Upgrades to the forum

[Meadow]

Thank you all for your patience in recent months, we've had some outages and the recurring security certificate issue.

Put simply, the issues are caused by the forum becoming more popular. This is a good thing! But more simultaneous connections than we are used to has put pressure on our server's RAM (which in turn has led to processes being randomly killed, including the security certificate), and we had to already do a big upgrade of our disk space a couple of months ago because we were full up of attachments.

Thank you to those of you who joined or upgraded their Patreon memberships to support the recent upgrade - it has made the decision today to upgrade again a lot easier. If you would like to join our Patreon, it's here.

Further to our server space, I've also commissioned an upgrade to the XenForo installation on the forum, which should be installed by a professional during the next few days. Xenforo was last updated on this forum in 2020, so there may be some noticeable changes. Above all, it will be a more stable and efficient build for the site.

Thanks again for bearing with.

 

[Thande]

Thank you for the update. I increased my own Patreon recently because I'd started a TL that involved loads of maps, so I felt it was only fair as that was probably putting strain on the site. I would encourage others to do the same if you are financially able and willing.

 

[fanofeverything25]

does this maean the site will be offline while you guys upgrade? tihs is great news! not only SLP lives but it also evolves!

 

[Meadow]

does this maean the site will be offline while you guys upgrade? tihs is great news! not only SLP lives but it also evolves!

I am unsure of exactly when, but I would anticipate some down time at some point in the next few days. Don't be alarmed if the site is down, in other words.

 

[Meadow]

In case anyone was wondering, the Threadmarks add-on broke and that’s what crashed the site for the last hour. Should be fine now.

 

[Steve Brinson]

Did y'all change something in the reply composition window? I don't mind, it's just that every time I highlight something in a reply I'm working on the highlight color is black, like so:

 

[fanofeverything25]

can you tell us when this down time is expected to occur

 

[Kimkatya]

can you tell us when this down time is expected to occur

about two hours ago

 

[fanofeverything25]

the next i meant

 

[Geordie]

Quick! Tell Bobby Moore not to go near jeweller's shops!

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

Quick! Tell Bobby Moore not to go near jeweller's shops!

View attachment 62540

Great! I can go and see Led Zeppelin and Band of Gypsys live and Patton on the big silver screen

*Checks calendar*

Oh.

 

[Doctor Sulemain]

Looking good!

 

[theflyingmgoose]

I was just going to ask about the threadmarks since they aren't working on my test thread. Good to see it will be fixed.

 

[Meadow]

We are still having RAM problems, however they seem to be being caused by add-ons rather than necessitating further upgrades. Thank you once again for your patience with any issues that emerge - in the immediate term, I've disabled some more add-ons until they can be investigated and updated to not cause these problems. The most noticeable one at the moment will be that alerts are no longer 'improved'.

 

[Meadow]

We are still having RAM problems, however they seem to be being caused by add-ons rather than necessitating further upgrades. Thank you once again for your patience with any issues that emerge - in the immediate term, I've disabled some more add-ons until they can be investigated and updated to not cause these problems. The most noticeable one at the moment will be that alerts are no longer 'improved'.

Alerts are back. Working on Threadmarks now.

 

[Meadow]

Alerts are back. Working on Threadmarks now.

Threadmarks are back!

In summary:

• The forum has been updated to the latest XenForo software
• Threadmarks and Alert Summaries have been updated to their latest versions
• PHP has been updated, fixing some behind the scenes breakages
• We've upgraded the RAM on our server, which should make it more reinforced for the future

I'm now going to look at the theming issues (eg the fact selecting text now goes black).

 

[Lemon flavoured]

I've noticed that linking to a specific post (mostly noticeable when clicking on an alert) seems to actually place the view slightly off that post (sometimes to the point that you can't see the post you linked to) if there is any media on that page. That didn't used to be an issue, although I've noticed it before on other sites.

 

[frustrated progressive]

Is there a way to change the highlight color from black?

 

[Meadow]

Is there a way to change the highlight color from black?

As per the post above, I am looking into this.

I've noticed that linking to a specific post (mostly noticeable when clicking on an alert) seems to actually place the view slightly off that post (sometimes to the point that you can't see the post you linked to) if there is any media on that page. That didn't used to be an issue, although I've noticed it before on other sites.

I've noticed this, but for what it's worth I noticed it long before this update and am therefore inclined to think it's fairly unavoidable.

 

[Lemon flavoured]

I've noticed this, but for what it's worth I noticed it long before this update and am therefore inclined to think it's fairly unavoidable.

I have seen it happen before, but it seemed to be fixed before this update.