There is a LOT of stuff going on behind the dark Oz curtain that goes in front of the server and admin areas of our site now. Much like in the Wizard of Oz, if you were to pull back the curtain, you would find it is not a great all powerful wizard, but rather a some overly busy admins and a couple developers that are doing a lot of work on the server and "housekeeping" on this site. Things like running down dead links and lost images and lost embedded media from over a million forum posts that have accumulated over the years, getting the forum ready to transition over to an upgraded version of the software we currently use, implementing the software apps needed for the new Mobile app that will be coming out in the next few weeks and is currently being loaded onto server - updating and improving server security , etc etc etc...
As all this takes place behind the scenes there may be very occasional very short time periods of slow response times or loading delays while resource intensive background tasks run. in addition, some of the changes we need to "try" to see if they are an improvement , make no difference, or actually decrease performance. I will say I am certain 90% of any issues you might experience are just typical internet issues of too much traffic into your local ISP and poor phone/data connections, but it is possible some very small delays will be caused by the background tasks as we approach launch of site upgrade and mobile app.
When it is time for the final switch over we will actually be down/closed for maintenance for anywhere from 6-24 hours. All the upgrades are being done on a cloned development site on this same server (so right now there are in fact 2 complete "sf"s running on this server- one that you all are using and one that is being used by @Freya , myself , and a couple developers to de-bug and set up the new site prior to switching it over to here. This may cause some slight slowdowns in busy times. Ultimately, when the new upgrades are rolled out there will be improved performance, many more options , and just a nicer site plus the mobile app so I am asking for patience and understanding for a short time to enable the upgrades in the near future.
Thank you to all for continuing to support all of our members and being there for each other when it is needed.
- Ben
As all this takes place behind the scenes there may be very occasional very short time periods of slow response times or loading delays while resource intensive background tasks run. in addition, some of the changes we need to "try" to see if they are an improvement , make no difference, or actually decrease performance. I will say I am certain 90% of any issues you might experience are just typical internet issues of too much traffic into your local ISP and poor phone/data connections, but it is possible some very small delays will be caused by the background tasks as we approach launch of site upgrade and mobile app.
When it is time for the final switch over we will actually be down/closed for maintenance for anywhere from 6-24 hours. All the upgrades are being done on a cloned development site on this same server (so right now there are in fact 2 complete "sf"s running on this server- one that you all are using and one that is being used by @Freya , myself , and a couple developers to de-bug and set up the new site prior to switching it over to here. This may cause some slight slowdowns in busy times. Ultimately, when the new upgrades are rolled out there will be improved performance, many more options , and just a nicer site plus the mobile app so I am asking for patience and understanding for a short time to enable the upgrades in the near future.
Thank you to all for continuing to support all of our members and being there for each other when it is needed.
- Ben