Secret Scotland

If it’s secret, and in Scotland, it should be here.

The Forum – RIP

gravestoneI’ve decided that there’s little point in trying to resurrect the Forum. Quite apart from the time it takes – repeated deletion and restoration of the files involved (which runs into the thousands) alone takes ages, and the subsequent reconfiguration needed each time becomes boring after a while. The consequences are also becoming more deadly, as the attempts to determine the cause of the problem delve deeper into the more sensitive sections of the code and files, and the setting of the whole system – the last test resulted in the server kicking us out, and not allowing any access, User or Admin at any level for more than 30 minutes after each re-installation.

An ‘empty’, operational forum has been installed, so that the url/address actually leads somewhere once again, but I will not simply be reinstating what was there before. I’m not sure it was ‘right’ any more, created as it was, before the Main Site had been conceived or created, and was perhaps consuming or diverting items that would otherwise have been added there. There are some new options, and redesign within the existing code I want to review anyway, so there is no rush.

There probably won’t be any sections for unrelated content either. There was quite enough activity that could be linked to the items that arose in Secret Scotland without straying into the world at large for titillation, and I don’t really have any desire to act as a Moderator between individuals at a personal level. My only desire to exercise power as an Admin/Mod is to ensure that content falls in the correct place, not argue with someone over their right to ‘Free Speech’, or which umpteenth tiny sub-paragraph of the rules, which they have not bothered to read, but are breaking. It’s no pleasure to open the forum each morning wondering what offensive content may have been posted in public, or PMd in private.

I may open the ‘new’ forum shortly (prior to creating the final design), with only a single board to discuss its format and purpose, in the meantime, comments may be posted below if anyone has anything at all they want to have considered, or think should be included early in in the design process.

How can I put it? I don’t promise to include everything, but if it’s never raised or suggested, it sure as heck will never even be considered.

January 4, 2008 - Posted by Apollo | Site News | | 8 Comments

8 Comments »

  1. As someone who was on the forum from the beginning I must say I’m sad to read this. All the best D.

    Comment by Captain Brittles | January 4, 2008

  2. Thanks Captain.

    It’s hard to describe the disappointment, deflation, and loss of motivation when you realise that you are ‘Flogging A Dead Horse’, and that what should have been a 10-minute fix has in fact eaten up what amounts to the first week of the new year – I didn’t even realise it was Friday, two days seems to have disappeared. That’s one reason why I’m not hurrying to re-open a ‘half-baked’ version.

    I kid ye not that there is something seriously amiss. Restoring the forum should have been a straightforward, if technical exercise, yet I was left with Members present, and no Messages, or Messages, but no access to them as there were no Members!

    Weirder still, the supposedly restored forum would not accept or create new members (or I could have restored them manually), and did not allow an Admin to be created, so was unworkable.

    I still have the data, and may be able to manually recover a few of the more recent or current messages (if I can remember the good ones).

    If there were any that anyone considered important, or perhaps contained info that they had not taken a note of, drop a request and I will try and locate it if possible.

    As noted above, if you don’t ask or suggest, then whatever it is will definitely not happen

    Comment by Apollo | January 4, 2008

  3. Could it have been hacked ? A forum I used to pop into was hacked last year and off the net fro a month, however it came back up as ‘before’ with all content returned, and as I recall the hackers left a message.

    Comment by Captain Brittles | January 5, 2008

  4. No, in this case at least there’s no question of anything external. It’s completely down to some sort of technical bug (which hit during file move/copy), not arising from the forum code or workings, and which refuses to reveal itself.

    The forum you mention would eventually have been recovered from a backup, hence being ‘as before’ with messages. In this cases, the flaw is buried somewhere in the recovery process, and is far from obvious. It’s probably something simple too, but I guess the fact that the forum support folk can’t come up with any clues either suggests its also something obscure.

    Comment by Apollo | January 5, 2008

  5. I hope the Forum is nearly up and about as there is much to discuss. All your hard work on it will be much appreciated.

    There was more at Bishopbriggs Mzagazine than I thought – have a look at the photogallery.

    Comment by The Fox | January 13, 2008

  6. There is indeed more to be found at Bishopbriggs than might have been expected. The area is not far from me, but is one those places that I never ventured into in my life, could probably walk to, but would need a map even to point at, let alone find. I was there once recently, to find an OS benchmark.

    Afraid the Forum is a little ‘Off Radar’ (but not ignored) due to other issues at the moment, and I can’t concentrate on it properly.

    Comment by Apollo | January 13, 2008

  7. It occurs to me to wonder if there might be a financial aspect to the new forum. I remain only too pleased to contribute to the site.

    Comment by The Fox | January 13, 2008

  8. It’s all personal, and depends on the well-known free sites for pic hosting and blogging, and also the open-source software that runs it.

    There is one anonymous aspect that I have been very lucky with, and always acknowledge with an open offer of help if needed at any time with his activities.

    The site also has what I reckon are the usual Google Ads and Amazon sales blocks. These were added out of curiosity, and to learn a little about them, and the result of that process is:

    A whole 0.0 pence of returns since they were installed,

    However, they are still handy for test purposes with regard to ad-blocking, and I have to confess that I largely forget all about them as Firefox doesn’t show them at all, and I only get reminded they are there when I have to use IE7.

    If it needs saying, then the contribution of time, words, and pics is of far more value than a pound or two.

    I’ll probably do another update post on the Forum tomorrow – its been a long (fruitless) day.

    Comment by Apollo | January 13, 2008


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