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that thread was rated R Kelly

There is a new mobile app out for iPhones and iPads. It's not free, 1.99, and right now the verdict is out on if it's an improvement. It is spectacularly buggy for me, crashes at times, and images sometimes don't load (or make the screen jump around). It is totally different than the old one, and probably more functional, but needs some improvement.

At least that whole null thing is gone.

If your reading this your probably curious as to what exactly happened to Osyrus.  This post is to explain in long form why your looking at a new forum.  


Our server reached EOL (end of life) in March. What that means is the server's hardware is outdated, and the company no longer provides support (meaning, its broke, they don't fix it). The plan was to move Osyrus over to a new server. I looked at various companies and found more problems than solutions. Our database was way out of control, almost 2 gb worth of data. No company will import or allow an IPB database that large (most require under 500mb). This is somewhat my fault, as I never archived old threads, removed closed threads, or split large threads. That type of cleanup is what keeps databases in line, whereas we were just growing with no means of control in site.  We also had converted the database several times to new formats due to updates in IPS software and php releases, overtime that corrupts entries and is why we saw issues like login fails, and various weirdness with accounts.  The last conversion being the worst of it.  I also found most hosts to be unreliable with IPS boards based on user reviews. My conclusion was to move to IPS hosting, it is super stable, the same company that makes the boards software, relatively cheap (30-50 per month depending on traffic), and would allow the growth of larger databases.

My plan was to move to IPS hosting at the end of this current billing cycle, which is May 26th. Sadly, Sunday night, our primary hard drive died, and the server went into a safety mode, switching to backup. It also decided that it would revert to an older build of Apache and PHP. Well that fucked me. We were on php 5.5 and without it, our database was totally inaccessible. I couldn't even get into it with command line shell access.  I was finally able to rebuild the servers base software, and access the database, what I extracted is partial, and even a full dump with mysqldump produces a corrupt database that doesn't pass the various safety checks needed to import into the new site.  The other issue is that databases size in the first place. While IPS will allow sites to grow on their servers, they don't help importing sites from other servers, nor do they allow large SQL imports. In the end, no matter what we were going to lose a good amount of post data.  Even if I had the intact database, it would probably break the new site given the differences in a converted database and one that was fresh (as this one is).  

There are some good things to come from this.  We are now on IPS hosting, they make our software, so being hosted by them is ideal as the support is much better, the database will always remain, and there is no longer any server admin work.  Even updates are applied automatically, if a SQL error comes up they will fix it before I even have time to report it.  By far the best way of hosting an IPS site for longterm growth and stability.  They also index better with Google, and are more searchable so we may see increased traffic from basic searches like "Phish discussion".   It's cheaper, based on traffic.  Right now I'm paying $30 a month, which gets you up to 30 active users at one time (we usually average 15-25).  You can also increase your active users based on traffic, so if we started seeing 50 active at once, we would be bumped up to the $50 a month plan (they don't throttle users, or cut people off from login).  The most we ever had active at once on Osyrus was 45.  It's also a rolling average, which takes spikes into account (so if one day we see 70, that doesn't bump us up to $70 a month).

I apologize for what was, in my mind, inevitable.  I couldn't continue to pay for our old hosting at the rate they wanted for a new server, and I had moved my business site to other hosting that falls in line with photo industry standards.  My cost had been $160 per month and would have gone up to $200. The database had been worked over through the years, and was at a point where a clean wipe is the only way to ensure it doesn't fail in the future.  Now we are in a more permanent location, at a substantially reduced cost, with overall better performance and long term stability.

I also like the liking. And we have unlimited liking, I think. You used to get the good vibes shut down after maybe 5 or 7 in a day.

By the way, I really like the "Like" function.  Seems like it will eliminate a lot of pointless whore posts.

I have no clue who the shit half of you people are anymore.

Are those supposed to be here? I keep seeing random words underlined with links to advertisements.

Also I've been hoping that doug less beers would one day become doug more beers, but maybe the world isn't ready just yet.

Well, doug more beers is my real-life name, so I want to keep a bit of privacy whilst here on the grids.

I actually don't like that feature. I liked the autocorrect.

You mean the automistakeintroducer.

I'm having trouble listing multiple recipients on my PMs. When I type in the first name, it automatically pops up, but I cannot add a second or third etc. name onto it. Any advice, or am I just missing something obvious?

Thanks!

Not being able to view embedded videos on a mobile browser has become a bit of a detriment.  The Appreciation sub-forum is mostly blank posts.

It's taken a while but a new system for donating to the sites finances is in place.  

 

You should see a new tab at the top for Donations (far right, next to Calendar).  There are three packages, $5, $10, and $20 ($5 is 3 month, $10 is 6, and $20 a year).  All donation payments are handled through paypal.

 

Once you've donated I will move you to a donor member group (this is not automatic, so it could take up to a day from the time payment clears). Once in the Donor group you will find some new features.  Namely, access to a new image gallery, and an increase in your storable PM's (from 100 to 1000).  You can also PM multiple people with Donor permissions (that one is for you Zander, ha), and attach files to PM's (30MB max).  Depending on how the gallery goes I may enable video uploads as well.   

 

A few have asked how to donate, and there is the answer.  If there are any problems with the system let me know in this thread, hopefully it works smoothly as all the test donations worked without issue.  

 

Thanks for supporting the site, ensuring many more years of OoO. 

My neighbors have SERIOUS issues with this being back up.

Has anyone else had issues with the boomerang loops or guitar tuner on Emil's Tabs site? The audio jam loops at the bottom of each page are just showing up as code and not as an actual active, loopable audio track. Looks like they're all in flash. I'm using Chrome v 23.0.1271.95 m and I cleared my cache to no avail, and then I disabled and re-enabled Flash (I have version 11.5.31.2) and closed and restarted my browser to no avail.

For instance: Suzy Greenberg shows up as: <gflash>100 40 /vb5/member/suzy.swf</gflash>

Curious if there's an issue with his site or if it's on my end.

Hope this is an okay question to ask in this forum even though I know it's not this site or run by our mastermind D-money, since a lot of us have used it as a sister site over the years and wasn't sure if anyone still has a pulse on it.

Make this guy a mod, please.

And stop buying bonur pills in Canada.  

I knew that pee thread was trouble!

That pee thread knew you were trouble.

sweet new selection of emoticons.  i can't tell you how many times i've felt EXACTLY like this:



and yet have never been able to express it until now.

Cartoon Bootsy is feelin' it now.  Thanks Damon! 

Ok, had to rebuild the photo index, they work now.