Pensioners forum LetsChat

Main boards => General Discussion => Topic started by: zoony on December 15, 2021, 03:55:34 PM

Title: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: zoony on December 15, 2021, 03:55:34 PM
I'm already aware that I prefer posting on this PF to the original which isn't something I feel right about so I've got 'em both on.. :undecided:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: crabbyob on December 15, 2021, 04:29:39 PM
strange isnt it?
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: zoony on December 15, 2021, 06:21:18 PM
Aye, but at least it works properly.. :grin:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: zoony on December 15, 2021, 06:33:01 PM
'T other bugger's down again.. :huh :sad:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Sheila on December 16, 2021, 10:54:35 AM
I wasn't sure where to say this but has anyone invited Alfred?  He is brilliant at starting new topics and seems to be a 'gent'.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Michael Rolls on December 16, 2021, 09:55:24 PM
There's no contact information in his profile. without that, I don't see how we can invite anyone - obviously a post inviting membership would not be sensible
Mike
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Raven on December 16, 2021, 10:51:44 PM
If the place really goes into meltdown and there's no effort to sort it then it may be the only thing left to do. But the problem with that is it's telling people we don't want where we are now. Again, it's wait and see how things go.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Michael Rolls on December 17, 2021, 03:18:31 AM
That's the right of it
Mike
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 17, 2021, 05:51:20 PM
Are we OK using the same name as over there  ?
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Mark on December 17, 2021, 06:06:40 PM
The idea was to use the same names. You've dropped the 22 but it hardly matters.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 17, 2021, 06:08:12 PM
I meant are we ok to call this site 'Pensioners Forum'  :duel:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Mark on December 17, 2021, 06:10:18 PM
Why not? There's no copyright and if it should become fully used it will be because there's no pensionersforum.co.uk  any more  :cry:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 17, 2021, 06:11:44 PM
Just checking  :cool:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 17, 2021, 06:32:05 PM
Quote from: Michael Rolls on December 16, 2021, 09:55:24 PM
There's no contact information in his profile. without that, I don't see how we can invite anyone - obviously a post inviting membership would not be sensible
What was done by somebody - crabbyob maybe - was to ask a PF member to email them via their email address in their PF profile. I already put up a post about setting up an email forwarder for anybody that wants one in your "Invitations" thread https://pensioners.digitalham.co.uk/index.php/topic,40.msg211.html#msg211
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Michael Rolls on December 18, 2021, 03:40:26 AM
I'm not sure that I understand any of this 'forwarding', so I will leave it to those who do - that's not a complaint - it's a confession!
Mike
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 18, 2021, 06:40:52 AM
Fair enough.

All it means is that once set up an email addressed to (say) [email protected] would turn up in your email inbox.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Michael Rolls on December 18, 2021, 07:14:27 AM
i think the light is dawning - thanks
Mike
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Diasi on December 18, 2021, 08:18:36 AM
Quote from: Michael Rolls on December 18, 2021, 07:14:27 AM
i think the light is dawning - thanks
Mike

It's the email equivalent of redirecting postal mail.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Raven on December 18, 2021, 12:36:11 PM
Worked for me no problem. Thanks. :smiley:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Cassandra on December 18, 2021, 02:39:33 PM
And me perfectly
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Diasi on December 18, 2021, 03:07:22 PM
And for me.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: zoony on December 18, 2021, 03:35:36 PM
Been bumped off twice in two hours..So tired of writing posts only to be unable to post 'em!! :wtf:!
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Raven on December 19, 2021, 06:47:05 AM
Aye, Tell me about it.  :cry:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Michael Rolls on December 19, 2021, 11:34:15 AM
I got above myself yesterday, commenting that I had experienced no difficulty (up to the time of the post) in accessing PF. As it happened I tried to access it quite late, without success - gave up after two attempts. Then this morning got on once, failed four times
Mike
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Raven on December 19, 2021, 11:36:11 AM
I've just come from trying to get into the other site, NOPE, it's not having it. Blasted Scunner so it is.  :yell:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: crabbyob on December 19, 2021, 11:39:03 AM
if all you lot are going to do is whinge then i'm off to GOM... where i might get awe'd   :nooo:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Raven on December 19, 2021, 11:44:27 AM
Quote from: crabbyob on December 19, 2021, 11:39:03 AM
if all you lot are going to do is whinge then i'm off to GOM... where i might get awe'd   :nooo:

And you might not.  [2010]
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Akbuk on December 19, 2021, 11:44:48 AM
Quote from: zoony on December 18, 2021, 03:35:36 PM
Been bumped off twice in two hours..So tired of writing posts only to be unable to post 'em!! :wtf:!

Same here.
This forum needs some urgency in scooping up members or members from both forums might go missing in action.
I don't know where to post a new subject anymore....
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: crabbyob on December 19, 2021, 11:48:04 AM
same as tother site pal, click games if it is a game and New Topic tab is there for you...
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Akbuk on December 19, 2021, 12:58:09 PM
Quote from: crabbyob on December 19, 2021, 11:48:04 AM
same as tother site pal, click games if it is a game and New Topic tab is there for you...

Are we not betwix & between?
I thought this forum was in case the other forum actually went down or even ceased.....
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: crabbyob on December 19, 2021, 02:51:03 PM
i dont think there are enough of us to fill this forum full time so it remains our back up for when we cant get onto PF... but PF remains our go to forum....
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 19, 2021, 03:16:04 PM
At least it is getting a quality control check.....  :smiley:

I'd be happier to see everybody from PF aware that there is alternative if necessary but happier still for that alternative to be unnecessary and PF brought up to scratch. I may contact Chris but not till there are more registered here to ask what is being done to fix PF and own up to what has happened here.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: zoony on December 19, 2021, 04:08:25 PM
Quote from: crabbyob on December 19, 2021, 02:51:03 PM
i dont think there are enough of us to fill this forum full time so it remains our back up for when we cant get onto PF... but PF remains our go to forum....

Is there a lower limit to numbers of members on a forum?
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 19, 2021, 06:16:58 PM
Bit lonesome with 1
May as well be email with 2

The script I wrote to get a handle on users at least being logged in on PF runs every 15 minutes and uses the list of users in the last 15 minutes along with the time it ran. That is currently showing 38 users with the oldest record being inactive since Thu 16th at 7:00am (Hugh). There will be some rare visitors who aren't in that list yet (eg Richmond62). Some showing I don't recall having seen post.

Anyway there are 38 in that list and 14 showing as having at least visited while logged in today. I'd put that as close to the low end for members. Obviously it can run with very few but there are more people who pretty much only reply to existing threads rather than start them. With small numbers it is easy enough to visit and see nothing new. Do that a few times and there is little incentive to return.

Setting up a forum isn't taxing if you have the necessary skills but building  membership is hard work. A Catch 22 in fact - nobody joins because there is nobody there posting. Probably most of the older generation stick to Facebook.


Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Raven on December 19, 2021, 06:43:09 PM
I do both. FB and my Forums.  :embarrassed:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Cassandra on December 19, 2021, 07:12:44 PM
I notice it seems to 'freeze' a lot these days, like just now, whereby I can't even log out, or it suddenly crashes upon posting with a message about 'Cloudware' or something and advising you sign in again etc? All new maladies that didn't happen previously.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 19, 2021, 09:01:32 PM
Yes I wrote a script to check for and report outages.

https://favourites.digitalham.co.uk/PF/PF_report.php

I have only been doing a copy/paste of the outage times from it when people complain but if you take a peep you will see that I've added a link to my post here about why I've put this forum online so I'll just be osting the link in future but many on PF don't click links for some reason.

Here are today's outages so far plus the link

HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-19 01:21 to 01:35 - down for 14 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-19 04:37 to 04:46 - down for 9 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-19 06:21 to 06:40 - down for 19 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-19 09:57 to 10:16 - down for 19 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-19 11:33 to 11:49 - down for 14 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-19 12:06 to 12:22 - down for 15 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-19 19:01 to 19:13 - down for 12 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-19 20:17 to 20:27 - down for 10 minutes
Total downtime 112 minutes

I can't fix these errors but reading this page (https://favourites.digitalham.co.uk/PF/PF_report.php) may offer a ray of hope.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 20, 2021, 09:32:49 AM
It's not letting me in now, 9.30am Monday.   
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Scrumpy on December 20, 2021, 09:35:12 AM
Shall I put a message up on the 'Other' forum asking people to get in touch with me now.. Or leave it a while..? 
I don't mind either way.. 
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Michael Rolls on December 20, 2021, 09:37:15 AM
having typed a long response to a thread in the other place, it won't let me post it. Fortunately, I was able to save it as a Word document, which I will paste in when I get access.
Mike
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 20, 2021, 09:39:11 AM
You probably won't be able to get in Scrumps, I couldn't a couple of minutes ago.

Maybe we could word a post saying we aren't a 'replacement'  forum, just a list of people who want to stay in touch should PF go down for good  ? 
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Michael Rolls on December 20, 2021, 09:40:49 AM
seems a good idea - the last thing I want to see happen is PF go to the wall when, hopefully, it can get over the current problems
Mike
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Scrumpy on December 20, 2021, 09:46:54 AM

I have just been to the other forum.. I got in but cannot put up any new posts or reply to those already posted.. I think your new thread is showing Michael..
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 20, 2021, 09:49:26 AM
It's just let me in too, from 9.30am when I got the error message.
Is it just me ? because they're the same colour, layout, name etc.  I have to check in the top bar to see which site I'm on  [2110] yep it's probably me !
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Michael Rolls on December 20, 2021, 10:16:55 AM
I managed to get in after waiting perhaps 20 minutes? Didn't actually check
Mike
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 20, 2021, 10:48:23 AM
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-20 01:44 to 01:59 - down for 15 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-20 03:35 to 03:52 - down for 17 minutes
HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable from 2021-12-20 06:22 to 06:25 - down for 3 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-20 07:03 to 07:06 - down for 3 minutes
HTTP/1.1 522 from 2021-12-20 09:27 to 09:39 - down for 12 minutes
Total downtime 50 minutes
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Raven on December 20, 2021, 12:42:42 PM
I'm probably over reacting, but I'm getting very uptight about the other forum. :waiting: I seldom get in and if I do, then, I hardly get to post before I'm shut out again.  :522_error:
Chris had been emailed by several people I believe, but refuses to explain anything. :nooo: I don't know what's going on with him, but I feel we deserve some sort of explanation, even if it's "The End Goodbye"  :cry:
This forum is fast becoming my first stop of the day, I feel kind of guilty about it, but if that's the way the Cookie is crumbling......So be it.
Happy New PF, and all who sail with her.  [2090]
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Diasi on December 20, 2021, 12:53:21 PM
Quote from: Raven on December 20, 2021, 12:42:42 PM
I'm probably over reacting, but I'm getting very uptight about the other forum. :waiting: I seldom get in and if I do, then, I hardly get to post before I'm shut out again.  :522_error:
Chris had been emailed by several people I believe, but refuses to explain anything. :nooo: I don't know what's going on with him, but I feel we deserve some sort of explanation, even if it's "The End Goodbye"  :cry:
This forum is fast becoming my first stop of the day, I feel kind of guilty about it, but if that's the way the Cookie is crumbling......So be it.
Happy New PF, and all who sail with her.  [2090]

Hi Raven, you're not overreacting & you've nothing to feel guilty about.

I ran my businesses on the basis that they were only as good as the last satisfied client & many businesses fail because they rely on past successes which they don't continue to emulate.

Chris started a very useful forum that has been a lifeline for some members but the forum is only as good as it is at any point in time.

Chris knows that there are PF members who can help with any problems but if he refuses to engage it's entirely his fault if it goes down the pan.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: zoony on December 20, 2021, 03:52:55 PM
Oh God! I do hope it's not RIP PF. It's been a lifeline for me over the last few years which have been brutal. Whatever happens, thank you Chris for all that help and support and I hope you have a good Christmas 'n New Year..
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 20, 2021, 03:58:34 PM
You'll have to wish him that on the other place Zoon, he won't be able to see this  :cowboy:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: crabbyob on December 20, 2021, 04:40:34 PM
who said blonds are dumb... :rolleyes:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 20, 2021, 04:43:44 PM
I do think you must have been very unlucky Raven as although PF does have several outages a day they don't last all that long. I for one hope they are fixed.

Don't forget that this forum isn't running in a data centre it's running on a Raspberry Pi on a shelf in my back bedroom. I take 4 hourly backups of the database (or rather the Pi does) and the actual code is in my Dropbox and on the Pi disk. What isn't currently backed up apart from periodic image copies of the entire Pi disk are any uploads made. I'll maybe knock up a script for backing up the whole forum and its database to my Google Drive sometime when I get around to it. But it isn't as safe as a hosted site and if I get run over by a bus could all vanish entirely although maybe my son would at least keep it running.

Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: crabbyob on December 20, 2021, 04:48:12 PM
for goodness sake someone send klondike a copy of the green gross code
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 20, 2021, 04:57:37 PM
Just think, we're all squashed up together on a shelf in klondike's back bedroom  :cowboy:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 20, 2021, 05:31:45 PM
A very small one. I was spending time on the desktop up there and the fan I bolted on the case I'd 3D printed for it was getting on my nerves so I got a "heatsink case". It runs a few degrees hotter but is silent. I posted a pic of it before but this is what it currently looks like.

(https://i.postimg.cc/JnYd269D/Pi4-server.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

You lot share that with...

A webpage I use for keeping all my favourites in one place where I can access them with any browser.
A gallery of all the stupid pics I post regularly on PF - mostly mickey take pictures to put in poor Brian's posts.
A mini site of all my NHS and ONS covid stats (no need to mask up to use the forum though)
A Wordpress site of mostly local walking pics during lockdown.
Some catalogs of all my movies and boxsets as stored in and exported as SQL from Ant Movies Database app
A VPN I can use to access the home network without leaving open ports (apart fto the Pi server of course).

Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: zoony on December 20, 2021, 05:35:38 PM
Quote from: klondike on December 20, 2021, 04:43:44 PM
I do think you must have been very unlucky Raven as although PF does have several outages a day they don't last all that long. I for one hope they are fixed.

Don't forget that this forum isn't running in a data centre it's running on a Raspberry Pi on a shelf in my back bedroom. I take 4 hourly backups of the database (or rather the Pi does) and the actual code is in my Dropbox and on the Pi disk. What isn't currently backed up apart from periodic image copies of the entire Pi disk are any uploads made. I'll maybe knock up a script for backing up the whole forum and its database to my Google Drive sometime when I get around to it. But it isn't as safe as a hosted site and if I get run over by a bus could all vanish entirely although maybe my son would at least keep it running.

It's not really the duration K, it's the frequency and with no idea how long or short the interruption might be.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: klondike on December 20, 2021, 05:44:30 PM
I guess I've spent less time there recently as I've been making and using this site but I have been caught out a few times making a post or trying to log in. I usually look at my monitor if it's logging in as most outages are around the 15 minute mark and if it has been down that long it's likely to be back soon. That said there are plenty that last only 2 or 3 minutes.
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Scrumpy on December 20, 2021, 06:28:54 PM
Quote from: Alex on December 20, 2021, 04:57:37 PM
Just think, we're all squashed up together on a shelf in klondike's back bedroom  :cowboy:

On a shelf..

Poor Alex.. On the shelf again. !!
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: zoony on December 20, 2021, 06:57:43 PM
Tek no notice Alex. The ugly face of envy peers and plots..
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Alex on December 20, 2021, 10:33:26 PM
At least we're all together  :halo:
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Cassandra on December 21, 2021, 04:40:19 PM
Just had the increasingly annoying freeze after preview and pressing post, then a log out!

This time I haven't persisted to log in and try again, I'm reminded of the words of Lord Byron:

"All tragedies are finished by a death, all comedies by a marriage."
Title: Re: The 'Other Place'.
Post by: Scrumpy on December 21, 2021, 07:29:45 PM
 :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: