May 2020 site & server updates!

General conversations about BMW E28s and the people who own them.
Justin_FL
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May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Justin_FL »

Just performed quite a few updates. If anything seems weird or broken let me know! Seems good at first glance, but it was an all night effort after much difficulty with the database upgrade failing repeatedly.

Updated lots of things on the server side and we are now running on the latest phpBB code, which is more mobile device friendly besides other changes. Also got HTTPS working finally!

Some things will be tweaked and features added, so there could be momentary downtime occasionally in the future...
stuartinmn
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by stuartinmn »

Things look a little different, but so far so good.
Mike W.
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Mike W. »

Thanks for taking care of business Justin, I appreciate it. :up:

I suppose it shows how much I pay attention, it seems slightly different, but I can't say how.
Shawn D.
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Shawn D. »

Thanks for the hard work, Justin!

Is there any way to get the site to spread across my browser like before? Right now, it's only at about 60% width.
Germz
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Germz »

Thanks for putting in the work! The forum works much better on mobile!
Cactus
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Cactus »

Https is a big plus. Thanks for going through the effort.

Looks pretty great in mobile to me.
cek
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by cek »

Image

I love you Justin. Thanks.
stuartinmn
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by stuartinmn »

I logged in yesterday and clicked the 'remember me' button, but I was logged out when I came here today.
ahab
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by ahab »

Man, helluva way to spend a Memorial Day COVID weekend! Thanks for putting in the hard work. I'm noticing that I'm getting an unrelenting amount of notifications that there are new posts in the Parts For Sale subforum, to which I am subscribed. In the past it would idle me until I went back in and read it. Is this part of the behavior now? Not a complaint, just want to align my expectations. It also puts a new post count in the title bar, which is pretty handy.

Thanks again for keeping the ship afloat and in proper nick!
wkohler
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by wkohler »

Hi. Long time listener. Love the show.

Uhhh, is there a way to show the topic creator on the posts in the subforums? It’s great to know who made the last post but would like to know what I’m clicking on. There are a couple people simply not worth the risk of seeing their crap. Haven’t visited from a computer yet so this is something I’m seeing on the mobile version if that helps.

I didn’t know who made this thread until I clicked on it. I’m so lost!

I’ll take my answer off the air thanks.
stuartinmn
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by stuartinmn »

wkohler wrote: May 26, 2020 9:05 PM Uhhh, is there a way to show the topic creator on the posts in the subforums? It’s great to know who made the last post but would like to know what I’m clicking on. There are a couple people simply not worth the risk of seeing their crap. Haven’t visited from a computer yet so this is something I’m seeing on the mobile version if that helps.
Topic creator shows up on my computer, so it must be a mobile version issue.
austin8753
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by austin8753 »

wkohler wrote: May 26, 2020 9:05 PM Hi. Long time listener. Love the show.

Uhhh, is there a way to show the topic creator on the posts in the subforums? It’s great to know who made the last post but would like to know what I’m clicking on. There are a couple people simply not worth the risk of seeing their crap. Haven’t visited from a computer yet so this is something I’m seeing on the mobile version if that helps.

I didn’t know who made this thread until I clicked on it. I’m so lost!

I’ll take my answer off the air thanks.
mobile version issue. i came to comment about the same thing.
Justin_FL
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Justin_FL »

I never use that function. Are you talking about emails or just the notification function of the website?
ahab wrote: May 26, 2020 8:56 PM Man, helluva way to spend a Memorial Day COVID weekend! Thanks for putting in the hard work. I'm noticing that I'm getting an unrelenting amount of notifications that there are new posts in the Parts For Sale subforum, to which I am subscribed. In the past it would idle me until I went back in and read it. Is this part of the behavior now? Not a complaint, just want to align my expectations. It also puts a new post count in the title bar, which is pretty handy.

Thanks again for keeping the ship afloat and in proper nick!
Justin_FL
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Justin_FL »

I'll see if it can be adjusted for vertical browsing. But if you use your phone in landscape mode it shows up for me.
wkohler wrote: May 26, 2020 9:05 PM Hi. Long time listener. Love the show.

Uhhh, is there a way to show the topic creator on the posts in the subforums? It’s great to know who made the last post but would like to know what I’m clicking on. There are a couple people simply not worth the risk of seeing their crap. Haven’t visited from a computer yet so this is something I’m seeing on the mobile version if that helps.

I didn’t know who made this thread until I clicked on it. I’m so lost!

I’ll take my answer off the air thanks.
wkohler
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by wkohler »

Ahh I didn’t realize there was a difference. Rotating phone makes it look more like it used to. If there is an option for the vertical browsing, I think topic creator is more important than last post.

Thanks for the reply!
Justin_FL wrote: May 27, 2020 1:23 PM I'll see if it can be adjusted for vertical browsing. But if you use your phone in landscape mode it shows up for me.
wkohler wrote: May 26, 2020 9:05 PM Hi. Long time listener. Love the show.

Uhhh, is there a way to show the topic creator on the posts in the subforums? It’s great to know who made the last post but would like to know what I’m clicking on. There are a couple people simply not worth the risk of seeing their crap. Haven’t visited from a computer yet so this is something I’m seeing on the mobile version if that helps.

I didn’t know who made this thread until I clicked on it. I’m so lost!

I’ll take my answer off the air thanks.
ahab
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by ahab »

Justin_FL wrote: May 27, 2020 1:21 PM I never use that function. Are you talking about emails or just the notification function of the website?
I think what I'm trying to say was that when there was a new post in PFS I would get an email announcing the fact that the subforum was updated with a new thread. In addition, if I posted in any thread on the site I would get a different email saying that someone posted a reply to that particular thread.

Now what's happening is I'm getting notified via email of all posts in PFS, whether or not they were new threads or simply new posts to an existing threads.

For example, I received an email every time there was a post made in this dashboard thread, yet I never posted in it.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=154284

Previously I would only get email notification that there was a new thread in PFS (in this case for a dahsboard), or notified of additional postings in that thread ONLY if I had posted in the dashboard thread. As I said, since the update it seems I've been notified via email of every post in the dashboard thread, which is new.

Broken down to simple terms, it seems that my subscription to the PFS subforum automatically subscribed me to every post in that subforum as opposed to new-threads-only in that subforum. Perhaps it's a setting I have yet to find.
Justin_FL
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Justin_FL »

Gotcha. I wasn't familiar how it was before vs now. It does seem that subscribing to a sub-forum should notify for new topics only. But I'll do some research, maybe it is a bug.

You can check your subscriptions by opening up your user control panel and looking at manage subscriptions. It should list each forum you subscribe to and if you set your profile to follow every topic you reply, then likely a bunch of threads too.
topher800
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by topher800 »

Thank you for your effort into the update. Does this also mean I can now access the site with my VPN on? The previous aggressive filtering meant turning it off or accessing from a different device.
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by vinceg101 »

Memorial Day Weekend must be the official update-your-website weekend, I have been going through the same thing for my company site.
Thank you for all your efforts and dedication and just to keep our lights on around here, Justin. It is much appreciated. :beer:
Justin_FL
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Justin_FL »

I'll have to see how the spam account situation and server loads pan out. The spam problem was terrible but mostly blocked with that system. Content scrapers used to bog down the site and load up the database server with topic load requests, effectively causing a denial of service. The server is really poor from a memory and disk throughout standpoint and really could be put on a new hosting package on modern hardware.
topher800 wrote: May 28, 2020 10:35 AM Thank you for your effort into the update. Does this also mean I can now access the site with my VPN on? The previous aggressive filtering meant turning it off or accessing from a different device.
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by tschultz »

Thanks for the hard work.

I enjoyed the custom code on the last version that showed "see lastest posts" and "view my threads" option that we used have. Any way to reactivate that function?
Mike W.
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Mike W. »

A request.

When I click on a link to an outside site, it used to open in a new tab, currently after the update it simply opens in the same tab. IIRC that happened at first on the previous update and you were able to make it open in a new tab.
Sagi
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Sagi »

Thanks. For me, the big improvement is to be able to access the forum via wifi. Before, I could access it only through mobil network. Thanks for your effort.
Justin_FL
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by Justin_FL »

I'll probably add the "your topics" search, since that is nice.

Does the "new posts" function not do what you are expecting? It's under the quick links menu with the three bars in the upper left.
tschultz wrote: May 29, 2020 5:58 PM Thanks for the hard work.

I enjoyed the custom code on the last version that showed "see lastest posts" and "view my threads" option that we used have. Any way to reactivate that function?
tschultz
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Re: May 2020 site & server updates!

Post by tschultz »

Justin_FL wrote: May 30, 2020 10:30 AM I'll probably add the "your topics" search, since that is nice.

Does the "new posts" function not do what you are expecting? It's under the quick links menu with the three bars in the upper left.
tschultz wrote: May 29, 2020 5:58 PM Thanks for the hard work.

I enjoyed the custom code on the last version that showed "see lastest posts" and "view my threads" option that we used have. Any way to reactivate that function?
Thanks for pointing that out!
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