Connection and database errors....

ttf_bonenick · Post by **ttf_bonenick** » Tue May 09, 2017 10:22 am

Lately, everyday in daytime hours (for US this may be night or early morning hours) I have issues with accessing TF. So, what's the problem?

ttf_robcat2075 · Post by **ttf_robcat2075** » Tue May 09, 2017 10:33 am

It's appeared offline since yesterday for me.

I doubt our mods will be able provide many answers since they don't actually operate it.

ttf_schlitzbeer · Post by **ttf_schlitzbeer** » Tue May 09, 2017 10:35 am

My guess, the site owner houses it in his garage. He flips the wrong switch at night when he gets a beer. Yes, for me it goes down around 6-6:30pm PDT and back up around 5:am.

ttf_tbathras · Post by **ttf_tbathras** » Tue May 09, 2017 10:41 am

Quote from: bonenick on May 09, 2017, 10:22AMLately, everyday in daytime hours (for US this may be night or early morning hours) I have issues with accessing TF. So, what's the problem?

This site has long since lost the ongoing support of its owner, other than to seemingly keep the server running, and no transition of power has happened. It has just be left to die a slow painful death and the moderators here have what seems to be no access at the system level.

My guess is this forum runs on an ancient version of MySQL or PostgreSQL and is starting not to be able to handle the large amount of data within it because no maintenance has been performed. Or, something is "scraping" the site - like a search engine - and is providing a constant load that the DB cannot handle, again, because it's ancient and has (probably) not been optimized.

We're quite lucky that the owner restarts the database.

It's sad, really.

ttf_BGuttman · Post by **ttf_BGuttman** » Tue May 09, 2017 10:43 am

We are as much in Mushroom Mode as the rest of you.

At one time the Forum was housed at a Server Farm in Oregon (before that it was in Texas). I can't verify that it still is (my computer spell book is not thick enough). The Site Owner, Richard Byrd, has had some health issues and isn't able to keep as close an eye on it as we'd like. It's actually a small part of his Web business. I hope that when he gets to the bottom of this he will post an explanation. This is two downtimes in a week; enough to get all of us upset about the viability of the site.

ttf_anonymous · Post by **ttf_anonymous** » Tue May 09, 2017 1:42 pm

Quote from: BGuttman on May 09, 2017, 10:43AMWe are as much in Mushroom Mode as the rest of you.

At one time the Forum was housed at a Server Farm in Oregon (before that it was in Texas). I can't verify that it still is (my computer spell book is not thick enough). A quick check suggests it's still there.

ttf_Sliphorn · Post by **ttf_Sliphorn** » Tue May 09, 2017 4:05 pm

This is exactly why we set up www.trombonechat.com. It was/is intended to be a replacement/lifeboat for tromboneforum.org.

This site, while I think we all love it (at least by default), is suffering from all the trouble noted in this and many other threads. If this eventually reaches a critical enough mass, perhaps people will move over to the "other" site.

That site is slow because this one is still running, if only poorly.

ttf_norbie2009 · Post by **ttf_norbie2009** » Tue May 09, 2017 4:52 pm

If this site does go down a wealth of information will be lost. THAT would be SAD!

ttf_Graham Martin · Post by **ttf_Graham Martin** » Tue May 09, 2017 5:14 pm

I just got through posting a message on Trombone Chat saying that I could not get in again this morning (Aussie time), making it two and a half days I was not able to access TTF. I am wondering if everyone is similarly affected or if it is some cause like too many people trying to get in at the same time? Things have been fairly busy recently.

I remember rlb was around a few weeks back. Is he still uncontactable on a regular basis?

It really is a shame that such a successful forum has such an uncertain life.

ttf_Graham Martin · Post by **ttf_Graham Martin** » Thu May 11, 2017 4:11 pm

For me, using TTF is becoming a real problem and the frustrations are making wonder if it is worthwhile continuing. My main problems over the last days have been:

1. Simply unable to access the forum with that message which says:

"Hmm, we can't reach this page.
Try this
Make sure youve got the right web address: http://tromboneforum.org
Refresh the page
Search for what you want"

None of those things works.

2. The next problem is that, once I get in, I then have trouble moving around in the forum. I type a post and then push the 'Post' but and again get the message shown above. I lost quite a few long posts this way and I have now taken to copying a post into MS Word before I push the Post button. That way I am not completely wasting my time trying to post and, if I am lucky, I will be able to post it later.

I am surprised no other members are complaining about this and I wonder why it seems only to be happening to a few of us. I do notice the forum is pretty busy these days and I wonder if it is a problem with the site being too busy and having insufficient memory.

I am not surprised that a lot of the old regulars are no longer posting if they are experiencing anywhere near the frustrations I am. As I said on the other forum, maybe they will start to come into their own.

Are we still unable to talk to rlb about this?

ttf_MrPillow · Post by **ttf_MrPillow** » Thu May 11, 2017 4:47 pm

I imagine there are a large number of users who are so used to the forum working haphazardly that they don't bother to complain when it does. I'm certainly in that crowd.

ttf_Matt K · Post by **ttf_Matt K** » Thu May 11, 2017 4:51 pm

Yeah pretty much. I've got a number of places that I routinely check so when its down, I don't really fret. I come for the conversations about trombones not the site itself per se. So if people were to start using the trombonechat site, I'd use that too. For having as many posts as I do, I've created very few. And the bulk of the ones I've created, they've been classified ads. I guess I need to step up my game a little and start contributing original content for a change and carry my weight!

ttf_robcat2075 · Post by **ttf_robcat2075** » Thu May 11, 2017 5:51 pm

I generally don't have trouble accessing TTF any time of day or night.

The outage a few days ago was the first time in a while that it wasn't up for me.

ttf_robcat2075 · Post by **ttf_robcat2075** » Thu May 11, 2017 5:51 pm

I generally don't have trouble accessing TTF any time of day or night.

The outage a few days ago was the first time in a while that it wasn't up for me.