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Green Light |
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May 11, 2013 - 3:24 PM - by Stonehenge
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You can't tell right now, but this is the face of a happy boy. GTX was successfully moved to our new host, and if you're a regular visitor, you've probably noticed a difference in site speed.
I've opened the site up to new member registrations now that is seems the dust has settled on the big move, and I've also stopped requiring new user moderation (which means I was having to manually approve all new registrations), so as soon as new members verify their email addresses, they can post.
I have a laundry list of upgrades and changes scheduled for the site, but this was paramount to handle first. Next up is releasing the mobile theme and mobile browser sniffer. If you use your phone to navigate GTX, I think you're gonna like it.
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Host change in the next few days |
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Apr 29, 2013 - 10:15 PM - by Stonehenge
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With the site being pretty much locked up from morning until night with the traffic load we currently have, I've decided to make the host change much sooner. My timeframe has changed to the next 48-72 hours.
What that means for you is for the time being I'm closing the forum to new posts, so that I can download a copy of the database that is current through the very last post prior to closing it.
I already have redundant copies of everything but will download it all one more time to be safe, and then enlist the help of the new host in getting GTX swiftly moved to a server better able to handle this volume of traffic.
The next few days may be a bumpy ride, but I'll do my best to minimize the bumps.
Thanks for your continued patience.
Jeff
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Getting crushed with traffic |
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Apr 29, 2013 - 10:35 AM - by Stonehenge
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So. There's good news and bad news with GTX as spring is finally reaching us. The good news is, the site is getting crushed with traffic. I've seen as many as 800 forum users at any one point, with another 1-200 visiting non-forum pages.<br><br>The bad news is, the old server the site is hosted on is really struggling to keep up, and a new server with this host will cost double what I'm paying now, which makes this host no longer a viable option. I've sought out recommendations from web colleagues and have narrowed the search to two companies, and hope to being the process of site migration in the next couple weeks.<br><br>In the meantime, we're looking really good for release of GTX Mobile early this week. I have a few tweaks to make and scripts to add, but the majority of the site is ready to go.<br>
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Mobile Theme Soon to Be Released |
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Apr 25, 2013 - 5:30 PM - by Stonehenge
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Hey everyone -
I wanted to announce that in the next couple weeks I'm going to be rolling out a new mobile-friendly theme for GTX.
I've been working for the past couple months coding it and debugging it on another forum site I run (a smaller one) to work the kinks out of it, and it seems I'm at that point where it's pretty much kink-free, so I'm going to be porting it over to GTX.
What you can expect - The site will be able to detect whether you're using a mobile device or not, and if you are you will see a notice toward the top of the page to provide the option to switch to mobile. You can click the link to be taken to the mobile version or dismiss the notice.
At the bottom of every mobile-themed page there will be an option to return to the full version of the site and that page, in that instance when you need to full version of the site to do what you want to do.
The mobile version will be a single column, designed for fast loads and easy use on small devices (don't get me started on fast loads - I know the site's been running slow and we're going to need to change hosts shortly, but that's for another time), so you can expect a few bells and whistles to be gone, but you can expect readability and usability on small devices to go way up.
I look forward to releasing this to everyone to make the site easier to use. If you have any questions as it gets released, please let me know.
Thanks!
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To All New Members: Please Be Patient |
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Oct 29, 2012 - 2:01 PM - by Stonehenge
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The spammers that target forums often ebb and flow. We hear nothing from them for awhile, and then for some reason they find great interest in this site or that and expend a lot of effort trying to hock their wares.
Right now GTX is getting lots of spam attention - approximately 50 new user registrations per day, trying to promote who knows what. And the registration filtration systems we have in place aren't keeping them out, so for now, I've opted to require moderation of all new members.
What does this mean for you? It means if you're a legit member, it might take a few hours or even a day, depending on when you register and when I can get to a PC and check on the site, before your new membership is activated.
I apologize for the inconvenience. Nobody likes this less than I do. But it's a necessary evil until we're able to put up new barriers the spammers haven't figured out yet.
Thanks in advance for your understanding.
Jeff
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