Please let it just be me...

My lovely wife just shot off the afforementioned PM, but fears the webmaster may need specs as far as what BG's requirements would be/are expected to be/could possibly be/if you squint really really hard, and half of China joins, what we'd need/etc...

So, she and I await response from the one known as "Moogie..." I shall update you all with what I find out when I myself find it out!

Looking to brighter things (these are dark days indeed!), I'm at 2,130 words for NaNoWriMo (I dont have alot of spare time during November... It's a busy month for my family), I'm just needing the 6Ga copper wire and a couple more eyelets/nuts/bolts to finish my goggles, and I ALMOST got my wife all Victorian'd up today for a wedding!

Also managed to find my GOOD pocket watch (Japan Mvmt, Quartz... I'd prefer mechanical, but it's a pretty case!), and find out some info on a Nautica Diver's Watch I was given SEVERAL years ago...

Altogether very productive!

Just tell me the boards are archived.

First it is back and then it is down,

Then it is not there and then it is back,

Now it is gone!

I too am having serious BG withdrawal issues!!!

Glad we have this place too.....

Bored now.
But however, the withdrawl symptoms have encouraged me to drag the family out to carboot fairs and things, in hunt of new items such as bedroom furniture for when we move. Since I intend to study at home, Mother has said that I may have free reign on my new room. Hooray!

Ah yes, the absence of BG has induced me to do other things. Last night I was at a fireworks display and this afternoon I'm heading out to the Ashmolean with a couple of friends. Not entirely a bad thing, but it is annoying when it does go down.

Xenos wrote:My lovely wife just shot off the afforementioned PM, but fears the webmaster may need specs as far as what BG's requirements would be/are expected to be/could possibly be/if you squint really really hard, and half of China joins, what we'd need/etc...

On that "half of China" thought - we get about 10-12 spam accounts per day, most are banned as soon as they are created. Part of the performance issues is due to a very large user base count, which does tend to impact the main forum database. Oddly enough when you look at the user base, fully half have less than 5 posts, and a fair number have not even been online in a year. We did a purge once, perhaps another is due, if we ever get back up and running..

Cheers
HAC

while waiting i thought i'd do some more of my mp3 speaker box....my work room is now currently upsidedown as someone helpfully decided to clear up and put a work unit in. while nice it does mean that i can't get to the soldering iron for another 2 weeks.
I cast some of my resin doll today instead but i'm going nuts without my fix...i have to get off my bustle and actually do things!

HAC wrote:Oddly enough when you look at the user base, fully half have less than 5 posts, and a fair number have not even been online in a year. We did a purge once, perhaps another is due, if we ever get back up and running..

Cheers
HAC

On many forums I participate on it is common to delete zero post users after a few weeks. Likewise anyone not logged in for over 6 months are deleted.

eastblock wrote:
On many forums I participate on it is common to delete zero post users after a few weeks. Likewise anyone not logged in for over 6 months are deleted.

True, but with the amount of spam-bot banned accounts it gets a bit trickier at BG. No easy way to filter them out of a purge. We will probably do another clean-up in the very near future

Cheers
HAC

As far as I can remember, BG didn't even use a CAPTCHA or "answer this question to prove you're human" function. Perhaps this would be a good time to implement one or more of such spambot deterrants.. well, if we ever get back online, that is..

Sanity only retained cos I've been out most of the weekend at green party conference.

No BG still, is terribly terribly sad. I had been intending to chip in some cash to help the cause, but assume this cannot be done until BG itself is back? Or is there a route to donating money from somewhere here?

You begin to realise that all these folks around the world are actually your friends and you cant chat to them when no BG.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We shall have to have a word with Cptn. Quinlin Hopkins, just in case his "Temporal Manipulation Experiment" went awry this Halloween... I warned him about ignoring the temporal-magnetic effects of Cempazuchitl flowers in the Day of the Dead celebrations. The US Office of Atmospheric Research is working on a possible theory for the vanishing of the server, but I fear it may be lost outside of the Space Time continuum.

EDIT: A copy of the letter sent to Capt. Hopkins can be found here:
http://texassteampunks.ning.com/forum/topics/vanishing-of-the-brassgoggles?xg_source=activity

Alas, I can't offer much immediate help, other than discuss possible alternative servers (this is Austin, the home of Dell and IT after all!), relay communications (pass the word) and entertain BG members who may wish to visit our local forum:

http://texassteampunks.ning.com/

And for those of the Spanish speaking persuasion we have the new forum http://steampunk.mexico-foro.com/

Both fora, along with a fine glass of Absinthe have helped alleviate the withdrawal symptoms. BTW one of our members Prof. J. J. Folderol, is working on his own recipe for Absinthe... That may help a bit more

Cheers,
J. Wilhelm

Ok, so since apparently Moogie is busy for the next few days (I'll forgive her, she's getting married), I did some digging on my own, and here's what I found:

http://www.invisionpower.com/products/board/purchase.php

That's the place that SFC is ran though, and in the... nearly 6 years my wife has been a member, there has been (comparativly speaking) no downtime.

There's the info on the host/board generator (they even mentioned something about a chat service... Not sure of all the ins and outs, this is just a cursory glance on my end.), I hereby submit the info to the Powers That Be, and leave it to those of the more... Technologically inclined.

I dont really know if it'll help or not.

For what it's worth,
~X

Erm, that seems to be for the software platform only, not hosting. A quick glance though the website leads to their "hosted comunities", which are forums, blog etc. that are sitting on their servers (rented server space = host). The top end "standard" product they list on the site is, I would say, quite some way short of the mark for BG's requirements, i.e:

Super 65
$44.99/month
Buy Now

* 65 Online Users Info
* 800MB Storage Info
* Unlimited Members Info
* Unmetered Bandwidth Info
* Approx. 650,000 Posts Info
* Includes IP.Board
* Includes IP.Blog, IP.Gallery & IP.Downloads
* Includes IP.Chat (20 User)
* Add IP.Content for $5/month
* Ticket & Live Chat support

Yeah.... that aint going to work.
...And their lowest "advanced" package is :

Advanced 175
$119.99/month
Buy Now

* 175 Online Users Info
* 2GB Storage Info
* Unlimited Members Info
* Unmetered Bandwidth Info
* Approx. 3 Million Posts Info
* Includes IP.Board
* Includes Blog/Gallery/Downloads
* Includes IP.Chat (250 User)
* Includes IP.Content & Incoming Email
* Telephone, ticket & live chat support

$120 a month is going to quickly wipe out BG's finances, and I don't think even that package is close to what we need. We would have to run adverts on the BG blog and forum to even attempt to support that sort of budget. I don't think we really want to start whoring out BG to the advert farms just yet... (by cog I hope not!).

At those prices, a colocated server (our own hardware sitting in rented datacenter shelf space, with internet connection) suddenly looks like a very cheap option... Hell, If I had the bandwith (read leased line E3) to support it, I would donate a linux box and host it myself.

SS

Hrm... Yeah, that dont seem quite... Yeah, too high.

I could have SWORE she said it was $320 a year... Must have misunderstood or something.

Like I said, just trying to help, and I'm yet to hear back from the lady, that may be a while, but yeah, I'll keep you posted with what I CAN find out!

Yes, please do keep us informed of any assistance you need. And thanks HAC for the updates.

On the brighter side, we invaded to local Renaissance Faire on their fantasy weekend, and one of our members in full Steampunk regalia(Dr. Scott) won the costume contest!

Blimey! It's broken again...

I'm going to suggest that it may well be my brand new puppy that's to blame for the outage.

She's pretty much destroyed (or attempted to destory) everything she's encountered, so she probably knocked BG over while playing at 'Hammer Throw' with her ball-on-a-string.

I just came back from my wonderful trip aboard the maiden flight of the explorer II (teslacon) to find the board gone how sad.

Just thinking in general about BG members who still havent found their way here, and I came up with this:

As we still have no current ETA for BG to return, maybe we should consider redirecting the brassgoggles URL to this forum. It would mean that all the regular BG members, who may not know about our backup forum, could find us a lot easier (and help calm the withdrawl cravings...). As the redirect would take at least 24 hours to fully proagate around the 'net, this should only be considered if we are looking at a lengthy stay of at least a few more weeks. Anything less, like BG returning in the next few days / week, it would be pointless.

Anyone else think it's a good idea / bad idea ?

SS

Since SG this is Mr Pheobsky's baby it would be his call. Not sure his server provider would be happy with traffic/cost spikes associated with a BG redirect - things to consider. markf

markf wrote:Since SG this is Mr Pheobsky's baby it would be his call. Not sure his server provider would be happy with traffic/cost spikes associated with a BG redirect - things to consider. markf

Hmmm, fair point! yeah this is also a free forum, so I would assume they would have a fairly low bandwith / user allowance. Hadn't thought of that.

Maybe best to skip that idea then...

SS

woot! I found my way here too... but it doesn't feel like home

Spiritus wrote:woot! I found my way here too... but it doesn't feel like home

That's because it's our 'home away from home,' so to speak. Try visiting a few of the forum sections, let our friends cure your homesickness...