Planned maintenance - Forum temporarily closed Thu 07/08/2014

Admin

You there; behave!
Staff member
Hello there, my beloved Forumites. :)

Since opening our doors in 2006, Stafford Forum has gone from strength to strength. It has grown from a handful of friends arguing over who is best, Ali's or Al Karim's, to over 2500 members (and we still haven't found an answer to that question, I dare say), and is growing bigger every day.

The Forum has seen a few face-lifts in that time, but we've always resided on the same host (i.e. the people who actually store all this timeless, indispensable information and deliver it to you via the series of tubes that is The Internet). Well, that's about to change.

Our current host is based in America. This had various benefits in the early days, but now that Stafford Forum is a well-established, fully-fledged service, used by thousands of people and serving up nearly half a million pages every single month, it's time for me to think seriously about the future and the direction that we want Stafford Forum to take.

First things first. I have chosen to move the entire operation to a UK-based host. This means that, on the rare occasions that we have server trouble, at least our host will be operating similar hours to the rest of us. In the past, if something went belly-up at 09:00 then we were pretty much up the creek, because it would be 04:00 where The Forum server was located, and so the staff wouldn't be around to even be made aware that there was a problem, let alone deal with it. That's not to criticise them - they have been very helpful in the past when I have needed them - but at the end of the day, when there is a 5-hour time difference and over 3000 miles separating you, there are limits to what one can achieve!

In addition to being UK-based, the new host specialises in hosting forums such as this one, and they certainly seem to know their onions - so hopefully they will be able to optimise the back-end and generally help to make this a more efficient place. All of this means that The Forum should be faster for everyone, with fewer errors and less odd behaviour.

This is a big operation. Files have to be backed up, databases cleaned up & migrated, nameservers changed, someone needs to hack the Gibson, etc. I have done most of this behind the scenes, but we are in the final stages now, which means downtime.

Yes, my dearest Forumites, when you check Stafford Forum tomorrow morning, Thursday 7th August 2014, you may find a message saying we are CLOSED. Do not fear, however - 'tis but a temporary measure! I just need to take everything offline to perform the final migration, do a few health checks, etc. It should only take an hour or so, all being well, so please keep checking back throughout the morning.

Don't expect any cosmetic or functional changes - this is a big enough job on its own - so if when The Forum comes back online (gulp) it should look and work exactly as it does now.

However, the motivation for all of this is to lay the groundwork for more changes to come. Onwards and upwards, as they say, but one thing at a time, eh? ;)

Your ever faithful and benevolent overseer,

Admin.

:stafford:
 

Jade-clothing

Well-Known Forumite
We''l need a thread called SFWS (Stafford forum withdrawal symptoms) when it comes back. I'm not sure I'll be able to cope with not having a quick look before work. Good luck Admin - fingers crossed the downtime won't be too long.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
We've been through this before - we can do it again.


less odd behaviour.

You've not noticed that Marwood is back..?


We''l need a thread called SFWS (Stafford forum withdrawal symptoms) when it comes back. I'm not sure I'll be able to cope with not having a quick look before work. Good luck Admin - fingers crossed the downtime won't be too long.
A title search for 'downtime' will produce a few previous periods of quietude, e.g.

http://www.staffordforum.com/xf/index.php?threads/the-great-downtime-incident-of-january-2010.3618/
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
We''l need a thread called SFWS (Stafford forum withdrawal symptoms) when it comes back. I'm not sure I'll be able to cope with not having a quick look before work. Good luck Admin - fingers crossed the downtime won't be too long.
You'll just have to get up earlier Jade! :)
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Have you got wmr on speed dial (just in case) :shifty:

I was having "issues" at the weekend and took it up to Wmr's - not only did it just stop happening and has been OK since, but I also found a hundred quid stashed under it, that I have no recollection of putting there......
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Will we have to sign back in?

Mmmm, good point - some of us can remember our passwords....

The omnipotent one says that people shouldn't have to log back in and there is a rather obvious, "I've forgotten my password" link....
 

Floss

Well-Known Forumite
Mmmm, good point - some of us can remember our passwords....

The omnipotent one says that people shouldn't have to log back in and there is a rather obvious, "I've forgotten my password" link....

I'm rattling my brain and I can't remember mine! That's Tonight's bedtime challenge sorted, beats counting sheep!
 
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