a7a10.net domain activated

[Caretaker]

Well, well, www.a7a10.net domain is active. After looking at the options, it ended up being hosted with a major webhosting company which I believe (hope) to be reliable.

During the coming month or so (unknown how long time it'll all take) the forum will be moved to this site.

This may (very probably) imply some downtime and unexpected problems, some hours or maybe days here and there with no access. Will try to migrate the forum in parallel with it still being accessible on ***.net so as to make the swap seamless (optimism is important!).

More info to follow when the process is on it's way.

Thanks
e

[muskrat]

 Great to see e. Hope it all goes smoothly. I don't think I'd cope without my (at least) twice a day dose of the forum.
Goodonya mate.

[metalflake11]

Good luck and I hope it goes well!......... Why have you done it? just out of curiosity.

[Caretaker]

Thanks.

Why? Good question, as it has been ticking happily along as it is (not always, the current host have had some major problems in the past, and with the move I hope the nights I've spent mending stuff (like the dreaded smf could not connect to the database message) will be a thing of the past).

Basically, as it has been growing with regard to posts, attachments, visitors reading, 100's of botnets from every continent trying to post spam, google + yahoo and many others trawling the place, 1000's of pictures etc etc, having all this content and high traffic pointing to a subfolder of a totally unrelated website is not the best situation.

So, giving it a dedicated name and address should make things clearer and easier to manage from an admin point of view, it will give additional facilities, a descriptive title to all the links form goggle and the like. Many other implications. The forum software itself will get a major upgrade (1.1.x series is to be replaced by the 2.x.x series), something I do not want to experiment with on the existing active forum, better to do test runs and preparing the setup on a completely separate site.

I'm in for some interesting challenges (it's not just a matter of taking a wheelbarrow of files and dumping them in a predigged hole in the new website, and push the 'ON' button), but the more problems to solve the more I'll learn  

ftm, all can relax and use the forum as it is. When it starts to get moving I'll probably invite some of you to do some testing, to see how it turns out in different browsers and pc's, how the access times \ reliability is from different places around the globe etc. And, of course, the new forum will retain all members info, passwords, posts etc.

So, the reasons are based on practical experience, and the move process itself will be based on upcoming practical experience.

For the moment, am relishing that www.a7a10.net is active with a basic page showing up, FTP, emailserver, phpmyadmin, c-panel, passwords etc etc are activated and working, so got the tools ready to start building up something.

Thanks
e

[metalflake11]

Thanks for that comprehensive answer e!. Many thanks for all you do for us, it's a great site.

[Angus]

Hi Admin
If you want some help testing new domain/site then give me a pm. I have worked in software development for 30+ years and most recently in software testing of websites and online applications (complicated websites)

Angus

[Caretaker]

it's a great site.

Thanks!

If you want some help testing new domain/site

Thanks, will keep that it mind. Am especially interested if you have SQL \ PHPmyadmin (or SMF) experience.
Apart from the forum, the rest of the site will be easy stuff.

[gavinoz]

Hi e,

The opening page looks great. A couple of things worry me: there is a little video, right at the bottom of the page, of you working on the new website: I think you need to get out on your bike more, your colour is a bit peaky. Also why does your hair emit sparks intermittently like my magneto?

Actually I just wish to thank you for all the hard work you do maintaining the site that gives me so much pleasure, great stuff, good luck, Gav. 

[tombeau]

Well done.

Might it be time to seek advertisers to cover the cost of some of this?
We all appreciate what you're doing, it would be nice to see that you're at least not out of pocket, if not actually making something out of this.

I would think SRM is an ideal candidate as they must be already feeling the love from this forum. Their targeted customers would end up seeing their ad several times a day on this site, you wont get that with any bike magazine advert.

Also, this may be a step too far, but I have seen other forums with ad/links to ebay pages for relevant auctions...

Anyway, think about it. It's your site and your hard work. Admittedly we all contribute with our content, but I certainly feel that I have already gained far more than I've put in.
Cheers,
Iain

[muskrat]

Which brings me to something I have been thinking about lately. About a year or so back it was suggested a small donation towards the costs might show our appreciation of what e has organized for us. Just paypal to his email address no one else knows but you and e.
Cheers
Hope he doesn't send me to the naughty corner.
PPS I don't like Ads, sorry Iain.

[tombeau]

No problem Muskrat.
I don't particularly like ads myself. But they wouldn't stop me visiting the site, and I would understand the reason for them being there.
Cheers,
Iain

[Caretaker]

Thanks for the input. Plan is still no ads or affiliations (companies are welcome to register and post info\support for their products\services as long as it is not plain advertisement\spam, has been going well here).

A few donations now and then is fine, just to cover factual expanses (not time expanses, as I enjoy the task, most of the time at least :O) and provide a nice place to help A owners (remembering how lost I was when I got my A10!).

If there was to be any surplus in the donations, it'll be channeled to a 'best picture' award prize.
Thanks a lot to those who have contributed.

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Please visit these test-sites and check for speed and reliability. Reports highly appreciated.

http://a7a10.net/forum/
http://www.a7a10.net/BSA/BSAGoldenFlash.htm

Thanks