Maintenance

[Nettlejuice]

@Carl Thank you for the link, I don't know why I didn't try that. Now I seem to have run into another problem, clicking the icon/emoji buttons doesn't do anything so I have to manually type it. It's not a problem with emojis as they're easy to do but when posting my story I like the convenience of bold/italics and text size and I'm far too lazy to type all that up for each paragraph. Is anyone else having this same problem? (Both Chrome and MS Edge).

[simfulicious]

The hyperlink button doesn't work for me.  Since I blog my story, that's the only button I've used...I've been doing manually for a couple days, it worked before that.

[Carl]

@Nettlejuice @simfulicious Thanks for reporting it! I knew this module might not play nice with everything, but it's seemingly fixed without having to remove all functions!

_{at least I think so}

I know how to fix it if it comes back, I'd just prefer to leave the rest of the functions working for the forum. Let me know and I'll knock it out ASAP. 

[Nettlejuice]

@Carl It's working again, thank you

[Carl]

Based on traffic it doesn't look like anyone's having any trouble accessing now. In fact, it would seem for people with slower internet that maybe they're able to use the site better? Anyone having experiences like that?

All of our in-house images are optimized now and should deliver much faster. For average internet, the pages on the guides load instantly as they are about 10% the size of normal

I know some people are on DSL and even satellite which is not very fast, so it should make it much more usable.

Before this move, sometimes I saw things like, "waiting for carls-sims-4-guide.com" which was frustrating. Hopefully that is a thing of the past!

[oshizu]

@Carl
Thank you for all the time and effort you spent making the guide and forum faster to load for everyone!

I have one little request. These past two times, I missed reading your Maintenance post in advance and didn't know what was going on. I hesitated to email you, thinking you must be getting dozens of emails.
Would it be possible to dedicate a very small box in your guide (bottom of the Home page) where we could go for mini-announcements when the forum is down.
Like: Forum will be inaccessible between xx and xx EST for maintenance.
or     If xxx, clear your browser cache like this (like to other website).

Or maybe someone has a better idea?

[MrsFlynn]

If I may add onto Oshizu's idea and have important guide/forum announcements put somewhere easily readable for when there is maintenance or something of the sort going on and a contact email address if we're having trouble accessing guide/forum. -- This way stuff like this won't be missed.

** Is there may be an error page that can be put up that allows you to put a message and email on it?

@Carl
Thank you for all the time and effort you spent making the guide and forum faster to load for everyone!

I have one little request. These past two times, I missed reading your Maintenance post in advance and didn't know what was going on. I hesitated to email you, thinking you must be getting dozens of emails.
Would it be possible to dedicate a very small box in your guide (bottom of the Home page) where we could go for mini-announcements when the forum is down.
Like: Forum will be inaccessible between xx and xx EST for maintenance.
or     If xxx, clear your browser cache like this (like to other website).

Or maybe someone has a better idea?

[Carl]

For just a fast answer - Now that the main work is done I'll make a VERY basic black and white page that displays contact info and can be updated if I have to do some form of critical maintenance. it'll be a catch-all page for when a person encounters an error of any kind, so they can either tell me or know I'm aware it's happening and working on it. Should have that done Soon^TM 

When you change the address, it takes 24-72 hours even if you nail everything (which I did not), but is why you shouldn't move a site very often. Your local providers need to know where ours is located.

@oshizu I don't mind to be emailed in those circumstances, at all. I will get to them when I can and wouldn't let it stress me. I can certainly drop someone a line while some other task is completing. Actually, no one emailed me during the move or messaged me on facebook. I'm sure at least a few people here thought the same thing or at least saw the warning message, as one day I got about 30 emails when we had totally unexpected problems

@MrsFlynn You're definitely on the right track, but an error message can only work when the server is 100% working unless you have a second server that can act as a go-between. Not something I'll do for now since I'd have to change the address again :O

I have a checklist of small fixes I need to make sometime. Since I plan to add a bit of power for summer, I will likely do it that same day (~May 30). I have everything I need to do already typed out so I can minimize the time it'll take, and will practice the changes on a copy of the server. For something like 15-20 minutes it'll be unreachable.

Shouldn't have had these kinds of troubles though. Normal maintenance: yes, but actual relocations: no. I can see how it'd sure seem like it given I did 4 major changes this year alone, but the first 3 were basically me coming to my wits' end and finally leaving the old company for overcharging for poor service and jut not meeting our needs.

I had been upset for some time that I basically didn't have time to write any more from having to do these types of things due to that bad company. Every time I optimized it was off from what it was supposed to be capable of doing   I'm lucky people read enough to even need a decent server. Once I recover I can get back to doing the part of my job I like to do! It's a huge relief.

[Carl]

I have fixed some more broken links. The other day the past world rankings for the challenge tournament couldn't be found. The new server doesn't support the way the old one wrote them.

If you get a not found or 500 error when you click a link here report it to me and I can fix it fairly fast

[Carl]

Squashed some more config issues I found. Going to confirm everything is configured properly to survive a crash, so will reboot around 10:30AM which will take likely 2-3 minutes

[oshizu]

Carl, you are our hero!!!

[Carl]

You're too kind really  While it was off I added the extras I wanted, I will wait until fall to do the other 15-minute maintenance so that I don't have to shut it down again. We're ready for summer, hopefully some Sims addons and new members!

[Shewolf13]

I actually haven't been near a computer much the last few days, but thought I'd drop a line here: to echo @oshizu you are awesome, @Carl ! Thank you for all you do. Site is running beautifully, even on mobile.

[LivvieLove]

I've noticed the changes on here @Carl and I just thought I'd say that you're super fantastic!
This forum is looking better than ever and you're doing such an amazing job of running this wonderful place. =)

[Carl]

Thanks you both. I'm very glad to hear it, yesterday was the best day in a month so it's obvious the old server was turning people away sometimes. The old server just couldn't handle the bots and people at the same time. I think it's a more noticeable issue on slower net, can't believe the horrible wifi I have loads it fast on tablets. It's wonderful that things worked out the way they did.