MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
As for Avators and sig???? Is it 1998 again already???
Haha, bagsy the horns-and-pitchfork emoji for mine.
Avatars would actually be useful from an accessibility point of view. It'd be a great help in keeping track of who's who.
Mebe go full “year zero”: Toast the forum history, pretend that pressfit bottom brackets never happened, ban mentioning 26″ wheels and start completely from scratch?
Will he go to the trouble of creating the EvilZone persona this time?
stwexpertsin****geverything
You stole that off me!
I did indeed because I thought it was absolutely brilliant! 👌😍👍
long may it live
Thought Stack Overflow was down then (SO). I really would've been in trouble then!
The downtime was due to upgrading of the software stack yesterday and in which it caused a fatal error to occur while all us devs were asleep at midnight. This was quickly fixed and the site is now back up and running. We expect similar issues may appear over the coming days but we cannot know or expect what they will be before they happen.
Ooo oo, if only there was a way to know in advance if a change works or not. Y'know, a bit like having a Test environment and doing a bit of testing...<sighs>
Hey, I've come on here to moan about the website being down, and you've got the temerity to not only fix the bloody thing but to upgrade it! How dare you allow me to post this message! AAaaaargh.
Ooo oo, if only there was a way to know in advance if a change works or not. Y’know, a bit like having a Test environment and doing a bit of testing…
@bolbo We do have a testing environment and use it for every release. However, not all errors and issues can be resolved within the testing environment. One thing the testing environment cannot test is you as users. We do our best to simulate how you would use the site but there are times when things just cannot be foreseen.
Hey, I’ve come on here to moan about the website being down, and you’ve got the temerity to not only fix the bloody thing but to upgrade it! How dare you allow me to post this message! AAaaaargh.
And offer a refund.
Capitalist.
We do have a testing environment and use it for every release. However, not all errors and issues can be resolved within the testing environment. One thing the testing environment cannot test is you as users. We do our best to simulate how you would use the site but there are times when things just cannot be foreseen.
As with most things in IT, it's the users who cause all the problems... 😁
As for Avators and sig???? Is it 1998 again already???
Tongue may have been firmly in cheek when I typed that...🤪🤪🤪
I was serious about the troll blocker though. 🤬🤬🤬
@bolbo We do have a testing environment and use it for every release
you are so restrained in your replies, well done. I'm actually had to use the 'please stop talking for a moment and listen, if you knew what you were doing you wouldn't be calling me' line today. I hate myself
a little
We do our best to simulate how you would use the site
I humbly submit, there's a major problem with your simulation.
If you're doing any testing and implementation you're doing way way too much actual work and nowhere near enough bitching and moaning to in any way represent your user base
We do have a testing environment
The Sales office? - I personally find that environment very testing - arf arf arf. But also they have a knack of exposing bugs breaking things. They don't think like programmers or in fact anyone with knowledge of how computers work. They're basically animals 😀
I was serious about the troll blocker though.
I've held for years that what this forum needs is a Bozo Filter.
I was serious about the troll blocker though.
Someone on here once mentioned a Bozo filter, I can’t recall how.
😁
Bozo Filter.
I just want to block the ****s. As effectively as the swear filter does.
🤣
Give one of those and I’ll even take out another sub (it’s one of the main reasons I let it lapse).
It’s the old and this is the reason why we can’t have nice things thing. Im not going to engage with them and they have a habit of spoiling certain threads (see the covid thread for example). If I can block them I’m oblivious and aren’t driven to leaving the site in disgust...
Is the STW Tools plugin thing still a, er, thing?
Thought that was for chrome (and I’m on a not so magic iPad running safari). No?
Plus it would be super good to go along with my avatar, sig and like button (thankyouverymuch) 😃
Someone on here once mentioned a Bozo filter, I can’t recall how.
Wasn't it a greasemonkey script?
EDIT: It was. Here is the link: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/stw-killfile-plugin
Does the killfile plugin still work?
Hadn’t really thought about how STW towers was constructed, but now you mention it’s WP, it’s obvious and explains a lot.
Is the STW Tools plugin thing still a, er, thing?
I thought the term was ‘big hitters’?
We do our best to simulate how you would use the site
I humbly submit, there’s a major problem with your simulation.
Aye, I'd agree with that. If it's User testing you need, seems 90% of the users here are in IT and mebbies wouldn't mind a bit of testing... Mebbies the test scenarios need a bit of work if your missing stuff?
Time to form the STW Test(icles) User Cabal? 😉
Hmm looks like if you're not logged in you can't see any replies to posts?
NOT a bug. Its a opportunity for al fresco subscriber interaction.
Also, wow it’s still running on WP!
My thoughts everytime. But then I remember that basically every magazine online runs on Wordpress. It might be customised to the max but it’s still WP. Hell .gov.Uk is run on drupal for the most part so why not?
Perhaps someone forgot to put a shilling in the meter ? 🤔 God I'm so tech savvy I frighten myself sometimes 😁
Perhaps someone forgot to put a shilling in the meter ? 🤔 God I'm so tech savvy I frighten myself sometimes 😁
Bingo! Ironic double post Dad 😂
Just had another blip 🥺
Those 50p's don't last long these days. Thankfully we got another one in.
Well Cougar did promise it wouldn't break yesterday, he never said anything about today.
Maybe they thought you were out riding Weeksy
One thing the testing environment cannot test is you as users. We do our best to simulate how you would use the site but there are times when things just cannot be foreseen.
like opening posts, reading them, replying and starting new ones?
Bit of context here and apologies for the wordy post
I work in online business news publishing. Lots of similarities to STW, though we don't have a forum (thank God). Like STW we are a very small operation that projects as something much bigger, due to the fact we're a publisher. Most of our clients are large professional and financial services firms, often with 1000s or 10s of 1000s of employees, who really struggle to understand that we're 16 people and we're always, always operating at maximum capacity.
We also use WordPress. It's mostly rubbish and our site leaves a lot to he desired (STW looks way better than ours for starters). We've looked at the options in terms of migration to a new platform (off the shelf or bespoke) and it's a 6 figure sum just to get to a point where we have something that might work. Then it's months and months (if not years) of creating fixes for similar issues to those that We've already developed work arounds for.
Fact is we as a business just don't have the time or the money to even put together a proper business plan for this kind of activity, let alone action it. And we don't even have to consider the massively complex ramifications of migrating/rebuilding a large and very active forum.
Having worked in a couple of very large corporations, I believe that I'm qualified in saying that those who have only ever worked thus - and who have grown used to large IT teams with budgets many times the turnover (let alone profit) of companies like STW and the one I work for - have no concept of what it is like trying to keep the plates spinning with a budget and kit that amount to little more than coffee and paperclips.
I for one am extremely appreciative of everything that STW do and deliver, and outages or otherwise consider the £2.50 a month that I spend here (+ the occasional beanie or innertube belt) to be by far and away the best investment of my money that I make, bar none.
That is all
Well Cougar did promise it wouldn’t break yesterday, he never said anything about today.
I didn't do anything of the sort. I can't and wouldn't make that promise about my own systems, let alone one I have zero visibility of.
Most forums I've been part of in the past have died a death pretty quickly after migrating to a new platform.
It follows a fairly predictable path. Forum gets upgraded, people complain about the new layout and style which can't be changed, some people leave because it's not as familiar as they were used to then it never recovers.
So financial issues aside I can see the reluctance to change.
I didn’t do anything of the sort. I can’t and wouldn’t make that promise about my own systems, let alone one I have zero visibility of.
You're right.
It was Drac 😂
FFS stop moaning.
x100000
Aye, I’d agree with that. If it’s User testing you need, seems 90% of the users here are in IT and mebbies wouldn’t mind a bit of testing… Mebbies the test scenarios need a bit of work if your missing stuff?
Time to form the STW Test(icles) User Cabal?
Surely those who moan the loudest about things not working would be the first to sign up as testers but they need a better name - maybe we could call them the Team Who Actually Test STW?
I couldn't get nought but 502 error on Saturday as well.