Server move mostly complete...

We have all of the sites running off of the new servers except for some last minute DNS changes. We did it this way to minimize downtime. I will be making those DNS changes over the next 48 hours and after that, we should be home free.

There will still probably be some bumps in the road, but we will handle them on a case-by-case basis. Let us know if you find anything.

Cinco De Mayo moving Day

The server move will happen tonight (hopefully) and may take a day or two to stabilize. The downtime should be minimal.

Some posts may disappear since you may be posting to the old server while others are already seeing the new server due to timing of DNS changes. If this happens, you may have to repost.

I will post with updates once it is complete.

Server move in progress

We are switching hosting companies yet again. Listen to HPR for more information on that topic.

As of today, stankdawg.com and binrev.net are moved over to the new server. the rest will come as we works out the bugs on those 2 smaller sites.

Forum upgrades being uncooperative

We upgraded the forums this afternoon (sorry for the lack of a warning) and they did not go as smoothly as we had hoped. The forums do seem to be back up and running, but some of the hooks and extra features are being dildos. Just be aware that there may be some intermittent problems as we try to work them out.

BinRev down again

It looks like something updated overnight and caused apache/PHP to break. Apache still works and our non-PHP based sites work fine, but all PHP based stuff (including binrev.com) are all down.

Who do not think that this is a hack or attack at this time, just a simple configuration issue. It should be resolved soon.

That didn't last long...Server load spiked

The server was just overwhelmed with users and could not keep up with the load. I had to take it back offline. Once again, too bad, so sad. I am going to bed for the night soon and the forums will be offline until further notice.

UPDATE: I decided to leave the forums turned on overnight to see if the server catches on fire. If it does, then it was God's will that BinRev close down forever.

Back online...for now

OK you unhappy campers. The horrible terrible site that is binrev.com is once again open for business. I am sure you will come rolling in and begin complaining about how terrible it is right away.

Tough S#it! It is what it is. Deal with it.

Minor tweaks left

Normally, I would bring it back up and work through the tweaks while you guys are able to get posting again. But since you guys must have everything perfect or you will bitch and complain, then I am keeping the board down until I have everything completed to *my* satisfaction.

Of course none of *you* complaining dickw@ds are *ever* satisfied with any of the FREE services that we provide, so I can't do anything about that, nor do I care anymore.

Time for bed!

Last night I stayed up really late and put myself out to get these forums running again under the assumption that it would be appreciated. Now that I learned that my time is not appreciated at all, I am going to call it a night and hit the bed.

The site will be back up sometime this week. I don't know...no rush, right?

Taking my sweet-@$$ time...

Thats right, I am still working on the site upgrade, but I am taking my sweet ass time. I even stopped to watch some TV and have a sandwich (peanut butter, if you must know). I am no longer rushing to please people who cannot be pleased.

You ungrateful jerks can sit and wait (or leave, once again, I remind you of that option).

Have a nice day!

Slow server is slooooooow...

We are aware that there are some issues with the server being slow. this is because the rebuild of the database means that nothing is cached and every query has to hit the server and build a cache at least once per thread. Or at least I hope that is the only problem.

Right now, only 3% of the post content is cached. As each person views a thread, it will cache it and that will make it faster for everyone as it it builds up.

While that happens, I put the site into "performance mode" which means that some of the more CPU intensive features are disabled temporarily. You may get messages that say that you are not able to access something, but it is not because of security, it is because they are temporarily turned off.

Hopefully I can rebuild the cache manually overnight tonight when there are fewer users online. Either way, it will take a day or two to rebuild the cache. Bear with us.

It's alive

The forum is rebuilt and back in action as of about 8 AM This morning.

It is drastically different, so spend some time familiarizing yourself with some of the new features. Post any bugs or problems in the forums themselves so that I can address them.

There will be some smaller, additional features that are rolled out over the week, but they will be minor and cosmetic in nature.

Enjoy!

only halfway done...

I am afraid to announce that the rebuild process is only halfway done as of 12:30 and I have to work in the morning. I am afraid that I will have to hit the bed soon and the site will probably be down all night.

While it is rebuilding, however, I was able to get a lot of the pre-configuration and customization done that I was not going to get to until later in the week so when it does come back up, it will have lots of new features:

1) A working reputation system in place. Know which users suck and which users are elite.
2) HAL = HAcking Links. A Links system that users can contribute to. All users can help build a nice resource of links that we can all share.
3) Upgraded blog, gallery, and forum system.
4) Better reporting system for faster response to SPAM and trolls.
5) A new portal as the official landing point of binrev.com instead of the old PHP/HTML green and black page.

And that is just scratching the surface. It will be worth the wait!

Upgrade taking longer than expected...

We did the upgrade in a test environment and it did not take this long however, that was a smaller limited record test database. When we upgraded the live database, which has over 336,000 posts, it is taking a good bit longer to rebuild every post.

Once we get the post database rebuilt, I will probably bring the board active again overnight and I will do the rest of the less-intrusive upgrades over the course of the week.

I think the forums will be down at least another 1-2 hours tonight. I hope to have them back up by Midnight, but I am at the mercy of the machine right now.

Sunday night = upgrade night

ATTENTION ALL USERS:

I am making some major upgrades to the site including the forums. The site will be enormously unreliable for the new several hours. The forums will be taken down so please finish up your posts by 7 PM EST. The site will likely be down for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. The new and improved BinRev will be back up Sunday night (hopefully) by 9 PM.

Know in advance that it will look quite a bit different. We will be on a default skin until we get some graphics work finished up. I know some of you will be complaining heavily about the changes, but you should know now that we have been discussing these changes and testing them for quite some time now. The decision has been made. Deal with it.

UPDATE: You now have until 7 PM EST on 07/05/2009 - The backup is still running and will take longer than I expected. You get an extra hour.
UPDATE: You now have until 8 PM EST on 07/05/2009 - The backup is still running and will take longer than I expected. You get another extra hour.


NOTE: This downtime will only affect binrev.com and none of the other sites will be affected other than possible slowness due to server load during the upgrade.

Software updates

Be aware of possible intermittent problems or downtime this week as we do some software upgrades. We will try to minimize the downtime, and do not anticipate any problems at this time. Check back here for updates.

Down since 2 AM 03/19/2009

The server is down again today due to security updates that were installed. Apparently they were so secure that they took the whole box down. Security doesn't get any better than that.

The hosting company is working on it as we speak. Keep trying and it will hopefully be up soon.