Site Issues and Improvements

ApproachMedium wrote:I frankly enjoyed the vacation. Maybe some of us need to take a break. This isnt a lifeline, though mostly for the enjoyment and entertainment of rail enthusiasts. I know I have better things to do so I just kept checking once a day till the homepage came back up. Thanks to those who got the site going again.

Well said.

With regard to missing posts, I was referring to the Metro-North Forum only. That the Metro-North forum's thread list shows there were no posts between Monday March 30th at 2:48 PM and Saturday April 4th at 4:52 PM. That's five full days. It's possible that no posts were lost, that there was just no activity.

As far as there being no information conveyed about what happened and has been happening with the forum, it is what it is. Even Otto used to tell people, basically, take it or leave it. I do think it's a collaborative effort, though. Railroad Net provides the software and we, the users, provide the content. One is dependent on the other. Most forums I use do make announcements about events affecting the site because they want to foster a feeling of community. I realize in part they do that to keep people posting and visiting because ad revenue is user driven. The number of unique visitors are audited by various groups and made available to advertisers. The less traffic the site gets the less attractive it is to advertisers.

But it is what it is. There is a ton of information posted on this forum that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Many of us have contributed links, attachments and images and I personally would hate to see it all lost.

ApproachMedium wrote:I frankly enjoyed the vacation. Maybe some of us need to take a break. This isnt a lifeline, though mostly for the enjoyment and entertainment of rail enthusiasts. I know I have better things to do so I just kept checking once a day till the homepage came back up. Thanks to those who got the site going again.

Hey, I want to second this. Thanks again to all who got this up and running!

I enjoy RAILROAD.net. It is a very nice place to drop into and visit. And it is free!

Thank you to the management and mods!

KSmitty wrote:It would be nice if even just the impression that someone cared about the site could be given. The homepage hasn't had a news update in going on 2 years. The facebook page is equally out of date. Ironically, the last news was "Railroad.net Upgrades Its Widely Popular Forum by EVAN-BRITTON on MAY 26, 2013"

As a member since approximately forever, I share this concern. A short note on the home page explaining that the site was down would have been nice. But maybe Railroad Net is just sort of a free-running entity now without anyone in place to fix problems quickly.

Having said that, thanks to whoever did the work to get the site up and running again. I missed it!

"What we have here is a failure to communicate", or so goes the saying. One of the big causes of failed relationships, too, but this is the wrong place to go there.

I agree with ApproachMedium and toolmaker. Some members here need to lighten up. Stuff does break-down occasionally. And being as it's free, we really have no valid complaint.

The simplest cause of corrupted database might have been shutting down the server with users or phpBB still connected to the database. The procedure needs to be something like disable logins, kick everyone off the application, shutdown the phpBB server, shutdown MySQL, then shutting down/rebooting the system. This needs to be correctly scripted. Perhaps when railroad.net was moved to the current server the shutdown scripts were not updated or misconfigured.

Head-end View wrote:I agree with ApproachMedium and toolmaker. Some members here need to lighten up. Stuff does break-down occasionally. And being as it's free, we really have no valid complaint.

Depends what you call free. In theory, the ads which we all see make money for the site owner. ( and I hope they do, I personally have no Qualms with that ).
But the forums are nothing without the contributors, and the moderators, all of whom give them time voluntarily. I have been a moderator for around 10 years or so, I have never heard from the new site owner once, I'm not even sure who they are.
I think all people are really asking for is to be informed of whats happening, and, especially for moderators, I don't think that is to much to ask.
And yes , maybe the break was good for us , though I have to confess to checking more than once a day.

I agree that I think we're all pleased the forums were restarted. I certainly am. I am active with a railroad historical society in the New York City area and the forum is a valuable source for information. I don't feel I need a break from being interested in that. What I need a break from is work, taking care of a house and worrying about my family!

I think what some people are saying is they wish to feel they are a part of this endeavor. I thank the admins and the moderators too for all they do. But I also thank the many contributors who make this forum worth visiting. I would also note that since yesterday this thread has had over 1,300 views.

The site was down again today. I for one agree with Approach that it is nice to take a break. However, you guys made me curious and I dug a little deeper into the history of this site. Perhaps the issues here are a side effect of us being run on "autopilot":

[Site owner] says he's ringing 40,000 hits a day, and 100,000 searches a month, at his current leading site, http://www.famousbirthdays.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (try Googling 'birthdays' or 'celebrity birthdays' and it pops right up.)...He's put his other sites (including Railroad.net) on "autopilot," with volunteer forum managers updating discussions but no other ongoing investment.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq- ... oIjAEF7.99" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But hey, it's a free forum for us so I don't have much room to complain. I'm not about to pay for Trainorders

That seems to explain what happened.......

Let it run (barely), invest nothing, rake in profits... emulating the Guilford style of management, I guess!

acelaphillies wrote:But hey, it's a free forum for us so I don't have much room to complain. I'm not about to pay for Trainorders

I paid ... I have not been asked to pay for this site but I find it worthwhile to read and contribute to in posts. Hopefully my posts add some value.
The world is full of seeders and leaches. I try to put in what I get out if a site - if not more.

acelaphillies wrote:The site was down again today. I for one agree with Approach that it is nice to take a break. However, you guys made me curious and I dug a little deeper into the history of this site. Perhaps the issues here are a side effect of us being run on "autopilot":

[Site owner] says he's ringing 40,000 hits a day, and 100,000 searches a month, at his current leading site, http://www.famousbirthdays.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (try Googling 'birthdays' or 'celebrity birthdays' and it pops right up.)...He's put his other sites (including Railroad.net) on "autopilot," with volunteer forum managers updating discussions but no other ongoing investment.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq- ... oIjAEF7.99" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But hey, it's a free forum for us so I don't have much room to complain. I'm not about to pay for Trainorders

Does this bode well for our beloved RR.net??? "Autopilot" to me means constant status quo, with no improvements or even technology upgrades; what happens when we run out of server capacity?
Yes, I know, it's just a hobby....but a serious hobby to some.
Chris