Extended Downtime/Update

[Nathanial]

Take 2:

Hello everyone,

As many of you realized we had our longest maintenance period in the history of our forums. This was partially against the staffs will, and I personally have barely slept a wink since the 22nd.

 

We have been in the process of upgrading our forums to a new system, but unfortunately we've needed the support of Invision Power Services for a very unique issue during the upgrade process.

 

The only way to get support on this said issue was to have our board partially upgraded to the new system. As the issue we're having is so unique, a developer of the software, Ryan, has been working to find a fix. After not hearing from him for 24 hours, I restored the backup to before the upgrade. Of course, 10 minutes afterwards he got back to me and let me know the fix was finished. Terrible timing and luck on my end...

 

Eager to make sure the down time wasn't for nothing (and eager for the community to experience the awesome new features I and Archeia are really excited about), I restored a backup to the forums to when they were upgraded, only to be told the fix needs to be applied during the upgrade process (take a moment to imagine the look on my face). So I restored the backup to before. Again. 

 

At this point, I can only assume that Ryan had to call it a night (understandably) and I have decided to just turn the forums back online and postpone the upgrade. Ryan did make mention that this fix will be in the next software update, so when that is released I'll go ahead and do the upgrade then. 

 

The bottom line:

 

I am extremely sorry for the inconvenience, and I'm going to work hard to make sure we don't have any extended down time like this again in the future.

Once Ryan figures out what we need, we'll come up with a game plan to make sure that when we do finally do the upgrade again, that there is as little down time as possible (nothing beyond 3-5 hours at most).

Thank you for your patience everyone, and sorry again about the delay.

 

At this point, I want to give a special thanks to Ryan Ashbrook at IPS, as he's been very helpful in helping us get this figured out.

As soon as the latest version of the software is out, I'll make arrangements to test an install of our forums with Ryan to make sure everything goes smooth before we take the live forum offline (this wasn't an option before, which is why this took so long).

 

So thank you VERY much for all your help, Ryan. You've gone above and beyond!!

 

I'm going to go (try to) get some sleep now

 

-Nathanial

 

[mlogan]

Thanks Nathaniel! Looking forward to shiny new things! Get some much deserved rest!

 

[Neon Black]

As a member of the community I want to thank you for the work you've done to get this running for us, Nate. And as a member of the staff I want to thank everyone for their patience in this matter.

Based on the upgrades I've seen both on mobile and on my laptop, this update is certainly worth the wait. It will be awesome.

 

[Nathanial]

As a member of the community I want to thank you for the work you've done to get this running for us, Nate. And as a member of the staff I want to thank everyone for their patience in this matter.

Based on the upgrades I've seen both on mobile and on my laptop, this update is certainly worth the wait. It will be awesome.

Yes (mostly) everyone I've interacted with has been very patient and encouraging about it. So thank you for that! The kind posts really do make a difference during those stressful times

And yes, there's a lot of really cool stuff! Everything's gotten a revamp or was completely reborn as a feature.. And of course completely new things! It's awesome! 

And this time around, I fully intend to write custom features into the software myself via the API... So once the main upgrade is stable I'll start to roll out my own custom updates for the community!

 

[Blinn]

It was worth the wait. We missed you guys.

 

[metronome]

I don't mind waiting.

But when you say:"please wait, awesome stuffs are coming, we promise!" then it would be nice to show us a little sneak peak/screenshots/explanation/etc of what awesome stuffs that we can expect to see once the maintenance really over - especially after we wait for long. A little bit encouragement for those who wait won't hurt. Just my suggestion though.

Other than that, there is nothing.

RPGMakerWeb is a nice place to stay, I would even bet that 5 days offline won't be enough to bring this place "down and forgotten forever and ever" lol.

So ? Take it easy guy. I will be surely around once the real maintenance is over~~

 

[Kes]

I hope you have a decent sleep; it must have been as stressful as hell the last couple of days.

We can wait.

 

[Blinn]

This must have been like winning a boss fight when the forums finally came back.

Well done!

 

[Geoff Moore]

Sleep well! And no worries Looking forward to the update!

 

[_Shadow_]

A big hello to you @Nathanial B. and please let me express my opinion on this issue. 

It is NOT your fault. 

If a service you provide (forum) involves outsourced support for its software, which does, it is their responsibility to have instant(?) solution.

Of course whoever worked on web development KNOWS that there are no instant solutions, especially on unique and complex issues, that's why they are unique.

So it is not really their fault either.

My bet without knowing what the issue was?

A new feature could not be integrated with ALL the other features.

Maybe a namespace issue, maybe a compatibility issue, maybe a method that draws or appends stuff to the database, who knows?

Things like that happen. 

Good thing is that at least they found a well hidden mistake on their software design I guess and they will deliver an even better version.

Best thing ever is that the new forum version (who knows what you got on your mind) will be available soon.

To be honest I was really worried. I mean, it took some time really.

And since I have personal experience on web development... I can imagine a bunch of nightmares for an IT team.

Especially if things involve databases, a forum has a db involved, so... I can imagine....

And the first thing I did after waking up today was a refresh.

I can't express how good it feels to have everyone back. 

So I can understand your kindness for asking for our sorry.

It is the intention though, that counts most in my opinion.

You never intended to make this happen. That was beyond your powers anyway.

Rest well and prepare a beer treat for yourself, for the time the forum will be upgraded successfully.

You will deserve it!

Cheers!

 

[Sausage_Boi]

<----*Waited long enough. Demands reveal.* /jk I was growing concerned for a little while when nothing was coming up, though I saw a head appear and start dancing, and the error bar became red and not blue for a short time.

 

[erpicci]

You forced us to have a social life outside the forum. Unforgivable.

Just kidding, now have a good rest. You earned it!

 

[Mako]

I will say this about IPB best customer service around. Not going to jump all my boards to the 4.0 yet... I usually wait. But I'm excited to see what needed custom programming from the IPB team! 

 

[Ms Littlefish]

It's all, OK.

But, I. Uh. *scratches neck* Things were starting to get rough.

Can't wait to see the update though.

 

[gRaViJa]

No problem, take your rest first. It does make one wonder what the new features might be.

 

[nio kasgami]

seriously this not bother me to much this thing's who happen and I saw a peek of the  new feature and their are awesome so this value the wait!

 

[Bex]

What are the new Planed features that should had come with new rpgmaker web version?

How long till that forum software patch is released by that company  which provides forum software?

 

[Raths Rants]

Upgrading your forum software. The bane to all websites...

I know and feel your pain 

 

[Point08]

As with everyone else, I just want to say thanks for your hard work! Software upgrades, while exciting, are one of the great evils of the world to the people involved in rolling them out. Anyone who has every been on the service provider side of things knows this. So go rest, have a few health potions (aka beers), and we'll see you soon.

 

[Nathanial]

The new version with the fixes from Ryan was released today. I'm going to be doing some tests later to make sure things switch over correctly