No, we didn't crash. However, there are some important bugs that needed fixing right away, so we had to have this little time out. The site'll be back in a minute or two and you may have to log back in, but it will be better off for it. Changes Oct. 26, 2009 (4 min downtime starting at 10:38pm) * Too much live data, having to drop some pending the next round of optimizations * Some minor optimizations that have already been completed are going up. Oct. 26, 2009 (2 min downtime starting at 9:14pm) * server is a bit touchy, a quick restart to improve it while I work on the optimization. Oct. 25, 2009 (3 min downtime starting at 8:09pm) * Things are a bit hinky, resetting to smooth things out. Oct. 25, 2009 (5 min downtime starting at 2:05am) * Wall posting is once again working smoothly * Only 14 articles will be shown on the side when viewing articles * Links to Articles in the recent article list when viewing an article are now black * Moderating threads now works smoothly again * User CP link is now re-enabled in the Forum CP * Infraction System is now in place *Users don't yet get notified *Users can't yet see their infractions * Minor translations and title fixes * All people accessing the site is now visible from forum home * Viewing a thread now counts as a forum view in terms of showing people recently viewing a forum * The number of people currently viewing a forum is now visible next to listed subforums * alt-s should save a post * marking a thread as watched should leave you in that thread * Fixed a minor bug that prevented you from marking a thread as read from within a thread * Moderators are now listed in their forums * Can now modify the sections moderated by someone in the Roles tab of their profile * Can now jump to different forums from a dropdown at the bottom of the forum pages * Editing info in a gallery (tagging images) now updates that last update time for the gallery, so the ordering of recent galleries should remain the same after server restart * Paging widgets now have tooltip indicating number of items (except in the galleries, where it's part of the interface, and PMs, where I forgot) * The Forum/Thread icons now show new since last login (and the way last login is calculated was fixed) Oct. 23, 2009 (est 2 min downtime starting at 5:31am) Oct. 22, 2009 (est 5 min downtime starting at 8:50am) * Other Articles limited to 14 on the sidebar (vs 30) * Links in articles are now black * Posting to walls no longer gives a blank screen * Moderating a thread no longer causes an error (will have to check if the same is true for forums) * Shoprep changes for Perry Oct. 21, 2009 (13 minutes downtime) * Noticing a strange database connection leak. taking a few more minutes to run some preventative maintenance Oct. 21, 2009 (est 5 min downtime starting at 8:50am) New features: * Currently online users are displayed in the forums (defaults to 30 minutes worth of people, I think) * Autocomplete in member search takes you directly to their profile * You can now view all previous articles * The list of recent articles on the side when viewing an article is now live (now we just need categorization) * Email notifications link to the Forum/Mail threads Minor updates: * when viewing threads, show the author of the first message in the left column unless viewed by the author, in which case one would show the first person who replied, if there is one. * The external link system no longer causes links to be stripped Oct. 20, 2009 ( 5 min downtime ) * problem with the update, checking things... Oct 20, 2009 ( 5 min downtime starting at: 8:57am) The most recent updates are: * Email Notification for susbcriptions * Email Notifications for PMs * The major IE7 bug fix Friday morning (the fix was small, the impact was large) * Numbers were being split out of search tokens, meaning rx7 would be indexed as rx (and consequently thrown away as being too short). I'm also considering allowing hyphenated tokens below a certain size threshold, or tokenizing them twice... not sure which is more prudent. The site needs re-indexing, but I'm rewritting things to allow re-indexing to happen while the site is live (playing a shell game with out main index table), to eliminate the major downtime associated with this (and the slowdown), but I'll still need about an hour downtime for the full optimization (but stats are showing we can do that once every month or two without a problem) Minor fixes: * Updated the thread icons * Delete button is back in walls and image comments * More boxes/corners have been fixed/removed * Fixed the "Anthony Della Rocca" link * fixed targetting other users in preferences * titles wrap or are clipped in "post bit". No more overlapping with the post (in this case, IE8 is ahead of the game with their CSS3 support, but I couldn't implement that as nobody else is there yet) Oct 18, 2009 (5 min downtime starting at 12:42am) * Minor IE updates * Minor fixes and adjustments Oct 16, 2009 (5 min downtime starting at: 8:09am) Features * Banning interface created for Admins/Supermods (cannot ban admins, cannot ban self) * Made the role setting interface aware of the banning system * Implement a ban history on the back-end * Banned users see why they're banned and when it will be lifted (or Never) * Finished translations for the Preferences page * Marking threads read/unread works from within Forums and Threads (It's smart about it within a thread) Minor * Fixed Banned message display in IE * Fixed bug where "at most" and "at least" in search on number of replies gave opposite results * Recent galleries now have a title on top (limited to 16 or 18 characters that gives a tooltip on mouseover) and the name is at the bottom * After posting on a thread you watch or making a new thread, it no longer indicates that you have an unviewed subscription * Added a cancel button to the Edit Messages View (takes you back to the thread, although not yet directly to the post) * Cover images in articles are now no-count, even when viewed from the article page itself * Marking threads watched/unwatched from within a thread works (it's smart, knows which the thread already was) Oct 15, 2009 (4 min downtime starting at 7:44am) * Fixed Search which had been broken yesterday morning * Fixed bug where default skin made Personal Info page unusable * Fixed preview system (it's now a simpler display of just the message below the text box) * First part of AJAX based message and thread posting is in place (messages need to be inserted without refreshing the page and the double-click still needs to be caught) but the spamming will stop (on this, need to look into other places, but forums should be ok) * Fixed the find all threads by user link in peoples' profiles * Fixed Signature preference page (Admins saw their signatures, not target user's) Oct 14, 2009 (2 min downtime starting at 8:01am) * a quick paranoid extra-backup for all this Osaka stuff Oct 14, 2009 (6 min downtime starting at 7:55am) New Features * separated dictionary system from the rest of the system a bit * User Options for Email & Password/Avatar/Signature/Profile Info (Messaging & Notification is coming) * There is now a Password Reset feature * User's primary vehicle is now shown in post bit, if they have one * MTLVR6 is now a section mod for VW a vendre * Added Member Viewing page * Added Search Entry page for members (autocomplete that jumps directly to profile is coming) * Added a Staff Role * Staff members can have multiple recent gallery entries * Fixed the bug with embedded quotes * Changes to a users roles now take effect immediately, not when they next log in Minor GUI * Made article size larger in 1000px skin * Fixed several dictionary entries for errors * Translated several items in the dictionary for various pages * Pagination in mailbox is now working * The reply box now has the sender's email in it by default in PMs * The original author is now listed first when showing PM threads * Fixed View Message header in IE7 Oct 12, 2009 (1 min downtime) * system seems slow, some emergency cleanup due. Oct 11, 2009 (est 5 min downtime, starting at 9:45am) * Happy Turkey Day * Clicking to last page no longer gives a wrong page (related to yesterday's pagination "fix") * Only Premium and Admins can change their title now * Upgraded WYSIWYG editor * Thread Status icons no longer show everything as having been replied to. Oct 10, 2009 (est 6 min downtime starting at 2:55am) New Features: * Signatures now work the way they did on the old MR. * Titles and Custom titles are in. Custom titles are italicized to identify which ones are fudged (to prevent people from pretending to be things they are not). html and bbcode are stripped. * View Thread count is live * Clicking on the quote button jumps down to the reply area now * Forums and Threads now have status icons * copy paste should be sufficiently tolerant of newlines next to
tags now * fixed defect where links to page numbers in rows of threads were not taking users to the correct pages (this looks like it also fixed #951) * IE no longer shows passwords in the new CP * Adjusted search junkwords list to remove car make/models (except ETC) (but the forum needs to be re-indexed for past posts) * Fixed a bug where empty names/descriptions could cause a page to not load all the way * Now have the option to search on subject (but the forum needs to be re-indexed for past posts) Minor GUI: * Bullets in Shop Reps section no longer have a discolored background * preferences fixed under narrow skin * rounded corners dropped from a few more places (profile/preferences) * PM message announcement is more generic * The new CP buttons are no longer blue in IE * Forum CP should be completely translated now * Red line in Forum CP is thinner * Shop reps names in postbit are now green * Premium member names in postbit are now bold * Forum CP search button now links directly to the advanced search page Oct 08, 2009, 11:19am * Quick but important fix (est 1 min) Oct 08, 2009, 11:09am * Quick but important fix (1 min) Changes for Oct. 08 (est 7 min downtime, starting at 8:am) * Fixed a bug where the not-likely-to-ever-appear deleted profile wasn't loading images properly (compile time problem) * Added Google Analytics (I assume urchin is just those two lines?... and that urchin is google analytics) * Dropped shadows from tables * Dropped rounded corners from tables * Made Display Options table look like the other tables * Added the new CP * The new CP also has the back in history feature from the old MR (I noticed it, it was cheap to add) * Quoting no longer removes linebreaks (unfortunately, not retroactive) * WYSIWYG Editor should behave more as expected with linebreaks. One linebreak =
, no insertion of paragraph tags. * I believe the copy/paste problems were related to the above problem and should now be fixed. * IE6 users get a message that they're not supported * Advanced Search: when searching from the beginning, we just won't pass a value (cleans up the search url) * There is now a pop-up box when a user gets a new PM * Edit Photos now supports captions * Viewing an image shows the caption * When viewing a PM thread, clicking anywhere on the header now collapses/uncollapses the message * If there's just one recipient, no longer show a reply all button in the PM message thread view * Comment wall box now fixed in the 1000px skin * Options header fixed in 1000px skin * Several PM layout fixed in 1000px skin * Some 1000px layout fixes in Edit Options (but more to be done (#941) * Fixes to the CP in 1000px skin * Fixes to the profile in 1000px skin * Miserable users now get a blank page when they log in. There is no option to log out, and barring removing their cookies, they'll get the blank screen whenever they access MR * Banned users get a message that they are banned. They also get the option to log out, so they can still browse the site as a guest. * A version of search since last visit is enabled in the advanced search again Changes from Oct. 06 (est 3 min downtime, starting at 8:49am) * It's missing something... one more moment Accumulated changes up until Oct. 06 (11 min downtime, starting at 8:36am) Database: * re-balancing the Messages table for a little performance boost (extra few minutes, sorry) Updates: * Made the 1100px default look into a skin * dynamic content now part of skins too * Made the 1000px wide skin (still some minor graphics to be tweaked) * Users can now change the skin they're using in their preferences * Switched the default to 1000px wide skin (this is what guest users/everyone else will get unless they switch to 1100) skin * Made minor updates to field names in advanced search * confirmed that forum searches properly respect permissions (tests written) * Advanced Search Translations finished Fixes: * Default search order reset to be last posted message * Multiple soft linebreaks are no longer collapsed when one saves (lots of people hated this, and it's given me somewhere to start for fixing the similar problem with quotes) * Mod tools are back when one isn't on the first page * All the buttons are generated server side, which should help those with older browsers a lot * When setting up the skins, reviewed CSS and images and discarded lots of unused stuff (some of it users were loading anyway) Minor GUI : * Sponsor logo now cenetered in column * autocomplete on sponsor no longer includes their userid Minor GUI (IE7 fixes): * Fixed space between cp and ads on homepage * top profile / top photo image view tabs no longer cut off text * Description text in create albums page is now properly aligned * Description in album is now properly aligned * Some buttons had the wrong colored text, this is now fixed * Article summary on the featured article is no longer cut in half * runner up text no longer looks squished * Image options box is now longer adversely affected by the position of the wall * Gallery Image comment box is now properly aligned * Compose Message text is now properly aligned * Album buttons (save/cancel) are no longer positioned outside of their boxes Changes for Oct. 05 (2 minutes downtime, starting at 8:35am) * My Threads order still not fixed, just one more quick tweak Changes for Oct. 05 (12 minutes downtime, starting at 8:18am) * multiple soft breaks no longer get consumed as one * tool bar is back when not on the first page * ordering in My Threads should be back in place * The default look is now a skin (1000 px is coming shortly, but I'm not happy with this skin system so I'm tweaking it more) * other minor bugfixes Reset for maintenance (Oct. 04, 2009) * Looks like there are some troubles * Since things are restarting anyway, putting in most recent updates (notably IE compatibility fixes and most translations for the advanced search) Changes for Oct. 02 (6 minutes downtime, starting at 7:38am) * Advanced Search now uses a dropdown for times * Advanced Search can now order search results * teknojnky was set as VW for sale mod * Trying to verify an email address no longer sends you to "localhost:8080" * Sticky posts that are really old no longer get removed by the date restriction for viewing threads * Forum view and search results should now default to 35 per page instead of 25 Changes for Oct. 01 (2 minutes downtime, starting at 5:57am) * Minor security issue that needs fixing Changes for Oct. 01 (6 minutes downtime, starting at 5:35am) * Actually, downtime wasn't so bad. Was missing a minor optimization and then we were blazing * Advanced Search is in place, but it is still missing : * the ripped French transaltions from VB * the ability to order the results (very soon, all in place just needs more testing) * search by subject * search by forum recursively * search results as messages (later) * Pagination now workss on "My Threads" and "Watched" threads * Access Denied Messages in when trying to view Threads/Forums that you're not allowed to see * Admins can change other people's passwords without knowing the old one * The search engine changes also affect the permissions system backing the forum, which is now noticeably faster Changes for Oct. 01 (could be quite a bit of downtime, doing more live data testing... 2:34am) * adding the new Advanced Search Code (but not the GUI yet) * other fixes to be otulined in the next downtime tonight. Changes for Sept. 29 (3 minute, starting at 1:40am) * changing section moderator colors * all section moderators are now assigned Changes for Sept. 28 (5 minutes, starting at 1:22am) * Locations in registration are autocomplete, which should speed page loads for Gues users * Options tab is no longer visible when you can't access it * User location is now in postbit * Old location information imported for MR users (looks like a few didn't come over nice, but it looked like I got most) * Fixed a few minor errors in the old location data (two lasalle's and Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier) * Location support in the profiles * Can now change passwords from the profiles * JDMMontreal link in ShopRepresentatives list is now fixed * SubBar in forums is no longer missing its gradient in IE * Table Shadows now include a dark grey border Changes for Sept. 26 (downtime 1 minute, starting 9:34pm) * date updates shows months off by 1. Changes for Sept. 26 * date updates broke viewing mail messages, so that's getting fixed. Changes for Sept. 26 (20 minute downtime starting at 11:58, 6 min downtime starting at 12:50, then at 1:20, then at 1:36) * fixed bug with time display in last version. Time will temporarily be fixed at EST * fixed another bug regarding the display of 'March', added code to give a less fatal error if time formating botches again * Adjusted size/font of breadcrumbs (10pt verdana) * removed rating/rank/popularity till fixed or replaced * added some space around avatar pics in post bit * username in post bit is now 14pt verdana * CP background is now a light grey, no pattern, so one can read the usernames * Join date is now MMMM, yyyy * Dates are now formatted on the server, which should greatly speed up page load on slower machines * Buttons in posts noww all line up onthe bottom (including pm and report) * username in a quoted messge is now just bolded, no longer a link * Quote coloring and positioning should now look more like what VB uses (they go 5 deep) * subheader in posts is now a fixed color * Each post gets its own box/shadow/border now * Added small vertical separation at thetop of each post, reminiscent of a vb style, but just for the visual benefit * Fixed problem with the table shadows in IE. IE is bugged so fell back on sliding window solution * Top profiles will only show if the profile pic is tagged as a vehicle * Admins can edit any article Changes for Sept. 26 (20 min downtime starting at 11:58) * Several gui changes... Changes for Sept. 25 (7 minutes downtime, starting at 3:49am) * Deleting a post properly updates the last post for a thread * Users can delete their own posts/threads * Users can no longer see their own deleted posts/threads unless they are moderators/admins Changes for Sept. 23 (4 minutes downtime, starting at 2:12am) * Fixed the missing corner in the search page table * postbit is now aligned to the top of the message instead of being centered (long posts) * When viewing a user's albums or search results on albums, show the album views * When viewing an image, changed text to read Back to album $album$ * Most buttons are now generated on the server side instead of on the client, which should speed up rendering and help in older browsers * When viewing a thread with deleted posts, the posts are minimized * Can now do standard Forum/Thread actions from subscriptions * Subscriptions now look like search results * Upgraded the look on search results/subscriptions/My Threads (forums clickable and smaller, page numbers and last read post) * Fixed semi-transparent look on the featured article's text summary when using IE * Deleted Threads now appear italicized * Removed some more extraneous code/css from html pages Changes for Sept. 21 (6 minutes downtime, starting at 2:34am) * Top Profiles will now load dynamically on the main page (and in the view profile count) (service thread removed) * Top Photos will now load dynamically on the main page (service thread does less) * Links to your most recent message in a thread (when viewing several threads) now works properly * Some links to threads showed the wrong parent forums, this is now fixed * A login problem from the main page may now be fixed (it wouldn't log you in properly from the main page, you had to go to the forums) * WYSIWYG system is more tolerant of tags inside tags. * Quotes quoting quotes now work. * Edit Quote now captures the original content of the message, not the rendered version * Messages that were badly entered for some reason could still make it to the forum's statistics (causing the weird forum display on the mid-afternoon of Sept. 20th) * Several links didn't work with IE, in particular searching the galleries didn't work right Changes for Sept. 18 (10 minutes downtime, starting at 11:25pm) * Fixing what amounted to a memory leak and correcting a problem where unread threads weren't reliably identified (turns out they were related) Changes for Sept. 18 (10 minutes downtime, starting at 8:40pm) * Minor cleanups in some of the dynamic files to increase load speed (by reducing file size) * With revised logs, we're now analyzing the heap and taking a second crack at that memory leak. We've found a good candidate. * database maintenance, since we're down Changes for Sept. 18 (5 minutes downtime, starting at 5:02am) * old forums member links redirect * Fixed some IE problems that were spamming the logs * Changed a sponsor (Perry Auto) * Cleaned and reorganized logging to minimize server load and memory usage * Added Post count, post count in post bit and user title based on post count * latest thread in forums view is now underlined * Fixed IE8 corruption in first post in thread (not a usual IE8 bug, but a badly placed form that IE was noticing) * Added CP in Article threads and the Watched/Search pages * Fixed up Threads visual by forcing width some more (FF and IE) May address some missing shadows * Coloring of usernames is once again restricted to post bit and CP... will apply in Profile later, if it doesn't look weird * Uploading a bunch of changes to address the Out of Memory issue. It may also improve performance noticeably (ostensibly 5-10% increase in speed... but we'll see): Sept. 18, 12:39am estimated finish 12:44 * the system is having some trouble, so I'm pre-emptively resetting it with some adjustments to make it last longer till I get in the next round of updates Changes Sept. 17 (5 minutes downtime starting @3:27am) * Earlier today premium users got bigger icons * Earlier today swtiched background colors everywhere to the greyer color * Earlier today added a message to the PM boxes with a link to the old message boxes * User names now get colored by role everywhere (except in profiles) * Got rid of the hated hoverbar in all places but error page and added the new CP everywhere (almost everywhere) * Fixed an import bug that we'd fixed on the old beta regarding importing polls from VB. Fewer users (nobody, hopefully) should be getting the "that thread doesn't exist" error any longer * The standalone [quote]sdfsdf[/quote] tag now works * [quote] and [mrquote] now have some extra padding so they don't look so scrunched * Menubar no longer has the option of Recent Messages while logged in as Guest * My Threads is now any thread that a user has participated in, not just ones they've started * Join Date and Profile Views are now visible in the post bit * When viewing forum threads in a forum one has pages to choose from and a means to jump to the last post that you've read * The cookie problem with the remember me checkbox may now be fixed... let me know if it still causes you trouble. * Cleaned up the way the thread title for the Last Message in a forum is displayed (it gets better clipped and is bold) Changes Sept. 16 (3 minutes downtime starting @2:09am) * Better bbcode detection for the older posts and fixes for the bbcode that wasn't detected because of yesterday's update * old mr quotes should now work * standard links should be detected and linked in posts * more IE7 fixes for visuals, like the repeated header (in the forums... there are more... damn you IE7 for not following the spec) * fixed bug where people could post to closed threads * mouseover preview text on thread/message links in most places (forums/threads, maybe not in search results) * Last Post shown for a forum now has the subejct of the thread for that post showing * Changed the titles for threads and artciles in the browser a tiny bit (they're just the title now) * Removed patterned background on buttons as a precursor to a future performance enhancement * "My Threads" link in profiles and search links to all threads started by you Changes Sept. 15 (several downtimes between 1:00am and 3:30am, ranging from 2-8 minutes, intermingled with problems on the forum pages in the live site): ... Things appear awry... it looks like we're almost there... Got it! Changes Sept. 15 (estimated 5 minutes starting @12:39am): * maybe I'll update the right stuff this time... Changes Sept. 15 (estimated 5 minutes starting @12:32am): * better sanitizing of content * recent Posts and Today's Posts * mrquotes don't bunch anymore (the old quotes are coming) * no more wide threads after this (related to the sanitizing), but we'll need to manually clean the old ones out :\ * when you edit add a post, it will take you to the last post in that thread, not the beginning * the search view is updated * Better attention is paid to paragraphs and line breaks when posting * some other small UI tweaks/speed-ups and hopefully more improvements to IE compatibility (IE7) Changes during the (Sept. 13 4:23pm-4:25pm) downtime: * more database optimization Changes during the (Sept. 13 3:15pm) downtime: * more database optimization Changes during the (Sept. 13 2:31pm) downtime: * a very significant optimization on what appears to be an extremely common query. You should notice this one. Changes during the (Sept. 13 1:46pm) downtime: * First Pass At #687 (optimizing the DB a bit so it's not so slow to load forum pages... don't expect a big change, this is the PoC first pass) * Editing posts now works again * If you Edit your post in the first 10 minutes, there's no "Last edited by" message --Stuart