Archives for the 'Site' Category
Server Move Completed
The move to my new web host is now complete, and aside from a few stragling out of date DNS servers, most everyone should be seeing the site without trouble.
I can finally stop worrying about my bandwidth, as I now have 5TB (yes, that’s 5,000GB) of transfer bandwidth to play with on a monthly basis, compared to the paltry 30GB I had with my previous host. I can rest easy knowing that if I release a new version of an app, I don’t have to wait a month to fix a minor bug. I also have a ton more file storage space, proper IMAP service, plus a whole host of other features I’ll probably never use.
I took the time to clean up a lot of unused and unnecessary files too. Most everything should be okay, but if you come across something that’s broken, please take a moment to drop me a line through my contact page to let me know about it.
Thanks for your patience while I was forced to make such an abrupt change.
Forum Registration Actually Works Now
A quick note; If you’ve tried registering in the forums, and kept getting told the reCAPTCHA you entered was wrong, even when you knew it was right — well, um yeah, that was due to me. It seems I didn’t follow the integration instructions as well as I thought I did, and managed to leave out a necessary part. Silly, silly me.
Anyway. It’s fixed now (and tested before making this post), so if you want to sign up on the forums now, go for it.
We’re Back Online…
Well, it appears we’re back online after being “suspended” for nearly a day. For those wondering, the problem wasn’t with my site. Instead it had something to do with the company who hosts me, which is a hosting reseller — as in they get their hosting from someone else further up the ladder and charge me a little bit more than what they’re charged in order to make some cash.
I have no idea what their problem was, but I think I might need to start looking for a new solution. I’ve yet to hear from anyone after sending support emails and leaving voicemails. That kind of customer service worries me. It’s almost the same thing that happened when my previous host decided to call it quits all of a sudden.
Thanks for bearing with me through this unexpected surprise. More info to follow if there’s anything worth reporting.
And James Huff Giveth Back, Again
Huge thanks and props go out to James “MacManX” Huff this evening! More than once his knowledge has bailed me out of undesirable circumstances — tonight is no exception.
James was kind enough to point me in the direction of a helpful set of instructions for integrating reCAPTCHA with punBB forums in an attempt to neutralize the forum spambots that had me pulling out my hair.
I gave the instructions a go, and am pleased to say that the forums are back online and ready for real users to use as intended. Thanks to James, my faith in humanity has increased by 2.674% this evening, causing a net increase of 1.299% overall — which is a good thing. Thanks again, James!
The Lord Giveth, and Spammers Taketh Away
About two weeks ago I added what I thought was a good idea here at JMO — support forums. I figured it’d be a great way for users to help each other out, and an easy way to keep me from having to answer the same question more than once. Well, it would have worked had the Net not been the kind of place it’s become.
No more than a day after I put the punBB forum in place, I had 4 “new users” all from the -11HR GMT time zone (South Korea, Russia, Taiwan). One of them quickly made a post that contained disgustingly inappropriate content. If you were a reader subjected to that post, let me offer my sincere apologies. I in no way condoned what wound up in that post, and removed it as soon as I found it.
Due to that, I thought I’d give phpBB a spin in hopes that it was more secure from the spamming ilk. Almost as soon as it was in place, there was a new user who’s profile contained a spammy backlink to a diet supplement site. Totally unacceptable in my book.
To say I was disappointed was a major understatement. It’s gotten to the point that a guy can’t run a site without investing huge amounts of time trying to keep the rats from climbing aboard the ship. Since it was obvious it was going to be way more trouble than it was worth, I simply deleted the forums. It will be far easier to answer the same question 15 times than it will to continually hover over forums watching for spam and other filth posted by third-world losers who have nothing better to do with their time (or mine).
So there you have it — that’s what happened to the forums. Thanks to spamming dorks, my faith in humanity has diminished by 1.375%.