Event Calguns.net Database Backup Date set for 4/16

[ikeo1]

Calguns is going down for a little bit for maintenance. Their update is finally happening. If you know folks who are asking for an alternative, this will be the time to do it. This isn't the actual migration. So I think they'll be up in a few hours to a day if they do it right.

https://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?p=28466186#post28466186

The estimated downtime is 2-3 days.

 

[ikeo1]

Migration happens today. After the migration happens, it looks like the itrader feature is going to be lost. It's going to be interesting to see how they run it in the cloud. Add-ons aren't going to be available which means this site will have significantly more capabilities/features. They're also still fairly limited in their hosting abilities given the vbulletin offering. We don't have very many limitations here and have lots of flexibility when it comes to adding features and scaling infrastructure.

 

[RustyIron]

There's something wrong with your poll. I can only see three options.
I can't see the option that says, "I quit caring a long time ago."

 

[ikeo1]

 

[ikeo1]

Judging by the errors I'm seeing on calguns, it looks like the migration isn't going as smooth as it could. The 503 errors and raw data errors indicate an issue with compatibility. I'm surprised they didn't do test migrations before hand then just do a flip once they got the process done.

I also did a pretty comprehensive comparison vs vb6 cloud and what we have. The feature differences between the two are night and day. I'm 100% certain, we'll have more to offer users who are accustomed to modern websites at least in features. From a community aspect, the area we lack most is the history, experience, and knowledge. That will be decided by the community and who decides to participate and share their wisdom here.

Hope they get it sorted soon. I'm also very curious to see how the vb team will handle the traffic. I think the overall performance should be better once they are done, but its going to look/feel very different.

 

[Rogerdodger]

bout time they got on it

 

[Easye240]

Judging by the errors I'm seeing on calguns, it looks like the migration isn't going as smooth as it could. The 503 errors and raw data errors indicate an issue with compatibility. I'm surprised they didn't do test migrations before hand then just do a flip once they got the process done.

I also did a pretty comprehensive comparison vs vb6 cloud and what we have. The feature differences between the two are night and day. I'm 100% certain, we'll have more to offer users who are accustomed to modern websites at least in features. From a community aspect, the area we lack most is the history, experience, and knowledge. That will be decided by the community and who decides to participate and share their wisdom here.

Hope they get it sorted soon. I'm also very curious to see how the vb team will handle the traffic. I think the overall performance should be better once they are done, but its going to look/feel very different.

Do we have any referral features here? Like a Badge or something, idk... just popped into my head but cant really think of a good use case to have it.

 

[ikeo1]

Do we have any referral features here? Like a Badge or something, idk... just popped into my head but cant really think of a good use case to have it.

What do you mean?

 

[Easye240]

for getting new members to sign up here

 

[ikeo1]

for getting new members to sign up here

Still working on that, I don’t have one right now.. I might do some meme’s later today

 

[ikeo1]

Follow up, looks like we're into day 2 of downtime and it doesn't look so good still. No blips which doesn't look good for the Database upgrade. I would suspect that the charactersets is causing a problem with transforming the schema. Looks like the upgrade is in vbulletin's hands, which is pretty interesting. This could go into the weekend!

 

[treelogger]

While I'm not a fan of the politics and personalities involved in Calguns, I still feel very sorry for them being in such a mess. Technical debt is such an awful thing, and I fear they let it accumulate. Best wishes for them getting the forum/software/server side back up and running.

 

[RustyIron]

charactersets is causing a problem with transforming the schema

Holy cow, that's a lot of big words in a small space. The whole CalGuns debacle reminds me of a SoCal based mountain bike forum that existed from about 2000 to 2010. It grew quickly and became THE place for everyone from the Big Dogs to the Newbies. It was GREAT. Everyone was there. It ran for about a decade, but eventually a few problems cropped up. People pointed out the problems to the owner. He dragged his feet, made half-hearted attempts, but never resolved it. He was young and egotistical, so he refused help. The problems grew exponentially, and within the space of a few months, the site was unusable. People drifted away. Another forum attracted many of the members, FacePage became a thing, and now there's Reddit, Instagram, and TwitterX. All the work and the contributions of users went up in a puff of smoke. Has CalGuns gone down the same path?

My point is to make this a cautionary tale. Whether you're trying to maintain your web forum, your car, your house, your body, or your mental health, don't let things get out of hand. Resolve problems when they first occur. If you dilly dally, there might be no chance of recovery.

 

[sl60523]

Was wondering why I haven't been able to get through the last few days. I have no ill will towards that site, but I will say this site is a night & day difference in performance and features. Appreciate all the hardwork put in and hope this place takes off!

 

[Chupacabra]

They have problems. The .net site has been down for days. And now the .org backup site is unavailable.

 

[dbress]

The old way sucked but it was better than nothing

 

[Chupacabra]

Correction. I just checked again and the .org site is back. They still have problems.

 

[ikeo1]

for getting new members to sign up here

I was thinking about it. There’s actually lots of sharing icons everywhere for listings and articles and stuff.

Before this whole incident went down, I wanted to bring humor by attracting folks here but I feel bad for calguns right now.

I extended an offer to help cause I think regardless this platform will have more capabilities and I’d like to help keep Calguns operational. Mainly for the folks who favor that place. I’ve always envisioned the sites to coexist.

My goal here was to provide a platform, not necessarily a social hub, mainly to share actionable things or provide information. I think CG is more for hangout spot now. Hope they come up soon! They can always and probably should rollback the change.

That said,

 

[Easye240]

It's just a shame calguns is down and I can't post links to my Caguns listings there ....

 

[ikeo1]

It's just a shame calguns is down and I can't post links to my Caguns listings there ....

I’m glad you saw that feature. Pretty soon I’ll be implementing an event system. I’ll separate it by region but basically a sign up system for classes happening in different regions.

I think that’ll be another way to share that’s more than a meme, though I love good memes, that’s functional. It should help promote different groups as well but I will have to come up with a vetting process.

After that more refinement in different existing areas. Onboarding is still proving challenging. No matter how many banners, messages, etc I put, there’s still people that create listings in the forums. I also have to develop a process to identify and remove those quickly and update the user for more consistency in the marketplace. One thing that bugged me at CG was the lack of consistency, but def don’t want to over moderate too.