Forum downtime

    As you probably noticed, the forums went down on June 19th. I left to go to Greece on June 17th, a fact I made known publicly beforehand. As such, I wasn't actively checking the forums as usual and wasn't aware that there was a problem.

    The direct cause of the downtime appears to be that the password used for logging into MySQL was no longer functioning, thus preventing the forum software from interacting with the database. Changing to a new password immediately fixed the problem and there are no apparent other effects.

    At this time I don't know why the password was changed. I see nothing that could indicate it happening automatically or as a result of some bug, nor can I see any logged actions of it being changed manually by anyone. My only speculation at this point is that server maintenance changed something, but there's nothing to indicate there was any.

    I'll continue to look into it, but in the meantime I apologise for the downtime and hope you'll be able to get right back into posting. As a future preventative measure I'll be leaving my mobile phone number with key staff members so I can always be contacted should something like this happen again.

    Edit: It would appear that some server maintenance was indeed the cause, which knocked out the MySQL access on various databases — including some others that I host. This is the first time anything like this has happened to the server, and it just so happened to be during the one time per year that I'm away for a prolonged duration. I guess that's Murphy's law for you.

    ooOOooooo thrk~~! Tis good you're back, the lack of the core was a big gaping hole in my browsing routine, didn't know what to fill it out with

    Quote from Zeta

    Another couple of days and i wouldn't have made it.

    Quote from Mazy

    ooOOooooo thrk~~! Tis good you're back, the lack of the core was a big gaping hole in my browsing routine, didn't know what to fill it out with

    What they said ~~~~

    Quote from Buddy

    Yeah i was checking core each hour and couldn't stand any longer!

    Same, i cycle through forums when im bored and it was beginning to frustrate me .

    Quote from Thrik

    We haven't moved hosts yet. I don't know what's taking so long for Mike, but it's really a 10-minute job (that's how long it took me to put up my test mirror).I know Mike is busy and all, but if he can't spare 10 minutes to stop this community spiralling towards a hellish pit he ought to really hand any and all responsibility over to someone else. :/ It's this kind of thing that kills communities.

    This has been going on for well over a month now. I know Mojo does try hard to look after the community, but this is some serious lax administration. If you haven't got the time to sort it out then give the reigns to someone who does. I bet some people who came and got that trojan warning will never return, and maybe even some regulars too who got fed up with it happening for weeks on end.

    embarrassing

    Unfortunate timing indeed! Glad its all sorted out now though, I was just starting to get edgy. Hope you had a good holiday Thrik

    The difference being I was in a different country with no convenient computers and no awareness of the problem, Johnny. Try as I might, I can't sit here 365 days a year monitoring the site. 350~ days a year isn't a bad number, though.

    I could have gotten a taxi to the town with an internet cafe to fix this if I'd known about it, but I was unfortunately completely ignorant. I was counting on the server performing as it has done for months with zero hiccups, and of course as fate is a cruel bitch the server went and threw a wobbly almost immediately after my plane took me into the clouds.

    Still, as I said I'll be providing mobile phone number to various people so they can reach me in cases of emergencies from now on.

    It was indeed some tough days to go through! It doesn't seem like that much can be done to prevent this except for maybe giving a few other people access to the server.

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