Changing servers over the weekend (3/24-25)

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
It's an event 6 years in the making... Skullknight.NET will soon be changing servers.

This will afford us more bandwidth, storage space, and will allow us to upgrade the forums to a super-fancy (abeit superficial) new version of SMF.

This message is just to let you guys know you probably shouldn't post any manifestos until we're back up and running. It should only take about a day total to process everything, but since I'm going out of my way to warn you guys abot the changeover, that means NO COMPLAINTS!

PS: And no posting on EG or Hawks forums with: "SKnet ded?!?!" :troll:
 

Uriel

This journey isn't ov--AARGH!
I'll be spending the rest of my evening mourning over the loss of Testing Grounds -- but I'm happy about the move. I'm kind of proud I've been here for five of those six years. Good luck with the movie, Wally. I'm sure it'll be a weight off your shoulders when this is done...
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Uriel said:
I'll be spending the rest of my evening mourning over the loss of Testing Grounds -- but I'm happy about the move.
It may yet live on in some form. After the server change, I should be able to update themes to the most recent release with the click of a button, as opposed to editing 5-10 php files for every tiny release. That's the only reason that theme's been a pain in my ass for this past year. Nothing to do with the design.

I'm kind of proud I've been here for five of those six years. Good luck with the movie, Wally. I'm sure it'll be a weight off your shoulders when this is done...
SKnet's actually been around since August 2000, but i was with another, shittier host before August 2001. My current host, hosting4less served me very well ... to a point. They were virtually NEVER down. I actually can only remember about three times total, two of which were in recent months. However, because of those instances and because they've been upping their prices and giving me quite a hassle, it's time to say goodbye. So, good riddance. They're antiquated at this point anyway.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
CnC said:
Might I inquire what the new host is? I'm sort of in the market myself.
hytekhosting.com

I was mostly shopping for reliability and decent pricing. Aaz didn't approve of anywhere I chose, and always promised me I was making a mistake, but oh well. There will always be better severs floating around with better "promises" and high specs. But when it comes down to it, reliability and speed are key for me.

I chose them over the competition because I got a good deal on there with a coupon from the SA forums, and because they have a lot of happy users on those forums. So, just like Berserk, it has LEGIONS of FROTHING-AT-THE-MOUTH ACOLYTES who will RAPE YOUR GRANNY in RAVENOUS support of the server.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Walter said:
Aaz didn't approve of anywhere I chose, and always promised me I was making a mistake, but oh well.

Aww come on, the way you say it makes me look bad :SK:, it's just that good hosts aren't that common. Anyway, I'm locking the board now guys. See you on the new server.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
First of all, thanks for the patience during the move. I know we were 2 days late, but we ran into a few mishaps. But what matters is SKnet is BACK.

The delay was due in large part to transferring the huge database that contains everything that is SKnet. That took a bit of figuring out... Once we had that imported right, it was relatively smooth sailing.

However, thanks to the "upgrade" in forum software, many subtle doodads we've all come to know and love are gone for now. For example, there was a grey bar just above the News portion that really set off the rest of the forum, and I can't figure out how to replace it. I've also had to kind of work backwards in getting this theme to look like the older one. I've replicated it relatively well, if I do say so myself. But there's a bigger change on the horizon.

A NEW OFFICIAL THEME. It's still in the works, but I should have it up sometime before the end of the week. If you want a peek, it'll look SOMETHING like this: http://skullknight.net/forum/index.php?theme=4 only with SKnet themed colors and images. The layout won't change too drastically, but I am gettig rid of that horrid avatar display.

Anyway, be on the lookout for that sometime later on in the week (month).

As this is a HUGE upgrade, it has afforded us the following:
- double the space
- double the bandwidth
- faster server
- more easily modified server packages (cooler mods for the forum)
- lots of bells and whistles that don't really affect anyone but me and Aaz
- CHEAPER. The new server is about 1/3 as much as what I was paying.

And so, for those reasons, please bear with me through the somewhat awkward phase of bringing this forum to a new level.

PS: Oekaki will be up sometime tonight. Still working out kinks, :schierke:
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
I absolutely LOVE the jabberjawing Skully and bobblyhead Void down at the bottom in the info center. Very cute addition, the place is coming along nicely!
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
If anyone finds anything wrong with the current theme and new forum version, please post it here. I've been squashing bugs the past two days but I'm sure I'm overlooking some things.
 

nomad

"Bring the light of day"
Nice host indeed. Very smooth for us poor 5 year old computers. Enjoy your new home SK.NET!
 
S

Sanguinius

Guest
Nice new layout Walter, your new display picture is a sign for a changing and improving site. However a small thing that I have noticed, I am not sure if you can change this but, before on the main screen it would have in bold black writing any new post since my last visit, now it has them all highlighted in bold as last post. A minor thing I know but wondering if its possible to change this back as it was more convenient to see if there where any new posts this way?
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Sanguinius said:
Nice new layout Walter, your new display picture is a sign for a changing and improving site. However a small thing that I have noticed, I am not sure if you can change this but, before on the main screen it would have in bold black writing any new post since my last visit, now it has them all highlighted in bold as last post. A minor thing I know but wondering if its possible to change this back as it was more convenient to see if there where any new posts this way?
Before the main screen? Not sure what you mean. I don't recall anywhere on SKnet that had that feature. I may have just overlooked it these past few years...

There was an item in the news that said: "Click here for recent topics." If you want, you can just bookmark this:

http://skullknight.net/forum/index.php?action=recent

I don't want to make it a button on the menu or anything similar because if people abuse it, the server suffers and would make the whole forum slower.
 

Serpico

Farnese is the bomb diggity
Walter said:
Before the main screen? Not sure what you mean. I don't recall anywhere on SKnet that had that feature. I may have just overlooked it these past few years...

I think he means this "Last post" did not used to be bold. Only the word "Today", so it was easier to see what was new.
bold.jpg
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Ohhh haha, yeah that's DEFINITELY an easier change to make :guts: I'll add it to the list of stuff to do tonight.
 
S

Sanguinius

Guest
Yeah Serpico, thats what i meant sorry for not being clear but Mission Accomplished anyway. Thanks.
 

CnC

Ad Oculos
I like the new features on the main board. Especially like some of the features in the PM system, and the recent posts have been added to the main theme (yay).

For some reason whenever I first load up the page it thinks I'm a guest but then I click on a link and its back to recognizing me. Its not a major problem but it is wierd. But at least I don't have to log in every time I visit.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
CnC said:
I like the new features on the main board. Especially like some of the features in the PM system, and the recent posts have been added to the main theme (yay).

For some reason whenever I first load up the page it thinks I'm a guest but then I click on a link and its back to recognizing me. Its not a major problem but it is wierd. But at least I don't have to log in every time I visit.
Yeah I have to do the same, and it can be annoying. For issues like this that deal with cookies, I have to appeal to a higher authority, i.e. someone on the SMF board. Hopefully they'll have something to say about it.

In the meantime, just click on Home once for it to reestablish your logged in status. Alternately, you can now click the SKnet banner at the top of the forum to return Home, instead of using the menu. That's just a shout-out for a feature I've long wanted to implement, but never did until now.

The new theme is coming along really well. Should be up by the weekend.
 
For some reason, I haven't been able to access the chat since the upgrade. I tried erasing my cache and using IE and Firefox, but neither worked. Any suggestions would be much appreciated...(I would have placed this in the Chat thread, but it's only happened since the upgrade, so I thought I would place it here).
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
bph said:
For some reason, I haven't been able to access the chat since the upgrade. I tried erasing my cache and using IE and Firefox, but neither worked. Any suggestions would be much appreciated...(I would have placed this in the Chat thread, but it's only happened since the upgrade, so I thought I would place it here).
Not really sure what the problem is. The link to it is still http://skullknight.net/forum/chat/flashchat.php which is in the menu at the top, and the link at the bottom of the forum.

i tried the link on FF and IE on both a Mac and PC, and it worked every time. What link does your Chat button at the top take you to?
 
No, I'm getting that link. Is it possible that some of my privacy settings need to be changed? I just upgraded to Vista, so perhaps that is it... I may try getting in via my laptop which is running XP Pro to see.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
bph said:
No, I'm getting that link. Is it possible that some of my privacy settings need to be changed? I just upgraded to Vista, so perhaps that is it... I may try getting in via my laptop which is running XP Pro to see.
Describe the error you get, if any. Does it just not load anything? White screen/black screen? It could indeed be Vista, the applet the chat runs on isn't the most cutting edge technology, since it's Flash-based. I'd hate for that to stop you from being able to access the chat though.
 
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