BACK UP! 15th September 2011

[Lou_Rulz]

Been busy last few days so only logged on today and realised what had happened. It's unfortunate but it is good the board is back even if we have gone back in time a little

 

Nice work Sal and Gaynor

 

 

[sophie123]

Thanks Sal and Gaynor a shame about losing posts but great about getting it back up

[KiKi]

A HUGE thank you to Gaynor and Sal (in no particular order!!) for sorting this out.

 

Have a dodgy hug:

 

Mim xx

[Rubyat]

May I make a suggestion? What I believe is your home page still came up, would it have been possible to put a short message on there to briefly say what had happened?

 

There's a Twitter page and a Livejournal page that I was updating, but although the main page was available, it wasn't accessible from the back end of the site (I.e. I couldn't change it).

 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/neighboursfans

 

(Maybe we should think about making the name of the lj page a bit more obvious...)

Good idea, and perhaps you could put a link to it on the main page; together with (as I've only just found out) a link to this unlocked forum where struggling potential members can find some help.

Edited September 16, 2011 by Rubyat

[JA_]

Yay for you being able to access the board again Alex. Perhaps the ban thing comes from that time ages ago when you asked to be banned to get uni work done?

[Mrs Clog]

In fairness, rubyat, there was no way of predicting the length of time the board was going to be down for, due to miscommunication from the hosts. Infact, since I've been a member here, downtime that long has never occurred and any downtime has been announced by Sal prior to it happening with plenty of warning and explanation. Perhaps if we'd known then a way of telling members might have been created, but it was very much a play it by ear and trying to resolve the issues

 

It's unlikely (fingers crossed) to occur again without prior warning or notice to everyone, and I think you'll agree we're all just grateful that it's back and working thanks to some very hard work and long nights from Sayaka and Sal

[Col]

I wasn't aware that this was the 'Tell Sal how to run her board thread'

[Hawker]

I recognise that in an odd sort of way, it's a compliment that you like the board so much that you were anxious about its return...but honestly, this sort of thing isn't usual. It isn't standard practice. We don't go offline for long periods of time without prior warning; and we certainly don't delete accounts or have to send information out or update other websites with information about what's happening here.

 

You omitted the part of my post where I explained three things, but evidently I wasn't clear enough...so I will try again:

 

1) I was not at home.

 

My house is where my computer is. I have a desktop; not a laptop. For most of the downtime, I was borrowing a friend's computer, or I was on my mobile phone. I don't know if you've ever attempted to use ftp (whilst incredibly stressed) on a mobile phone, but I'd be interested to see how successful you are(!)

 

2) I was on holiday.

 

Not too much to elaborate on....I wasn't lying around on the sofa, in my pants, stuffing my face full of crisps and laughing at how the site was down. I have had an incredibly full week, where from Monday through to Friday I have been seeing different people, sleeping in different houses and visiting different counties. So whilst it's difficult enough to bring a site back to life via a mobile phone...it's IMPOSSIBLE when you're in the company of other people when you're attempting to either enjoy their company or sort important things in your life out.

 

3) The site was TOTALLY smegged.

 

This wasn't a tiny problem. It wasn't a blip. It wasn't a small error which required me to tick a few boxes, upload a few files and wave a magic wand. You have absolutely no idea of the scale of the problem, and every spare moment I had was spent on looking at how to mend the site. My efforts were 100% focused on getting as much of the site back as quickly as possible. The frontpage wasn't accessible for a certain amount of time - and I was locked out of editing it for another lengthy period of time, so some of what you are suggesting wasn't possible at the time.

 

If there's a planned outage (ironically, I was planning to upgrade the forum this weekend but there's no way we're doing that for a while now! ), all of the information about how to find out our progress (e.g. Livejournal, Twitter etc) is reiterated and a schedule of what to expect when is posted. Unplanned outages - especially for any length of time - just don't happen under ordinary circumstances.

 

As a consequence, it's pointless having a link on the frontpage which directs people AWAY from the forums (which is what having the Twitter link on there would do). I think you're mistaking this for something that's a regular occurrence, when this is anything but.

 

I don't mean to be grumpy, but I don't think you quite realise what a stressful week this has been.

[Tracy C]

Sal

[Sayaka]

Well quite, and I may not have a job anymore if anyone checks the work internet logs for this week and finds it full of neighboursfans entries and Gigabytes of uploads

[Rubyat]

To Col, I'm just trying to be constructive; and to Clog, the main page was available but inaccessible from the back end of the site, so Sal couldn't change it. That means not waiting until something goes wrong to add a couple of helpful links for ignorant newbies like myself.

[Hawker]

I swear to god, if you don't stop, I'm going to tell you that you're not welcome here.

 

The time to be constructive is not after 4 days of us all collectively ripping our hair out. If I want constructive criticism, I will ask for it. I am not doing. Just stop.

 

And actually, there is a pinned thread in Forum News all about our Livejournal - http://www.neighbour...ournal-updates/ - so if you'd read it and followed the advice in it, you wouldn't have been 'left adrift'. It's been there for 5 years - I'm not sure, is that long enough?(!)

 

You want to try reading some of the pinned threads before you kick up such a fuss next time. (And yes, I'm referring to the post I've removed in another thread as well, not just what you've said in here.)

[Swanny]

Oh no

 

Some of my best posts have been made in the last few months. This is a travesty

 

Please keep some floppies handy and backup on a daily basis

I probably shouldn't react - it's not good to feed trolls, but do you know what? The words 'stuffed' and 'get' spring to mind reading this and that's the polite version

I love how you deleted the bottom bit of my post which said the said the same as everyone else is saying. As for the bit you quoted - it was meant light hearidtly (hence the floppies) so please don't asume my post was a personal attack.

 

I'm glad the board is back and the last few days must be a nightmare for staff.

 

I'd rather you ignore my posts in future if I offend you, rather than being rude.

Without trying to create a bigger storm in a teacup there, I will just say, I took 83ray1's original post as being completely light hearted and humourous as well. But I guess I just have more of the "take the naff out on something" type of sense of humour. Thought the floppy disks pic was quite good TBH

 

There's a Twitter page and a Livejournal page that I was updating, but although the main page was available, it wasn't accessible from the back end of the site (I.e. I couldn't change it).

Have you guys contemplated a Facebook page? I'm sure lots of FB users like myself would find that to be way more accessible than a Livejournal page (which I have never actually been on except for Nfans ). Just a suggestion, that's all.

[EmRed]

There was a FB page about a year or so ago, but I think it only got up to 11 members or so, and so has been culled by FB.

[Hawker]

Was there?!

 

I contemplated it, but I didn't fancy it in the end. I do think that maybe LJ has run its course a bit - it was quite of its time (and was like Facebook is now - I.e. people saw it when they were online, whereas now I think most people navigate that way when the site looks like it has a problem).

[lozziepop]

I just wanted to say thank you to Sal and Gaynor for getting this site back up and running as well as I was also missing it. I wouldn't have had the first clue how to fix the problems you encountered, you did a fantastic job.

[Jeffiner]

I wouldn't have had the first clue how to fix the problems you encountered, you did a fantastic job.

 

Have to agree with that, just reading what had to be done made *my* head spin, so I think we're very lucky to have such clever people to fix it.

 

I've bookmarked the Twitter link now too (as well as keeping the LJ one just in case) as I'm more likely to go there than LJ.

 

 

 

[Rubyat]

I am very sorry for any offence I have caused.

[Swanny]

A FB page would definitely be great. It would be a great tie in too if the site is ever going to expand in the future to being more than an episode archive and forum. The FB page could definitely get more than 11 likes this time around as well, especially if its promoted on the main page and the forum.

[Emily J]

Just thought I'd add my thanks and appreciation of the awesomeness of team Sal and Gaynor! THANK YOU! xxx