Sun, 29 Feb: Re-booting Forumosa.com (again)

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Sun, 29 Feb: Re-booting Forumosa.com (again)

Hi folks,

Once again, our usage of this forum combined with our many modifications to the underlying phpBB software have conspired to give our web hosting company fits. Below is what I received in my e-mail inbox, a few hours after I posted on the website that we wouldn’t have to worry about extra usage costs (click here)

[quote]DreamHost Customer Support Team" support@dreamhost.com
Date: Fri, February 6, 2004 14:22

Hello Gus,

Your site … has been causing load spikes on the server … for a few days now. I changed the php execute mode for your site … so that we may track your usage more efficiently.

Should your usage be excessive we may ask you to upgrade to a dedicated server or lower your usage to a more appropriate level for shared hosting.

Thanks![/quote]

So much for thinking we were in the clear.

After consulting Maoman and some members of the moderating team yesterday, we’ve agreed to “start over again once more”. Why “once more”? Because the move to Forumosa.com from Segue occurred around this time last year when our last webhost (http://www.bigbiz.com) couldn’t handle our server demands. It must be the colder weather keeping you indoors and online :bulb:

Some notes:

  1. we will NOT change the name
  2. we will NOT shutdown the forums (I hope)
  3. this will NOT be the last upgrade after all (explained below)

All of the modifications will be removed with the hope that this will lessen usage on the web host’s server. Only modifications specifically requested and agreed to by Maoman and the moderating team will be reinstalled. No more of my mindless experimentation. If there is a special feature that you would like to see back on the forums, you must appeal to Maoman and the crew.

In other words: no more guanxi, no more flags, no more coloring titles, no more horoscopes or birthdays. No medals, no chops, nor member profiles in mini or on steroids. No more audio announcements telling you that there’s a PM waiting for you. No more quick reply box or fancy in-forum or 24/7 searches. No amazon deep links, favorite lists, ignore lists, classified views, nor title edits. No draft messages nor forum statistics.

What you can expect to still see on 29 Feb: web banners, avatars, signatures (uh, these aren’t modifications… shh…)

Making modifications to this forum will be discouraged or put off in anticipation of the release of phpBB 2.2 (see demo). I expect an upgrade to 2.2 to happen sometime in the second half of this year.

Thank you in advance for your patience and for your support of Forumosa.com (keep on telling people who you like about Forumosa.com)

Be well,

gus.

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This is the main way I browse the forums.

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[quote=“tech admin”]All of the modifications will be removed with the hope that this will lessen usage on the web host’s server. Only modifications specifically requested and agreed to by Maoman and the moderating team will be reinstalled. No more of my mindless experimentation anymore. If there is a special feature that you would like to see back on the forums, you must appeal to Maoman and the crew.

In other words: no more guanxi, no more flags, no more coloring titles, no more horoscopes or birthdays. No medals, no chops, nor member profiles in mini or on steroids. No more audio announcements telling you that there’s a PM waiting for you. No more quick reply box or fancy 24/7 searches. No amazon deep links, favorite lists, ignore lists. No draft messages or statistics.[/quote]

Sounds good to me. You’re keeping PM functionality, aren’t you? One modification I’ll miss will be the past 24 hours’ posts button, because if there’s a glitch in my browser and I have to restart, I lose all my ‘posts since last visit’. But losing all the modifications for the moment seems like a sensible idea to me, and I would just suggest that when the time comes when you can add a few modifications again, you give that button or similar functionality priority.

A note on searches: the search function does not seem to be working very well. When I have the ‘Search for any terms or use query as entered’ radio button selected, I get a lot of unrelated results. When I have the ‘Search for all terms’ button selected, it often comes up with zero results, even when I can see the text in a post or its title. I’m not sure whether checking out the search function is something you want to consider at this stage, or whether it would be better to wait until later in the year.

Regarding donations; I don’t have a credit card so can’t use the method you described. I assume from what you’ve written before though that your basic hosting costs have already been covered. I keep meaning to place an ad. for Forumosa in the Compass magazine as you suggested before. Do you have a box ad. you could send me?

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Favorites - gone. Well, ok then, I’ll have to back them up on my explorer favorites list. Please don’t mess with the address / location of the threads. Then I’d have to look for all my favorites again.

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[quote=“Feiren”]This is the main way I browse the forums.[/quote]Eh? What do you mean – which way?

[quote=“joesax”]A note on searches: the search function does not seem to be working very well[/quote]Yeah, this is a problem, although I believed that it hasn’t been so bad of late.

When I use the search function, I try to think of at least two words to describe the term, and then I choose the Display as posts so that I can pinpoint and browse search results

Browsing the phpBB.com forum yesterday made me realize how server intensive the search function can be. For some people, a large phpBB forum has over 50,000 posts. For others, big means over 250,000. Whatever the case, a search of our forums (currently at 120,000+) is bound to be a bit taxing.

After we re-install this software at the end of this month, I will look into ways to ‘contain’ the searches, guided by what I see on the phpBB.com forums. It could mean limiting the function, which would only make it less useful.

One of the brand new modifications I intend propose to Maoman is an easier to use Knowledge Base, so that moderators can more easily guide new and less-regular members to their favorite discussions and content.

Btw, like avatars and sigs, PMing is not a modification. It is a basic function of the software.

Please lmk what I can give you for the advert on Compass. I’m thinking something really simple – like the logo at the upper right corner (doesn’t that say it all?) :slight_smile:

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[quote=“Bassman”]Favorites - gone. Well, ok then, I’ll have to back them up on my explorer favorites list. Please don’t mess with the address / location of the threads. Then I’d have to look for all my favorites again.[/quote]Right, well, ahem, that’s another thing…

… I’ve been wanting to change the /3/ into something more meaningful. I’ve even thought about moving the whole forum into the root directory so we can have a really simple forumosa.com/ as the forums URL.

I take it you would object to changing the /3 bit, wouldn’t you?

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[quote=“tech admin”]Browsing the phpBB.com forum yesterday made me realize how server intensive the search function can be. For some people, a large phpBB forum has over 50,000 posts. For others, big means over 250,000. Whatever the case, a search of our forums (currently at 120,000+) is bound to be a bit taxing.

After we re-install this software at the end of this month, I will look into ways to ‘contain’ the searches, guided by what I see on the phpBB.com forums. It could mean limiting the function, which would only make it less useful.[/quote]
Many of the discussions here are entertaining, but arguably not worth preserving for future reference. There are lots in the open forum which are just a bit of fun or friendly banter but do not contain any information which needs to be available at a later date.

Is there some way the moderators of the Open Forum could filter some posts so that not all of them are saved to go into the search database? I realise this could result in more accusations of ‘censorship’ but hopefully sense would prevail. Or, how about either having a separate ‘banter’ forum or perhaps even merging it with the flounder forum to result in a ‘banter and flounder’ forum, so that threads disappear a week or two after the last post.

I enjoy a good bit of banter as much as the next person, but I think most people would agree that, if it slows down or otherwise interferes with the search function, or creates too much load for the system or server, then it need not be preserved for all eternity.

I still say that properly compiled and edited F.A.Q.s are the way to go for accessible, useful information. They need not stick to one point of view but instead can contain divergent information, and as well as quoting from, can include links to discussion threads.
I would still consider doing a FAQ about driving laws etc., although it would take me some time to compile.

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Bassman, can I suggest that, when there is information in a thread that you want to refer to again, you save the thread onto your computer as an html or phb file? I have done that with a lot of useful threads. I can organise the information as I like, make sure I would have it even if the Forumosa server crashed and lost it, and also reduce load on the server by not demanding the same thread over and over again.
I realise it’s not appropriate all the time, but it’s worth considering sometimes.

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Shouldn’t Christine Hsu be consulted when major changes like this are contemplated? She is still with us . . . . spiritually anyway . . . . . . isn’t that right?

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Sometimes the “post since last visit” doesn’t work properly. So, if that happens and there is no “posts in last 24 hour” option there could be trouble here in Hazzard!

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

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bassman only just got his dude chop too!

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It’s better to be popular that to be told that noone is using Forumosa.

[quote]In other words: no more guanxi, no more flags, no more coloring titles, no more horoscopes or birthdays. No medals, no chops, nor member profiles in mini or on steroids. No more audio announcements telling you that there’s a PM waiting for you. No more quick reply box or fancy in-forum or 24/7 searches. No amazon deep links, favorite lists, ignore lists, classified views, nor title edits. No draft messages nor forum statistics.[/quote]I vote to have all of these return, there’s a couple of features there I don’t use, but they don’t affect my enjoyment of Forumosa either.

I need my guanxi, if I ever need to feel better about myself, I can tell myself “at least I have more guanxi than ABCGuy”, you wouldn’t deny me that pleasure, would you ?

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Do what you need to do to keep the place up-and-running without encouraging extra cost. The chops, et. al. are fun, but are not necessary. I’m glad, though, you aren’t getting rid of the signatures and avatars. I like my “not-so-quiet” mountain. :smiley:.

As for searching… I don’t know what the policy is, but I just went into the Open forum and the oldest thread in there hasn’t been posted to since June. I’d agree that often the stuff in the Open forum is often just a bit of fun and not always necessary to the survival of the species in Taiwan. So, I’d say, if it has been 3 months (at this point, back to November) and a thread hasn’t been posted in, you could probably toss it.

On the other hand, for the other forums, where the topics may be more relevant to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, give it 6 months. If, at that point, the post is in active, then scrap it. (You could do 2/4 instead of 3/6, if needed.)

The other idea (and, again, maybe you already do this kind of thing) is any thread that has, say, only 0-5 posts in it, should be dumped after a month. Maybe these are the ones that go in the Flounder Forum. I’m not sure the criteria for that (dubious) distinction.

Just my NT$2… :mrgreen:

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Might as well join Taiwan-Ho

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Of all the stuff that’s going to get tossed, the only one I really use is the ‘quick reply’. In fact I use that one all the time. (Doesn’t that prevent me doing so many page-loads, and save your conuaries?)

No more smileys either?

I agree with QM about the ‘banter’, although maybe you need a mod to wade through the entire site retrieving the few gems before you consign the manure to the garden.

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The changes we are making concern ‘how’ the forums operate, and do not concern the content (the ‘what’). She would be more interested in what we do with the content, as should anyone who has written anything on this forum (they are your words, in my opinion). I’d bet real money that Chris would support any change in the way Forumosa is run that ensures that the site runs smoothly (and indefinately)

To answer your question directly: No, she does not need to be consulted for matters like this. I believe she has her hands full anyway to be bothered with technical issues on Forumosa.com

But I do agree with you, she is definately still a big supporter of Forumosa.com :slight_smile:

The Ho! doesn’t have the critical mass of regular visitors that Forumosa.com has. Its forums are also organized differently, while Forumosa has long since adopted a policy of waiting for new forums to develop on their own.

It does have the willingness to try new things that other Taiwan-oriented sites often lack – like the cool e-postcard collection

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Will there be a run on the bank!

Poor bassman… he just recently got that dude chop he so desired.

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Guanxi gone? Damn, and I was so close to finally being able to afford a picture of a building to put on my posts. :frowning:

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waaa you mean i’m going to lose all my guanxi?
i’ve been saving for so long!
Bank Information
Balance 1987 Guanxi

:cry: