Hello everyone,
I know that the last few months have been kind of rough here at SW. We have been plaqued with bugs, server issues, slow forums, pages not coming up, etc, etc, etc.
Our entire intent for utilizing a dedicated server was to limit these issues as much as possible or altogether. This will happen eventually, but it will take time.
The dedicated server is new to us. It's a learning curve that will take time to iron the issues out. Everyone will need to have some patience while we get back to where we were.
I have received a ton of emails from users that are having some frustration. We plan to address each and every one of these problems, one at a time.
At this time, we recognize the following issues that were reported:
1. The forums are too slow for dial up users.
This is simply because the software we use for the forums is a resource hog, and a server can only process the necessary files so fast. The solution to blazing fast forums is a combination of a PHP language forum software using MySql Database. This is something we plan to install as soon as the forum author releases it. We expect it soon.
2. The forums have become off-topic and bickering is getting out of hand.
We actually have received a ton of email concerning this. This is our fault since we have neglected the forums a tad while we deal with the server issues. We now receive a copy of EVERY SINGLE forum post in our email, that we screen. Our moderators are an excellent bunch of people, and we count of them to weed out the majority of the crap. Occasionally, we can catch a few of them simply because we happened to login to the forums at a different time that the mods did. We also would like to implement a few GLOBAL moderators. These mods would have the ability to moderate in ANY forum, not just limited to "their" forum.
Our criteria for on-topic and relevant posts will increase immediately. Any and all off-topic posts will be deleted. Too many users have contacted us saying that if they wanted the off-topic stuff, they would not have come to a sled site. Here, they want sled talk, period.
3. The current web site design is slow loading and inefficient.
We have had numerous emails on the "new" design, even though we have yet to implement it anywhere else on the site. Users complained that the newer design was terribly slow to load and didn't really look that great to begin with.
We have completely changed the planned design of the new site. The basic layout is complete and will be implemented shorty. This alone will help speed up the forums, as well as the rest of the site.
4. Half here - half there.
This is really bothering us. Half the web site is back on the old server, while half of the site is here, on the new server. Some of the site is on sw-s2.com and some just on sw.com. This has to stop soon. It is very confusing not only to us, but for every user on the site. We plan to move everything soon.
5. No updates.
While we play musical server, we have neglected updating the site. Our new design helps this issue, making it easier to keep updated while automating the basic stuff. This will come soon also.
We appreciate everyone's patience while we have these issues. We honestly realize that users are getting tired of these problems, as we are too. We promise to solve these problems once and for all, soon!
Please, hang in there.....
I know that the last few months have been kind of rough here at SW. We have been plaqued with bugs, server issues, slow forums, pages not coming up, etc, etc, etc.
Our entire intent for utilizing a dedicated server was to limit these issues as much as possible or altogether. This will happen eventually, but it will take time.
The dedicated server is new to us. It's a learning curve that will take time to iron the issues out. Everyone will need to have some patience while we get back to where we were.
I have received a ton of emails from users that are having some frustration. We plan to address each and every one of these problems, one at a time.
At this time, we recognize the following issues that were reported:
1. The forums are too slow for dial up users.
This is simply because the software we use for the forums is a resource hog, and a server can only process the necessary files so fast. The solution to blazing fast forums is a combination of a PHP language forum software using MySql Database. This is something we plan to install as soon as the forum author releases it. We expect it soon.
2. The forums have become off-topic and bickering is getting out of hand.
We actually have received a ton of email concerning this. This is our fault since we have neglected the forums a tad while we deal with the server issues. We now receive a copy of EVERY SINGLE forum post in our email, that we screen. Our moderators are an excellent bunch of people, and we count of them to weed out the majority of the crap. Occasionally, we can catch a few of them simply because we happened to login to the forums at a different time that the mods did. We also would like to implement a few GLOBAL moderators. These mods would have the ability to moderate in ANY forum, not just limited to "their" forum.
Our criteria for on-topic and relevant posts will increase immediately. Any and all off-topic posts will be deleted. Too many users have contacted us saying that if they wanted the off-topic stuff, they would not have come to a sled site. Here, they want sled talk, period.
3. The current web site design is slow loading and inefficient.
We have had numerous emails on the "new" design, even though we have yet to implement it anywhere else on the site. Users complained that the newer design was terribly slow to load and didn't really look that great to begin with.
We have completely changed the planned design of the new site. The basic layout is complete and will be implemented shorty. This alone will help speed up the forums, as well as the rest of the site.
4. Half here - half there.
This is really bothering us. Half the web site is back on the old server, while half of the site is here, on the new server. Some of the site is on sw-s2.com and some just on sw.com. This has to stop soon. It is very confusing not only to us, but for every user on the site. We plan to move everything soon.
5. No updates.
While we play musical server, we have neglected updating the site. Our new design helps this issue, making it easier to keep updated while automating the basic stuff. This will come soon also.
We appreciate everyone's patience while we have these issues. We honestly realize that users are getting tired of these problems, as we are too. We promise to solve these problems once and for all, soon!
Please, hang in there.....
