Author Topic: Server move  (Read 7156 times)

Ramsus

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Server move
« on: January 09, 2014, 04:04:22 pm »
This weekend we will be moving servers. The site will be scheduled for downtime from Saturday, January 11th to Sunday afternoon'ish (US Central Time).

Ramsus

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Re: Server move
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2014, 09:59:40 am »
If you're here then you're seeing the site on the new server.

Lennis

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Re: Server move
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2014, 08:48:50 pm »
I knew a server change was coming, but I didn't know there would be so many changes to the Compendium's layout.  What happened to the front page with all the timely news updates?  What happened to to all of the music links on the right?  Is this temporary, or is this the way things are going to be from now on?  I sincerely hope it's not permanent, because the way things look now, the Compendium looks like the archive of a dying website rather than the gateway to a thriving community.  I say that with no disrespect to Ramsus or anyone else involved in the switch.  I guess I'm just in a state of shock at seeing my sometimes online home stripped of all of its paint.

Ramsus

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Re: Server move
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2014, 09:13:45 pm »
What you're seeing is the bare skeleton for the site's rebirth as a modern website. The forum and wiki software has all been updated, a frontend cache has been added for performance, and legacy code has been dropped. The layout for the site is being adjusted to be mobile responsive, so the site will be pleasant to use on all modern devices.

Expect to see a lot of changes over the next month. In particular, expect more emphasis on using the wiki and granting members editing and page creation rights.

FaustWolf

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Re: Server move
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2014, 09:29:35 pm »
Whooo, sounds like it's gonna be an interesting ride! Thanks for all the work you're putting into this Ramsus.

When all is said and done, will news submissions copy over to the front page like they did before, or should we expect to see a different system for that?

Lennis

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Re: Server move
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2014, 10:02:53 pm »
Thanks for the clarification, Ramsus.  Looking forward to seeing the final result.  :)

Ramsus

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Re: Server move
« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2014, 11:55:55 pm »
I knew a server change was coming, but I didn't know there would be so many changes to the Compendium's layout.  What happened to the front page with all the timely news updates?  What happened to to all of the music links on the right?  Is this temporary, or is this the way things are going to be from now on?  I sincerely hope it's not permanent, because the way things look now, the Compendium looks like the archive of a dying website rather than the gateway to a thriving community.  I say that with no disrespect to Ramsus or anyone else involved in the switch.  I guess I'm just in a state of shock at seeing my sometimes online home stripped of all of its paint.

I had to throw out the old system because the CGI script for the news page was showing it's age, and the forum hacks I'd done to integrate it into the news system were holding back some important forum updates. The caching setup was also eating up a lot of system memory, making it impossible to fit into most hosting plans.

I had to throw out the old layout because the forum and wiki were several major versions out of date, and there have been updates to the skinning and template systems that made it more work to keep it than it would be to start from scratch. The site's been needing a mobile responsive redesign for a while now, so it had to go eventually. It'll be a while before I'll have a chance to work on the redesign, but I can start laying the foundation for the skins/templates in the meantime.

The old remix library that hadn't seen any use in the last few years was thrown out, because the PHP libraries for the database it used had long since been deprecated and removed in newer versions of PHP.

So really, I'm saving the site from dying a quiet death of legacy cruft and growing incompatibility with modern hosting.

In other words, don't panic because everything's looking plain all of a sudden. It's what's under the hood that counts, and what's under the hood is seeing some major updates and improvements.

Ramsus

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Re: Server move
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2014, 12:11:40 am »
Honestly, I'd also like to see more community use of the Encyclopedia/Wiki and the Forums, which is another reason I put the Encyclopedia up as the homepage while updates to the site take place.

Kodokami

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Re: Server move
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2014, 01:11:24 am »
Yeah, thanks for doing this, Ramsus. I'm looking forward to seeing how things change.

Ramsus

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Re: Server move
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2014, 08:49:42 pm »
Test

Magus22

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Re: Server move
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2014, 04:10:33 am »
Thanks for keeping the dream alive Ramsus!

Chrono Break news will look great with these upgrades :)