We now have threads that won't show a new poster, we have threads, that won't show posts, new threads have to be made. This is becoming a real problem, and out of the dozens of message boards I am a part of, none of them have 1/100th of these problems. The bumping pages is only better since most of us are adjusting the page in the address bar before bumping, but this is a lot of work, for things other free message boards do well. I won't even mention that they host avatars on site, and have a private messaging system.
This is getting tiresome
(34 posts) (8 voices)-
Aaron--any clue whether this is a software issue or a database problem?
--M. J. Young
Sun Dec 5 2010 6:15 pm # -
I haven't a clue what's causing it. I'll try to do some research tomorrow. Maybe I can also update to a newer, pre-release version of the software and see if that fixes it.
Mon Dec 6 2010 1:29 am # -
But, really, if bbpress is turning out to be too much of a problem -- and I recognize that the development on it has pretty much stalled, which I can't do anything about -- I'm happy enough to make a switch to a different forum package. I don't see any other options.
Mon Dec 6 2010 1:33 am # -
I certainly don't want to give you a lot of extra work, and I have some concerns--in fact most of my concerns--related to the accessibility of current and archived threads. I'll make a couple of side points, though.
- I shrug at avatars--obviously they're nice but I don't use them. Private messaging has some advantages but I've only missed it once or twice.
- I've used SMF and it's simple and customizable, but I think it's become popular enough that it's a target for hackers so that might be a downside. Also, I don't know how much support it has. If I were doing it, I would probably use that, mostly because it's pretty user-friendly.
- I think one of the big arguments favoring BBPress is supposed to be that it integrates with the articles side; but there are a lot of glitches in that supposed integration.
- The issues right now are concerned with the facts that we get a lot of database errors--either posts do not go through or (much more commonly) posts do go through but do not load the page, and that it often happens that posts made to a thread will be recorded in the database but won't register the additional page necessary to display them, so the second-to-last page will appear as the last page until several new posts have been made. That's one reason why I wondered if it might be a database problem--our usage has been rising tremendously over the past year or so, and the problem has been intensifying with the increased usage.
In any case, I greatly appreciate your efforts to maintain the forum here, as well as the articles and blogs.
Thanks.
--M. J. Young
Tue Dec 7 2010 3:32 am # -
Glantri
MemberSo I just had a decent amount of trouble posting to my game thread, which I find disturbing on a couple of levels as it shows the downward spiral present.
Until this point threads that have been having issues that I've noticed have either been:
1. Threads that are already multiple pages long
2. Threads where the posters are replying rapidlyAs opposed to my game thread with MJ that just transfered to it's second page and that gets 2 posts a day, one from MJ one from myself.
Furthermore I gave let it rest overnight in hopes it would generate it's second page without a bump. No luck. When attempting to bump it, I got the error saying it didn't go through. I then checked by bringing up the main screen which said it hadn't gone through. I then go back and send it again to see that it has now gone through twice.
I'm not saying that this is more frustrating because it happens to my thread, I'm just pointing out the conditions it happens under make me think it's just gotten another step worse, especially since those are the conditions a new player is often under.
Wed Dec 8 2010 12:46 pm # -
JTM
MemberIt's possible. I just checked the total number of posts, and it's a thousand or so above the nearest power of two. The number could still be stored in two bytes, but the database might use the last bit for something important in the index of posts. Archiving some threads is at least worth a shot.
The database might also need to be rearranged, otherwise it'll either solve nothing or risk overwriting old posts at some point. Ideally, the system already does that automatically when posts are removed.
Wed Dec 8 2010 8:35 pm # -
This tickles the back of my mind, really. On the one hand, we have not had the Gaming Outpost forum this active for years--at least one and maybe two software versions ago. On the other hand, as compared with other forums on the web, this doesn't strike me as all that busy--there are forums at which I would have trouble even finding all the new posts in a day. I would be surprised if we have more than twenty regular users generating more than a hundred posts per day, which as compared with the big sites is probably nothing.
Of course, that's me abstracting. I haven't done database work since I was creating matrices on a C64, and only briefly worked with forum software a couple years back in a user-friendly package that installed itself. So I don't really have any concrete understanding.
--M. J. Young
Thu Dec 9 2010 3:53 am # -
For what it's worth, I got through tonight without a single error. I don't know whether that was random or whether Aaron upgraded something.
--M. J. Young
Thu Dec 9 2010 3:59 am # -
Random, I'd say, though I do concur that today I've seen fewer errors than I have in the past;
The last few days, I've also ben posting less frequently, and as I was easily posting the most frequently there for a few weeks, the two facts may actually have some sort of relation.
I'm still not buying into the hypothesis that increased traffic on the boards is causing glitches, though. Making glitches more apparent, perhaps, but not actually causing them.
Thu Dec 9 2010 4:03 am # -
Yeah, it was worse today--I got several errors.
--M. J. Young
Fri Dec 10 2010 4:38 am # -
I've been thinking about this for a while now and here's where I'm at:
I should say I'm not at all sure what the best way to handle this is. If the database is messed up (and that's what it sounds like), then fixing it would be (1) hugely time consuming and (2) outside of my expertise. Jacob *might* be able to address (2), but he's got a full time job and a toddler at home. I, too, have a full time job and a toddler and very little time. One of the main reasons we switched to the Wordpress/bbPress combo in the first place was to limit the amount of software development and maintenance Jacob and I have to do in regard to GO. It was that or shut it down, really. We keep it open because we want to support the community you guys have going here -- and because we're just fond of it.
Now, on to solutions. It's clear that bbPress isn't working. It could work in the future but, unfortunately, development on it seems to have stalled and so we can't count on those developers to fix it. The Wordpress portion of the site, on the other hand, appears to work just fine and Wordpress is under very active development.
One option, then, is to switch to using the Wordpress side exclusively. You guys could start your threads as posts and have replies be comments. It'd work, but it's not ideal. Another option is to install the BuddyPress plugin into Wordpress. I'd encourage you to browse around that plugin's site at http://www.buddypress.org. It's a system -- under active development -- for turning Wordpress into a community site. It supports groups and private messages and blogs and forums. Everything we'd need. It's in fact already installed on GO. I just haven't turned it on. So that might work.
Another option is to switch systems. We could find a different forum software entirely, install it, and just have it not integrated with the Wordpress front end. If people want to do that, I'm open to suggestions about what software to use.
The issue will be importing the existing messages into the new system. Some packages may have bbpress importers. Others won't.
Please give me your reactions to the above. I'd like to figure out a way to keep GO moving forward in a way that works for all of you. But I can't do that if it means a bunch of coding and database hackery.
Fri Dec 10 2010 4:43 pm # -
JTM
MemberI've had good experience with forums hosted on Invisionfree.
Switching over to just using the wordpress is probably not a good idea. Buddypress would be worth a shot.
If you can keep the forums hosted in their present state, it wouldn't matter terribly much to me if they couldn't be imported. People could just start new game and random chat threads. I don't know how other people would feel about doing that, though.
Fri Dec 10 2010 4:53 pm # -
MJ is very averse to losing the old game threads, and remains a champion of the archives we currently have (lots of good stories in there).
I concur that the BuddyPress sounds like it would be the best option; it seems that it wouldn't be a crazy amount of work, and that it would be a step up from the current system we're working under --
I imagine any solution which will lose the current threads altogether rather than archiving them will be met with firm opposition.
Fri Dec 10 2010 6:11 pm # -
"Why would Dave Thomas have an email iamgod@eudoramail.com?"
"It's actually an inside joke, GOD stands for Good Old Dave"
hahahaha, lots of good stories in those archives.
Fri Dec 10 2010 7:15 pm # -
I see no reason why the current forums and the archives would go away, no matter what route we take. I can always put a link to them somewhere and perhaps turn off the ability to make new posts.
Fri Dec 10 2010 7:19 pm # -
Since it looks like I can turn on BuddyPress without messing up any of the existing content (and then turn if off again if it turns out to not be the best solution), I'll try to do that next week when I have a little more time. We can then leave it running for a few days, give all of you an opportunity to play with it, and then decide if we want to keep it or not.
Fri Dec 10 2010 9:10 pm # -
Go here and poke around:
It has quite a lot of cool stuff. And that site is running BuddyPress, too.
Fri Dec 10 2010 10:14 pm # -
Glantri
MemberIs it possible to have shade differences to keep posts easier to look at? I don't know how to describe that succinctly, but I'm talking about how every other post we have is lightly grey in the background.
Looking at the community section they all have a plain white background which is just slightly painful to look at if reading a number of posts in a row.
I know it's small but if we're making a switch it might be easier to implement that from the get go than wait until later.
Fri Dec 10 2010 10:54 pm # -
Sounds good.
--M. J. Young
Sat Dec 11 2010 11:56 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberSpeaking of "Dave Thomas of Wendy's" I remember you saying that you couldn't use quotes in the promotions because you couldn't prove that it was really him. Actually, you could. The screen name is "Dave Thomas of Wendy's" You credit the quotes to that name. Credit quotes to "JohnA1nut" Credit quotes to "JohnOsevens". You're quoting an unknown source, and referring to them by screen name as it was the only ID you had for them. The burden to prove it wasn't Dave Thomas would be on the person who accused you of something. Besides, maybe Wendy will come forward and tell the world how her father loved playing the game with you. (I met her once) If Wendy could verify it, that would make your day. You would never actually be claiming it was The Dave Thomas of Wendy's, you're just identifying an unknown poster by screen name. That would work, wouldn't it?
I can honestly say that I know James Dean, Bruce Willis and Marylin Monroe. James and Bruce were guys I worked with, and I went to school with a girl named Marylin Monroe.
(Doing Therapy)
Sun Dec 12 2010 4:43 am # -
It would be misleading to do so; I could liken it to selling one core rulebook and saying "This is everything you need to play" and then releasing fifteen supplements and saying "Well, these aren't necessary, but without them you probably won't understand the first one well enough to run it officially"
We at Valdron, Inc have always prided ourselves on our clean, straightforward marketing techniques
Sun Dec 12 2010 7:26 pm # -
Besides, there's a good chance that "Dave Thomas of Wendy's" is a violation of their service marks. It's one thing if a poster uses the name, but entirely another if we represent that this is The Dave Thomas people would know.
--M. J. Young
Sun Dec 12 2010 11:29 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberTwo
MJ, I've been told two things about Big Business.
1) There's no such thing as bad publicity
2) You can slander someone all you want, as long as you put the word "Allegedly" somewhere in the sentence.Your advertisements. "Dave Thomas of Wendy's allegedly said this about the Multiverser game system." You claim you've got enough evidence to support this could really be him. It's fair to allege that it really was Dave Thomas. One of two things would happen.
1) It would be verified to not be Dave Thomas. You didn't break any laws, and Multiverser just got coast to coast media coverage.
2) It is verified to be Dave Thomas, and Gaming Outpost is declared a historical landmark.There's ways to use it in advertising. "You're just not thinking fourth dimensionally."
(Doing Therapy)
Mon Dec 13 2010 3:29 am #
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