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Is CGN down again?

DIYPSCM said:
Is there any clear, impartial, explanation of WHY it is always down? Cost? Incompetence? Apathy?

Remember I said IMPARTIAL. ;)
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I'd say the best description would be that the site was running on very old (by computer standards) software and hardware configurations. I have seen some posts indicating that the hosting company was no longer going to host the site, but I can't say if that was true or a rumor. Whatever the circumstance, it was clearly time for "upgrades". If you have ever run older software/hardware configurations (something I've begun to do to maintain stability and avoid or delay problematic "updates"), you know that over time hardware and software don't always maintain backwards compatibility, or become obsolete. When you are trying to maintain "legacy" configurations, the longer you do so, the more likely that eventually "upgrades/updates" with break the crap out of your setup and there will be "issues" that will force hard decisions, oft times on "mission critical" functionality....

Kestryl did post that CalGuns was at that point, and he also had to change hosting. The site was "mostly stable" post the hosting change, but apparently the amount of traffic was causing large increases in hosting costs, so supposedly another switch to an "In house" server (or a different host?) was made. That was the point where everything went pear shaped or black....

I think it's safe to say that the combination of outdated software, a relatively huge time before having to upgrade, and multiple significant configuration changes bit CGN in the virtual butt, and it's been taking some significant time to try to restabilize everything.


There has been far too much speculation, rumor, innuendo and high school girl drama, along with a significant expenditure of tinfoil.... the bottom line for those who do or have worked with computer systems, is that upgrades and configuration changes of the sort that CalGuns went through ain't simple or "fun". Perhaps one day we will again here from Kestryl what all was going on all this time, or perhaps not. In any event, CalGuns is "mostly functional" a decent part of the time, which is probably all the end user cares about.
 
Put a fork in CGN. They're pretty much done. It's a total crap shoot from day to day what you'll get.
 
D.A.V.I.D. said:
Daily
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This. My expectation now is CG will be down any time I want to browse...and am literally surprised when it's up and somewhat (even when "up", not really snappy consistently) functioning. I find myself now spending more time on CAguns that CALguns. Rarely is there an issue with this site.
 
I still use calguns because a lot of og calgunners do not know about this site. It's good to use both.
 
I check to see if it is online every so often and it mostly seems to be down - there is no excuse why they couldn't get it back online by now.
Spread the word if others aren't familiar with this site - so far I have had great luck here and actually enjoy the format a bit better.
 
iron_sights said:
I check to see if it is online every so often and it mostly seems to be down - there is no excuse why they couldn't get it back online by now.
Spread the word if others aren't familiar with this site - so far I have had great luck here and actually enjoy the format a bit better.
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I think the biggest problem was trying to maintain the legacy posts and feedback. One of the big positives was the ability to mine the forums on past posts, but it became too large and unwieldy, along with the itrader not being part of the base system. Seems like best bet now would be to just save the old files, start fresh with just the user logins and let everyone rebuild. Trying to resotre old cgn needs to be a long term project and shouldnt prevent new cgn from just rolling forward. that being said, reddit and caguns will keep the boat afloat and maybe they will be the future (well not reddit because eventually site ownership will nuke it for political reasons)
 
rkt88edmo said:
I think the biggest problem was trying to maintain the legacy posts and feedback. One of the big positives was the ability to mine the forums on past posts, but it became too large and unwieldy, along with the itrader not being part of the base system. Seems like best bet now would be to just save the old files, start fresh with just the user logins and let everyone rebuild. Trying to resotre old cgn needs to be a long term project and shouldnt prevent new cgn from just rolling forward. that being said, reddit and caguns will keep the boat afloat and maybe they will be the future (well not reddit because eventually site ownership will nuke it for political reasons)
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Also there are a lot of older forums that i hand about and usage is just dwindling. I think it's social media of other forms stealing the eyeeballs and time, so it is a general overall decline.
 
rkt88edmo said:
Also there are a lot of older forums that i hand about and usage is just dwindling. I think it's social media of other forms stealing the eyeeballs and time, so it is a general overall decline.
Click to expand...
I think there's some nuance to this. In general, people who spend all of their time on one site is dwindling as information becomes more available in more places and is crowdsourced on social media. However, these more localized groups can still succeed because of the limitations on the larger social sites.

With CGN I don't think the owner has the energy or commitment to rebuild the site to where it need to go. Starting over and opening up registrations isn't enough IMHO. As mentioned with community focus, the focus there is no longer on 2A and more historical data and current politics. That being the case, this site is seeing consistent month over month growth as people continue to hear that there's a California specific site to help new 2A enthusiasts get onboarded without being judged. Also we try to keep the format minimal so topics don't get drowned out. Social I consider as short form content, there's still the need for medium and long term content which is the void we're trying to fill.

Youtube & Instagram are persona/influencer led. Facebook Groups and Reddit are more community based like here, with FB you have to use your real name and with Reddit it's complete anonymity. What we're aiming to build here is the middle ground. On the large platforms all your data is harvested. Here, we try to make it as private as possible for members with only limited data available to the public for viewing. We don't grow as fast, but that's not my priority. The site IS fast and lean and shielded from a lot of scanners, which can be objectively seen with the low number of guests viewing the site. The feedback system here is also a key point for people returning. None of the big platforms really have that for their users.

Once the platform is upgraded and migrated, we'll focus more on getting the word out to people to hopefully grow this community with similar energy & spirit of how I remember CGN used to be. We're building a shooting team and will be hosting events. Hopefully I can find some people to help out with that. 2A is continuing to grow in CA as more people get P.O.'d with the state of the state. The members from 100-12,000 have continually helped to improve the site and I'm still taking input. As the site grows, it becomes harder to change things as you've seen with CGN, which is why we do a lot of front loading and constant upgrades.
 
If it's a money issue, why not say hey the site needs financial help. Everyone willing chip in a couple bucks chime in. Seems like the thrill is gone and he found the perfect excuse to let the site die.
 
I think it had less to do with financial and more to do with technological. The first upgrade went from old outdated 3.x (I believe it was) to 6.x vBulletin which also was chosen to host the hardware/software. The staff at vB were worthless assisting him as he had to do all the configuration himself. So he went to another server, which was not hosted from vB but it required him to know how to configure the software to work correctly. I think that in itself was a big leap in knowing how the latest software worked and what was needed compared to the old 3.x vB software.
 
pauly said:
I still use calguns because a lot of og calgunners do not know about this site. It's good to use both.
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I think more of them know than we may suspect. There is a small tribe over there that for some reason like to make disparaging comments about some of the folks over here.
About the only thing I like better over there is the OT section.
 
DB>)> said:
...
There has been far too much speculation, rumor, innuendo and high school girl drama, along with a significant expenditure of tinfoil.... the bottom line for those who do or have worked with computer systems, is that upgrades and configuration changes of the sort that CalGuns went through ain't simple or "fun". Perhaps one day we will again here from Kestryl what all was going on all this time, or perhaps not. In any event, CalGuns is "mostly functional" a decent part of the time, which is probably all the end user cares about.
Click to expand...

This cuts to the core of the issue.

Kestryl has been silent for months. Or if he's communicated I've not seen it. Lack of information inevitably fuels those negative things you write of above.

The core element of any online presence is the audience, and the CalGuns audience - the life blood of the site - have been neglected.
 
Experimentalist said:
This cuts to the core of the issue.

Kestryl has been silent for months. Or if he's communicated I've not seen it. Lack of information inevitably fuels those negative things you write of above.

The core element of any online presence is the audience, and the CalGuns audience - the life blood of the site - have been neglected.
Click to expand...
IMO the worst ever to manage but then again who would place a Janitor as a manager.
His audience it seems to me is mostly made up of guests, he's not even a good janitor as they would know how to unclog a toilet or get someone that does.
 
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