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New server and forum facilities

Printed From: Reptiles and Amphibians of the UK
Category: Website and Technical
Forum Name: Web forum
Forum Description: Announcements, news and suggestions for RAUK
URL: http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=946
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 9:17am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.06 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: New server and forum facilities
Posted By: administrator
Subject: New server and forum facilities
Date Posted: 20 Apr 2005 at 11:27am

Hi,

To our current users, if you are reading this post you have arrived at our new server. The transfer went smoothly this end, let me know if you are experiencing any problems mailto:admin@herpetofauna.co.uk - admin@herpetofauna.co.uk

Emoticons have been re-enabled so you can now punctuate your posts with these guys

Picture uploads have been enabled in most of the forums. This allows you to directly upload images from your local hard drive to your posts, saving me having to mount them. Please do try this facility before emailing pictures to me. There is a 500 Kb limit currently on uploads, pictures will need resizing to this or below before you attempt to include them in posts.

PS, welcome back!

 




Replies:
Posted By: Alan Hyde
Date Posted: 20 Apr 2005 at 1:26pm
Lookin' good


Posted By: -LAF
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2005 at 1:46pm
Nice one Gemma! Soooooo much faster now.

Lee.

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Lee Fairclough


Posted By: administrator
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2005 at 2:09pm

We have noticed the speed increase this end too since switching hosts.

We are still using the access database whilst I integrate the MS SQL version of WWF and debug it, so we should be whizzing along soon 



Posted By: Mick
Date Posted: 13 Nov 2005 at 5:45pm
At long last!,..RAUK e-Forum's back, alive'n'kickin'! For months, apart from just getting 'Closed For Maintenance', i didn't know what was going on with the site, or even if it was gonna resume at all! Being such a superb site i'm just glad it is back...Excellent! And yep!..all appears workin' fine at my end! 


Posted By: Mike
Date Posted: 14 Nov 2005 at 4:17am
Monday morning, first good frost of the year and RAUK in the inbox.  All I need now is a good coffee and a stiky bun and the week is off to a great start.

Good to see you back, hope all is well. Is the new server a follow on from earlier in the year ?, and do you still need our storage space?, no probs if you do, we have just had storage and bandwidth upped 50% so there is plenty.

Good to have you back.





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Britains smallest Country Park ? - http://www.brickfieldspark.org" rel="nofollow - Brickfields Country Park
http://www.soemtron.org" rel="nofollow - Soemtron


Posted By: -LAF
Date Posted: 07 Dec 2005 at 9:08am
Wasn't just me who couldn't get on then!

Good to be back!



Lee.

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Lee Fairclough


Posted By: Deano
Date Posted: 26 Aug 2007 at 5:57pm
HOORAH!

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Deano
Better to be lucky than good looking.


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 10 Mar 2011 at 2:54pm

I get this message a lot .....

 

 



Posted By: Suzi
Date Posted: 10 Mar 2011 at 11:01pm
Like Baby Sue I get that message a lot as well. This seems to be mainly in the evening, but not always.

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Suz


Posted By: Liz Heard
Date Posted: 23 Mar 2011 at 7:49pm
and me.

during such crises, baby sues HILARIOUS emoticon reflects my frustration perfectly!

eternally grateful to Gemma, Caleb et al for this premiere site though.
no signs of inbreeding depression on RAUK.
its as diverse as one could (presently) reasonably expect and all levels of interest/knowledge are catered for. theres plenty of fun too. love it.
its good to connect.

few tadpoles will become an adult frog and similarly, few of us herp lovers will ever have what it takes to become a herpetologist.
i dont care. we are all on the same side arent we?

ben


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 25 Mar 2011 at 10:43am

Your speech has made me all emotional Ben.



Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 28 Mar 2011 at 8:17pm
Hi Sue/Ben/Suzi ... and everyone else

I'm sorry about the error messages you and others (including me!) are getting.

There are two causes. One is simply that the popularity and consequent volume that RAUK carries is really beyond what the software is designed for. A simple solution would be to upgrade to a much more powerful database and a more modern interface. This however, would create a cost which is many orders of magnitude beyond what I currently pay - and in the current economic climate I cannot look to ARC/ARG for a further contribution. I do plan to move to a new much more powerful solution but this is a huge job.

The second reason is that over the as few months we have suffered at the hands of some of the relatively small group of sub-human morons who take delight in screwing up forums. In this case,our membership has shot up from about 2,500 to in excess of 20,000 in three months! All of these people are, basically spammers (and, of course, scum of the lowest order)

At some point over the next few days I will be closing the forum to new posts for a few hours to exterminate these people from the database.

Once again, my apologies. I will do my best to resolve.

All the best
Chris


-------------
Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)


Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 28 Mar 2011 at 10:46pm
Hi everyone

As a short term measure to try to improve things I have temporarily suspended new member registration and deleted every inactive member who has made no posts. My sincere apologies if I have inadvertently deleted anyone who I shouldn't have. This has knocked about 19,000 (non) members on the head which should help things along.

Even with this done, the underlying database at around 53Mb, together with the heavy usage means that we are pushing the capability of the current software to its limits.

As a longer term measure it is very likely that I will have to close this forum to new posts (although it will remain available to view history) and create a new forum. Unfortunately, this would need people to re-register.

I would be very grateful for any views that anyone might care to offer.

All the best
Chris


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Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 29 Mar 2011 at 9:51am

I have no suggestions only a comment: - I like this forum just the way it is, I donĘt want a new forum, I want this one, I wanna play here.



Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 29 Mar 2011 at 10:10am
Hi Sue

Believe you me, I don't want to go through the hassle either. But, new or old, I hope you will continue to play with us!

In the meantime EVERYONE PLEASE NOTE. I AM CLOSING THE FORUM TO NEW POSTS FOR A COUPLE OF HOURS.

This is so that I can compact and repair the database. Things are so bad at the moment that I can't even perform some of the Administration tasks.

All the best
Chris


-------------
Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)


Posted By: Robert V
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 8:04am
Chris,
 
I tried to PM you this morning and it says your box is full to bursting so wont send!!
 
Rob


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RobV


Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 8:34am

Whooooops!!

Who shall police the policeman?? Smile

Have another go Rob

Chris



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Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)


Posted By: AGILIS
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 10:16am
Hi Chris any chance on a increase on the amount of photos that can be uploaded, as I have found it a bit restrictive ,and keep having to delete some of my past postings that were quite informative pics. keith

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   LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID


Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 10:23am

Hi Keith

I'll look into this. The underlying problem is that we do have a restricted space on the server and I certainly can't afford to pay for more.

Have you tried hosting your photos on one of the photo hosting websites and linking to them instead?

All the best

Chris



-------------
Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)


Posted By: GemmaJF
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 2:41pm
The solution may be editing your end Rob? Many people will post files far larger than needed to the web. Fact is, the resolution isn't that great so uploaded files do not need to be huge. 

The restriction on the forum should easily allow pictures say 800 to 900 px wide to upload fine if they are reduced to a reasonable file size. I use the Photoshop facility 'save for web' which reduces the file to a reasonable size for upload. Most photo editing software has a similar facility. So first re-size the image, then check the file size and reduce as needed. It will make no different at all to the appearance on peoples browsers - other than it will load a lot faster Wink


Posted By: Madfossa
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 9:15pm
I also use the 'save for web' from photoshop elements and if you have picassa 3.9?? use the export function to resize. 
As for the registration spamming, does the forum registration use CAPTCHA software ( Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart)?
You know, the one where you have to try and decipher the jumbled letters in the box Confused and then fail miserably, try again and give up Wink
Ian


Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 9:37pm

Hi Ian

Yeap, we do use Captcha so we have reasonable immunity from automated spamming.

Sadly, there are a significant number of determined, and of course, mindless, stupid, moronic individuals who actually appear to gain some form of perverted pleasure from wasting their time filling in the registration form and posting spam - just to see it not only never authorised, but deleted and their acounts blocked.

I really, really wonder about the mentality of such individuals, and worry about the valuable oxygen they are using up (not to mention the CO2 they generate).

All the best

Chris



-------------
Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)


Posted By: Madfossa
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 9:54pm
Hi Chris

totally agree..theyre morons!!! Have you tried/maybe you already do ip logging a new user and checking against a database of existing real users? though does rely on everyone having a static ip address!!
Ian


Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 9:58pm

Yeap - already do that too!!

Keep trying - you may come up with something I haven't thought of !

What I need is 100% reliable spam-spotting software that also sends a return surge of about 20,000 volts through their computer!

Chris



-------------
Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)


Posted By: AGILIS
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2012 at 10:05pm
Perhaps some of the spammers are rspb spies bent on infiltrating the herping sites so they can claim them for their feathered friends keith

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   LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID


Posted By: Madfossa
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2012 at 12:34am
Hi Chris,

An increase of 17,500 new members in 3 months appears more automated/programmed than human tbhAngry.
I know there is commercial software out there that checks against existing spammers databases, but that's more expense.... or you could introduce a small charge...not sure how well that would go down, but would provide another hoop for spammers to go through..its only an ideaEmbarrassed.
Good luckWink

Ian



Posted By: GemmaJF
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2012 at 9:29am
Trouble with a small charge is I know Keith is very tight and we would lose him and I quite like him..

.. but seriously, part of the function of RAUK is to provide info to the general public and I think a charge would put them off. 

I have noticed though Chris that we don't see so many of those types of posts, has our visibility on the web tailed-off? 

I know at one time we had links from some popular wildlife/gardening forums and these days it appears those people do not get referred here. 

A quick browse through some of the old linked sites shows that most herp question are being answered by people who appear to have little clue what they are talking about, which is a shame with the knowledge base available here.


Posted By: AGILIS
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2012 at 10:21am
Cheers Gemma     keith

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   LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID


Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2012 at 10:39am

Hi Gemma

Hmmmm ...... certainly I shall have to look at inbound links (or lack of!). Probably also time to look at a sitemap.xml (I could have sworn we had one but certainly can't find it anywhere.

We are still right up the top of SE rankings for searches under UK species names but, of course, many people don't know their names!

THere are also a couple of specialist herptile keeping forums. I was considering asking if they would like to exchange links so that we could send captive questions to a more appropriate place. They have sections re native species but the content is often sheer drivel. My reluctance to do so is that even their content re captive animals often contains drivel. There are too many 14 year old 'experts' who have kept a Beardie or a Corn Snake!

Anyway, something else I need to manufacture the time to look into! (How did I ever find time to work?) Smile

Perhaps this is an ideal opportunity to remind people. Although I get some financial support from ARC and ARG, I am still significantly out of pocket in running RAUK. So, as ever, donations will always be extremely welcome.

All the best

Chris



-------------
Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)


Posted By: Iowarth
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2012 at 11:00am

And, as a really astonishing PS, just to demonstrate that they really are completely mindless idiots someone posted a spam even as I was triping the above! The content you can guess from the fact that their chosen username was 's*xchat'.

Chris



-------------
Chris Davis, Site Administrator

Co-ordinator, Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme (RETIRED)



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