Why were the forums down/why is my post count different?

[matthew]

Over the last couple of months we have had to repair the forums database several times. This takes a very long time, because the database is huge. To help us out in the future, we have pruned out a ton of old threads and posts, most more than two years old and completely obsolete.

We are also in the process of adjusting some forum categories and making a few other, less obvious changes.

This is likely to be in process off and on the rest of the day, and possibly a little longer. We do not anticipate the need to take the forums offline again during the remainder of the process, but it could happen.

[Dr Small]

I'm glad everything is back up again!

[DMcA]

I noticed some downtime but it seems fine now.

As for my post count, it makes no sense at all (and I think it's been like this for a bit). It's stuck at 18, despite me having 31 subscriptions and therefore should be >= 31

[snova]

I noticed some downtime but it seems fine now.

As for my post count, it makes no sense at all (and I think it's been like this for a bit). It's stuck at 18, despite me having 31 subscriptions and therefore should be >= 31

Keep in mind posts only count in support forums...

Take this one, for example. It won't change anything. :)

[eragon100]

I am happy they are up, again, but please, please don't close the community games forum because some people think it's a waiste of bandwidth! :wink:

[SonnHalter]

I'm glad everything is back up again!

...cept the "thanks"

[PythonPower]

Interesting... I did have problems logging in earlier. I got to the redirection bit and then I got logged out again. :D

[hyperdude111]

Very odd here, the forums are down for me about once each 2 weeks?

My post count odd too rather than gone down it is about 10 more than I remember??

[gettinoriginal]

Will the changes be listed somewhere when they are completed ?? I noticed that the changes in forums has caused me to loose track of some of my posts, as I always tracked them by forum. If we know what was deleted/combined/renamed, it might help.

[matthew]

Here's what we did so far.

Desktop Effects & Customization - > General Help
Wubi -> General Help
Sun Sparc - > General Help
Partner Repository > General Help
Closed "Other OS Talk"
Removed the FC Agenda category and made it a link to the wiki
Added ubuntu_studio prefix

[kevdog]

Closed other OS Talk? Honestly that was one of the things I really liked about this forum -- the ability to talk openly about other OS's -- but in a more private focused space.

As far as General Help -- what a wastebasket this subforum has become! I actually was in favor of eliminating General Help because it stands for nothing! Obviously we see different on this matter!

Just as an aside -- why the need to prune the forum? Hard disk space is relatively cheap! Is the forum software or the mysql database that limited? Greater than 2 year old posts are still applicable in many cases!

[Eisenwinter]

How about removing users who have not logged in in 6+ months? That should clean the database a lot.

[PythonPower]

How about removing users who have not logged in in 6+ months? That should clean the database a lot.

Some would still come back to find their accounts removed - maybe even after a year!

I have seen UbuntuForums scale for quite some years and it doesn't seem too surprising that scaling is becoming an issue. I'm sure the decisions haven't been taken quickly... But it is a shame none-the-less.

[Thirtysixway]

How is merging things like wubi going to help ease the load? If posts are about wubi, they'll be posted no matter what.

Are there plans to keep a copy of the old threads from years ago? Some of them still end up in google results and still help people.

[Thirtysixway]

How about removing users who have not logged in in 6+ months? That should clean the database a lot.

What about allowing anonymous posts? Then those who have a quick question won't register but still can post their questions.

[PythonPower]

What about allowing anonymous posts? Then those who have a quick question won't register but still can post their questions.

That might become a moderator's nightmare. Spammers' success rates would increase and they would likely abuse the system.

[super breadfish]

Closed "Other OS Talk"

Why? If you want to reduce the load, shut down spamfests like Forum Games, not something as genuinely useful as the Other OS section.

[PythonPower]

Why? If you want to reduce the load, shut down spamfests like Forum Games, not something as genuinely useful as the Other OS section.

That's a good point but I'm guessing the Forums Games section isn't as resource intensive as the Other OS section.

[DMcA]

Keep in mind posts only count in support forums...

Take this one, for example. It won't change anything. :)

Ah, I see. I guess there's some sort of logic behind that somewhere

[scorchgeek]

How about removing users who have not logged in in 6+ months? That should clean the database a lot.

Would there be a way to somehow archive them so that users would have to do something simple to get their account back but wouldn't have it removed?

[cmat]

How about removing users who have not logged in in 6+ months? That should clean the database a lot.

I came back after a long period of time. I would be quite annoyed to find my previous solutions deleted since they are still relevant even today.

[maybeway36]

Maybe we could move the old posts to antoher server and make them read-only.

[PythonPower]

One thing that is possible would be to make another website (that I could create) read all the threads on UbuntuForums. I could then archive all the information contained making it accessible to others.

Of course, the server would need to access UbuntuForums quite frequently and I would need permission from the administrators on this. I wouldn't need any access to the database or anything other than the minimal bandwidth.

If there's interest and it's OK with admins, I'd be happy to code it.

[rod40cool]

I'm glad the formus have been cleaned up. There's nothing worse than searching for an answer to a problem only to discover the solution is for an older version and not applicable anymore.
Well done. Downtime understandable. This forum is the best by a long shot.:)

[Helios1276]

I came back after a long period of time. I would be quite annoyed to find my previous solutions deleted since they are still relevant even today.

+1..also, have the 'thanks' gone the way of the pink lil horsey things? Existing now only in memory?

[Eisenwinter]

I think, as far as the "thanks" feature, it's not such a big deal.

Sure, it does feel nice to be "officially thanked", but I think a simple "Thanks for the help" message is enough.

Having an official thanks can go to a person's ego, and I'm sure you've all seen some users have a "if I was helpful, click the little medal to thank me", in their signatures.

I've also seen one user practically asking to be thanked, in a message.

If you help, do it with joy and love, rather than help out of an attempt to get someone to thank you.

Seeing someone thank you in a message as enough of a reward.

[matthew]

The thanks feature was giving us database trouble. It might be fine by itself, but in combination with some of our other recent issues it was too much. Once we get things sorted out (and we hope to soon, but don't have an ETA), we want to try to restore thanks.

[maybeway36]

Does X threads in one subforum and Y threads in another take up more space than X+Y threads all in one forum? In other words, does splitting a subforum take up more disk space?

[matthew]

Does X threads in one subforum and Y threads in another take up more space than X+Y threads all in one forum? In other words, does splitting a subforum take up more disk space?Yes, but whether that makes a big impact or not depends on a lot of other factors. The impact can range from trivial to great. The answer to this question alone isn't enough to make a good decision, unfortunately.

[DoubleClicker]

how about deleting useless threads, like the "bump" thread.

[maybeway36]

The consensus seems to be that those would just appear anyways.
Also, if I understand correctly, it seems to be threads, not posts, that take up space.

[jenkinbr]

So....

The forums just got back up from a down spell. But they seem to be blazing fast now!

Thanks for all the hard work, Ubuntu-Geek and friends!

[Vadi]

Sad that you had to delete old threads, some had really good stuff in them.

[Helios1276]

I think, as far as the "thanks" feature, it's not such a big deal.

Sure, it does feel nice to be "officially thanked", but I think a simple "Thanks for the help" message is enough.

Having an official thanks can go to a person's ego, and I'm sure you've all seen some users have a "if I was helpful, click the little medal to thank me", in their signatures.

I've also seen one user practically asking to be thanked, in a message.

If you help, do it with joy and love, rather than help out of an attempt to get someone to thank you.

Seeing someone thank you in a message as enough of a reward.

Agreed about the signature thing but twas a nice lil feature. ANYWAY, tis' good to be back!