Planned offline-time as well as server-move

[C00Lzero]

Hello~

we are going to move servers this week.
therefore i have to prepare some steps.

in order to keep the downtime as low as possible, i will disable attachment-uploads tomorrow until we have moved. Thus I can keep the forum online as long as possible for normal posts.

forum closure can be expected on April, 16th.

a timetable as well as the current status can be found here:
https://status.akiba-online.com/
I will try to keep it up2date; times are UTC (but it's more or less, whenever i have time to start the next step)

if there are questions, please don't hesitate and ask in this thread - not sure if i want to create a way to contact me, while the forum will be offline - but let's see.

I will try to keep the downtime as low as possible




Things that i'm aware of:

• The search-index is still rebuilding - this will take another hour or two.
• missing filejoker-ads
• where-are-my-likes
• signatures are very small
• set default like-action
• fixing conversations
• increase attachment-size - increased to max. of 20MB
• everything is squeezed into a very narrow column, or at least I can't find the setting for manual width or "auto"; could be good for reading, but not for viewing images, what is mostly being done there - on the bottom left you will find a small icon - click on it.
• useless section "similar threads", but that's so evidently apparent as well
• where are the lists in editor? added now in all versions.
• threads marked as new are not very well visible (standard black instead of previously used orange)
• mouseovers on thread icons don't work currently as announced
• in "watched forums" subforums are not displayed, so unlike previous view it's necessary to watch all of them instead of just the parent; seems like there is no real solution to this one.
• avatars have lost their value; circles are not that much of a problem, as content can be adapted to the new shape, but the size makes it not worthwhile - fixed and back to the large view
• count of messages (posts) is obfuscated and the correct number is not appearing even on mouseover; the same for threads
• onion heads in the smilies section have a bit too small previews for their visual complexity
• replacing the default smileys, since they are really awefull.
• unread threads are not good distinguishable - added a new banner
• sometimes writes to the database time out - changed write/read cluster-nodes; Seems like there are still some problems. Trying to figure out what exactly blocks the database for writing - sometimes... | update: now it looks fine; at least no real error here. Will monitor it till tomorrow
• fixing database-deadlock when updating thread-view - Still some errors in the cluster. Let's wait till tomorrow
• tweaking editor-buttons; there is still some space available
• expand sub-forums
• fix u-15-torrent link
• minimizing footer size
• adding https://xenforo.com/community/resources/uw-dropdown-hover-menu.7709/
• remove akibacdn from our sources; try to load it all locally; It looks like cloudflare does have some very bad connection to our frontend-servers
• notifications are not updating
• Add dark theme
• incrase visibility of quotes https://www.akiba-online.com/threads/change-quotes-in-posts.2004024/

 

[C00Lzero]

as for the new design (yes, the old one is not working in xenforo2 anymore and there is no update)
here's a sneak peek:



a dark theme will be enabled at a later time; It's not yet a high priority for me. Sorry about that, for all the dark-peeps

 

[granatnik]

Will be there any feature/information losses caused by new software, that could be best for users to manually save whatever it might be before the move?

That would be for example signatures or avatars resetting with the new version. Maybe something less recoverable.

Edit: was "New Rei" designed specifically for Akiba? Maybe a public request for a rewrite would work, as I guess it was another user originally?

Another thing: are current links going to be preserved?

 

[C00Lzero]

Will be there any feature/information losses caused by new software, that could be best for users to manually save whatever it might be before the move?

the only data that will be lost are the "likes"; the new version uses reactions; which are more complex than likes.
As for the features: in the Download-Forums the preview-image won't have an mouse-over (at the moment)
I don't think there will be missing anything else (at least i didn't find anything; but a few functions are different)

That would be for example signatures or avatars resetting with the new version. Maybe something less recoverable.

signatures, avatars, attachments will be preserved.

Edit: was "New Rei" designed specifically for Akiba? Maybe a public request for a rewrite would work, as I guess it was another user originally?

no, not really. it was based on an existing theme, which wasn't updated to xenforo2 and we just added some changes and the banner.
a complete upgrade of the board-style isn't worth it; since it's a bit old.

Another thing: are current links going to be preserved?

I don't plan to changing URLs (fun fact at the moment our rewrite-file is 700MB in size)

here's a sneak peek:
View attachment 2432868

I will probably change the blue to a darker version.




update:
main-system is provisioned and the firewall is setup. Routing is also working

 

[granatnik]

the only data that will be lost are the "likes"; the new version uses reactions; which are more complex than likes.

This actually sounds quite critical - I guess I'm not the only one that uses them not just as "thanks", but also a way of tracking what has been read/whatever. Can likes be converted to a default reaction, please? That will be tiresome to redo even bumped-up threads only.

At least saving final statistics beyond top20 would be nice; many will not get to this level again.

As for the features: in the Download-Forums the preview-image won't have an mouse-over (at the moment)

This also sounds detrimental (some DDL subboards are so overflowing with cr*p, that sometimes I regret even doing a "slide-over", even on days when I actually find something good), but hopefully this "moment" won't be too long.

I will probably change the blue to a darker version.

This will be a nice improvement. Even if the entire scheme won't be 1:1, it would be nice to have some familiarity.

 

[C00Lzero]

I did find a solution to preserve the likes.

also ... i have to move the work that was sheduled for today to tomorrow.
Sorry about that.

 

[granatnik]

I don't know how the silent majority feels, but for me days are nothing as long as everything will be finally OK. Keep working in the pace that will allow the safe passage.

 

[reversevil]

If you could disable the the ''tliu223'' from liking everyone's posts on new server would be awesome.

 

[granatnik]

LOL good point, I would correct this a bit: he should be able to like/react only once.

I'm liking a lot of stuff myself, so you know =)

 

[mc Z]

got it, wait for new site

 

[granatnik]

Looking at the forum activity, everyone is already maniacally refreshing https://status.akiba-online.com/

 

[C00Lzero]

The board is active again.
sorry for the small delay.
There were some personal problems.

There are probably still a few errors and some things are now new.
Things that i'm aware of:

• >>moved to first post<<

Perhaps some new rights, i've missed to add to the usergroups.


whoever want to know some more:
style-sheets are a pain in the ass
caching on the frontend-servers did have some errors.
i messed up an ssh-config on the frontend-servers and fucked up hard
database-cluster was broken, the moment it was done syncing (all 3 nodes are now up & running)
let's see what will happen now.

 

[CoolKevin]

Thank You for all the hard work C00Lzero

 

[chesed]

Diggin' the new layout. Very clean. Thanks for going through all the trouble!

 

[Casshern2]

C00lzero, you're hard work is always appreciated, my friend.

 

[PJB]

Great work so far!

 

[granatnik]

Likes work! I think that you can cross out "where-are-my-likes".

Detrimentals or pet-peeves I could find so far:

* everything is squeezed into a very narrow column, or at least I can't find the setting for manual width or "auto"; could be good for reading, but not for viewing images, what is mostly being done there
* useless section "similar threads", but that's so evidently apparent as well
* where are the lists in editor?
* threads marked as new are not very well visible (standard black instead of previously used orange)
* mouseovers on thread icons don't work currently as announced
* in "watched forums" subforums are not displayed, so unlike previous view it's necessary to watch all of them instead of just the parent
* avatars have lost their value; circles are not that much of a problem, as content can be adapted to the new shape, but the size makes it not worthwhile
* count of messages (posts) is obfuscated and the correct number is not appearing even on mouseover; the same for threads
* onion heads in the smilies section have a bit too small previews for their visual complexity

This is what I have found so far. Can be used for crossing out things for be fixed/explained.

 

[CoolKevin]

searches are still a big miss, some searches only do a few results

Edit,
seems to have been reported on another page, (I need 2 monitors)

 

[granatnik]

* everything is squeezed into a very narrow column, or at least I can't find the setting for manual width or "auto"; could be good for reading, but not for viewing images, what is mostly being done there

Found this one thing - on the bottom of each page is a dark blue bar with sections like "About us" and it contains an icon with arrows; it's called "Toggle width" and switches between narrow and "fit to width". Resolved!

 

[C00Lzero]

Likes work! I think that you can cross out "where-are-my-likes".

Detrimentals or pet-peeves I could find so far:

* everything is squeezed into a very narrow column, or at least I can't find the setting for manual width or "auto"; could be good for reading, but not for viewing images, what is mostly being done there
* useless section "similar threads", but that's so evidently apparent as well
* where are the lists in editor?
* threads marked as new are not very well visible (standard black instead of previously used orange)
* mouseovers on thread icons don't work currently as announced
* in "watched forums" subforums are not displayed, so unlike previous view it's necessary to watch all of them instead of just the parent
* avatars have lost their value; circles are not that much of a problem, as content can be adapted to the new shape, but the size makes it not worthwhile
* count of messages (posts) is obfuscated and the correct number is not appearing even on mouseover; the same for threads
* onion heads in the smilies section have a bit too small previews for their visual complexity

This is what I have found so far. Can be used for crossing out things for be fixed/explained.

added this to the first post.
I will try to fix all of them. Not sure about the "watched forums" thing, but we will see.
Already added the list-button in the editor, since this was a small fix

searches are still a big miss, some searches only do a few results

Edit,
seems to have been reported on another page, (I need 2 monitors)

yes. Working on it at the moment.
But i have to wait for the user-modify-script to end. which should be done in about 1 - 2 hours.

also I will then remove the similar threads.