Hey all. Sorry about the down time we've been having. The boards have become extremely busy and that's what the problem has been.

Fortunately, the web hosts were very helpful and we've made a few changes. You can no longer search ALL forums for a query. Also, advanced searches of the members list have been turned off.

In time, these features will be re-enabled. But for now, while money is tight, this is the best way...

Hopefully, there will be no more shut-downs! Please let me know if there are any.

Thank you very much!

Thanks for letting us know. I was wondering why earlier I couldn't get into the xchange.

Thanks for the info, Sal.

I usually get in here late so I didn't even see the shutdown.

I've been noticing that the site was inaccessible at times. Thanks for clueing me in.

I got cut off a couple times...was only temporary though...I was able to pop back on after about 3 or 4 minutes. The stuff you cut back isn't really needed anyway...at least not for me :p If it helps performance, I'm all for it :)

I haven't had any problems yet, but thanks for letting us know what to look for. I'm pretty sure we can all deal with a few minor cutbacks if it keeps the house door open! :)

Wow! It's changed again!! Long time since I was last here huh?
Just popping in to see how things are going, and to let you all know I'm still kickin' :D :goofy:

Originally posted by Sheibub
Wow! It's changed again!! Long time since I was last here huh?
Just popping in to see how things are going, and to let you all know I'm still kickin' :D :goofy:


Sis! Finally! I've missed you. :( Good to see your still alive! :D

Welcome back Shei! Did you notice? We got our smilies back!!! :D

Now then...where's my tskin? I've worked hard on my baddie-ism in your absence..:lol:

Originally posted by Roemello
The stuff you cut back isn't really needed anyway...at least not for me :p If it helps performance, I'm all for it :) [/B]

Same here, Roem. :) Maybe some extra features which are not in use that much, could be turned off for good??

Why not eliminate a forum or two that are never used? I tried to revive the "Favorite Night Clubs" forum, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic there. Might free up some space for you. Maybe I should have said this in the Suggestion Forum? Anyway, I didn't figure that this suggestion would be really appreciated, but there are a couple other forums I check that suffer the same fate. But I didn't want to ruffle any feathers. :(

You can ruffle my feathers anytime honey :lol: ;)

Anyway, even if we do disable certain forums, they're still in the webspace...Sal keeps all the one's we've merged in the past...kinda like an unseen archive. If a forum is inactive, it's actually doing less harm...less weight on the server, less bandwith use, so that's not really a problem. This site has just gotten so active it puts a big strain on the server which makes it necessary, whether we like it or not, to upgrade and increase capacity.

Any feathers, or just the ones on your back? :naughty:
:lol: J/K

Well, OK, see why I don't have a website? I guess I'll just stay outta those forums to save webspace for ya, then! :) No biggie!

No more shut downs. Right? Has things been better over the passed day or so?

Things have definitely been better on my end, Sal. No problems for a couple of days now. :)

Haven't been here since Saturday night, but I haven't had any problems since that one day/night that it was acting up :)

Umm..just have noticed that the server acts kinda sluggish from time to time. Sometimes, after replying or setting up a new thread, I only get the error message that the server can´t be found. 5 - 10 minutes later, it´s okay again, but the overall speed is way slower than with the old board. By the way, this happens independent from the time I´m logged in.

And...after trying to open a thread (Arts & Literature) in a separate window, I got a 403 (Forbidden) error. Am I a hacker now? :D

I got that same Forbidden Error a few times tonight Wave, trying to do the same thing...opening a separate window. It's the only way possible for me to get through every post since my last visit without missing a beat :)

Roem, I have found out that it could be a problem with the banners featured here.

Got the 403 several times again until I´ve noticed that the page wasn´t completely uploaded. After interrupting the upload by clicking on the 'X' of the browser, it worked fine again (only thing missing was the bottom banner).
That´s probably also a reason why the site acts sluggish sometimes.

I've actually been suspicious of that linkexchange banner down there causing problems in the past...even since the days of the first version of UBB we got, but it's something that I guess brings in more visitors, so it's a necessary evil :p

If that banner is causing a problem, it will be gone. I sent an email to the web host. Let's see what they say. We'll probably have a no-banner trial...

...at least today (12.29 pm EST).

Forum is quite slow, and temporarily unavailable.
More 403´s, even when changing to another site and coming back. Closed the Explorer and restarted it.

Am I the only one with this problem? :(

I just got on about that same time and haven't had any problems as of yet...forum's moving nice and fast too...

Originally posted by wavemaster
...at least today (12.29 pm EST).

Forum is quite slow, and temporarily unavailable.
More 403´s, even when changing to another site and coming back. Closed the Explorer and restarted it.

Am I the only one with this problem? :(


Wave, I was getting that message last night around 8pm EST

Hi all. The web host is looking into the problem as I'm writing this message. They feel the problem may be found - and it may not be us. I'm hoping that it's not us overusing the MySQL server. If everything turns out alright, things should be back to normal with no errors very soon. I'll post whatever I hear as soon as I hear it...

Thanks....I thought I was losing my mind!! I was done posting, and went to go back, and got the Forbidden 403 message. Tried a dozen things, finally just restarted the whole stupid computer.

Glad that it may not be us, Sal. That would be a relief!

So if you wait for about ten minutes and come back, you can get in? I just got here, but on Monday I was getting the sluggish upload and 'Cannot find server' message, and couldn't get in for about a half hour.

I usually just keep hitting refresh over and over until it lets me back in....I will not be denied!! :lol:

Mmmmmmmm.....persistence. :smooch: :naughty:

Unfortunately, this has become a problem. vBulletin requires a database server and it doesn't seem to hold up very well to high traffic. I think we've been moved to a different server but we're still having the problem. Hopefully, somebody figures something out soon. I would imagine there were no problems like this with the other system. Am I correct? Were there ever times when a page could not be found or you got some other error? If so, was it nearly as often as now?

Unfortunately, I have to say that the previous system was a little bit faster and more reliable than the current.

I´m saying unfortunately because I can imagine that you have put a lot of work and time in it in a effort to improve the 80sxchange (it´s still on top for me! ;)), and after I got deeper into the functions, I like it better than the UBB.

It´s strange...other boards are also using the vBulletin system, and I have never experienced such failures there. The only thing that I have noticed with vBulletin is that the topics are unavailable from time to time, but no such things like the frequent 403´s and 'Page not found'-errors.

I´m also hoping that the system admins of vBulletin will figure out a solution soon. As I have mentioned before, there might be a problem with the LinkExchange banners on the bottom of the pages - they are often not properly loaded (a 'Page not found'-error appears frequently). The 403´s are often occuring when the banner is not completely loaded, when I´m interrupting the page download process, the board is working for me again in most cases. I´m supposing that this is the main source of all the problems with the board.

The last board was a little faster, and I rarely ever got an error message, and my posts never disappeared. I just figured these are some kinks in the new board and would eventually be worked out.

Is this going to be a permanent problem, or will the server be able to get this fixed eventually?

Disappearing posts? That I can tell you isn't a kink...only way posts disappear is if someone manually deletes them. I'm at least 90% sure the board don't eat posts on it's own....

It's a little slower but I can deal with it :D So far that's the only thing happening on my end, I haven't had any errors at all.

Speedwise, this system should be quicker. In the beginning, everyone was talking about how fast it was. The problem is - at that point, we were getting around 7000 pageviews per day. Now, we're getting 17,000 pageviews per day.

Remember that half a million mark I used to talk about? Well, we're passed it. All in a matter of 2 or 3 weeks. We're heading towards a million pageviews per month and we will be there in no time at this rate.

Anyhow. This is the reason for the slow down. There weren't any Database errors last night. That's cool. Other problems I cannot be sure of. But, there should have been no MySQL Database errors last night.

Were there any that I wasn't informed of? I really have to think about moving to a more dedicated server shortly. Hopefully, either my e-book picks up and sells more or my new business idea gets going right away (not started yet). If either of these happen, I can afford to get us into something better.

A dedicated server would cost me about $300.00 a month. That's cash I just don't have anymore... Where there's a will, there's a way. Something will happen...

Originally posted by Roemello
Disappearing posts? That I can tell you isn't a kink...only way posts disappear is if someone manually deletes them. I'm at least 90% sure the board don't eat posts on it's own....
What I mean by 'eating' my posts is, I will reply to a thread, and hit "Add Reply" and it won't do anything. Sometimes it just never goes in, and I have to go back into a thread, retype my message, and post it. Sometimes it doesn't show up, no matter what. I get sick of typing it over and over, so I give up.

Maybe this is a side effect of the 'high traffic' problems we're having right now?

oooooooh....ok :p That happens to me sometimes...it just hangs up and doesn't load the post in. When I think that's about to happen, I usually go back and copy the message and paste it in on the second try...probably is just the high traffic slowdown :cool:

I keep getting error messages and bad slow downs tonight! It took me over a half an hour to get back in to make this reply! Just thought I'd let you know why there probably aren't too many people here right now. :)

Yeah, we know the reason behind that one. The server was being upgraded today. It was supposed to be just for an hour, but ended up coasting just a wee bit longer...:p I think it's done now though :cool:

I have to undo the hack that shows how many posts and new threads there were today. That will help. That hack was a bad idea.. Way too server intensive..

As soon as I get home today, this will be straightened out...

That's no biggie...was interesting, but not a major necessity. We can still find out those stats through the stats thingie backstage if anyone ever wanted to know anything about the avg activity level here :)

Okay. That's gone.. The top 25 thread starters is gone - and the Who's Been Here Today is gone as well. This will bring us back up to a faster moving and more reliable system.

The web host changed a setting or two to keep things moving until I fixed this. Now that I've fixed it, they will undo what they've done and things will get even better...

(There will probably still be hicups.. Just let me know when they occur...)