russbost
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 09:49 AM |
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Site Outages
Morning all,
Chris, if you see this, please respond!
I can't help but notice that we seem to be getting more & more site outages, I doubt it's for maintenance as you wouldn't
normally do that in peak hours unless essential
Is anyone in direct contact with Chris? If so, is it a server problem, or individual "breakages" on the website or what?
I, for one, & I'm sure many more of you, really don't want to lose this site, it's such a useful resource for all things car
related & many more things besides, I've had info on house electrics, plumbing & all sorts of DIY stuff & have given advice on all
sorts of topics where I have knowledge
If there's anything any of us can do to assist with the site being kept going I'd be happy to get involved - I can't imagine the
site generates a fortune, but would have thought, properly run, it would make a small income & provide that much needed resource?
Assuming no response from Chris, does anyone know anything?
I no longer run Furore Products or Furore Cars Ltd, but would still highly recommend them for Acewell dashes, projector headlights, dominator
headlights, indicators, mirrors etc, best prices in the UK! Take a look at http://www.furoreproducts.co.uk/ or find more parts on Ebay, user names
furoreltd & furoreproducts, discounts available for LCB users.
Don't forget Stainless Steel Braided brake hoses, made to your exact requirements in any of around 16 colours.
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/furoreproducts/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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McLannahan
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 09:59 AM |
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Server Luke may be able to throw some light on it but he's not been on here for a month or so but may be kicking the backend into life?
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/members/_luke/
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nick205
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 10:01 AM |
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I've noticed the site out of action quite a bit recently. Like "russbost" I find it a fantastic resource not only for car related
stuff, but many other subjects beside. The variety of memebers and therefore experience and knowledge is excellent.
I'd also be happy to get involved if I can in helping to keep it going (I'm not an IT or website expert by any means, but will do what I
can).
ChrisW - if you see this and can tell us more ten please do.
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Mash
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 10:53 AM |
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Yes noticed quite a few outages over the last week or so.
As the guys have said, it's a really useful site, so I'd hate to loose it.
I retired from IT Servers 8 years ago, so I may be out of date, but any help I can give I am happy to.
I thought I could see light at the end of the tunnel, but it was just someone with a torch bringing me more stuff to do
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 11:29 AM |
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I've contacted Chris via email each time this happens but had no response.
I've mentioned in the past that I'd consider taking on the hosting/operation of the site if he's got too much on, I have the back
end set up for other sites and car forums I run, but I suspect Luke was brought in to do this in the background and they're just enjoying the
hellish process that is porting over 2011 forum software and databases to 2021 kit. I took a brief look into it and it looked like it would need at
least passing through an intermediate conversion stage, and that's assuming he's not made any major back end code mods to the forum
software (which I suspect he has too, for improvements).
The last forum I took on like this was for my favourite tin-top, it took the best part of a week of evenings to do all the dry runs and conversions to
ensure it didn't fall over and lose the old data.
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Slater
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 03:50 PM |
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This site is simply the best forum on all topics, not just our kit cars. It would be a real shame if it dies, from other responses there are obviously
a few folk who have the capacity to keep it going, so I'd ask Chris, coyoteboy, and Mash etc to keep it alive somehow.
Keep us informed and let the rest of us know if there is anything we can do to help.
Godspeed gentlemen
Why do they call Port Harcourt "The Garden City"?...... Becauase they can't spell Stramash.
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computid
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 06:07 PM |
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Hi Guys,
As I posted in the last thread, I speak to Chris frequently, he is just a very busy man these days and when the site goes down he gets to it when he
can. Rest assured that I look on here almost daily and let him know if there are any major issues.
Cheers
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Irony
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 06:16 PM |
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It actually makes me sad that this site is no longer as frequented as it was 10 years ago. I am a member of several facebook kit car groups and they
are just horrid. Topics are none existent, searching for answers is impossible. It makes me mad when I see them busy.
This site got me into cars, helped me decide to buy a kit car and build it. The people on here helped me IVA it. I would hate to see it gone.
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 07:23 PM |
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That's unfortunately the problem with Facebook. It destroys communities while pretending to help them.
The data is lost instantly.
No-one scrolls more than a page before asking the same question.
People want answers instantly with no effort.
Groups get spammed to death.
People get snarky and nasty.
There's no context for advice.
We started one for my other forum and the forum traffic went from thousands of hits per day to tens a week, and the facebook group is just a shell of
thing with random folk selling spares. Same thing happened to pug306.net, it's dead and the facebook group is garbage.
@computid - I know you said that last time, and it's great that he keeps it up as best he can while busy, but I can't help thinking
it's doing it a disservice to not keep it up to date, maintained and publicised. 
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steve m
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 08:10 PM |
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This is an irrelevant post, but the traffic on this site, (and a site i have been on since pretty well the start,) is now minimal
There was 11 users signed on earlier, and this is a world wide site ? 11 ? thats pathetic
We used to get 50 min, and more like 200 signed in every day, and then theres the lurkers the forum page used to be like the football teleprinter!
Now take this further, another site i frequent, is a second class football club in South London, and im a life long supporter
in one day its had 23,000 hits, and in one day on one forum post had 360 replies
Maybe this site has seen its day, shame as its one of my go to pages every day
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at
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steve m
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 09:50 PM |
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Also, to put the above in perspective
Since 2015 tonight, on my other site we had 65 Reponses to the Mars landing tonight, and thats from a football club !!
this site who are supposed to be mechanically minded ZERO
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at
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ianhurley20
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 10:25 PM |
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Most of the outages I have experienced seem to be from too many people trying to access the site at the same time - as I write this it says - There
are currently 164 Guests and 7 Members browsing LocostBuilders - which says there are probably too many who seek to view the site who are not logged
in as members and when the outages happen probably a greater number . hmmm - probably Covid boredom is really the problem
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 18/2/21 at 10:44 PM |
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That's a relatively tiny number, and likely a lot of bots crawling it to index the pages.
I think the problems are more fundamental, but it's really not possible to be sure unless you're at the far end of the connection looking
at the back end.
It's really not easy running a forum like this and keeping it running smoothly for everyone, but it's worth it when your users enjoy it
and contribute so much as folk on here do.
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nick205
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| posted on 19/2/21 at 09:18 AM |
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As well as site outages I'd like to re-highlight the issues of being able to add images to the site.
Most of us like to illustrate what we've been up to or answer peoples questions with images showing what to do. If we can't upload images
to this site and then show them in posts it makes the above very difficult. I know there are paid for hosting services, but that was always a real
benefit of LCB to be able to add images for free.
I appreciate this may also be down out of date "forum software" and "server capacity". If so is a small forum membership
charge appropriate to help fund updating the forum?
Don't shoot me down - I'm just putting an idea out there!
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steve m
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| posted on 19/2/21 at 09:59 AM |
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Fair comments from Nick, and i tried to add a photo only a few days ago, and gave up !
and the search facility is dreadful, but i presume this Forum is running on very old software, hence its clunky format,
My other site, that i mentioned, which has an incredible amount of traffic daily, is a Crystal Palace site, and yes i do support the Eagles, sorry
!!
I was on there earlier, and you HAVE to sign in to view the forum, so that would discount any bots or spurious figures, it also has a counter for how
many are viewing each segment, and just a rough count was 170 people at one time (0905)
This has been mentioned many times before, but perhaps there should be a limit of what can be viewed, on here, as a free site, and not signed in
but once joined, and paid a min of £5.00 you then have access to all of the site
If we can raise the money, perhaps this funding will bring the site more up to date
It would be a real shame if we lose it, as its one of many sites i frequent daily, and although my locost went nearly 18months ago, i still find some
interesting stuff that can be discussed
steve
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 19/2/21 at 11:26 AM |
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The thing is we're all problem solving without any point, if Chris doesn't have time to do this and doesn't have someone else on the
team to help, sinking cash into it won't help, and this thread is likely to just frustrate and upset him more - I'm sure he doesn't
want the site to fall over.
From experience, charging for site access cripples a sites membership (even when that includes other benefits like discounts on events) and
that's probably why Chris has logically made it donation based and has adverts up. A decent site can self-support it's back end costs
(minus staff) by small adverts (not google ads) no problem at all. It's the time and effort required by the owner that is expensive in terms of
personal life and balance against paying work. In any case, you also need to ensure the back catalogue of posts and images are maintained, and the
further you get from current software, the more of a gulf that becomes.
It's all a bit of a pickle, I hope it gets resolved soon before it's too late.
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steve m
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| posted on 19/2/21 at 10:23 PM |
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Just as a comparison, and i cant see how many are viewing the site right now, but on my other site (CP) its varying fro 440 -540 ish a miniute
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at
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Johneturbo
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| posted on 20/2/21 at 12:31 PM |
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Guys is the search down also
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 20/2/21 at 01:33 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Johneturbo
Guys is the search down also
Yep
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Johneturbo
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| posted on 20/2/21 at 02:15 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by coyoteboy
That's unfortunately the problem with Facebook. It destroys communities while pretending to help them.
The data is lost instantly.
No-one scrolls more than a page before asking the same question.
People want answers instantly with no effort.
Groups get spammed to death.
People get snarky and nasty.
There's no context for advice.
We started one for my other forum and the forum traffic went from thousands of hits per day to tens a week, and the facebook group is just a shell of
thing with random folk selling spares. Same thing happened to pug306.net, it's dead and the facebook group is garbage.
@computid - I know you said that last time, and it's great that he keeps it up as best he can while busy, but I can't help thinking
it's doing it a disservice to not keep it up to date, maintained and publicised.
I know MNR was one of the first to go over to Facebook a few years ago, so the MNR section on here just died Then the MNR Facebook club went paid
only. So I set up the MNR owners Facebook group which is a free group, so better than nothing. But I'd always come over here if I needed some
info on something
Without this site, I don't know if I'd have been able to build my car
[Edited on 20/2/21 by Johneturbo]
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