The recent downtime

[ainwood]

Firstly, thanks to Marv at Atomic Gamer for getting us back up and running again.

I believe that I inadvertently caused the outage, so apologies to all. I was attempting to repair database tables, and a server timeout resulted in the tables being corrupted instead of repaired. I believe Marv had to rebuild them to get things back up and running.

I was trying to make a few tweaks to improve the site performance. I have removed the forum jump menu (no one seems to have noticed... so I guess its not a must have). People have also commented on the 'mark threads as read'. The 'issue' (I won't call it a problem) that some are seeing is that I have changed the way the forums keep track of read threads from being database based to being cookie based. In short, it moves the processing away from the database to the user. This should reduce server load. I also did a couple of other things, so am interested in whether the performance improves.

Anyway - last thread was getting a bit unwieldy, so I closed it. You can use this one instead.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

The keeping track of read threads is annoying as hell and sent the forum back instead of evolving. I hope this is temporary.

The absence of the forum jump is also annoying (but less). What i don't see is how that would affect server preformance.

Also, you should try removing that blinking news thing at the top right. See if someone notices.

 

[Tee Kay]

The forum jump can go, I think. How many people actually use it anyway?

Also, the "bookmarks" feature at the bottom of this thread (the one with the Digg and StumbleUpon icons); I'm not sure how often it's actually used, but I won't miss it.

The "keeping track of read threads" and associated problems, which for lack of a better term I shall now call "malsubscription" is more annoying, and I too hope it's only a temporary measure.

I also notice the "Who's Online" feature in the main forum page is missing.

 

[Luckymoose]

We could always get rid of social groups. No one actually uses them anyway.

 

[Tee Kay]

I have one in my sig that I"m quite fond of.

And IOT, Forum Games and Stories and Tales people use them regularly.

And it's a great place to talk about certain interests in a friendly atmosphere away from trolls and haters.

 

[Maniacal]

I have removed the forum jump menu (no one seems to have noticed... so I guess its not a must have).

There are tonnes of other (and significantly less useful features, I actually did use the jump menu occasionally) that could be removed as well:

The bookmark bar right above the quick reply is completely pointless (I have never heard of del.icio.us besides in that bar).

The CFC logo on the forums because everyone already knows what website this is.

Eliminating the calender, and maybe the downloads, signatures, avatars, forum skins, unused accounts that on one has logged into in years, etc etc.

Of course, a reliable host would probably solve all of these problems anyway (problems I've yet to see elsewhere on forums that have more to them).

 

[Tee Kay]

I suggest we remove private messages and user profiles, and the Colosseum and All Other Games forums, and delete all threads that are over a month old from all the other forums. That should fix everything.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Not the PMs.

 

[azzaman333]

I suggest we remove private messages and user profiles, and the Colosseum and All Other Games forums, and delete all threads that are over a month old from all the other forums. That should fix everything.

Even better, lets delete the forums. That way, we'll never have a problem with the forums again.

 

[mayor]

The absence of the forum jump is also annoying (but less). What i don't see is how that would affect server preformance.

What is (was) the forum jump?

Also, you should try removing that blinking news thing at the top right. See if someone notices.

*checks top right of the page* well I'll be, there are blinking notifications there

Also, the "bookmarks" feature at the bottom of this thread (the one with the Digg and StumbleUpon icons); I'm not sure how often it's actually used, but I won't miss it.

I agree. I, personally, never even actual registered that it was a bookmark function.

We could always get rid of social groups. No one actually uses them anyway.

Ahum.. they are extremely valuable for forum games as IOT and IAAR's. Furthermore there are several SG's that are dedicated to modifications(I don't know whether or not they are extensively used tbh) and the Civ4 S&T group is an indispensable tool to keep the actual forum more or less free of spam.

There are tonnes of other (and significantly less useful features, I actually did use the jump menu occasionally) that could be removed as well:

The bookmark bar right above the quick reply is completely pointless (I have never heard of del.icio.us besides in that bar).

The CFC logo on the forums because everyone already knows what website this is.

Eliminating the calender, and maybe the downloads, signatures, avatars, forum skins, unused accounts that on one has logged into in years, etc etc.

Of course, a reliable host would probably solve all of these problems anyway (problems I've yet to see elsewhere on forums that have more to them).

I agree with the forum skins, unused accounts and bookmark bar.

I assume you mean the birthday calendar at the bottom of the forum with 'calendar'? In that case I don't agree. It is a nice feature that makes the forum just more... gezellig Signatures and avaters the same. They give the members the possibility to know each other just a little better.

I'm a bit in doubt about the downloads. It is off course possible to use mirrors outside of CFC but I do think the that it is a real asset to the site that it is possible to upload mods, scenarios, art and what not to the site.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

And plus if you host it off-site how do we know that they wont get screwed like Megaupload? I think we lost a few files already due to the great megaupload screw-up.

Perhaps, if not already done, look into a CDN. I dont remember exactly what it stands for but it may take some of the load off the server.

 

[hoplitejoe]

What about if all the info stuff is moved into a civfanatics.net site?

 

[Mise]

People have also commented on the 'mark threads as read'. The 'issue' (I won't call it a problem) that some are seeing is that I have changed the way the forums keep track of read threads from being database based to being cookie based. In short, it moves the processing away from the database to the user.

I'm confused as to how this works in practice. For example, when I logged in about an hour ago, all my New Subscribed Threads (in the control panel / My Account) were there, and all the "new posts" were correctly marked and highlighted across the forum. I clicked one or two of those subscribed threads; they were correctly marked as read and removed from the appropriate part of the My Account menu.

Then, I got auto-logged out (15 min inactivity) and auto-logged in again. Now, all of the threads, across all of the forum have been marked as read. Including the ones that I haven't read. I have not cleared my cookies - all that happened was I was logged out due to 15 mins of inactivity. There are no threads in the "New Subscribed Threads" part of My Account. If this is "working as intended", then it basically makes subscriptions useless. It also means that I have to trawl through pages and pages of threads just to get back to the newest posts in them. It's incredibly inconvenient.

Can you explain how it's supposed to work please?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

If you guys really care that much about "Subscribed Thread" simply use your e-mail for it.

I never even go to my subscribed thread folder, if someone makes a new post I simply get an e-mail, it's effective ya know

 

[hoplitejoe]

I check my threads via the My Account tab, I have no interest in getting about 40 emails a day (or waiting till an email saying what has been posted in).

 

[Mise]

If you guys really care that much about "Subscribed Thread" simply use your e-mail for it.

I never even go to my subscribed thread folder, if someone makes a new post I simply get an e-mail, it's effective ya know

It's not very effective if you have no access to your email.

And yeah, getting 40 emails a day from CFC is really not very effective.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

It's not very effective if you have no access to your email.

And yeah, getting 40 emails a day from CFC is really not very effective.

If you're subscribed to 40 active threads then yea. But i've been getting more or less 1 email per topic, and only sometimes more per one topic.

I dunno I was just being helpful

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

What about if all the info stuff is moved into a civfanatics.net site?

I have a feeling that may not do much. From what Ive seen the info isnt very much -- I mean compared to the forums. And its sort of static that it don't change a lot.

Personally I was thinking about splitting the Civ and Non-Civ forums into separate servers but that might be messy.

Caching for non-logged-in users (e.g. guests & searchbots) might be another solution. But I dont know if vBulletin can do that. It would reduce hits on the database. But it also uses a lot of disk space.

 

[Mise]

It sends you an email per unread thread. So if you're not logged in, it's fine - it sends you 1 email per thread, to tell you a new post has been made, with a link to that new post. But when you are logged in and actively reading the thread, it will basically send a new email for every new post someone makes, which is totally useless.

It goes like this:

1) Email gets sent, saying there's a new post.
2) I click the email, opening the thread and marking it as unread
3) Someone else posts in the thread
4) A new email gets sent, saying there's a new post
5) I open the thread, marking it as read
6) Someone else posts in the thread
7) A new email gets sent......

ad nauseum.

When you're logged in and actively browsing CFC, it spams you with a crapload of completely useless emails. It really isn't a substitute for the thread subscriptions that form part of vBulletin.

 

[Cutlass]

I've just noticed that when closing CFC, and then reopening the site, all threads that were unread when CFC was closed were marked read when it was reopened. Anyone else experienced that?