VisforVoltage forums down

[knightmb]

I noticed they were down today, I don't know where they went

 

[knightmb]

Update to this, the forum admin was having hosting issues, he hopes to have it back up soon.

 

[Mathurin]

...

 

[knightmb]

Hey, thanks for that info.

That kind of stuff always gets under my skin
It cast a bad image for all hosting providers, especially since I'm one too. But you know as they say, one bad apple spoils the bunch.

 

[Mathurin]

...

 

[knightmb]

Yeah, the forums got hacked

I just hope all that good info doesn't get wiped out. I know a lot of people that ask questions about kits or motors and it's a great resource to go look things up.

 

[Reid Welch]

Long-term security (preservation) and general stability are needed for whatever is to be the Voltage Forum.

Please look here at what volunteer David Herron has created.

http://visforvoltage.org/node/12

My concern is that it's still run from home, and will require
$150/mo for upgraded bandwidth (if I understand you correctly, David).


The forum platform at David's place is fine--I like it fine.
I like this basic phpbb brand too.
It's familar and easy to use/search/etc


The forum platform, therefore, is not a deciding matter for myself.
The choice should center on permanence and on cost to maintain,
and on the host's interest. Here, the host is one of our own.

What guarantee do we have here
that "your business will be running in five years"?
(a rhetorical aimed at you at the cited thread)

That's a question we could deal with later on.
The same question must apply to David Herron's proposed site:
"What guarantees us that you will be running in five years"
(any individual can potentially flake out, as Ken seems to be gone himself)

??

It's a good day to dialog.

We must make a balanced decision,
leaving ego and emotion outside of the process.

Thanks,
Reid

 

[knightmb]

I don't know if anyone can make any 100% guarantees to a forum existing forever. The only benefit I have is no pressure on this forum here. I just use it archive stuff that I don't want to lose at other forums and provide an easy way for me to link info for friends or anyone else that has a question about anything that I've done as far as e-bikes are concerned for example. I have no plans to push any products or services here no matter how many people use it. I just like a place to discuss interests and hobbies with other people that share the same interests or hobbies as myself.

On the company main page it does have a link to buy a copy of my e-bike setup but only because so many people have asked for it. It's not part of any business model, just a way that if people want something but don't have the time or skills to put some particular type of e-bike together then I try to help them out. I don't see myself ever putting anything about it for sale here either because I'm not in the business of e-bikes :lol:

Of course all of that could change, no one really knows when it comes to the ever changing landscape of the online world. I found the voltage forums through a friend and it was a great information resource, plus all the people that love e-bikes like I do was a refreshing view into the world of e-bikes. I know there is a lot more to the voltage forums than just e-bikes though, so it would indeed be a very big forum. The only thing I have going for me is that everything is done at the company, server hosting, backup power generators, multiple servers and nightly backups, etc. So the only weak link it in all is the ISP and I don't see them as going out of business anytime soon.

 

[Reid Welch]

everything is done at the company, server hosting, backup power generators, multiple servers and nightly backups, etc. So the only weak link it in all is the ISP and I don't see them as going out of business anytime soon.

Ah, so "the company" is not just yourself.
The company is a substantial corporate structure?

If so, good. This is major points.

If we mostly all agree to this hosting offer (do we?),

-is there any wedding yet to one forum-style over another?

I'm happy with phbBB formats.
And I like David's preferred format too.

The main thing is to have a reliable hos
and a chief admin team sensitive to community needs
and also savvy on security.

You meet all qualifications.
David meets the basics too, except
for bandwith costs and other "potential" costs
amounting, at minimum, to $18oo per year, to be paid for by...
advertizers? members? Ugh.

 

[Reid Welch]

Regarding board-types and looks:

Here's a sample of an Invision panel's layout.
http://www.criticalpoet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=130631#130631
A humor piece I just penned (not poety, thank god)

r.

 

[knightmb]

You meet all qualifications.
David meets the basics too, except
for bandwith costs and other "potential" costs
amounting, at minimum, to $18oo per year, to be paid for by...
advertizers? members? Ugh.

I'm still at a lose to why he is having to pay so much for hosting. $1800 a year works out to roughly $150 a month so unless the forum is churning out GB of traffic a day, I just don't see text really generating that much. I've only posted and interacted with the people in the e-bikes forum, so I imagine all the other forums are very busy as well. I counted all the posts totals I could see in the voltage forum and estimated the DB to size to maybe 20 or 25 MB in size for that many posts. I guess a lot of large attachments could bump up the daily traffic though so maybe it does cost the hosting provider that much to maintain it all.

Here's a forum that's hosted for free (belongs to a good friend) at the same company servers.

http://ooapw.endless-sphere.com/forums/

It generates about 500 postings a day, has 30 forum areas for user and staff posting and is very busy, but doesn't even show up as a blip in the company bandwidth even with attachments and the lot. This forum was moved from another "provider" that was charging about 3/4 of the price you just mentioned for the same hosting service. Basically the original 1500 people lost their forum so another one had to be built from scratch for them (still in progress to this day actually).

If control of the forum (meaning don't want someone else that can mess with things) is of great concern, have them consider this company do the forum hosting, it would be $25.00 a month (web + DB) and would be a flat rate, no bandwidth or hit limitations, etc. They might feel better about paying a business fee for it which would separate away the "uncertainty" of a free forum.

 

[knightmb]

Ah, so "the company" is not just yourself.
The company is a substantial corporate structure?

Not as in it's own 5 story building, but in it's own "hosting center" when I refer to that. The company has it's own dedicated server room with a bunch of computers, battery backups, backup generator outside, redundant internet connection to the ISP, etc. The company does hosting for a lot of companies and it's important that 24/7 uptime be maintained, many them rely on e-mail and web hosting to always work or it cost them thousands of dollars a day if it's down. Keeping a forum up and running is a much easier task than the other things that go on from day to day for business.

Basically, it's more than someone's extra computer on a cable modem connection running everything. It's multiple servers dedicated to DB backend, web hosting, e-mail, even fax, etc.

 

[knightmb]

Long-term security (preservation) and general stability are needed for whatever is to be the Voltage Forum.

Please look here at what volunteer David Herron has created.

http://visforvoltage.org/node/12

I registered so that I might post there, but never got the confirmation e-mail with my password?

 

[Mathurin]

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[Lessss]

Of the 2 boards
endless-sphere.com
visforvoltage.org
I like this one.

 

[dom]

With you on the TFF summary Mathuron -bit hard to get a word in edgeways LOL
Some people seem to dominate there and aren't always open to fresh ideas.

Haven't come across a forum as good a V yet where things do stay on topic most of the time.
People there seem to stay mostly in their own group unless they can contribute to someone elses with a knowlegable answer.Fechter being a prime example -mostly in the motor/controller section -then will jump in with some handy info to bikes/pedalecs,ect.
Then we have Reid -who is an entity on his own- to brighten the place up.

I think Reikimann said there was 3.5gig to copy the whole of V -not sure if that included attachments though -not much for the amount of time it's been there.

Yahoo is a crackup to read sometimes -but you are right -pretty hard to get info sometimes -though they do have file section and a search can bring up relevant posts from WAY back. Lots of knowlegable people there -just a bit unorganized .haha!

Hi Knightmb -i don't know if your site here will do the V -hosting or not -thanks for the offer. It looks like a nice setup.
Can you add different sections like they had at V -if people do decide to come here? I know Reid was pretty keen on this place -sounds alot cheaper than what Reikimann is doing.

What would you have to upgrage if there was a big infux of members?

Cheers Dom

 

[knightmb]

Hi Knightmb -i don't know if your site here will do the V -hosting or not -thanks for the offer. It looks like a nice setup.
Can you add different sections like they had at V -if people do decide to come here? I know Reid was pretty keen on this place -sounds alot cheaper than what Reikimann is doing.

What would you have to upgrage if there was a big infux of members?

Cheers Dom

Yeah, no limit to how many sections that can be added. My interest has been e-bikes and alternative fuel so that's why only these sections are here. I see no reason why I can't add another 10 sections with a ton of sub-sections if it's necessary. It's easy for me to setup moderator groups, so forum members can govern certain areas of their interest if they want to without them having enough access to wreck or hack the forums for example. I've been managing forums for over a decade (both personally and professionally), back when infopop was popular with their UBB flat file forums (mid 90s), then moved on to phpbb (late 90s) because it was open source, free, and easy to use with any server setup.

I like to keep things on topic with the forum, that's why a lot of posts here had been removed because it was advertisements for Viagra or lottery, etc. That's why registration is strict here at the moment, too many spam bots get accounts to post up crap ever since the news airing about my e-bike setup. I think the bots have finally given up because I haven't seen too many in a while, so opening up registration to be automated again would be no problem for me.

As far as upgrading, given how many members post at the current voltage forums, I don't see it as much of a strain. Forums use very little bandwidth and CPU on the server, so the big thing would be if someone had an attachment in a forum and then for some reason thousands of people from around the world were going directly to that attachment (maybe via Google for example), but the forum is setup not to let Google or other search engines direct access to file attachments here so that might help.

 

[Mathurin]

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[Reid Welch]

(i've bolded and underscored the key points addressed in this posting)

Just my two cents about various forums, and stuff:


I'd been a member of the TF forums for quite a while, but I'd been lurking without ever posting there.
When Voltage recently came down I started posting,
and found that my third post got censored for no apparent reason,
and with no kind of explanation or even a notice about it either. My best guess is that some mod disagreed with something I wrote since there was nothing wrong with it. So, uhmm.. i think they all be smart, beautiful, sexy, cool and intelligent peoples. But TFF is the objection and I'll have none of that, thank you very much. I've cancelled my membership...


Then there's Power-Assist Yahoo Group, it's allright I guess but near useless as archive. Well all threads, granted, have their goofy, semi-pseudo trivial disputes. But a lot of the regular posters there are trolls, hey. What happens is the threads get filled with off topic junk. If you try looking for that mod that had to do with relays from a few months/weeks ago, it's not likely to happen unless you really want it to find it... You'll have to spend a long time fighting your way through various crap. So while I still do receive the digests, I no longer post there anymore. I just skim the posts and copy/paste usefull stuff as it goes by...


Then there's voltage that I like, I really do. There's a lot of diversity, people from all walks of life and it's mostly down to earth with just about no nonsense, stuff sorted by categories, posts that generally stay on topic, mods that seem to do a pretty good job and a search function that's actually usefull, so it's been win-win.

Yes but at the moment Voltage is not as great as it once was... Still Ken has vowed to hand the Voltage forums down to someone else if he should find himself unable/unwilling to keep it up. In my view this appears to be the case.. I'm waiting to see what's gonna happen.


I recon visforvoltage.org looks good so far... I dunno, guess we'll just have to wait & see. But 150$/mo for bandwidth? When I see things like this: http://www.topclasshost.com offers 200GB bandwidth per month, 4gb storage, for 110$ USD per year, and they have excellent uptime and take care of backups for that price... I mean, short of getting slashdotted, a forum like voltage isn't gonna come close to 6.6GB of bandwidth in a day, is it? 150$/month may be a typo...


There's also Velectris'es forums that are pretty cool.
Similar to endless sphere in french.


Also véhicules électriques free fr* that's like Voltage in french.


Yep, so that's that.

*"Morticia, I love it when you speak French"
Gomez Addams

Seriously though, that mutilation must've happened within Ken's setting of a 10minute post-editability time.

After that, no alteration of any V forum posting is possible by any moderator.

I know because ChasB commiserated with me
about that PIA-matter a month ago--I always need to go back and fix typos.

Chas said at that time that he'd ask Ken whether the 10 shut-down could turned off...
but Ken hadn't been around for a while to ask (even then).

So--I dunno. Maybe Ken (as admin) could've altered your posting?
Take heart to know that none of the moderators could've done that
--not after ten minutes.


As much and as wildly-comic/off topic as i ran at Ken's forum,
not a one of them ever moderated any post of mine. I once
asked for an obsolete-info post of mine to be removed. Chas
promptly obliged.

I wonder if it could've been a Invision glitch that caught your posting?
Who knows? If not, then it was KT who marred your posting.

cheers,
Reid

 

[Mathurin]

...

 

[knightmb]

Oh, no no man you misread, or I miswrote?
My post got censored off TFF.
It's not happenned even once on Voltage.

BTW, Ken came back to take care of V.
Told'ya it was premature to throw in the towel, hey?
But next time V crashes, we'll meet here again I suppose!


Though I like the 10-ish min edit thing, makes me go over my posts repeatedly before submitting them. I assume others do the same...

I couldn't find anything like an announcement, could you post a link? Last I checked, no one could find or contact him yet. The forums still have some hacked messages on it too.

 

[Mathurin]

...

 

[knightmb]

Thanks for that, with so many hacked topics it's tough to pick things out, LOL.

 

[Mathurin]

Yup, the spamming annoying.
"Yay, let's spam all over the palce now that there are no mods."

But ya know it's not that I don't like your forum, I just like V better 8)


And it sounds like the software upgrade is not cheap.

The address to give money to V is still the same:
ken AT digd.com
(PayPal adress)

I just sent 33.33$, this time in USD.
Let's just say that if 17 other users donate this much, it'll almost cover it...

 

[gman]

From: Vrefuge http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/VRefuge/
In a effort to keep as many members informed as possible, a new V is for Voltage Recovery Blog has been created at http://www.vrefuge.blogspot.com
This will provide a way for members who don't wish to get a Yahoo subscription to view the files. We would also like to keep the V Refuge on topic as much as possible. Any off topic post should be placed on the new http://www.vrefuge.blogspot.com. Anyone may express themselves there.
No off topic post on V Refuge will be deleted, because we believe your comments are a very important part of the recovery, they will be moved to the new http://www.vrefuge.blogspot.com. Your email will not be posted, so you will have to return to http://www.vrefuge.blogspot.com to see if any comments were made.