The 'Other Place'.

[crabbyob]

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....

[klondike]

At least it is getting a quality control check..... 

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.

[zoony]

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?

[klondike]

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.

[Raven]

I do both. FB and my Forums. 

[Cassandra]

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.

[klondike]

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 may offer a ray of hope.

[Alex]

It's not letting me in now, 9.30am Monday.   

[Scrumpy]

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.. 

[Michael Rolls]

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

[Alex]

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  ? 

[Michael Rolls]

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

[Scrumpy]

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..

[Alex]

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  yep it's probably me !

[Michael Rolls]

I managed to get in after waiting perhaps 20 minutes? Didn't actually check
Mike