Results 1 to 30 of 141
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2012-10-06, 05:11 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2005
- Location
- Australia
- Gender
Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
In order to improve the stability of the current forums, as well as to prepare for an upgrade in the future, I switched the forums off to perform some maintenance tasks.
If these tasks were successful, they were scheduled to take several hours. If unsuccessful, we'd know pretty much immediately and revert to an unchanged state. Unfortunately, due to the extremely large size of the forum database, this process ended taking up far longer than anticipated. In the end, I made the decision to dump the entire search index because it was the only remaining table and would take far too long to finish the maintenance. As such, searching has been disabled.
How much this helps the current server remains to be seen, but it's important to remember that these maintenance tasks performed now will reduce the time needed in the final upgrade by an almost 1:1 ratio, as they need to be performed before or during the upgrade. However, it comes with a caveat. Due to the time taken to perform these tasks, I may need to revise and greatly increase the estimate on how long the final upgrade will take.
The services and settings are still being tuned. I will be monitoring and making further changes. So, you can expect the forum to be switched off or unavailable for shorter periods in the future as the adjustments take place.
If stability and speed is greatly improved, I may start the process of reindexing the forums, in order to reenable search. This will take several days and have the effect of slowing the server right back down during this time.
In addition, there will be future maintenance tasks that may need to be performed in the future. This may require the forums to be switched off again for several hours at a time, but hopefully not for as long a time as the recent tasks, until the final upgrade takes place.
"My Hobby: Replacing your soap with gravy" by rtg0922, Doll and Clint "Rawhide" Eastwood by Sneak
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2012-10-06, 05:32 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
I just wanted to drop by and say thanks for all the hard work you, and the other admins do to keep the forum the great place it is!
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2012-10-06, 06:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2012
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Is it likely that we will lose posts in this future upgrade?
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2012-10-06, 06:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Servers are significantly better, thanks for all the hard work!
Originally Posted by Alabenson
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2012-10-06, 07:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
- Location
- Wandering in Harrekh
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
::Gasp cough sputter:: Ahhh!!! Thank goodness, I was having some nasty withdrawal symptoms here.
Way to go, Rawhide! Hope the Search function is up soon. Google should work in the interim.
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2012-10-06, 07:16 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- Where indeed
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Alright! It's good to know what was going on for those three days, and that it'll happen again in short bursts before the final upgrade. I was ailing without my PMs there for a while, so I guess it's time to copy the pertinent ones into a document again so I'm not without them for any length of time.
So hey, thanks for the advanced warning on the rest of these. This one wound up blindsiding me and my little group down in freeform, but I'll be sure to check site issues more often from now on so I'm not caught so offguard next time.
And on that note, tata for now.Julie, everyone's nth favorite succubus, by Gulaghar.
An amazing Misha, Mimi, and Riss painting done by Ofride.
For anyone in plots run by me, know that I always tailor solutions to those in the plot. The answer may not be obvious, but it's there, and doable by the displayed abilities of the present characters. If you need help or hints, I'll try to be available to provide them.
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2012-10-06, 07:21 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Location
- Raleigh NC
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Thank you very much, rawhide. I know it's been a long work.
I second the desire that search functionality be restored when practicable. We might as well start fresh with a new database. There is no value to keeping old posts around if they cannot be found. Inaccessible posts are no better than deleted posts. I'd rather have a clean database with intact search than a tremendous old database I cannot find anything in.
Also, I have a professional interest in mysql. I'm rather curious as to exactly what problems were had, because I intend to construct a similar database for my company.If there are scaling issues that can be better solved by Oracle or Db2 or SQL Server, I'd really, really like to know about it.
Again, thank you very much for your hard work!
Respectfully,
Brian P."Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid."
-Valery Legasov in Chernobyl
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2012-10-06, 07:30 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2005
- Location
- Australia
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
"My Hobby: Replacing your soap with gravy" by rtg0922, Doll and Clint "Rawhide" Eastwood by Sneak
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2012-10-06, 08:09 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
- Location
- Oz
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
I'll just chime in and say that the site is running much, much better for me too. Thanks!
Awesome FE sprites done by Penguinator
My Homebrew:
My characters
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2012-10-06, 08:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
I don't know if you guys can, but it would have been nice to have the info in the news section, seeing as we couldn't get to the forum. Otherwise, I think it already feels faster!
Likely a Placebo effect
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2012-10-06, 08:23 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2005
- Location
- Australia
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
"My Hobby: Replacing your soap with gravy" by rtg0922, Doll and Clint "Rawhide" Eastwood by Sneak
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2012-10-06, 08:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- New York
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Oh, GITP, I have missed you so much. Rawhide, is there a place where I can hug the forum? You know what? I don't care.
*Huggles*My webcomic!
Currently DMing:
Tales of Aequar: Runite's Rise IC
OOC Map
Playing Natalia Bolts,Jadeite Nocrius, and Soren Lowell
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2012-10-06, 08:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2010
- Location
- Lacey, Washington
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Yay, my mandatory forum vacation is over!
^~Cody T.~^
"I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are." - Mewtwo
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2012-10-06, 08:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Me yesterday evening:
Spoiler
Glad to have the forums back up. Thanks for letting us know about the future upgrades.
As for searching, we can always type site:giantitp.com into Google and search that way, so it's not all bad.
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2012-10-06, 09:07 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Germany
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
I wonder if it helped.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-10-06, 10:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
I'd like to mention that not more than 20 minutes ago when I was trying to load a thread I got a "500 Internal Server Error" like I would tend to get back before the 3 days down-time.
So I hope that the maintenance helped in the long run, because I'm just noticing slower load times and that one error so far.
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2012-10-06, 10:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2005
- Location
- Australia
- Gender
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2012-10-06, 11:11 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
- Location
- QLD, Australia
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
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2012-10-06, 11:58 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- San Francisco
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Well, the upside here is that science has been advanced, and I think we can conclusively say that forum addiction is a thing that exists. *shudder*
In all seriousness, thanks for the update, Rawhide, and I do find the site loading faster, at least right now.
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2012-10-06, 12:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
- Location
- Dallas, TX
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Well... it's hard to complain about a free service. I'm just glad we're back, and I can go back to DM'ing my games.
I'm sorry the database was such a handful for you, and I'm grateful for the work you do to make this such a great place to post in.PbP Junk and Stuff:
My Characters:
I am currently not a player in a game, and would be mostly interested in joining 5E games.My Campaigns:
For the Republic of Ishtar! A 5E Campaign
My PbP color is dark red.
My Player Registry
My DM Registry
Jormengand's Advice on Character Development
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2012-10-06, 01:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2008
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
I can use site search on Google if I really need to find something.
Generally it works almost as well, so no worries.
Thanks for all the hard work you put into this site. It is a real treat to be part of such a great community.
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2012-10-06, 02:11 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2007
- Location
- Stuck here
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Inner CircleHomebrewSpoiler
Werewolf GamesAshna and Brendan dolls by RecaidenSpoilerGames Won: 5
BR by Dr. Bath
BR's Bag o' Nuts · The Russkijs · Bushrangers explained
Condiments · Pianos · Tumbleweeds · Drow Bloodline · Half-Drow Noble · Lacy Items
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2012-10-06, 02:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2005
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
And so ends the most productive three-day stretch I've had in six years.
I, too, am grateful to Rawhide for all the hard work keeping all the ones and zeros in line around here.
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2012-10-06, 02:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- San Francisco
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
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2012-10-06, 03:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2005
- Location
- Heidelberg, Germany
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
On the other hand, I don't think there was ever a larger portion of the userbase thinking and muttering profanities while looking at the forum
Spoiler: PbP
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2012-10-06, 03:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
- Location
- Virginia
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
So if search is down, does the fancy searching trick via Google still work? I'm trying to remember how it works, but it'd be something like giantitp.com:Searchgoeshere or something. Right? Would that still let us search for things on the site without the in-site search?
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2012-10-06, 04:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Location
- Texas. It's too hot here.
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
You just need "site:www.giantitp.com" (no quotes) before or after your search terms. And, yes, it will still work just fine, as it's using google and not the forum search.
Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study hard.
Be evil.
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2012-10-06, 04:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
- Location
- Virginia
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
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2012-10-06, 06:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2009
- Location
- I'm sure it's somewhere
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
Regarding the site search. Is it possible to use google to search a specific thread? I've been trying with little results.
Avatar Credit: the very talented PseudoStraw. Full image:Spoiler
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2012-10-06, 06:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2005
- Location
- Australia
- Gender
Re: Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes
"My Hobby: Replacing your soap with gravy" by rtg0922, Doll and Clint "Rawhide" Eastwood by Sneak