Complaints II

[Reply #240 on:]

Could you not look up a member's last posts before?  I've been able to look up mine. 

Let me know if he gets around to fixing the spoiler tags.

[Reply #241 on:]

No, the link for showing last posts (at the bottom of the profile menu) stopped working after the php upgrade, iirc.

And if the new controls at the top were added long ago, I was clueless and missed the fact!

[Reply #242 on:]

A request to sort a first-level group by user takes a very long time. For example,

https://www.peelified.com/index.php?board=1.0;sort=last_post;desc
took
Page created in 34.849 seconds with 34 queries.

Ed: Sorting by time is quick
https://www.peelified.com/index.php?board=1.0;sort=last_post;desc
took
Page created in 0.146 seconds with 32 queries.

Ed2: Sorting by subject is slow:

https://www.peelified.com/index.php?board=1.0;sort=subject
takes
Page created in 50.509 seconds with 34 queries.

Maybe some extra indexes? DB stuff I've always avoided, it's not easy.

[Reply #243 on:]

I will confess, PEEL management has taking a backslide in later months.  Particularly since we moved, as all my spare energy has been focused on the new house.

That being said; it definitely looks like a lack of indices on those tables.  But it could also just be back queries.  We are running a relatively modern SMF behind the scenes, which is also why we have some (a lot, quite frankly) remaining template/theme issues.

[Reply #244 on:]

PEEL is running, and that's the big thing, thanks.

[Reply #245 on:]

This is not a complaint, per se, really just a sanity check: Has it always been the case that, when directly replying (by literally clicking the “reply” icon on a specific message) to a PM, you still must type the name of the person to whom you’re responding in the “To” field? I guess I haven’t received a PM since the PEEL Upgrade, but when replying to one just now I got a little error message when going to preview that no recipient had been selected.

My question, then: Did the “To” field on a reply PM used to auto-populate, or have we always had to enter it manually? (Again, this is not a complaint—adding the recipient’s name myself is no inconvenience—but I literally cannot remember how things used to be.)

[Reply #246 on:]

I am pretty confident that of what you speak, Gorky, is a regression.

[Reply #247 on:]

Alas, my fair duck, entropy is the way of all things.

A separate issue I've just encountered, because I wanted to change my time zone settings (as noted here, they've been wonky ever since the upgrade): clicking any of the options under the "Modify Profile" header leads to an error message informing you the system is "Unable to load the 'edit_options' template."

[Reply #248 on:]

I don't know if it's a hosting issue or something else, but I've been getting a lot of slow page loads and "PR_IO_TIMEOUT_ERROR" errors on PEEL over the last day or so. It's not happening for other sites and I still have a bit of memory headroom so I'm guessing that it's not me.

[Reply #249 on:]

I do not have a frequency for this, but from time to time, the server runs out of memory.  That requires a restart of the httpd, the mysqld and the varnishd daemons.  Right now, I have to do this manually.  I am thinking about how to automate it.  It seems to be primarily the httpd daemon that's the problem.

[Reply #250 on:]

Thanks! If it didn't cost so much to ship stuff overseas, I have a reasonably extensive collection^* of memory modules compatible with various computers manufactured over the past two or three decades. Sadly, I recently discarded all the 1, 2, 4, and 16MB SIMMs that I've had since the early '90s. I may even have some RDRAM kicking around.


^*Yes, you guessed correctly: I have a couple of boxes full of random, unsorted RAM piled in haphazardly.

[Reply #251 on:]

Anti-compliant here: blast fax kudos all around to the Planet Express (Employee Lounge) crew for getting the site back online so quickly today!

[Reply #252 on:]

^Seconded! I was wondering if the site was down or if my browser was just being wonky, but in any case I think the issue was resolved in less than 12 hours—which is good in general but especially impressive considering PEEL is a nearly defunct message board devoted to a niche sci-fi cartoon, the day-to-day maintenance of which is the sole responsibility of an exceptionally busy Danish gentleman.

[Reply #253 on:]

I wondered if the site might finally be down for the count.  I wasn't really sure how to feel about that possibility.

the varnishd daemons

That would make a pretty good name for a rock band.

[Reply #254 on:]

I do not have a frequency for this, but from time to time, the server runs out of memory.  That requires a restart of the httpd, the mysqld and the varnishd daemons.  Right now, I have to do this manually.  I am thinking about how to automate it.  It seems to be primarily the httpd daemon that's the problem.

Could you get a poking finger carved out of a fine plastic block, and set up on a timer to just prod the power button off and on once every few days?

[Reply #255 on:]

A little bit of post-mortem.  SlimmyCGEF is actually the owner of the domain itself.  Some years ago, mArc transferred the ownership of the domain to Slimmy, but Slimmy did not change the registrar.

About a month ago, someone tried to impersonate Slimmy by calling the registrar, in order to terminate the contract and transfer the domain to a different registrar.  Fortunately, the registrar was smart enough to not simply hand over the auth tokens (needed to actually make the transfer) to them over the phone (or to any email address they provided), but send them by email to the address on the account (which was still Slimmy's).

Slimmy missed this email, because it was all in German (Slimmy is Belgian).  However, since the registrar deemed that the domain was now out of their control, they deleted all the records they had on the domain (and thus clients were unable to resolve the correct IP).  When Slimmy found out yesterday, he used the auth tokens in the email (still valid) to transfer the domain to a local registrar, that he was more familiar with.

He could then change the nameservers and the DNS records on the domain, allowing it to point to the correct IP again.

So I appreciate the compliments, but I feel Slimmy deserves the credit on the quick turn around on this one.

[Reply #256 on:]

Slimmy slim-slam wozzle!

Thanks for the post-mortem—I was curious. And now I'm even more curiouser, because who in the world would even go through the trouble of engaging in this cloak-and-dagger subterfuge for such a niche domain? Does PEEL have a secret arch-nemesis? Would a more-or-less reputable corporation who might be introducing a new brand turn to a shady service to scour the internet and attempt to buy up all domains containing a soon-to-be trademarked or service-marked name or phrase? Have we somehow wound up in the middle of a high stakes geopolitical battle?

A couple of minutes noodling around found many businesses with variations of "PEEL" in their names, but no clues regarding any newcomers who might be interested in obtaining peelified.com. Quick, everyone to the Mystery Dome!

[Reply #257 on:]

Could be Big Banana. They were ruthless in Central America in the last century, that same lack of ruth may still apply.. to their domain-name acquisition.

[Reply #258 on:]

I hope James Bond becomes friends with Mr. Fry!

[Reply #259 on:]

Damn I need to stop staring at the sun

[Reply #260 on:]

If it's not too much trouble, could we get the various "modify profile" options fixed? I'd like to update my signature to something less... broken.

[Reply #261 on:]

I might look into this this weekend, which I hear is soon.

[Reply #262 on:]

I like to post.

[Reply #263 on:]

The profile page should now be entirely revamped.  I basically just use the default theme's template as a basis.  Should look a bit more sleek now, and it should work.

[Reply #264 on:]

Oh hell yeah, I can finally reset my time zone to Eastern time. The update looks and works great, Svip—thanks!

[Reply #265 on:]

Hm, did Gorky make her post just as I was creating the messages.subject index?

Edit: Regardless, I created an index on subject for messages, so this URL now performs in under 1 second: https://www.peelified.com/index.php?board=1.0;sort=subject

I am confident Gorky happened to post, just as I was updating it.  Reasonable, considering it took like 5 minutes.

Edit 2: Honestly, Gorky, you should edit your posts to be blaming someone else!  Like me.  Or the government.

Edit 3: Just for a little context; Gorky accidentally posted the same message 3 times.  But it was totally my fault, so I deleted them.  Unfortunately, they will not count towards Gorky's goal of many posts.

[Reply #266 on:]

Edit: I blame no one but myself and my happy trigger posting finger. But Svip, thanks much for deleting the superfluous posts. I know I’m on a mission to 10K posts, but I want to do so on my own steam.

[Reply #267 on:]

No fake posts!  Only true honest posts.

Also, I made sure to keep the ICQ, MSN Messenger, AIM and YIM logos around for the profile page.  You can still see them on mine.

[Reply #268 on:]

Oh my I haven't logged into AIM/YIM/MSN/ICQ in such a long time. 

[Reply #269 on:]

Since apparently, I'm on a roll, I have decided to also fix the post page.  So now the functions and smilies available should be apparent again.

I had to create a few new icons, but otherwise it was just copying the new template into the PEEL theme.

[Reply #270 on:]

The smilies selection isn't visible for me, although I do see some of the other returning features (like the "attachments and other options" section)

Oh hell yeah, I can finally reset my time zone to Eastern time. The update looks and works great, Svip—thanks!

And my crazy South Australian time zone desires are equally satisfied! It's like Christmas came early!

[Reply #271 on:]

What, you guys didn't like that all times were in UTC?

[Reply #272 on:]

What does Welcome to Saxony mean?  Is it really not at all like Prussia?

[Reply #273 on:]

Nothing like Prussia at all.  I name my servers after former German sovereign states.

[Reply #274 on:]

The profile page should now be entirely revamped.  I basically just use the default theme's template as a basis.  Should look a bit more sleek now, and it should work.

Profiles are indeed now much easier to edit than when I did yet more HTTP-request shenanigans
However I notice the avatar selection still seems to be broken; can that be fixed?

[Reply #275 on:]

Yeah I changed my bio to stop saying R.I.P Futurama and now my avatar is gone. R.I.P y'all ever gonna get around to fixing that by any chance?

[Reply #276 on:]

I haven't changed my avatar in over 20 years. Even that time I came back after a decade long hiatus and some upstart imposter called Winna was using it.

[Reply #277 on:]

Sorry about that, the avatars should work again.  Looks like the site was still configured to use the path for the old server PEEL used to be on.  So naturally, it couldn't find any.

[Reply #278 on:]

Thanks Svip! I always forget this site's changed servers since the 2010 days.

I haven't changed my avatar in over 20 years. Even that time I came back after a decade long hiatus and some upstart imposter called Winna was using it.

I honestly haven't changed mine since like 2012 tbh so I get where you're coming from. I was just taking R.I.P Futurama out of my bio since the show isn't gone anymore, didn't even touch the Avatars but it still took mine down since it was automatically set to No Avatar whenever I edited my profile, it seemed. Glad Svip fixed it!

[Reply #279 on:]

The post preview/edit box is now four times as wide as my monitor, causing the text that would normally appear over four or five lines to need to be scrolled across to read in the preview. I'd hazard a guess that something you fixed when adding back the smilies is responsible.