Forum hosting transfered

[Jancsika]

This is a rather unpleasant subject and I was mulling over it for the past few days.
It is about the future and direction of this forum.
Here are the facts:
Falconeer feels that the forum is using too much of the resources.
The forum is using too much disk space but the problem is with the backup.
Here is what Falconeer has to say:

Nope, the problem is not disk space.

The problem is "backups".

I don't want to have to rely on a backup created locally by the webhost. If they *beep* up, we've lost 5 years of work. So we need an off-site backup solution, which we have.

The issue pops up with the creation and the actual transfer of the backups to the other server. This takes a lot of time and server resources and we've passed the 6GB mark now. At this point, the backups take 7 hours to complete and 13GB of storage on the off-site server (one weekly backup, one daily backup).

You can imagine that being able to remove 25% worth of files means an equal amount less server time and enables us to postpone paying for a more expensive off-site backup solution

.
There are several solutions:
1. Falconeer would turn the whole forum to WarII and will stop hosting the forum.
2. Since most of the forum space is taken up by the scenario maps. We could delete the map files, have all the maps on WarII’s site . We would have the map discussion still on this forum, but instead of the maps posted here, we would have a reference to WarII site. This would cut down on the volume and Falconeer indicated that he could go along with it.

It is up to the membership to decide.
I would like to hear from all those lurking members but most importantly would like to hear from WarII, addressing the issues and the sulution, that I have brought up privately with him.
Jancsika

[darthdroid]

Well geeze, it would be a shame to see us disband!

I sure hope Warll can do it! He's our only hope, like Obi-wan.

I would simply say that because both solutions require Warll's help, let him decide. So whatever Warll wishes to do, I vote that way.

[Greybriar]

Whatever is agreeable to Falconer and the forum members would be fine with me. Saving the maps should be the primary concern, I think.

[Warll]

Oh I can take care of everything and I would like to do so.
So long as Falc agrees I can make it so all old links will point to the forum's new location, and re-increase the file upload limit back to 7MB(Can't go higher due to php limits).

The thing is that because this is such a big change we don't want to do it without everyone's permission. Just imagine if we didn't, "Hey guys guess what? I moved the forums" At least thats my opinion.

[karsten]

First of all, I want to say a very big THANK YOU to Warll for his far-sighted efforts to save the HG Wiki and then to make available his website to save the SMR maps, which give pleasure to so many and in which so many members have invested enthusiasm, expertise and precious time!

So I fully support this initiative, which appears to focus each web site on the function in which it excells - Warll's website for easy access and safe storage of maps, HG for its good discussion facilities which generate visitor traffic, and with links to the maps on Warll's site. A very big THANK YOU to Falconer for all the HG site has offered to SMR fans over time and is willing to continue to offer.

In addition, I would like to rekindle the excellent suggestion by Woody, one of the HG moderators, some time ago, to have a new subsection on HG for good "finished" maps.

Currently, our returning members and newly interested gamers are too often frustated by interesting-looking old maps which then crash, or turn out to have a mediocre scenario, or use defective building blocks.

What they (and we) need is a new section, which provides attractive screenshots and playing tips for the best maps with a link to their most up-to-date, fixed version. Just imagine how grateful occasional visitors would be for such a guide. And imagine what an encouragement such a section would be to mapmakers new and established to actually "finish" their product. We know we can rely on established names like Jancsika, Rodea, Lowell and a few others for excellent, finished maps. But new and occasional visitors do not have an easy time finding good maps and often leave again quickly before having experienced some of our best maps. We need more satisfied users if this website is to have a long-term future.

[Warll]

I think I may need to clarify my plan (Jan gets to sya 'I told you so')

First off this thread is a vote between option 1 and option 2.

My favorite option, #1, is that I take over the entire forum. I will move it so that it is hosted on the smrsimple domain and for most part will be exactly as it is now. So long as Wolfwood and Falc are ok with it I will write an .htaccess file that will 302 redirect the old links pointing to the Hooked on Railroads forum to the same posts at the new location. This redirect should be transparent to users and should retain the search engine rankings.

I will increase the file upload limit to 7MB.

I will increase the mod powers the current mods have.

I will warn the mods not to go crazy with the new powers.

Option #2 is that we delete all the map files from the forum and link to smrsimple, I don't like this option, at all.

[Pureon]

My 2 cents: Having all the files/discussions in one location would be beneficial to new users (like me). However one thing to note - I found this forum by Googling 'Railroads Maps', hookedgamers was ranked 1st, but smrsimple wasn't on the first few search result pages.

Anyway, huge thank you to all those that run these websites and add content to the wiki! Very very useful info.

[CalmDragon]

Fun whist it lasted.
I vote for option 1.
Thanks to all for supporting this site while it was up!

[Jancsika]

To begin with:
We are not really voting here. This is not a democracy. We might come up with suggestions and it is up to Falconeer to decide what is best for his enterprise. And that’s it, whether we like it or not.
The reason I spell this out is that what I was expecting here was not a meek resignation and a shrug of your shoulders but some constructive ideas and suggestions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now here is what I suggest:
We have approximately 100 maps uploaded in the Maps thread, and the volume of the uploaded maps is what causes the problem.
Since the most of the same maps are already uploaded on the “SMR simple” site (I might add with Falconeer’s blessing) and Falconeer gave permission to WarII to do so!!!, I don’t see any reason to duplicate here what already is available at “SMR simple”, therefore I suggest that we can delete the duplicate maps here, place a link to “SMR simple” where the map was removed from, thereby freeing the precisions disk space for Falconeer.
The added benefit would be that all the search links would stay the same, without any redirecting I might add. Also the link at Firaxis would be valid.
All this can be accomplished with very little effort on my part.
As I stated at the start: “It is up to Falconeer to decide”.
Jancsika

[Rodea2007]

My suggestion:
1. The new map will be saved here only for a maximum of one week and then transferred to WarII site and created a link to it.
2. Comments or problems to the relevant maps can still be uploaded here.
3. Mods or others can still be upload here

If not would be better this forum closed,

[Falconer]

Hey peeps,

Just pitching in on Jansicka's last post.

We certainly want your opinions on what you feel is best, but technical limitations may force us to go one way or another.

Two things are certain though:
- We do indeed need to drastically take down the file usage on the server. It is for this reason alone that we're doing what we're doing.
- All of us involved are working towards saving both the files and the forum for the Railroads! community. If it can't be done, it won't be for lack of trying.

Also, I can't think of a better person to host all this than WarII. He's already done a lot for the community so I'm certain you'll be in good hands if that is what we end up doing.

[karsten]

Dear Falconer,

we know that you have a business to run, and that every part of HG has to pay its way. Now that the efforts to kill this forum for the benefit of a rival forum have been stopped, genuine SMR fan traffic is beginning to build up again. I would not be surprised if a second spring for SMR materializes, given the quality of new maps now available and the very pleasant and helpful user community now present.

I hope you can support Jancsika's proposal of retaining a SMR forum with simple map links on HG, that would provide users with the maps on Warll's site, because you would have the best of both worlds: Low resource costs for maintenance of the SMR forum, and a growing fan base visiting other parts of HG as well. It seems a shame if both HG and Warll's site were to lose all that potential new traffic.

Best regards, Karsten

[Warll]

I want to make some techical points clear.

A .htaccess html error code 302 redirect is known as a permanent redirect. 302 redirect preserve page rank and makes it clear to google that "Hey that page your looking for? Its over here now". The exact same thing happens with users, they request page x, the server checks the htaccess and sees that page x matches a pattern, the server then sends the http header with error code 302 redirect which causes the web browser to then go to the new page. All this happens in milliseconds and happens at a very low level meaning people won't even notice it unless they study the urls.

Basically option one would be painless as far as users are concerned.

This means that the link on Fraxis' site will cause people to go to the forum's new location at smrsimple. Writing the htaccess isn't that much work. Mean while manually going through the entire maps forum and editing everything would be a TON of work.

There are other problems as well, for instance not all the maps in the forum or hosted smrsimple, to solve that I would be willing to give anyone involved in the work the ability to post maps.

[Falconer]

Doubt the .htacess will work. It's not like we're closing all our forums.

[Warll]

How dare you doubt the power of RegEx.

Seriously it'll work so long as there exists a pattern or set of patterns that uniquely identify the links.

Look at the current url for instance:

http://www.hookedgamers.com/forums/post ... mode=reply&f=31&t=4186&sid=d7c6e1ed5afd08d007ce070a947f200c

forum 31 and
thread 4186

What will happen is the mod-rewrite rules, a regex expression, will look for "forum 31", it will store the thread number and then redirect the user to the correct forum and preserve the thread number. Actually what will happen is that it will preserve all parts of the url after the forum variable.

Forum 31 isn't the only forum that needs to be redirected but all that means is I'll need to make the rule match the other forums.