Appreciate everyone's patience this morning. As I mentioned - we are now migrated onto a new server. The next step will be the upgrade of the software which will happen in a couple of days and will be another 4-8 hour outage.  

In the case of the new server - I will note that some of you may be able to access the site on your home computer or laptop but not from your phone (or vice versa). This is because everyone's internet provider is different at refreshing the DNS. If you want to accelerate - clear out the cookies and that might help. Otherwise everyone should be seeing the new server in next 24-48 hours (most should be much sooner).

New server is significantly faster. Upgrade will not be significant in terms of forum software change - but should help with reliability, security, and overall run time.  Appreciate everyone's patience. 

If you are running into any issues, etc - please post them here so we can work on resolving.  

Thank you for doing this work. 

Any chance you can also put in for an upgrade of Jerry and/or the White Sox?  TIA

Thank goodness

I was a little sad this afternoon.....a world without Soxtalk is a world without Joy.

On 8/19/2024 at 9:20 PM, wegner said:

Thank goodness

I was a little sad this afternoon.....a world without Soxtalk is a world without Joy.

... through shared misery. 

But seriously, thank you to the admins who do this as a labor of love

First, I want to say thank you for keeping this place up and running.

Second, there’s a minor issue I’ve experienced. I have to check the “Remember Me” box when I sign in, otherwise it will not log in successfully.

4 hours ago, Milkman delivers said:

First, I want to say thank you for keeping this place up and running.

Second, there’s a minor issue I’ve experienced. I have to check the “Remember Me” box when I sign in, otherwise it will not log in successfully.

Interesting - I will notate that and will target a solve of that when we run the final steps on Thursday.  I say final steps - Thursday is still a bit lift as we will be shifting to latest PHP version and latest forum software. May not sound big as the forum software is not a quantum leap forward (as the next evolution isn't set for another year) - but behind the scenes there should be a lot more efficiency / run-time improvements.  

Final steps are today - will be another outage. About 2-4 hours. 

And we are done 

Is it just me or is the site flying now?  Anyone else notice it is loading threads faster?

I'm still getting the "the site is down" page daily after being on here for a few minutes. Like I can log in and read a few posts but then when I try to go back it comes up.

It's really odd.

34 minutes ago, Iwritecode said:

I'm still getting the "the site is down" page daily after being on here for a few minutes. Like I can log in and read a few posts but then when I try to go back it comes up.

It's really odd.

Maybe clear your browser’s cache?

I only had an issue early on due to my Pi-Hole DNS server and ad blocker not obtaining the new DNS for the site.  Once that updated, the site has been flying for me with no ads or errors.

4 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Maybe clear your browser’s cache?

I only had an issue early on due to my Pi-Hole DNS server and ad blocker not obtaining the new DNS for the site.  Once that updated, the site has been flying for me with no ads or errors.

I did that several times over the past couple of days. It actually seems to be finally working today.

Spoke too soon. Tired of seeing this screen. 

7 minutes ago, Iwritecode said:

Spoke too soon. Tired of seeing this screen. 

Are you on a PC/laptop?  If so, did you try flushing your DNS?

Open up a Command Prompt (cmd.exe) and type in:

ipconfig /flushdns

And hit Enter.

Edited August 23, 20241 yr by WhiteSox2023

11 hours ago, Iwritecode said:

Spoke too soon. Tired of seeing this screen. 

If you clear your cache it should stop. Ultimately it seems because we all visit site so much it takes a bit longer for the memories to clear out. It should get better everyday. 

4 hours ago, Chisoxfn said:

If you clear your cache it should stop. Ultimately it seems because we all visit site so much it takes a bit longer for the memories to clear out. It should get better everyday. 

I was getting the same error.  I just had to reboot my Pi-Hole.  But it can be just a matter of time to refresh DNS servers.

Edited August 24, 20241 yr by WhiteSox2023

So here’s my feedback on the upgrade…

It has definitely sped up the site.  I noticed this immediately.

I have a Pi-Hole ad blocker on my home network, so my home network was already blocking all of the site’s ads, prior to the upgrade.

I then switched over to my iPhone’s data so it would be outside of my Pi-Hole ad blocker and it seems like the ads between posts are now gone.

However, there is only one annoyance now…

The new ad is on the bottom edge of the screen.  My Pi-Hole blocks the ad but still shows a white blank block over the main website in that area.  When I switch to my phone data, I can see the ads in this blocked frame at the bottom of my screen.

The only reason this is a negative is because it blocks out your pop-up notifications from other posters that are either responding to your posts and/or placing an emoji on your posts.  Keep in mind, this is just how it looks on my iPhone, as I have not yet tested it on a PC/laptop or iPad/tablet.

I hope I explained this well enough.  Otherwise, I would be happy to show @Chisoxfn what is going on.  But if the ad is required for the upkeep of the site, so be it.  The speed uptick and far less overall ads is already a huge improvement.  But it may be better if the single ad was at the top of the screen rather than the bottom, just so you can see notifications from other users.

@Chisoxfn, amazing job overall.  I’m in the IT field and am well versed in testing stuff so please don’t take offense and let me know if there is anything I can help with on this great site.  ❤️ 

Edited August 24, 20241 yr by WhiteSox2023

I think @WhiteSox2023 shared this above, but I am also unable to close / hide ads on my Android on the bottom of the page, so I am now unable to insert quotes from other posters (the ad covers up the "quote post" button at the bottom)

I have an AirPad and am unable to quote posts. Quote 1 post appears at the bottom of the screen but it is not accessible. 

23 hours ago, NWsideSoxfan said:

I have an AirPad and am unable to quote posts. Quote 1 post appears at the bottom of the screen but it is not accessible. 

So I noticed this on my phone and desktop, you have to hide the ad to get to it.  Click the X here.  @Chisoxfn, not sure if there is a better solution to ad placement you can do or not, but this is a thing.  Anytime you select a post for something, the pop up window comes up UNDER this ad, and the ad has to be Xd out to get to it.

2 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

So I noticed this on my phone and desktop, you have to hide the ad to get to it.  Click the X here.  @Chisoxfn, not sure if there is a better solution to ad placement you can do or not, but this is a thing.  Anytime you select a post for something, the pop up window comes up UNDER this ad, and the ad has to be Xd out to get to it.

The issue I have now is that I no longer see the “x” to close out such ads..

13 minutes ago, JoeC said:

The issue I have now is that I no longer see the “x” to close out such ads..

Same for me.  I can’t get rid of it.

45 minutes ago, JoeC said:

The issue I have now is that I no longer see the “x” to close out such ads..

I get the feeling this happens with a pop up blocker.