This Forum - What Went Wrong

[Carl]

As you are all aware this forum has been inaccessible for a week, much to my frustration (and anger) as I am sure to other people who use or visit this site. I cannot apologise enough for its downtime.

The problem was as a result of a major forum software upgrade that failed.

As mentioned previously on the forum the plan is always to do forum maintenance overnight so as not to disrupt the use of the forum during the day. Unfortunately on this occasion, overnight turned into day, and day turned into days.

To put into some perspective which perhaps people can relate to more, this was like upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7/8, where Windows 10 becomes the benchmark for future developments and support for Windows 7/8 is phased out. This was a major upgrade by the company behind the forum software, one which hasn't been done for many years. It's just ironic that this first major upgrade in years became available so shortly after this forum was initially setup.

Other forums around the world performing the same software upgrade have also experienced problems, so this forum was not an isolated case. There will be other forums that can expect to face similar problems in the days, weeks, months, years to come as they recognise that they to will have to upgrade to the latest benchmark software at some point.

Once the upgrade failed, thankfully I managed to find and employ the services of a talented individual in America who has been working on restoring the forum over the past week to bring it back to the position you see it in today. Due to his hard work this board is operational once again.

Cosmetically it needs to be brought back to the standard it was prior to the software upgrade failure and I will be working on that over the coming days by restoring the forum banner etc. People avatars are not showing which I hope will just be a systems setting issue.

People have already raised the issue regarding "Not secure" when accessing the forum, this will be resolved shortly once I adjust the nameservers. The security certificate for the domain Torrevieja.org.uk remains valid until mid-October this year.

Clearly whenever a forum goes down I, like other people, look to another forum, particularly when a forum is down for an extended period of time like this one has been. If you are reading this post thank you for keeping faith in this forum.

Finally, albeit little consolation to the members of this forum, we have experienced the pain and can now look forward as the forum is now operating the latest benchmark software that will be used for all future developments for the foreseeable future.

Thank you.

[Brandyboy]

Thank you Carl for your explanation and update, and there is no need to apologise.
I haven't belonged to a forum yet that didn't suffer from a little downtime now and again.
It`s good to see some egg on certain peoples faces who predicted and relished the demised of this great forum.
We have had 114 members join since October 2019.. No mean feat for a fledgling forum and you have to take a lot of the credit.
So onwards and upwards Admin.. This forum can only get stronger and stronger.

[Francisco]

...yes...I agree absolutely....and boohoo to the naysayers ....



Well done, admin, and here's to our future!!

[hombre]

...yes...I agree absolutely....and boohoo to the naysayers ....



Well done, admin, and here's to our future!!

I second that. We need this forum which I'm sure will grow & grow. Enjoy sharing.

[Sheff_Blade]

People have already raised the issue regarding "Not secure" when accessing the forum, this will be resolved shortly once I adjust the nameservers. The security certificate for the domain Torrevieja.org.uk remains valid until mid-October this year.

It puzzles me why people get so upset about https versus http, and "not secure". It makes no difference to the security of the website itself; the admin password is probably "password" or "sex". All it does is encrypt the transmission of packets of data between your PC and the webserver. There are a few hackers who randomly spy on packets of data as they wizz across the internet but it's highly unlikely that they'll be interested in our ramblings!

[Brandyboy]

People have already raised the issue regarding "Not secure" when accessing the forum, this will be resolved shortly once I adjust the nameservers. The security certificate for the domain Torrevieja.org.uk remains valid until mid-October this year.

It puzzles me why people get so upset about https versus http, and "not secure". It makes no difference to the security of the website itself; the admin password is probably "password" or "sex". All it does is encrypt the transmission of packets of data between your PC and the webserver. There are a few hackers who randomly spy on packets of data as they wizz across the internet but it's highly unlikely that they'll be interested in our ramblings!

White man speak with forked tounge.

[Brunski]

People have already raised the issue regarding "Not secure" when accessing the forum, this will be resolved shortly once I adjust the nameservers. The security certificate for the domain Torrevieja.org.uk remains valid until mid-October this year.

It puzzles me why people get so upset about https versus http, and "not secure". It makes no difference to the security of the website itself; the admin password is probably "password" or "sex". All it does is encrypt the transmission of packets of data between your PC and the webserver. There are a few hackers who randomly spy on packets of data as they wizz across the internet but it's highly unlikely that they'll be interested in our ramblings!

If I may interject there is are several reasons why people get upset about https vs http vs "not secured":

1) Many modern browsers and anti-virus programs are enforcing https connections.
2) Gives the end-user a heads up that a possible middle in the man attack such as Superfish is installed.
3) Google will low rank or not rank at all the site hence less traffic to the site as such.
4) From a customer point of view, it shows trust if it is https as well as domain validation.
5) It encrypts the transmission packets between your pc and the web server and all the routers in between the two points
6) It does affect the security of the website, it webserver where a hacker might not care about our ramblings however they could use an unknown bug or flaw to plan malicious software that can take control of not only the website, it webserver and any computer that connects to either.
7) Knowing the admin or a moderator password can affect point #6.

While I can not confirm or deny any password, I know it is not stored in clear text (can be read without being decoded).