Forum problems

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Ludachris

For whatever it's worth, I reached out to Brent to see if he's open to the idea of someone else taking over the day to day operations of running ClubCobra.com. I have a server with a few other automotive forums that I own and operate and I'd be happy to take on this forum and work on bringing it into the modern era of forum architecture. It looks like the members might appreciate it.

With the ancient software that's being run here, and likely the old hardware and obsolete operating system, this forum is one good crash away from being unrecoverable. I've seen it happen.

The same offer has been made many times. And we're still here.


Virtually all of the car forums I frequent these days are on only slightly newer software. Software doesn't get old and wear out. Darabase errors are not caused by slow hardware. The software and hardware are adequate for the loads this forum gets. Every one of these outages is preceded by a flurry of database related errors. Moving to more expensive software and hardware won't fix a corrupted database.

Things get real bad and then some magic happens and are ok for a few weeks or months then the errors and hangs and timeouts start again. It would be interesting to know what is done to put the patient into momentary remission. The response time was quite crisp after it came back until the database errors started again a week or so ago and then off the air completely for a week... back again then off again. And the long pause and database error after making a post is still present not that it ever went away...

[Ludachris]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Software doesn't get old and wear out. Darabase errors are not caused by slow hardware. The software and hardware are adequate for the loads this forum gets. Every one of these outages is preceded by a flurry of database related errors. Moving to more expensive software and hardware won't fix a corrupted database.

Well, forum software does become obsolete and incompatible with newer operating systems, just like software does on a PC. Bugs don't get resolved and patches don't get applied.

Hell, the ancient versions of PHP and MySQL that has to be used in order to run forum software this old no longer gets patched for bugs or security exploits. Moving to modern forum software is necessary just to keep up with all of the PHP and operating system updates most webhosts out there are using on their servers, not to mention to keep the hackers away.

None of that matters though if Brent doesn't take action one way or another.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Ludachris

Well, forum software does become obsolete and incompatible with newer operating systems, just like software does on a PC. Bugs don't get resolved and patches don't get applied.

Hell, the ancient versions of PHP and MySQL that has to be used in order to run forum software this old no longer gets patched for bugs or security exploits. Moving to modern forum software is necessary just to keep up with all of the PHP and operating system updates most webhosts out there are using on their servers, not to mention to keep the hackers away.

None of that matters though if Brent doesn't take action one way or another.

After 50 some years dealing with software I can tell you that software and hardware running an application do not have an expiration date. There is a DEC VAX system that I helped support in the 70's still running their original application.

This site has had several server changes over the past couple of years. Bigger faster better did nothing since the gas sucks. In its heyday this forum supported easily 2 to 5 times as many active users as any time you see now, and it served them with virtually no latency. Server speed is not the issue.

The problem here is not hardware and the forum software, it's the database. Not the database software but the database itself. Garbage in, garbage out. Figure out how to make the database errors go away and the site will function as it did before.

Security and hackers welcome. Have been for over a decade. Has never been a secure site. Heck, it pre-dates the notion of secure links. Nothing to take. Spammers come and go.

PS. I used to be a follower of the "latest and greatest" software releases. I was a VMS junkie and was one of the first internal (I worked at DEC) test sites for the pre-customer betas. I followed the MAC OS through the end of the Power PC at which time none of my embedded systems development tools ran on the MAC and chip tools only ran on Windows. I stopped chasing Windows. I have two rock solid Thinkpads still running Windows 7 and a thrid (this one) running Windows 10. I did run Windows 8 and later betas while we were developing the USB3 infrastructure. They should have been ashamed of themselves. Releases would fix one set of bugs and then break something else.

Now I'll wait for the database error after I submit reply.

[Ludachris]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

The problem here is not hardware and the forum software, it's the database. Not the database software but the database itself. Garbage in, garbage out. Figure out how to make the database errors go away and the site will function as it did before.

Having dealt with vB 3.8 for many years, way back when it was coming to the end of it's supported life, I remember dealing with plenty of db errors. As did other forum owners I know who moved on from that version of the software long ago. The script tends to error out when it uses up too many resources - could be a result of one of the customizations, poor code, db issues, other sites on the same server, etc. ClubHotRod runs a pretty buggy version of vB with 4.2. Could easily be issues with both sites if they're running on the same server, as mrmustang pointed out.

Let's see if this reply goes through... I'm copying it just in case. I hope Brent gets it worked out, or hands it off to someone willing to do the work required.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Ludachris

Let's see if this reply goes through... I'm copying it just in case. I hope Brent gets it worked out, or hands it off to someone willing to do the work required.

I too copy my post before submitting, but in every case that generates the database memory allocation error the post happens and the error is generated while the forum software is on its way back to refresh the thread to display the new post. Sometimes I get a page that says something about being redirected but it's only a couple of times. Normally forums reopen the thread with the new post at the end...