We're going to make some improvements.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

Dear ladies and gentlemen of Brass Goggles...

In light of the recent outage, we’d like to take this oppurtunity to inform you that we’ll be making some changes to the site in the not too distant future.

The aim of these changes is to re-affirm Brass Goggles as the steampunk forum, to make Brass Goggles easier and quicker to use, to provide more specific categories for things like crafting and items for sale, and to broaden the scope of the site. For example, we’ll be adding a new child board or two,  and we’ll also be looking at investing in some new artwork for the board.
Further to the above, we’ve come up with a new solution which we believe will minimise the effects and frequency of any avoidable downtimes we might get in the future.


We’re open to questions and suggestions   

[aldebaran]

That sounds good. Thank you.

[vela]

Yup, sounds lovely!

[JingleJoe]

What have you done with the spell check?

[aldebaran]

What have you done with the spell check?

You could use Firefox or Chrome...they have built-in spellcheckers.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

What have you done with the spell check?

I didn't know we had one 

I'll go and ask for you.

[akumabito]

Ah, brilliant! If you guys need some photoshop work done, just let me know, ok?

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

Here's an update for you:

You may have noticed that the member count has dropped from ten thousand to six and a half thousand. Harold's just completed the purge of inactive members according to the conditions above.

Next: We'll look at getting some new art.

[JingleJoe]

Next: We'll look at getting some new art.

And bringing the spellcheck back I hope

[proteus]

Next: We'll look at getting some new art.

And bringing the spellcheck back I hope

Spellcheck requires the installation of a new package (aspell) and recompiling PHP with pspell library support. Since the overwhelming majority of modern browsers support their own, superior spellcheck for text fields, I don't see a compelling reason to take significant action to enable a feature that will reduce stability to serve a minority of users.

I'm open to evidence and argument to the contrary; I also remind folks that there is a place to submit bugs -- http://dm914.fogbugz.com -- so if you feel there's a bug or enhancement you'd like, go there.

[vela]

Agreed, Proteus.

It does not require a significant amount of effort for one to check one's own spelling.

That, and the spell-check programmes do not recognise the word "steampunk" anyway.

[dman762000]

I use chrome most of the time (stinkin work and its internet explorer) and the spell check is, in my opnion, better than the one on firefox.

[JingleJoe]

Next: We'll look at getting some new art.

And bringing the spellcheck back I hope

Spellcheck requires the installation of a new package (aspell) and recompiling PHP with pspell library support. Since the overwhelming majority of modern browsers support their own, superior spellcheck for text fields, I don't see a compelling reason to take significant action to enable a feature that will reduce stability to serve a minority of users.

Thats the information I wish you'd given us when it disappeared I had no idea why it was done, of course if it will improve server stability then please, be gone with it!

Although I did still have some trouble connecting to BG in the early hours of the morning, like I allways did while we had a spell check I'm not saying you should put it back, it probably has had an effect but its just ... the instability is still there, I haven't seen a change in stability.

[dman762000]

I would say, and the admin can back me up or shoot me down here,  that there are several reasons for stability issues. It wouldn't be just one thing that would cause it. I for one am all for anything that can improve stability and it seems that the admin and mods have a good plan in place to make this place better. I only wish I could help in some way.

[Endeavour Cull]

Is it possible to take this in account?

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,22110.0.html

Further i like to compliment the people who work very hard to keep BrassGoggles up and running.

[proteus]

Is it possible to take this in account?

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,22110.0.html

Further i like to compliment the people who work very hard to keep BrassGoggles up and running.

Unfollowing posts is a thorn in many a side, including mine. Unfortunately, there's no reasonable way to add that feature until the folks who maintain the software this site runs on (SMF) release their 2.0 version. Sorry...

[proteus]

Spellcheck requires the installation of a new package (aspell) and recompiling PHP with pspell library support. Since the overwhelming majority of modern browsers support their own, superior spellcheck for text fields, I don't see a compelling reason to take significant action to enable a feature that will reduce stability to serve a minority of users.

Thats the information I wish you'd given us when it disappeared I had no idea why it was done, of course if it will improve server stability then please, be gone with it!

Actually, I didn't "take it away" - when we moved servers, the new server didn't come with the relevant bits. Frankly, I didn't notice it was gone until you pointed it out.  I then researched what it would take to restore it, and learned that it's probably not worth it.

Although I did still have some trouble connecting to BG in the early hours of the morning, like I allways did while we had a spell check I'm not saying you should put it back, it probably has had an effect but its just ... the instability is still there, I haven't seen a change in stability.

Actually, the site has been far more stable recently than it was for quite a while there; most of the problems people see are during peak periods when we're simply pushing the server (the database, mostly) too hard.  Actually fixing that problem requires either a re-write of the site (which I'm working on, but will take quite a while at this rate) or a significant investment in hardware (which doesn't seem worth it when considering the cost v. inconvenience).

That aside, though, I know we have stability issues - I'm just loath to do anything to make them worse

[tophatdan]

hm, so you did away with spell check because people running internet explored are a minority... lovely...

[akumabito]

hm, so you did away with spell check because people running internet explored are a minority... lovely...

Read again. The new server didn't come with the spell check package, and it was too much of a bother to make it available. And yes, IMNSHO, people ought to step away from Internet Explorer..

[jringling]

hm, so you did away with spell check because people running internet explored are a minority... lovely...

hm, so you say firefox has spell check built in?   

[Laserpunk]

Hi all.

Is it me, or does everyone else experience a major lag? It does not occur on the other forums I lurk. Is this common here?

We had this kind of issue on another forum, and they upgraded to vBulletin. Now its ultra fast, and has tons of cool options (profile, smilies, quick replies, donation bar, ect). It might be a better option.

[aldebaran]

I experience lags, too. The other boards I'm on use vBulletin and Joomla, and load faster.

[proteus]

Yes, the site is slow. This is for a few reasons, not the least of which is that we have nearly 7000 active members -- which most forums do not. Most forums of this size operate on about triple the hardware we do, with separate servers for application and database. We don't. We also don't run ads, and are entirely supported by member donations and the donated time of admins and moderators.

vBulletin *is* very nice software.  It's also $195 per license. (And actually, its speed comes at a RAM footprint cost that would increase the price of hosting as well.) That's a good 6 months of hosting.  SMF is free.

On top of that, I inherited a blog and forum that was sort of patched into existence -- and despite the slowness and downtime, has managed to deal with over 700,000 pageviews a month on the blog alone; and the forum gets nearly 10x that.  I know it doesn't seem like it, but it has actually been getting better (the stats prove it, though the improvements are so minor at each change that they don't feel any different) as I've been tweaking to find the balance of performance and stability.

Seriously, I understand that it can sometimes suck to use a slow-ish site; but instead of just grousing, here's what you can do to help:

• Know a lot about Apache or MySQL tuning?
• Have a high-performance, high-bandwidth MySQL server I could offload the database to?
• Have a high-performance, high-bandwidth Web server I could offload the applications to?
• Want to start a funds drive to add an additional server for the database?
• Know a hosting provider that would donate (or deep-discount) a high-end VPS or co-location plan?

If you answered yes to any of these items, let me know -- I'm glad to accept any useful help.

[Laserpunk]

We had a huge raffle when they needed money to upgrade the sever on the other forum I'm on. People donated bits and pieces, and used a small portion of the raffle money to purchase a decent grand prize. It worked well, and we got our new server. I'm sure people here have enough (junk) goodies that it would create a huge prize pool. You just need someone you trust to run it.

[aldebaran]

When I said that I experience lags, that wasn't intended as a criticism. It was just an observation.

I know diddly about web hosting, but if it helps any, my fiance uses Dreamhost for hosting and gets server space from VPS Link. /suggestion