Apology for Downtime and Rollback

[lovetohax]

Hi guys,

I'd like to truly apologize for the downtime and rollback. I was changing some settings on the server, and it ended up having a significantly larger impact than I would have expected.

I will do my best to isolate changes on a test environment in the future.

The server database backup is from approximately 4:30PM EST January 17th.

If there are any further issues, I will do my best to fix them.

Thank you, and sorry.

[Kamehameha456]

I seem to have lost some PMs from this.  Safe to assume they are gone forever?

[lovetohax]

I seem to have lost some PMs from this.  Safe to assume they are gone forever?

Yes, sorry. We tried to reverse what I had done, however, at the end of the day, the only fix was a complete roll back.

[Tanaxanth]

It happens thanks for fixing the boards...

though it would be nice just admit you were actually trying to implement subliminal messages and hypnotic suggestions 

[Konz]

S*it happens, don't worry 

[darkhypnoman]

Never mind Tera. You managed to minimise disruption, a little bit of roll back never hurt anyone.

Can I ask about picture rating though as that seems to have vanished.

Thank you and keep up the great work

[Vampyrus]

No need to apologize, everybody can make mistakes  . Otherwise, I just wanted to complete darkhypnoman's "bug report" by saying that comments on gallery pictures are apparently disabled too.

[Allister]

I'm going to be a contrarian and point out that patrons here are paying for Dreamhost's shitty overpriced unreliable web hosting. $150 a month is ludicrously overpriced, and the hosting is more unreliable then an old beater car with 300,000 miles on it.

Patrons, you guys donating money to Tera, you might want to help her find better hosting, because it's your money she's using to pay Dreamhost, and Dreamhost doesn't deserve your money.

[Mephz]

ah explains it, thanks.  No worries

[TeraS]

Allister is right that we need new hosting.

We are going to be moving in the next month to OVH Canada. The events of the past day have not been DH's fault however.

More later.

Tera
Admin

[Allister]

Allister is right that we need new hosting.

We are going to be moving in the next month to OVH Canada. The events of the past day have not been DH's fault however.

More later.

Tera
Admin

Came about five years late but better late then never.

[Youkai]

Really isn't the patreons fault to be honest, and most of them probably have no clue how the hosting works. Anyway there are improvements that Tera and lovetohax are trying to implement.

[Allister]

Never said it was and I have no idea how you concluded that from reading my post. I was merely informing the patrons where their money is going.

But it's a moot point now anyway. I think it's safe to say even if this latest issue wasn't dreamhost's fault they've been given chance after chance and we're still plagued with slow load times, internal server errors, and the database occasionally crapping out.

To be clear my issue is with Dreamhost. lovetohax made a mistake, it happens. He fixed it best he could. I'm cool with that.

No it's Dreamhost's frequent server errors and random slow loading that piss me off and I will be glad to see this place be rid of them.

[PhiloHunter]

Never said it was and I have no idea how you concluded that from reading my post.

Because, whether you intended it or not, your post came off as really bitchy and critical of the people running the site. Not saying that was your intention, but that's what it seemed.

[Allister]

Because, whether you intended it or not, your post came off as really bitchy and critical of the people running the site. Not saying that was your intention, but that's what it seemed.

Actually yes that was my intention. The patrons don't run the site. They, and you, donate money to Tera every month to keep the site running. What I am and have been saying is that with Dreamhost you haven't been getting your money's worth.

Does that clear things up?

[dzeiger]

I always assumed the problem wasn't necessarily finding a better web host, it was finding one that wasn't going to immediately kick us off for TOS violations at the first complaint.

Anyway, as to the gallery, I'm sure Tera and company are working on it, but here's what I've found so far that doesn't seem to be working right as of now

Comments
Ratings
PDF links are broken
Image downloads
Cant' seem to expand/full size the images

Again, I'm sure you're fixing what you can when you can, I'm not worried if my ability to view free hypno-porn takes a bit of a hit for a few days, just wanted to list out all of what I'm seeing at the moment.

[Youkai]

I always assumed the problem wasn't necessarily finding a better web host, it was finding one that wasn't going to immediately kick us off for TOS violations at the first complaint.

Anyway, as to the gallery, I'm sure Tera and company are working on it, but here's what I've found so far that doesn't seem to be working right as of now

Comments
Ratings
PDF links are broken
Image downloads
Cant' seem to expand/full size the images

Again, I'm sure you're fixing what you can when you can, I'm not worried if my ability to view free hypno-porn takes a bit of a hit for a few days, just wanted to list out all of what I'm seeing at the moment.

Some of these things are being currently worked on. Although some of those are news to me at least.

Thank you for pointing them out, still helps in case we missed something.

[lovetohax]

Because, whether you intended it or not, your post came off as really bitchy and critical of the people running the site. Not saying that was your intention, but that's what it seemed.

Actually yes that was my intention. The patrons don't run the site. They, and you, donate money to Tera every month to keep the site running. What I am and have been saying is that with Dreamhost you haven't been getting your money's worth.

Does that clear things up?

A site migration is no easy task. Even just restoring from backup has caused issues to surface. I will be helping out in the future to assist with the technical details. DreamHost may not have been the most cost effective host, but there simply was not the expertise to move the site.

On another note, the issues that have been surfacing are not really DreamHost’s fault (though faster hardware is always beneficial). The New Gallery has some shoddy code that does not scale well. I am exploring options to fix the problem.

[Allister]

Well in any case it's moot now, fortunately.

And bud, I know, at least a bit about the BS you're trying to untangle. I wish you luck. Seriously.

[PhiloHunter]

Comments
Ratings
PDF links are broken
Image downloads
Cant' seem to expand/full size the images

I think the comments are working just fine right now. Someone was able to put a comment on a pic of mine and I left a response.

You all think I should hold back posting stuff for now? Or should it be safe to post stuff?

[Youkai]

Since we're not doing anymore rollbacks, I'd assume its safe to post stuff? But don't take my word for it, I have no clue on the gallery side. You can ask lovetohax or Tera about it when she gets back

[lovetohax]

Since we're not doing anymore rollbacks, I'd assume its safe to post stuff? But don't take my word for it, I have no clue on the gallery side. You can ask lovetohax or Tera about it when she gets back

Yes, there will be no more rollbacks.

[PhiloHunter]

Cool, thanks everyone.

[Allister]

I always assumed the problem wasn't necessarily finding a better web host, it was finding one that wasn't going to immediately kick us off for TOS violations at the first complaint.

I want to add one more thing, not to argue but for informational purposes. The whole reasoning of being safe(r) from TOS violations has never really held water with me. It sounds like a great sales tactic though. I can imagine Tera being led to believe something along the lines of "You pay us an exorbitant amount of money every month and we'll turn a blind eye to any copyright violating images you have on your site."

However it starts to fall apart when you see a site like e-hentai.org which is littered with copyrighted pornographic images and has a forum. It's like the Collective only even bigger and I imagine harder to manage. A WHOIS lookup would likely say who their host is. and they have gallery software that... mostly works. Images occasionally load slow or won't load, but they have a workaround now and I have never had the site go down because of internal server errors. F-list is another site similar to this though with a wider degree of fetishes and more of a focus on role play.


These are examples of sites similar to this that work, and with a move to a new and hopefully cheaper host, that would free up money to make improvements to this site. Maybe that's what you guys are doing. I just wanted to point this out.

[dzeiger]

Ah, I see--comments are working, but they are underneath the "Related Images" now, and I just didn't scroll down far enough.

I want to add one more thing, not to argue but for informational purposes. The whole reasoning of being safe(r) from TOS violations has never really held water with me. It sounds like a great sales tactic though. I can imagine Tera being led to believe something along the lines of "You pay us an exorbitant amount of money every month and we'll turn a blind eye to any copyright violating images you have on your site."

However it starts to fall apart when you see a site like e-hentai.org which is littered with copyrighted pornographic images and has a forum. It's like the Collective only even bigger and I imagine harder to manage. A WHOIS lookup would likely say who their host is. and they have gallery software that... mostly works. Images occasionally load slow or won't load, but they have a workaround now and I have never had the site go down because of internal server errors. F-list is another site similar to this though with a wider degree of fetishes and more of a focus on role play.

Copyright is not the problem I was thinking of so much as the use of actual human imagery, often with real names attached, in nonconsentual sexual situations.

E-hentai is a very bad example, actually. The "main" site is somewhere behind a Cloudflare proxy, but the galleries operate by some sort of strange custom software that is kind of peer-to-peer like. People sign up and run a program on their devices at home or on their own servers somewhere, and galleries are distributed among the participants. So when you or I view a gallery there, we're not pulling from actual e-hentai servers, we're pulling the images off of some dude's desktop in his house or something.

[lovetohax]

I always assumed the problem wasn't necessarily finding a better web host, it was finding one that wasn't going to immediately kick us off for TOS violations at the first complaint.

I want to add one more thing, not to argue but for informational purposes. The whole reasoning of being safe(r) from TOS violations has never really held water with me. It sounds like a great sales tactic though. I can imagine Tera being led to believe something along the lines of "You pay us an exorbitant amount of money every month and we'll turn a blind eye to any copyright violating images you have on your site."

However it starts to fall apart when you see a site like e-hentai.org which is littered with copyrighted pornographic images and has a forum. It's like the Collective only even bigger and I imagine harder to manage. A WHOIS lookup would likely say who their host is. and they have gallery software that... mostly works. Images occasionally load slow or won't load, but they have a workaround now and I have never had the site go down because of internal server errors. F-list is another site similar to this though with a wider degree of fetishes and more of a focus on role play.


These are examples of sites similar to this that work, and with a move to a new and hopefully cheaper host, that would free up money to make improvements to this site. Maybe that's what you guys are doing. I just wanted to point this out.

The biggest problem is keeping all the data. Nobody wants to lose the gallery photos that we already have.

We are trying our best to work with the system that we have, but, short of a full time developer to try and rewrite half the code that this site is sitting on, there aren't many options available on the table.

E-Hentai runs on a much cleaner solution that isn't available to us. They probably run on equal hardware as us, but because of the underlying code, are able to maximize their database efficiency. E-Hentai is likely also managed by a developer, since it's running on a custom solution, and is likely consistently updated.

Copyright is a big issue because the Collective is hosted in North America. Tera also does not wish to violate any laws that her country participates in, and that is her prerogative. The current hosting choice has nothing to do with DMCA. Dreamhost participates fully in all copyright protection laws.

[PhiloHunter]

The biggest problem is keeping all the data. Nobody wants to lose the gallery photos that we already have.

I'm probably in the minority but if it meant having a better site I wouldn't mind losing the gallery and just starting over. We could give people a warning of a month or two that its going to happen so they can get their photos off the sight and then if people wanted they could just reupload in the new gallery.

[sight]

Also in that minority...
Granted, I would be happy to pay more to move the forums over, followed by the gallery (slowly? Reupload everythng?  Or even get a new code for it if possible and reupload into their?)

But I have no idea at the costs, or how much extra it would cost, and how much people are willing to throw at it.....

TBH.  Now I find myself wanting to look into “old” server hardware, see if anyone is able/willing to at least host the gallery temporarily until a good solution is found.  I lack (imho) the skills to do so, and more importantly, lack a fast enough internet connection to where it would be viable.

[lovetohax]

Also in that minority...
Granted, I would be happy to pay more to move the forums over, followed by the gallery (slowly? Reupload everythng?  Or even get a new code for it if possible and reupload into their?)

But I have no idea at the costs, or how much extra it would cost, and how much people are willing to throw at it.....

TBH.  Now I find myself wanting to look into “old” server hardware, see if anyone is able/willing to at least host the gallery temporarily until a good solution is found.  I lack (imho) the skills to do so, and more importantly, lack a fast enough internet connection to where it would be viable.

There is a solution that we are working on. The time frame is to be determined, as we will be making huge changes to much of the infrastructure of the forum, in an attempt to fix many things at once.

[Allister]

There is a solution that we are working on. The time frame is to be determined, as we will be making huge changes to much of the infrastructure of the forum, in an attempt to fix many things at once.

Good to hear and again I wish you luck.

[TeraS]

Gallery issue will be worked on...


Tera

[TeraS]

Gallery should be mostly back to normal now... I'll continue to work on it, please note what's not back please...


Tera

[TeraS]

Gallery should be fully restored to functionally now...

Please report issues...


Tera

[dictionaryhash]

Allister is right that we need new hosting.

We are going to be moving in the next month to OVH Canada. The events of the past day have not been DH's fault however.

More later.

Tera
Admin

Totally not my fault.

[MCaesar]

Totally not my fault.

[TeraS]

Tera

[Silverkat]

Yep, looks like we've found our culprit!

[dictionaryhash]

Tera

No that would be DW, not DH. He's the terror that quacks in the night.

[TeraS]

Tera

[pythogars2]

ALL PM`S ARE AVAILABLE UP TO OUTAGE TIME LET ME KNOW WHAT YOUR MISSING.ALAN