Why the site went down (also discusses future of web site)

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tanstaafl
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Why the site went down (also discusses future of web site)

Post by tanstaafl »

I had submitted a support ticket to OSL Labs. I got the following explanation why the web site went down:

I had to take the site offline due to some issues it was causing with our
database server load with other projects and didn't have time over the weekend
to look into it. I was able to look more closely this morning and noticed the
issue seems to be the fact that the phpbb_sessions table is very large and
needed to be truncated.

I went ahead and truncated the table and started the site back up. All the users
will likely need to log back in due to that truncation.


We've been running on auto-pilot with no admin for over a year. Eventually either our dedicated hardware will die, we'll lose the domain name because it wasn't renewed, or things will become untenable with our hosting provider because they're tired of dealing with a obsolete configuration with no admin that we were supposed to have moved away from to a centrally OSL managed virtual machine.

We have a potential replacement for the admin. Perhaps its time to think about forking and submitting a request to OSL Labs as a new project. We'd have to get a new domain name and its probably not feasible to migrate the existing threads (since we don't have anybody with admin privileges for this web site). The current forums would still be alive, but meant to be used just for reference.

OSL Labs is well aware that Kerz (our admin) has been unreachable for over a year but they don't appear to want to get involved. So they might be receptive to a fork as the way for us to deal with the problem.

Thoughts?
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Snake4
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Re: Why the site went down

Post by Snake4 »

yeah, fork it i think some would be happy to chip in Money or whatever to fork it. but my guess, OSL would still host it?
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DanRaisch
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Re: Why the site went down

Post by DanRaisch »

I think it would be better to have the forums, even without the previous threads being editable, rather than lose all of the benefits it's been offering users over the years. If the existing threads were made read only they would at least be accessible for reference, as the KB is now.
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malliz
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Re: Why the site went down

Post by malliz »

While I agree saving the information from the forums would be ideal a lot of it is at best of historical interest. Plus the forum is somewhat unwieldy the bug sections are really no longer relevant now the devs are basically gone and could be done away with so too the requests sections. Best thing would be to get someone willing to start fresh as none of us know how long the forums will be up for as attested to by the latest outage. The fact Kerz has left the building complicates any transition as far as the old forum is concerned as I would imagine he still as far as the the university is concerned has ownership.
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Snake4
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Re: Why the site went down

Post by Snake4 »

agree, best to start Fresh, no point having " Firefox Bugs " or the " Thunderbird Bugs "
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LIMPET235
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by LIMPET235 »

I received the same reply as tanstaafl.

Is there anyone who is willing & able to take over?

Image

Image

Here's hoping that nothing much really changes,
but agree to removing the BUGS sections.

Can the KB be reset to be able to edit it again?
Would be useful if it needed to be updated.


Stay safe.
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Snake4
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by Snake4 »

all we need is a new Domain an if OSL could Host the forum would be good. surely a new domain name dont cost much . i would stick to using PHPBB forum
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by Grumpus »

I have to agree with Dan as the loss of the solution, technical and solved threads would not be good.
Even if some appear to be outdated, which however can provide a hint for which direction to go.
Maybe a down sizing without some of the less than technical cruft. :-"
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ndebord
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by ndebord »

LIMPET235 wrote:I received the same reply as tanstaafl.

Is there anyone who is willing & able to take over?

Image

Image

Here's hoping that nothing much really changes,
but agree to removing the BUGS sections.

Can the KB be reset to be able to edit it again?
Would be useful if it needed to be updated.


Stay safe.
We have a domain with NameCheap and they have a sale. New domain name for 99cents.

As a retired couple, we can't take over anything right now, but we can help facilitate obtaining a new domain name. IF the current name (MozillaZine) is going bye bye soon, perhaps we could find out when it EOLs and grab it again? Not sure what the EDU is willing to do to help us, particularly as it seems we can't get admin password out of Kerz or the university.

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Romani
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by Romani »

Its plenty of time until mozillazine.org domain will expire
Domain Name: MOZILLAZINE.ORG
Registry Domain ID: D1964775-LROR
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namecheap.com
Registrar URL: http://www.namecheap.com
Updated Date: 2018-09-25T21:02:52Z
Creation Date: 1998-09-07T04:00:00Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2026-09-06T04:00:00Z


Also, as for "New domain name for 99cents" trick is that its NEW domain for 0.99$, for one year, all subsequent years come at full price, usually.
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ndebord
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by ndebord »

Romani wrote:Its plenty of time until mozillazine.org domain will expire
Domain Name: MOZILLAZINE.ORG
Registry Domain ID: D1964775-LROR
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namecheap.com
Registrar URL: http://www.namecheap.com
Updated Date: 2018-09-25T21:02:52Z
Creation Date: 1998-09-07T04:00:00Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2026-09-06T04:00:00Z


Also, as for "New domain name for 99cents" trick is that its NEW domain for 0.99$, for one year, all subsequent years come at full price, usually.
Romani,

Yup, should have spelled it out. Routine one year for most. When it comes up, you can and should look around for better deals or go for an extended period of time.

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periodic
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by periodic »

No kidding, there has been only one admin level account for this site for that long? And that person has been completely unreachable for a year? I ran into the The End thread just a week ago, and have been wondering what the status is a year on.

I have found this site invaluable for solving my simplistic questions. I do sometimes find answers via search but most of the time I post and get replies that help out. I would regret losing the existing threads because I have many of them bookmarked for future reference, and I do use those links. Because my use of the site is so one dimensional I don't have input on what sections would be most expendable.

Has anyone checked with phpBB to see if there is for certain no way to recover an abandoned admin level account? Or to use the database for this board as the basis for a new site?

Does anyone know who controls the domain?

If OSL isn't involved in the site, is there a benefit to asking them to host the fork?

I've never managed a phpBB site. Are there other elevated rights account here that are taking care of the routine management issues like spam? Because there doesn't seem to be a many if any junk posts. Someone is taking care of these tasks or does the site take care of itself? If the site owner has been uninvolved for a year, and the site is still in good shape, it has to mean that the admin wasn't performing any day to day heavy lifting...and we could hope that whoever is doing so would be willing to continue.

Sites do break, and without an admin there is a real risk that all of this could be gone in a flash.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by tanstaafl »

We have enough moderators, all of whom can deal with spam.

OSL provides free hosting and bandwidth and keeps the web site and wiki running, but doesn't update the software. That's the admins responsibility (among other things). He updated the forum software several times but had little interest in updating the wiki software.
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by periodic »

But what is the path forward? Unless something happens to anticipate eventual site breakage and the loss of the domain (assuming the domain admin is the same person), all of this could be gone at any time.
Absolutely no way to reach out to the original admin? No one at OSL knows who he is?
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malliz
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Re: Why the site went down (also discusses future of web sit

Post by malliz »

We know who the admin is we just cannot contact him
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