Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: Admin on January 06, 2010, 04:19:57 AM

Title: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 06, 2010, 04:19:57 AM
I am moving the entire SoR site to a new host (hostgator.com). It'll take awhile for me to transfer the forum over, meaning the forum will be down probably starting the 7th for about a day.

I'll also be upgrading the forum to the latest code, forcing me to use a different skin, meaning that the interface will be changed. This will make forum maintenance *much* easier for me.

It'll probably take days/weeks to get everything back to 100%, so bare with me!
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: SmAsH on January 06, 2010, 05:21:21 AM
No forum for a day? Noooooo!
*huddles in corner and rocks back and forth*
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Joker94 on January 06, 2010, 05:35:08 AM
what am i gonna do with my self for the entire day :-\

 :D
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 06, 2010, 07:15:30 PM
I'm assuming chat will be gone as well... :-\
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: SmAsH on January 06, 2010, 07:17:48 PM
I'm assuming chat will be gone as well... :-\

Yes.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Hawaii00000 on January 08, 2010, 02:00:49 AM
*huddles in corner and rocks back and forth*
Think you forgot the bit about sucking your thumb....
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: SmAsH on January 08, 2010, 02:04:08 AM
The meds take care of that part...
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 09, 2010, 01:26:56 AM
Its good to know that I play a key role in your mental stability . . . I think . . . :P


Anyway, my new host (HostGator), hasn't been able to get my VPS up even after several days. So, it might take a few more days before I make the site move.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 11, 2010, 12:35:04 AM
I'm taking the forum down within the next 20 minutes.

It'll take up to 2 days for it to work again.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: SmAsH on January 11, 2010, 12:49:41 AM
Grr, i was hoping it would be down while i was away the past three days >:(
Although the upside is i have a $100 parts order arriving tomorrow to fill the void SoR normally does ;D
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Joker94 on January 11, 2010, 12:53:35 AM
it will give me more time to work on my SoR entry :D
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: madsci1016 on January 12, 2010, 12:11:42 AM
looks good!
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 12, 2010, 12:23:55 AM
It'll probably take ~10 days to get the forum back to 'normal'.

That being said, Chat is refusing to install itself, and I broke a few other things like bookmarks and 'you have mail'.

I'll need some time to fix it all . . .
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: SmAsH on January 12, 2010, 05:10:02 AM
Ah well, will the new forum remember all the stuff posted in the temporary forum?
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: madsci1016 on January 12, 2010, 07:34:56 AM
Ah well, will the new forum remember all the stuff posted in the temporary forum?

Yes, this is THE forum, Its just the Domain www.societyofrobots.com (http://www.societyofrobots.com) has yet to transfer, so you have to use the IP address to find the server until it does.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 12, 2010, 04:51:42 PM
I both like the new look and miss the old one.
Is the main site ever going to get a visual update?
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: TrickyNekro on January 13, 2010, 08:59:09 PM
Holy whack it's working!!! :-D
I'm just happy with this, although many more things are missing not only the domain name...
like forum options... "youtube" anyone?!?!

I get that this is only the temp forum until the domain is up and we get back to track...

Still... we run... That nice as it is...
I actually got the email on 12... and today is... ONLY 14....
I'll start losing my mental stability... :-P
Well... no that's only joking... But SOR is a part of my life, posting or not... :-P
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 14, 2010, 12:10:36 AM
This is *the* forum, not a temp. The forum is now stored on a new server, but the societyofrobots.com link still links to the old one, hence the IP address link. We'll just have to suffer dead links for ~5 more days, and hopefully everything then goes back to 'normal'.

Quote
Is the main site ever going to get a visual update?
Nope no plans. Mostly because a lack of my artistic ability, and my lazinesses. I also like the quick-loading and easy-on-the-eyes simplicity of it . . . although I admit it doesn't look very fancy!

The reason why the forum now looks different is the other official SMF theme never got security updates, and every year it was requiring more and more cheap hacks to get it to work right. Some mods didn't behave with it, either.

I managed to get bookmarks to work, but not sure whats up with Chat. It simply refuses to install . . . I might have to manually hack it in :-\

My new host (hostgator) is about $7/month cheaper, has more RAM/ROM/MHz/bandwidth, has really great reviews online, and the support staff are fast/effective/caring. More importantly, unlike my last host (lunarpages), they speak English too! :P  Hopefully the move is worth it, I can't wait to shed my old host.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 14, 2010, 06:23:03 AM
Now would be the perfect time to convert the chat to an IRC channel.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 16, 2010, 10:20:35 PM
Its been 6+ days since I put in the DNS change request. It was officially moved to my new host yesterday, but it appears it still hasn't been resolved. At least not for Bangkok (where I am).

People have reported the preview button and spell check not working. Probably just linking errors that'll go away as soon as the forum goes back to normal.

Probably another one or two days.

Quote
Now would be the perfect time to convert the chat to an IRC channel.
You aren't the first to recommend it. Unfortunately its not easy to have SMF user info/passwords adapted securely for IRC.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 17, 2010, 07:22:24 AM
But if there ever was a time to do it, it would be now is what I'm getting at.
After the forum is all moved, the chance of IRC dramatically decreases.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: madsci1016 on January 17, 2010, 09:56:06 AM
I'm still partial to a web based chat. It's easier to use, and easier integrated into the forum.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 17, 2010, 01:44:39 PM
Frankly though, it sucks. It's always crashing and you can't even log out. I have to constantly restart chrome/firefox to avoid connection errors.

No matter how well it integrates, it just doesn't do its job very well. Not to mention that you have to keep a tab open all the time to see if somebody's in the chat.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 17, 2010, 10:18:27 PM
Frankly though, it sucks. It's always crashing and you can't even log out. I have to constantly restart chrome/firefox to avoid connection errors.

No matter how well it integrates, it just doesn't do its job very well. Not to mention that you have to keep a tab open all the time to see if somebody's in the chat.
Hmmm it crashes? I haven't ever had that happen to me . . . How does it crash?

As for logging out, thats just a bug I accidentally added when modifying it, but never had time/motivation to fix. :P
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: madsci1016 on January 17, 2010, 10:20:50 PM
A lot of people say it crashes, or has issues updating, but it has never happened to me. When i use it, it updates fine and never has locked up. I have seen the can't log out thing, but i just close the tab when i want to leave, so it doesn't bug me. 
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: dunk on January 17, 2010, 10:36:26 PM
i'm currently in New Zealand.
the new DNS records have still not propagated here.

is DNS fixed for anyone our there? (just so we know things are on track.)


dunk.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 17, 2010, 11:04:17 PM
Still no luck for me here either.

Go here to test if DNS works. It'll either say DNS works, or file not found:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/test.html (http://www.societyofrobots.com/test.html)
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: dunk on January 18, 2010, 12:25:16 AM
is DNS fixed for anyone our there? (just so we know things are on track.)
actually, i decided to stop being lazy and query a more up to date DNS server:
Code: [Select]
duncan@midget:~$ dig @8.8.8.8 societyofrobots.com

; <<>> DiG 9.5.1-P2.1 <<>> @8.8.8.8 societyofrobots.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 22203
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;societyofrobots.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
societyofrobots.com. 57947 IN A 209.200.248.19

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
societyofrobots.com. 70228 IN NS ns1.societyofrobots.com.
societyofrobots.com. 70228 IN NS ns2.societyofrobots.com.

;; Query time: 5 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Mon Jan 18 19:23:26 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 89
so no, things are not on track.

anyone got a DNS server out there that is correctly resolving societyofrobots.com to 174.120.175.50 ?

dunk.
[edit-ed 2 mins after posting due to confusing old and new IP address. bad dunk.]
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: GearMotion on January 18, 2010, 08:10:40 AM
I ping sor at 209.200.248.19
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 18, 2010, 08:29:42 AM
Frankly though, it sucks. It's always crashing and you can't even log out. I have to constantly restart chrome/firefox to avoid connection errors.

No matter how well it integrates, it just doesn't do its job very well. Not to mention that you have to keep a tab open all the time to see if somebody's in the chat.
Hmmm it crashes? I haven't ever had that happen to me . . . How does it crash?

As for logging out, thats just a bug I accidentally added when modifying it, but never had time/motivation to fix. :P
Every time you send a message, it doesn't post until you send a second message. After this goes on for a while, chatbot will start spitting out "Error: Connection Status 0" (or something like that, obviously can't test right now) and the browser has to be restarted to allow you to post again. This happens for both Google Chrome and Firefox.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: madsci1016 on January 18, 2010, 09:21:14 AM
Yeah, i have never seen that. The only time i ever got a connection error message was when i shut off my wireless card by accident. And I use firefox. It always has put my messages up right away.

[sarcasm]
 Maybe it's a Linux OS thing?  :-P
[/sarcasm]

Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 18, 2010, 09:31:50 AM
We should probably ask joker94 what his situation is, as he said he's always getting those. A few other said that too, but I don't remember which.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on January 18, 2010, 05:40:52 PM
Quote
Every time you send a message, it doesn't post until you send a second message. After this goes on for a while, chatbot will start spitting out "Error: Connection Status 0" (or something like that, obviously can't test right now) and the browser has to be restarted to allow you to post again. This happens for both Google Chrome and Firefox

I use Chrome and I get the same situation. I have to type some ... to get my message posted (actually it doesn't update my message window, the other people get the message as soon as I post it, they even respond to it, if I don't type anything my message window will stay frozen a long time before I would get error: connection status 0...). One more thing, I am always moderator, how come?
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Razor Concepts on January 18, 2010, 05:51:08 PM
Quote
Every time you send a message, it doesn't post until you send a second message. After this goes on for a while, chatbot will start spitting out "Error: Connection Status 0" (or something like that, obviously can't test right now) and the browser has to be restarted to allow you to post again. This happens for both Google Chrome and Firefox

I use Chrome and I get the same situation. I have to type some ... to get my message posted (actually it doesn't update my message window, the other people get the message as soon as I post it, they even respond to it, if I don't type anything my message window will stay frozen a long time before I would get error: connection status 0...). One more thing, I am always moderator, how come?

THATS why you say "...." after every line!! I was wondering about that  :D
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 18, 2010, 05:56:11 PM
if you just put a space and press enter (this only works in chrome) it will refresh your chat as if you typed something, without actually making a new post.
It's things like this that make using the chat no fun.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: SmAsH on January 18, 2010, 05:59:55 PM
I run firefox on xp, vista, 7 and ubuntu, i haven't gotten more than 1 or 2 errors before...
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 18, 2010, 08:14:18 PM
Still no luck for me here either.

Go here to test if DNS works. It'll either say DNS works, or file not found:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/test.html (http://www.societyofrobots.com/test.html)
404 for me. I thought this was only going to last until the 18th? (today at the time of this writing)
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 19, 2010, 03:24:09 AM
Apparently the DNS was changed days ago, and propagated . . . however it never occurred to my HostGator to also link the private name servers to their own IP address (it still links to the old IP). :-X

Waiting for them to handle it . . . and it'll probably take another 2-3 days for that to propagate . . .
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 19, 2010, 07:34:27 AM
I just got this email from my host:
Quote
I have updated your nameservers' IP addresses. Please allow 12 hours for this change to propagate.

Bedtime for me however is in ~3 hours, and I'll be traveling all day tomorrow. So probably another 1 or 2 days before I fix the forum and members tutorials, minimum.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 19, 2010, 08:19:12 AM
Good news, it propagated! :D

I 'fixed' the urls . . . so the forum and member tutorials should be working flawlessly now. Report any problems you see.

Chat not working is so far the only known bug.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: GearMotion on January 19, 2010, 11:03:43 AM
I ping sor at 209.200.248.19

Now 174.120.175.51
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: madsci1016 on January 23, 2010, 09:22:12 AM
What's the status on the chat?

(I'm starting to go into withdrawal!)
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 23, 2010, 08:56:19 PM
Hmmm I guess I can look into it again today. No promises!

I'm guessing no other bugs in the forum/member tutorials has been found? (only reply if you found a bug)
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on January 28, 2010, 11:36:44 AM
Chat is partially working:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/chat (http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/chat)

Its not yet re-integrated with the forum, that might take a bit longer. And the usual bugs are still there, too ;D


I also fixed the old youtube video posts.
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: madsci1016 on January 28, 2010, 12:30:32 PM
Yay!
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Joker94 on January 29, 2010, 02:43:51 AM
awsome cant wait
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: Admin on February 08, 2010, 09:55:56 AM
Chat still isn't up yet, been occupied for days fighting loser hackers/spambots.

I installed new spam bot defense software when I changed the forum, and within 2 weeks they somehow managed to get around it.

So I installed some new software that checks against a spammer database before allowing registration. Lets see how long it takes the spammers to get around that . . .
Title: Re: important: Forum will have limited service this week
Post by: SmAsH on February 08, 2010, 03:02:59 PM
Chat is up and always has been? Im in it right now?