System Announcements

[Ian]

To all Members:

You may have noticed we've been down for a few days. That's been caused by our hosting providers forcing us to upgrade our php version and having to bring the forum itself up to date. This is the new forum, which is missing the old photo gallery, which had become extremely out of date and was causing the forum to crash. However, we're now back and hopefully back for good!

Apologies again.

Ian & DaveR.

[Bri Roberts]

Welcome back.

Can you please explain how the Photo Gallery had become extremely out-of-date?

[Ian]

It wasn't the photos, Bri; it was the actual gallery software that had aged and hasn't been upgradable for some time. It was adequate running it as long we didn't upgrade the forum version of php but once we were forced to that was it.

I suspect the photos themselves are still there, but I'll need to download the entire database and see if they are. 

[Ian]

Because we no longer have our image gallery, this is the easiest option to upload pics onto the forum.

It's completely free; ignore the images about payment.

[DaveR]

I have to confess...it was I that broke the forum by trying to run the upgrade. 

Unfortunately, the forum software was becoming very out of date, which results in increased security risks etc. Because we (ok, I  ) had added new features over the years, like the photo gallery, it made upgrading the forum software extremely difficult and resulted in the software breaking when I ran the upgrade. Ian has had to reinstall the software (taking the opportunity to upgrade it to the latest version) and upload all the old posts etc to get the forum working again.

This means that certain features will be missing. Adding back a photo gallery at some point would certainly be nice and if you notice a particular feature missing that would think should be reinstalled, please let us know on here.

Dave

[Bri Roberts]

Whilst I am able to visit the forum once again, I have been informed by a few members that they still cannot get into the site and also receiving a message that it is unsafe to do so.

As a consequence, I have been requested to post this message.

[Ian]

The system refuses to recognise the fttps:// at the start of the URL and sends out a false warning message.  It's perfectly safe, and there's still a lot of work going on behind the scenes to try to restore it completely.  We've set up a new images board, so it ought to be possible to use that to post pics, as soon as we have it working properly.

So do please encourage everyone to come back in; the place is starting to gather dust :-)

I'm a bit concerned about those who claim they can't get back in. If you can post details of a couple of those cases, Bri, I'll get on it right away. 

[SteveH]

I am in now, after system refusing entry, many times, but had to reapply for new password, thanks for the good work getting the Forum restored, hope the others get sorted soon........

[Ian]

Good to see you, Steve. I suspect a file might have become corrupted, which is why some folk are experiencing difficulties.

[Bri Roberts]

I'm a bit concerned about those who claim they can't get back in. If you can post details of a couple of those cases, Bri, I'll get on it right away.

Hi Ian,

Here are a couple of recent messages between me and Meleri:

I have heard back from Hugo & he is getting the same message as me that it's unsafe & can't get on. I will try sending Ian a message but in the meantime I would be very grateful if you could mention on the forum that some of the forum members are still having problems accessing the site. Thanks for offering to do this for me.

Thanks very much Brian. I did try to send an email to Ian but the email was sent back, so I expect we will just have to be patient & hope someone will act on your message.

[Ian]

I suspect that's two issues. One is some passwords seem to have been 'lost'; why, I have no idea. Since we don't know what folks' passwords are I can send out a temporary one, and Meleri can then change it.  I'll send one to Meleri today.

The second issue  - this warning that the site might be unsafe - is being generated by error.  It's down to Heart's server which hasn't yet decided that it's actually incorrect. I seem to get this type of message all the time.  What's silly is that it's only sent if it believes you're not using a site which starts with "https", and which we are.  The really daft thing is that "https" ceased being trustworthy many years ago.

Thanks for  acting as  go-between, Bri.

[Ian]

No end to the fun. The reason some have been unable to get in with their old passwords is simply because the new system had overwritten our settings.  I've now changed them and everyone should be able to get back in.

On an associated note, I managed to send out a temporary password for Meleri to every forum member.  I've changed Meleri's password again and have emailed her the new one.

Thanks for your patience.

[Robert2020]

Hi, thanks for your work in getting the site back up....

First it didn't accept my login so I requested via email to create a new password but having tried it three times I didn't get an email back...you may wish to check out that bit of the system in case others are requesting a new password email and failing to get the email.
I've  used my original password today and its working.....so thanks for restoring that data base.
The other issue I've found is that once I click the forum 'enter' word from the main page I don't get the page layout design ....just the text listed so maybe a glitch in there as well

Regards
Rob

[Ian]

Thanks, Rob; I'll take a peek at that tomorrow.

[Bri Roberts]

Ian,
I have received this email from Hugo. Can you please let me have a reply to pass onto Hugo

Hi Bri
Sorry to bother you but Xxx from Xxx said that you advised her that the Three Towns Forum is up and running.

I've tried numerous times but can never get back to the original page for the site.   I do get  a screen up but when I press on the Home page another notice appears saying that the site is not private so I don't go any further with it.

Do you know what has happened with the forum?