Thread: Site changes

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Brent/Bill.Just went threw another round of problems signing on.I don't know.But is it possible that the add on's like Twitter,Facebook,etc are the cause of these issues??.Personally I really don't care at all about those features.In fact,Facebook is a spammers/viruses dream come true.

I have told both of you many times before how much I appreciate
the hard work both of you put into this site making possible.I was Admin on another site and I do know how much time that can take.

Please excuse me being direct here.The question is it seems Brent those changes have impacted negatively even through it was your intention to make it better.So what is the plan going forward??.Change to something else??.I am pretty flexible and one member who likes every member on this site.I think you have a very good group here and I sure wouldn't want to lose any one of them.It is getting kind of frustrating to me too.I am hoping you could tell me that you do have something in mind for a long term solution.

Respectfully,

Gary

Brent is working on software issues (IE: bugs in the system).

Bill S.

last 2 day I've had trouble getting on.. I even made one post a favorite to get on and sometime that works but today I'd get to that post click on "todays posts" and it would just go blank. I just come back later and all is well. I figure you guys are working on it and it will be OK later
Thanks for all your efforts
Charlie

I'm not sure, but the headlines on one of the news channels was saying yesterday that there was a major virus attack, possibly from a Chinese hacker, was causing some problems. My wanders through the internet today have been painful for slowness which leads me to believe that there are some more of the big ISP's with more firewall levels. Of course, the Dow is down ~418 points as I type this. Perhaps more folks then usual are checking their investments - I know mine are about gone at this point

I've clicked on threads today and kept getting blank pages hit refresh bout three times finally opened.

The last two days screens have been freezing up for me and I have to log off and log back on again to unfreeze them. I thought I might have picked up a bug so I did a sweep and it came up fine. Maybe that is part of what you guys are seeing.

And here I only thought we imported good products from China !

Don

Third time of clicked up CHR today, as usual I got on the first time. All the site features work just fine for me!!!!

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Third time of clicked up CHR today, as usual I got on the first time. All the site features work just fine for me!!!!

Must be because you live in the north country (South side)

This is a really complex issue – maybe a “hot rod” analogy will help to ‘splain some of the problems / issues.

The previous version of Club Hot Rod was based on a “mature” platform – let’s say like a 392 Hemi from the late 1950’s. Brent and Bill had that baby tuned to a “T” and we all liked it a lot. Hummed along and really had no issues. The unfortunate reality of cyberspace is that the system administrators across the globe tire quickly of “current technology” and move to bigger, better and different configurations. The “engines” used to power other forums were replaced and from a technological standpoint, began to leave the old Hemi behind. Now that’s not to say the Hemi was bad mind you, but she didn’t have dual overhead cams and only sixteen valves and well, the “mechanics” moved on and stopped supporting the old gal. There came a point when there was no more leaded fuel and all the really ace mechanics were gone so the Hemi needed to be retired…

Now we have vBulletin – which is a content publishing and bulletin board software that used by a lot of online forums. In a perfect world, we could equate it to say an “LT-x”, where “x” is the latest generation from GM - loads of new technology and lots of spunk. Good support from lots of fresh young “mechanics” (read system administrators, programmers, etc…) And herein lies the problem – we’ve still got a lot of guys (and gals) who are thinking “392 Hemi” in the hot rod! We’ve got a Fatman frame and parts from Jegs, Speedway and maybe an ol’ “racer Brown” camshaft. Well these new mechanics don’t know beans from sour grapes about this stuff so when we try and log on – there can be issues.

We probably have five different versions of Internet Explorer, several versions of Mozilla (Firefox and Minefield) and some Macs – all different eras and all different Operating Systems (OS) from Windows 95 to NT to XP to Windows7 and probably some Linux and “Freeware” thrown in for good measure. We have Dells, Sony, Toshibas, Gateway, IBM, HP and a slew of other brands and some “roll-your-own” that people have built from parts. All have different “insides” in terms of software, firmware and hardware. There are numerous combinations that all use some “common code” but have unique (proprietary) end points to work with their particular brand. It’s like trying to connect AN brake lines fittings to metric calipers – you need to know both sizes and supply an adapter. Once in place, the adapter works fine and you never worry about it again.

This will sort out as the problems are logged and the system administrators fix the bugs – kinda like metric to AN – except there are a group of folks out there that delight in dumping sugar in the gas tank or the master cylinder and destroying things “just because they can”. As such, every bug has to be considered “hostile” and worked backwards to make sure the fix will not be worse than the problem. The process is brutal – and sometimes the fixes only work on the latest generation(s) of software. That’s part of the “planned obsolescence” program that eventually forces people to upgrade their hardware and software because support moves beyond their environment and eventually will not work.

Bottom line – XP and later OS is well supported, older not so much. Latest Internet Explorer (8.0.xx) – good support, several versions back (7.0.xx), fair support - older not so much. Firefox 5.0 okay – older will have some issues. And 32 versus 64 bit OS – well that’s a whole other set of issues. As painful as it is to say – the “latest greatest” is probably going to give the best performance on this site but even those with the "latest" will have to reload pages now and again..

Regards All,
Glenn

Yeah what Glenn said

Glen-to answer you about versions of computers out there logging on to this site.Aside from wanting to get back to being able again to up load pictures,this site is a primary reason why I spent money to replace a XP that wasn't repairable with another one that is about my budget for a computer.

My thought is when you look at the type of projects going on here,I know about my budget doesn't allow for the best or next to newest computer and progress on my project too.I don't think there are very many people here that are that wealthy.I could ask my partner from our race operations budget that I need a better computer and justifiably he would want me to explain how "I" am going to afford that.

I suggest you have to try to service the type of membership that makes this site so great.I said I was a Admin on another site that used VBulletin.(excuse the spelling).I was mainly involved in membership relations,but did deal in some computer functions.I agree the vbulletin is one of the fastest growing,but I respectfully disagree that it is cutting edge.The site I server on is owned by a huge conglomerate that owns about 75 sites this size or bigger and had a whole section to deal with maintenance and updates that was really having a hard time keeping up with the issues from vbulletin.They where just plagued with problems no matter what they did and are staffed by some of the best and brightest.

I started this thread with that knowledge in hand.I hope that Brent and Bill will come to the stable solutions(who BTW in my mind are just as much family to this site as all the other members that I consider as family) for the betterment for all.I want Brent to be able to find the time to post threads himself over always having to fix something here.Having to deal with that all the time is a real pita after a long period of time.

So one more time.Brent/Bill I think I know first hand the amount time you are putting in and I appreciate very much.It is a thankless job.I am posting this thread solely in support of having you consider something that would make your job easier.And if that means you having to make a move to something else,so be it.

Respectfully,

Gary

Originally Posted by 1gary

I agree the vbulletin is one of the fastest growing,but I respectfully disagree that it is cutting edge

I didn't say it was "cutting edge", rather that it's widely used and has a lot of support. You and I are totally in agreement Gary - I was attempting to explain the complexities and underscore that there's no quick or easy fix due to the ever present gap in platforms used to access the site. Unfortunately, cyberspace is ruled by techno-geeks who have no concept of what "Joe Average" uses for a PC.

I too appreciate Brent and Bill and really enjoy this site - in spite of the quirks.

Regards All,
Glenn

Originally Posted by glennsexton

"Joe Average"

HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, I ain't average

Originally Posted by TooMany2count

HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, I ain't average

That's funny.

funny thing about all this comments we been giving B & B is that Club Cobra hasn't been changed---

Maybe we should just move all our stuff over there ----