Weekend Forum Updat...
 

Weekend Forum Update

 Mark
Posts: 4381
Topic starter
 

I'm starting this to give you a sticky update.

We are technically not working cos it's the weekend but I can't really help myself so I poke about a bit.

Monday there will be a facelift as we change the theme. Lots of feedback from you guys have helped there.

In an extraordinarily unfortunate coincidence our ads have gone a bit bonkers today, with ads in places they shoudn't be. That's nothing to do with the forum - it's our supplier of ads. I've taken the decision to dial them back as far as I can without upsetting the agreements we have wih our direct advertsiers (Bike industry ads that we sell direct rather than going through the ad networks -One Up pedals for example).

There's lots of double posting happening I see. This is due to a number of things. We found a slow query in our database operations that means there's sometimes a big delay between hitting submit and the page refreshing. Andy was working on that on Friday and we'll get that fixed next week. It's likely related to th efact both the old forum and the new are existing currently on the same server while we migrate things. That means that existing registered and longstanding users with a large posting record are still encumbered by the remnants of the old forum. I'm deleteing the double posts as I find them but if you experience a long delay after hitting submit please don;t hit the submit button again. 

I always knew that this handover time would not be smooth but it's progressing well at our end. I appreciate that it's not perfect on your side but bear with us a few more days and you will see some big changes that I hope you will like.

ps. Someone asked why we don't just shut the site until we get it all perfect - it's a good question. The are a list of reasons but the easiest is that we can't afford the downtime - SEO & financial commitments. I reckon we'd have to be down between 1-2 weeks. And then when we let you back in I bet we'd find a bunch of stuff that under actual real world load needed fixing and other stuff you just don't like. So that's why I decided on this route. Not perfect but I kind of like to also think that as you use it we learn more and we are sort of working together on that. Anyway, that's the path I chose for better or worse.

Have a good weekend everyone.


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 11:42 am
JAG, footflaps, NewRetroTom and 38 people reacted
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Thanks for the update, and thanks for your hard work on this.


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 12:21 pm
Keando, bearGrease, ossify and 2 people reacted
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Yep thanks for that @Mark -- not a fun way for you to be spending your weekend I am sure.

 

 


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 1:03 pm
 MSP
Posts: 15842
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Go and have a rest FFS, as addicted as we all seem to be to this forum, there are still other things to be doing.


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 1:16 pm
Keando, Murray, ThePinkster and 1 people reacted
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From what I can see it's going well - keep up the good work


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 1:43 pm
leffeboy reacted
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Thanks for the update. Go and enjoy the weekend. You have all deserved it 


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 1:43 pm
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Thanks for the update, Mark.

It’s obviously not a straightforward task but seems to be going in the right direction. 😀 

 


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 2:10 pm
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It’s all good mate👍


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 2:22 pm
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Surely the obvious solution is to ask one of the moany  smart arseses who say "it's only a forum, what's the problem" to sort it out. I reckon they'll have it running perfectly by teatime. 👍 


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 3:03 pm
ThePinkster, onewheelgood, thenorthwind and 1 people reacted
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cheers Mark. It’ll get there! I’ve been in worse places (once, in the days before proper server antivirus, infected an exchange server with a virus. Was only the entire academic and support staff system for a very prestigious university. Took three full 24hr days to fix.) Sending hugs, virtual coffee, pizza and chocolate. 


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 3:15 pm
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@Mark hope you're kicking back now after an " interesting" few days , must have been tough sending me a friend request as part of the update 😉😂


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 5:29 pm
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Apologies for my grumpy post above.  I was somewhat tired and frustrated 


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 6:37 pm
leffeboy reacted
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Posted by: Mark

We found a slow query in our database operations that means there's sometimes a big delay between hitting submit and the page refreshing.

You don't mention the fact that after the slow refreshing hurdle it still sometimes takes up to 2 hrs for posts to actually be visible - hopefully you aware of that too 👍 


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 8:10 pm
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Nothing to add really except thanks, but also that it's always really good to get the behind the scenes stuff, people tend to just assume there's nothing happening or that there's not good reasons for things, always helps to know more I think?


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 8:43 pm
Posts: 24
 

We are aware that the forum cache is getting stuck and this means some posts don't appear until I hit the reset cache button. It’s on the list..


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 9:24 pm
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I hope you're kicking back with a well deserved relaxing beer whilst still updating us in here, Mark.


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 10:00 pm
 Mark
Posts: 4381
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Sort of 🙂


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 10:28 pm
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I like the new forum but can't find lots of recent threads - maybe cos they are long standing 

 

Hope you guys are having a cold one 


 
Posted : 08/02/2025 10:36 pm
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Cheers Mark, I'm glad it's going well. Any news about another raffle?


 
Posted : 09/02/2025 12:10 am
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Ooo, clicking on a thread title seems to now takes you to the last post.  Are you getting any sleep?  Nice and responsive this morning too but I guess it's just not busy yet


 
Posted : 09/02/2025 7:28 am
Posts: 24
 

We have raffle plans. Just trying to get the prizes in place. Standby. News likely this week. 


 
Posted : 09/02/2025 8:09 am
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Step away from the forum! We'll manage until working hours tomorrow. (Says the bloke who sometimes checks work email at the weekend! Do as I say. . .).


 
Posted : 09/02/2025 9:51 am
ThePinkster and leffeboy reacted
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Well I posted a reply, moved to another tab whilst it was uploading and the forum ate it!


 
Posted : 09/02/2025 9:54 am
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Says the bloke who sometimes checks work email at the weekend!

Yeah, you probably need to stop doing that (says he who’s not long done just that)


 
Posted : 09/02/2025 2:43 pm
 mboy
Posts: 12647
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Hey @Mark...

Any reason why since the new forum, every single time I open a page, this warning comes up on my browser now...?

"Do you want to allow “ https://singletrackworld.com” to use up to 7 GB of storage on your Mac?"

Seems like a hell of a lot of memory the forum wants to cache on my laptop, no...? 🤔


 
Posted : 09/02/2025 9:35 pm
Posts: 24
 

It’s a bug in WebKit on Safari. 
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/safari-website-wants-to-use-over-1gb-storage.2232083/


 
Posted : 09/02/2025 10:08 pm