Table fix: You may have noticed that the forums were offline for a brief period today. Unfortunately occasionally the section of the database that stores the forum post contents gets stuck in a way so as to make it unavailable. This doesn’t happen that often, it just needs a manual repair to unlock it to set the data free.
Outgoing mail: In other news I’ve also changed the way that mails are sent out from the forums. Previously we were using phpmail, and it’s now coming out via smtp which speeds things up somewhat. The sendmail queue was at any one time dealing with over 300 emails.
Forum speed: The changes mentioned above have sped things up somewhat although it’s still not perfect. We are working towards a server changeover but as it’s a huge move to undertake we’re planning it carefully before starting the upheaval as things will no doubt go wrong. Our server cost per annum will increase to a yearly lease in the region of 3000USD with this change simply because of the level of traffic. I appreciate that the forums are slow at peak times, but we are aware of it and taking steps to improve the service. In all likelyhood this change will happen in the new year because of time constraints, consider it a late Christmas present.
Do bear in mind that this is a free service for readers and is under heavy strain/use at the moment. To give you an idea of size the forum tables alone take up 1.2Gb of space, that is a lot of data!
Forum updates: Several new areas have recently been added to the forums, which include:
- 6Mil Limited – the new home for the company that was part of the A2 franchise.
- Grange Farm Airsoft, Airsoft Military Simulations and Lightfighter Airsoft also now have their own section in the site site discussion area of the forums.
If you’d like your own area of the forum set up for you, be it for a team, site or retail shop please put a post in the forums in the Site Suggestions section. For a new section we need to know:
- the section type (retail/site/team)
- the name
- a description
- a relevant weblink
- registered users that are requested as moderators (maximum of two)
If we don’t respond, please nag a global moderator to nag me, or nag me direct via email.
