etc.

Perhaps the addition of a donate now pinned post or button, to enable forum members to support the forum financially.

Agree no need for perks. Just a way to donate. Maybe if you want to give recognition a badge or something but really not needed.

coughInGeniuscough

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Which plan do you need? You’d only need 16 people donating $5/month to cover the $80 business one. It’s probably more possible than you think.

Agree, no need for any recognition on the site, but if you set the price to cover it, an AppleTalk T Shirt or cap or something would be good. :slight_smile:

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Looks like we were down for most of today, Monday, 20th August 2018.

I first noticed it in the morning, we gave it a reboot and it was OK for about an hour before it went down again, and neither Toby or myself were available to take a proper look until just now.

Long story short, turns out we ran out of space. Rookie mistake, I know, but it happens.

The good news is, we now have some monitoring setup so this shouldn’t happen again. Hopefully you were that much more productive today as a result!

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I wondered what had happened, I think it was down Sunday night as well.

Thanks for the work you guys do keeping the site active. I know it is a labour of love more than anything.

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It’s funny, because I am a moderator on another forum that goes through periods of deathly silence and short bursts of extreme activity. I’m trying to rebuild consistency in the posting on this forum, and when it was brought up that forums were largely dead, I tried to point to ATAU as an exception. We have a small user base compared to say, social media, or even a lot of tech help sites, but pretty standard for a “fandom” (and make no mistake, we are a fandom).

And then ATAU was down. Not a good look for trying to convince someone forums aren’t obsolete.

Happy to chip in here as well :slight_smile:

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You came back, so we can all stop hyperventilating now, and start calming the farm. :slight_smile:

All good.

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I was more productive. :joy:

Thanks for all the hard work the mods do to keep this running! :tada:

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I’m predicting a resurgence, especially with many netizens leaving Twitter in droves lately (me included).

Oh, I think you are right. The other forums I am on, where I am moderator, is showing a bigger uptick in activity than I have seen in a while. And it comes from the fact that we’re a creative video site, and people have discovered they can’t get detailed technical advice or constructive feedback on other platforms. They just aren’t designed for long ongoing discourse (pun intended) threads.

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Could you share the link? I’m in video production and always looking for new communities :slight_smile: