New Forum Format

[bruegf]

Matthew,

The new format looks great!   Thanks for all of your efforts.

Fred

[Matthew Schenker]

Fred,
Thanks!

The only thing I hate about this process is having to take down and re-upload everything to the forum server databse.  I've got to save the forum files, delete everything from the server, FTP the unique files back onto the server and re-install all the unique stuff.  As always, my FTP server timed out in the middle of the transfer, and I was left hanging for a while waiting to know what stage I am at.

Anyone here who ever does database backups certainly knows what I'm talking about!

But everything is up and running now and we can enjoy the new design.

Matthew

[woodgeek]

it really does look great! seems quicker too!

c.

[Joemac]

Lots of work but a great design.  Very user friendly and visually attractive.  I do have one question though, what is that strange machine on top?  It looks like a miter saw but us readheaded stepchildren in the US have no experience with a Festool miter saw!

[Frank Pellow]

Matthew, I like the new look and I appreciate all the effort that it took you to achieve it.  Thanks.

[bruegf]

Matthew,

I know exactly what you mean.   I develop engineering web applications for Whirlpool and our server is currently seeing approx 100K+ hits per day all of them requiring anywhere from 1 to over 50 SQL calls to populate the data for the pages.  Stuff that's easy to do when you're dealing w/ a few K of data becomes extremely difficult where you're dealing w/ a few gig of data.

Thx again for your efforts.

Fred

[Matthew Schenker]

I know exactly what you mean.   I develop engineering web applications for Whirlpool and our server is currently seeing approx 100K+ hits per day all of them requiring anywhere from 1 to over 50 SQL calls to populate the data for the pages.  Stuff that's easy to do when you're dealing w/ a few K of data becomes extremely difficult where you're dealing w/ a few gig of data.

Well, we're not seeing 100,000 hots a day here (not yet, anyway).  We see about 12,000 - 14,000 on a typical day.  But there are a number of modifications I have made over the past year or so, and of course we have all the attachments that need to be kept up.  It's a good challenge, and a great feeling when everything is back up and running properly.
Matthew

[TahoeTwoBears]

Matthew,

Great Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After all of your hard work, I hesitate to ask, but is there any way to add a home button on the bottom of the page? I frequently look at the first page for the latest posts. When I finish reading a thread, then I typically jump back to the home page to find yet another new post. Perhaps I'm being inefficient and there's a better way to keep up, but that's how I currently operate. I guess better than a home button would be a button on the bottom of the page that would take me to the Member's Info Center or latest post list.

Thanks for all of the fantastic work you're doing. This is the only community that's stable in my life right now and I truly appreciate the feeling of home, especially given my family's current circumstances.

Thank you very much,

Mike

[FesGeek]

Awesome, now that we are updated we are cool people again....hehe.  Not like we weren't already cool because we know one thing others don't...they may have more tools, but our tools have more tricks than theirs (and will last longer!!!)

--Jason 

(I will update my forum profile when I get a cool avatar done)

[Daviddubya]

...is there any way to add a home button on the bottom of the page? I frequently look at the first page for the latest posts. When I finish reading a thread, then I typically jump back to the home page to find yet another new post....  Mike

Matthew - good job.  Looking good!

Mike - A couple of shortcuts might work for you.  The Back button on your browser takes you one page backwards.  Or I frequently use the Home key on the keyboard to get back to the top of any page.  From there you can click on the Home button on the screen.  Hope this helps.

[Ned]

Matthew--

Up and looking good.

I agree with Woodgeek, FOG seems to be running faster.  This could be because of the new theme, but it's more likely a side effect of unloading and reloading the database.  Either way, slick.

Ned

[Matthew Schenker]

I agree with Woodgeek, FOG seems to be running faster.  This could be because of the new theme, but it's more likely a side effect of unloading and reloading the database.  Either way, slick.

I am not a database expert, but perhaps it's true that the maintenance helped.  I cleaned out all the unnecessary logs, and I optimized all the database tables.

Also, there were bits and pieces of code changes and lines from various modifications I had previously tried and uninstalled.  Reinstalling the forum software from scratch cleaned all that up.

I also got rid of a couple of logging applications that were hogging system resources for no good reason (one in particular is called "Urchin").

Doing this kind of maintenance is great for revealing areas that need attention.

Matthew

[Dan Clark]

Matthew,

Great job!  In the last few months, you've done a great job of integrating lots of differing feedback from many people.  Awesome work!

I understand the hassle of loading databases.  For example, Wednesday evening I started a DB load before leaving work.  Normally it takes 6-9 hours because the load is pretty large.  It crunches about 3/4 TB of data from several very large tables, moves it to another DB, aggregates it, crunches some more, and finally loads a few thousand rows of highly munged data into target tables.   

Sometime in the middle of the night it blew up - the worst one I've seen in a long time.   It's either a major network failure or the server ran out of space.   Yesterday, the database was in recovery mode all day.  I'm not sure if it's corrupt or just taking a long time to roll back.   

I'm off work today.  Monday should be "interesting". 

Regards,

Dan.

[Ned]

Monday should be "interesting".

Boring is better.  Interesting hurts.

[Steve Jones]

Mathew,

great job! site looks very professional.

Steve

[poto]

Wow! What a change! It's bright and readable - very clean and professional. And it definitely runs faster. Great work Matthew. I feel privileged to be part of this group.

Poto

[Joe Jensen]

Love it, much more clear

[Flyfisher]

Matthew, Nicely done.  I like the clean, modern look. Much like Festools!

[Eli]

Thanks for all the hard work Matthew. I love the place you've made.

[Dave Rudy]

Fantastic job, Matthew.  You're number 1 all over again!

Thanks.


Dave