| Author |
Message |
    
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 328
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - 03:13 pm: | 
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Sorry for the extensive outage. The board is back up as of 3/23 1500.
My intention is to maintain the board indefinitely. It is possible I will move the board, but I will give you all plenty of notice.
I am winding up the Electric Marine business and heading for a new thing. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 313
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, February 08, 2009 - 09:47 am: |
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The board is back as of January 13, 2009. Any content added after that time will have to be re-entered.
I have a workaround for large uploads that choke the normal upload process, talk to me. Basically we need to FTP the uploads and then link to them.
The entire process of moving the board to a new server was a bust. The new server turned out to be even more limited for the kinds of stuff we do than the old one, so we're back on the old server.
Most discussion boards do not do huge uploads of data, they are text based for DISCUSSION. We use our board for warehousing data for class, which makes it a different sort of animal. Live and painfully learn. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 246
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008 - 11:24 pm: |
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I have had better results uploading and posting since I reloaded the board software, but others have had mixed results. Any server-side processing (like uploads) still seems to take an extraordinary amount of time. When I have an opportunity, I will try another internet hosting outfit. Hey Ted, got any thoughts on a good site hosting company that is not too expensive? We use about 1.5 gb of storage from time to time, but the volume is pretty light. I like the Linux/Apache systems. I will not touch a Microsoft product unless there is absolutely no alternative. I cannot believe the confusion .docx documents are causing everyone I run into.
Until then, all I can advise is to limit the complexity of the uploads. The link will not turn blue when you preview the post, but will -- if it's going to -- when you save the post. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 243
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 07:22 pm: |
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Well, we seem to be back up and running with a clean install. It's beyond me what happened to the previous install, but it was taking up about 5 times as much disk space as it needed. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 240
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Friday, September 12, 2008 - 02:50 pm: |
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The board will be down for some time this weekend to do a clean install of the latest version of Discus. Lots of little things have started malfunctioning like object upload and images once uploaded seem to become unviewable after a week or two. If all goes well, we'll be back up and running with all the old content by Monday. . . . .just in case you wondered how I was planning to spend my weekend. . . . |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 198
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 03:54 pm: |
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Two significant things are happening on the board at the present time. I am installing a series of software upgrades which should make the board more spammer intolerant. Who knows? Some day we may be able to go back to open posting.
Secondly, I am uploading a lot of material for my new Saddleback course "Electronic Navigation", MST 218. I intend to use the board very actively for class discussion and we will very quickly find out what works and what does not.
I'm not sure how far we've really come from the board's startup in 2002 compared to other web resources and bloggers, but we've done our quiet little share and we show up on search engines these days.
I sent out a mailing to the discussion board email list advertising the electronic navigation class. I hate to do that because I don't want to impose on your already over-spammed mailboxes but this seemed like an adequate justification.
The board has gone two years without a spammer takeover and I think we are out of the woods. Requiring posters to register is a bit of a hassle, but the fake registrations are easy to pick out and discard. They still come in at the rate of a few a week.
Cheers,
David |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 197
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 01:55 pm: |
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Two significant things are happening on the board at the present time. I am installing a series of software upgrades which should make the board more spammer intolerant. Who knows? Some day we may be able to go back to open posting.
Secondly, I am uploading a lot of material for my new Saddleback course "Electronic Navigation", MST 218. I intend to use the board very actively for class discussion and we will very quickly find out what works and what does not.
I'm not sure how far we've really come from the board's startup in 2002 compared to other web resources and bloggers, but we've done our quiet little share and we show up on search engines these days.
I sent out a mailing to the discussion board email list advertising the electronic navigation class. I hate to do that because I don't want to impose on your already over-spammed mailboxes but this seemed like an adequate justification.
The board has gone two years without a spammer takeover and I think we are out of the woods. Requiring posters to register is a bit of a hassle, but the fake registrations are easy to pick out and discard. They still come in at the rate of a few a week.
Cheers,
David |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 132
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, July 06, 2008 - 10:55 pm: |
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This is a "yes, I'm still alive" message from the discussion board at ElectricMarine.com |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 130
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 12:00 pm: |
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Well, that didn't take long. I received a message of "passively active" from someone who has not signed on since 2005. I will therefore assume that other "PAs" may be lolling among the truly inactive and suppress my urge to go to the work of purging the rolls. Hey, it's only disk space. If you really don't want emails from the board, I'll assume you can set up your spam filter unassisted. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 129
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 09:41 am: |
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While I'm at it. . . . Sometimes it seems to take a long time for the board to accept one of my posts. It waits and waits, sometimes for more than 30 seconds. I find this irritating and I think you would too. I believe the issue is with the company that hosts the entire website. Pages come up quickly enough, but if the hosting computer actually has to process something, as it does with a board posting, then it seems slow.
I can't be sure it isn't something on my end and not with the server unless I know if other users are experiencing the same problem. If you, too, find the board slow in processing posts, let me know and I will switch hosts. Its a small pain, but a pain, to switch. So I'd rather not if it's not necessary. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 128
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 09:34 am: |
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There are a number of registered users who have not accessed the board for a number of years. If you never sign in, the board thinks you are inactive. However, you may be content just receiving email updates from the board, so the board would not know you are really "active."
Before I cull what I think are inactive members from the board, please let me know if you are in the "passively active" category described above. Or just go to the board and sign in. I know you are all busy, but please take the time to confirm your continuing interest or you may stop receiving board email and not appreciate it.
Thanks, David |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 127
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 09:31 am: |
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There are a number of registered users who have not accessed the board for a number of years. If you never sign in, the board thinks you are inactive. However, you may be content just receiving email updates from the board, so the board would not know you are really "active."
Before I cull what I think are inactive members from the board, please let me know if you are in the "passively active" category described above. Or just go to the board and sign in. I know you are all busy, but please take the time to confirm your continuing interest or you may stop receiving board email and not appreciate it.
Thanks, David |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 77
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, January 13, 2007 - 09:23 pm: |
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Email notification is back on. No apparent problem with the board. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 74
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 01, 2007 - 10:23 pm: |
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I disabled email notification for the board temporarily. If all goes well it should be back in a week. Youre actually going to have to look at the board for a while to see whats new. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: admin
Post Number: 71
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, December 09, 2006 - 08:15 am: |
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I believe the board is now fully restored after the recent spamming incident. Someone with a .ru suffix self-registered on the board before the spamming started, so that's a probable source for the unwanted messages.
It took a little while to figure out how to regenerate the "last poster" field. After removing all the offending posts, "sex" was still listed as last poster in many topics. "Last poster" does not automatically recalculate after moving or removing messages.
I have had a few new applications come through. They looked legitimate and I approved them. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 70
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, November 30, 2006 - 09:03 pm: |
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The board is restored again after another hack. What appears to have happened is that someone set up a bot to post a message every few minutes with links to porn sites. If you get copied on messages, chances are you got a bunch of junk mail. Sorry.
To prevent this from happening again, only registered users may post to the board. Self-registration is disabled for most groups, which means it may take a few days for a new registration to be approved by a moderator.
I originally decided to make it easy to post on the board in the interest of getting more people to use it. Since it mostly doesn't work that way an anyway, tightening things up will not affect very many people. |
David Sheriff
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 63
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, October 19, 2006 - 08:43 pm: |
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The board has been restored after a hacker defaced the first page and whatever else. I did a clean install of the behind-the-scenes software and then imported the content as of 10/17. I think everyone and everything is present, although perhaps not in the original order. Let me know if something seems wrong. |
admin (admin)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 10:18 pm: |
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I will be transferring the site and board to a new host server as of tonight. This may generate problems, render the board inactive for a time, or (horrors) lose files.
Got to be done. Hang on and hope it all goes smoothly. |
admin (admin)
| | Posted on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 10:33 am: |
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The operation of the Board has been changed to place the newest messages on top of the list. Most of the topics have been reordered in accordance with this scheme. Eventually we should get around all of them. |
admin (admin)
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 - 10:28 am: |
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A new topic has been added to the board: "MST 214 - Advanced Sailing Spring 2003." This topic is intended to facilitate communication within the class and to help recruit students before the class starts. Posting and reading are open to anyone. |
admin (admin)
| | Posted on Saturday, October 12, 2002 - 08:50 am: |
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The problems with slow board access have been resolved according to the web host company. If you ever experience untolerably slow access, note which page you are trying to load and how long it takes and the time of day and I will complain once more to the host. To load the entire page (and not pull half of it out of your cache) click refresh on your browser. This reloads the entire page and is a better gauge of download time. Thanks and sorry for the inconveniences.
If anyone is unhappy with the identity I assigned to them, let me know and I will change it. |
admin (admin)
| | Posted on Friday, October 04, 2002 - 01:01 pm: |
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To interested parties:
I have started a discussion board to replace and expand the email communications many of us have been conducting centered around the Dana Point Sea Scouts. You can find it at Re: Subjects Electrical and Marine
If you are receiving this message via email, its because I have set you up as users who get email copies of what gets posted in various places on the board. In that way it makes a transition from the email lists to the discussion board less painful. If you don't want to be copied, you can sign on and modify your profile or you can write me and I'll do it for you.
I will be sending everyone an individual email with their identity and password. You can change either if you like.
Aside from one area, anyone can read what is posted. In the "Dana Point Sea Scouts" area, sections have been set up for the usual maintainance notes on the boats as well as general comments. Access to this area is restricted to those who have been most closely involved with boat maintainance. If you want access and don't have it, let me know.
I will be discontinuing my usual emails in favor of running everythging through the board, which will maintain a record of everything nicely categorized and permits new topics to be opened up. It opens many of the exchanges up to anyone interested.
You can comment anonymously if you want, although registering an identity has benefits.
I can edit or delete anything as the moderator. If this takes off in a dozen different directions others can moderate sections too.
If you register (which I have done for you) you can have copies of new posts emailed to you so you don't have to keep going to the board to find out if anything was added.
You do have to go to the board to post a comment.
Newcomers should be able to self-register, but if you have trouble, contact me.
Read the instructions and tutorials in the left pane and you will find out all you need to know.
There will be bugs. If you find something that doesn't work the way you think it should, let me know.
Spread the word.
David |
Admin (Admin)
| | Posted on Thursday, October 03, 2002 - 11:47 am: |
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The web conference "Re: Subjects Electrical and Marine" starts today with the activation of this Discus software package. The idea for this project grew out of a series of email discussions between fellow sailors in Dana Point. A few months into the exchanges, yesterday actually, one participant asked if the forum could be converted into a bulletin board so a broader audience could participate. Hey, why not? The email thread that led to this point and proceeds forward in this virtual space is "Corrosion protection on the boats." Postings before today have been reconstructed from email messages. The cast of characters, except for me, have been given fictitious identities which they might want to continue forward or which they might want to disown. We'll see.
Please feel free to post test messages in the "Test Message" topic. Go ahead, try it. You might fumble around a little, but you can't break it doing so. That's what it's there for.
If you have any questions about the system, please contact me. |
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