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Blackpool Bands Forum » Site News » Site Down Time Nov 09

» Site Down Time Nov 09

Spikeh

Posted: 14 November 2009 16:38

Shit at everything

Group: Global Admin
Posts: 8,170
Joined: Oct 2006

Bands:
» Blackshift

Down Time

Hey ho faithful BlackpoolBands die-hards! I know you've missed us, but we're back and ready to rock!</sarcasm>

But for seriously, we had some major hosting issues last Sunday (basically the database reached its limit, and because of this I was unable to do anything at all to rectify it... so I was in a bit of a catch 22). It also seems that our old hosts (Fasthosts, to name and shame) have outsourced their "support" to the Outer Hebrides, which has made getting hold of anyone who knew anything even slightly technical impossible. Skell was even told on the phone "ohhh, we can't speak to the technical team... we have to contact them via email and just wait, regardless of priority". Shower of shits.

So yeah... we're not best pleased... especially when we're paying £35 per month for hosting between us. Due to these issues plus a few more reasons, we've moved hosts... we shouldn't run in to the same DB size issue again (not for a long time), and the hosting is much cheaper.

The new hosts are relatively unknown, but we have a lot more space with them and its a lot cheaper for us. We may have some service issues, but time will tell...

So we apologise for any inconvenience and we'll try not to go down for that long ever again. I know a lot of you use the site to contact people / arrange gigs, so sorry if its created any issues over the past week.

New Features

You may have noticed a few new features such as coloured names (I will refine these colours when I get 5 mins as they're a bit gaudy atm), MP3 upload for your band etc - this is due to the fact that I did some work / bug fixes about a year ago, but never finished them / uploaded them. The MP3 upload, for example, isn't finished - you can upload some MP3s, but they won't be displayed anywhere

There are also a few bugs surrounding the MP3 upload. I may get on to this in the near future, but we'll see how busy I get.

Ideally we need a new website - a redesign and re-code. The database is fundamentally perfect - the code isn't bad for the time it was done, but there are plenty of new technologies I can implement that will make your user experience better. Again - I need to find time to do this, and I will at some point!

The change log for the new features / bugs is below for anyone who cares:

_DONE_V2.0.8_RELEASE_
* More procedure optimisations to the forum pages, including thread listing + forum listing.
* Fixed link on "Edit User's Profile" page to "Change User's Alias" page.
* Added "Delete User" page and appropriate access rights.
* Fixed? timeout bug with "My Control Panel"
* Fixed an issue with "My Control Panel" which stopped unread threads without any replies being shown.
* Added D.O.B and E-mail fields to IP Listing for admins and moderators.
* Administrators and moderators can now view / search the site logs for venues, events, users and threads.
* Added "Send Mass e-mail" option and access right for admins to be able to send e-mails to users.
* Pinning a topic would sometimes clear the text on the first post of a thread, this issue has now been rectified.
* Fixed issue with "Unread PM" popup not showing. This was due to a data conversion problem when user's checked the "Allow PM popups" option in their forum options. All users who want PM popups (who do not currently have them) must re-check this box themselves.
* Fixed bug when uploading a JPG with an uppercase extention - was reporting it as a non-image.
* Added colouring schemes for different user types.
* Removed dynamic code from left hand side menu forum listing and hard coded instead to improve performance.
* Search function wasn't searching properly. Was only matching the first few words of each post. Search has been fixed and improved.
* Added mp3 upload for supporting members. Upload amounts are cumulative and band based. If you have 5 members in your band, and two are signed up for silver Membership, anyone in your band can upload 8 MP3s in total (4 + 4 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 8).
* Added delete MP3 function.
* Removed unique check on email address when adding a new band (you can use your email address for more than one band now)

Blackshift - Metal - Init -http://www.myspace.com/blackshiftuk