I am impressed... how does EMB manage to keep the up-time of the forums below 50% ? - it must require a strong knowledge of the underlying system to make it perform that bad :-)
I am impressed... how does EMB manage to keep the up-time of the forums below 50% ? - it must require a strong knowledge of the underlying system to make it perform that bad :-)
https://forums.embarcadero.com/
https://forums.embarcadero.com/
Old hardware, old software, old knowledge contained by someone that no longer works there. It's being replaced, according to Marco Cantù. There just was a post on the same topic: https://plus.google.com/+LarsFosdal/posts/RKLPjxJ9MU9
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw your thread, though it was focusing more on SSL on Android. However, I just want to push EMB to solve it. The problem has been there for a long time (at least since last year), and it is more critical than EMB seem to think. One thing is using a tool (Delphi) that causes a lot of frustrations when doing mobile development, but when you want to ask for help and find that the forum is also down, then you begin to loose your faith...
ReplyDeleteHans Lavdal Jakobsen - We are probably not the only ones to wonder wtf EMBT has been delaying about on these issues.
ReplyDeleteseems like it's not a high priority, IIRC, it's been over 6 months since I first saw forums issues, that's a long time for something that should take about 2 days for someone to fix
ReplyDelete"should take about 2 days for someone to fix" - without knowing the actual problem - that is a bit of a stretch.
ReplyDeleteLars Fosdal setting up a new/fresh forum server should be at most a few hours(assuming you already have hardware prepared and know what forum engine you'll use); the big time waster is importing old posts via some scripts or db dump + restore; sure, you can get all fancy on it, but it's a one time deal...
ReplyDeleteLooks like someone at EMB is restarting the server(s) manually... I was never able to connect on sunday.
ReplyDeleteThis is not very professional...
Let's imagine...
ReplyDeleteSome guy's computer is connected to power outlet via extension cord with 3 outlets. 1 for his monitor, 1 for his computer and some other thingie is plugged in remaining one.
He adds another monitor to his setup, but he has no free outlets left, so he gets another extension cord with 5 outlets. New extension cord also has main switch (something old didn't have).
Since our guy is hard working fellow that comes in among first ones and leaves office among last ones, he decides to turn off the main switch on his power cord, if not every day then at least over weekends, because it is safe thing to do. It is not like anyone will need that unknown thingie outside working hours.
And the unknown thingie happens to be forums server...
You need to tie it into the web solution, the user id solution, adapt the access control to deal with beta privacy, replace two existing forums, deploy it to your hosting solution, put in place backup and restore mechanisms, and so forth... It looks like a non-trivial amount of work, IMO.
ReplyDeleteInitially I blame the Chinese Great Firewall, now I know that it can be innocent - and this sounds strange to me.
ReplyDeleteEdwin Yip Forums are having serious troubles since last August when they had major crash and have been offline for almost a month.
ReplyDeleteNow days forums accessibility varies greatly. They are usually down over the weekends and troublesome outside US working hours.
Lars Fosdal
ReplyDeleteIMO it would be better if Emb just scrapped the existing forum database. Who needs it, when its barely online to be accessed? Most old posts are stored offsite anyway, where they can be effectively searched (eg codenewsfast.com). Somebody in authority should step in and cut through.
There is an old dark humor joke about a hospital finally identifying why they were losing patients in their IC ward. An unsuspecting cleaning person was unplugging the life-support in order to power the vacuum cleaner.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit disappointed in the power cord jokes. A simple trace shows the sites are hosted. If it was trivial (which a certificate change in theory should be) , they would have done it. I guess they have been wrangling a handed down solution which no longer quite holds together, for some time.
ReplyDeleteEivind Bakkestuen I would not mind if the old boards went byebye, and NNTP was eliminated. The current forums have poisonous climate, much driven by a fairly small set of prolific NNTP posters. Not a very PC thing to say, I know - but those boards could do with a hardline crew of moderators.
Personally, I'd even have gone so far as to close many of them off and make most of the subgroups read only to the world, and limit posting access to subscribers only.
Until a new solution is up and running, an automatic server reboot every 8 hours would be great (or even better: a watchdog timer that reboots server when not answering for some time).
ReplyDeleteLars Fosdal But where can I have my silly banter then :(
ReplyDeleteEverywhere, including here - I hope. I was tired :P
ReplyDeleteIt is of course easy to laugh and make fun of other peoples efforts. I am after all happy that Delphi has evolved into a multi-platform tool, which so far saved me from converting our large code base to another language. Keep up the good work - we just need some more stability ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'd say they have lost focus. It would be very simple for them to set up a virtual server on AWS and load up any of a number of solid, mature forum applications, then duplicate the structure of these forums.
ReplyDeleteThey don't need NNTP, or the history, or anything other than a solid, stable platform where people can come to post stuff. The forums have been so intermittent over the past 9 months or so that nobody is using them.
And there are tons of topics discussed in these forums that are simply prohibited on sites like StackOverflow. It's pathetic. Where do people go to ask about components? There are so few component vendors left already, and now you can't even find who's got what!
It's just sad that customer support seems to have such low priority at the very time that the company is investing a boat-load into expanding into a new and previously unsupported market (mobile).
People need to be able to find answers quickly, and lots of people run into the same problems. Meaning the value of a forum for users would be extremely helpful for everybody involved.