Did the WotC boards blow up...again?

[Fedifensor]

I need more disk space!!

Maybe you should do another fundraising drive. Granted, since I just bought a 3-year Community Supporter account, I'd be a bit bummed if you offered them at a discount rate...but hey, it's for a good cause.

 

[DeathMutant]

I noticed a clue in their "sorry, our database is hosed" error message:

MySQL Error : Table './mainboards/postparsed' is marked as crashed and should be repaired

 

[Nifft]

I need more disk space!!

Delete some porn. That always works for me.

Anyway I got stood up on a date

... tomorrow. Delete it tomorrow.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Michael Morris]

But my collection isn't on the server....

Not that I would have a collection

 

[wayne62682]

WARNING: Geek/programmer stuff ahead

The problem with the WotC boards is that they're running them on a forked vBulletin (PHP/MySQL running from Apache on Linux [Red Hat, I believe]), but all of Gleemax is run via ASP.NET on Windows (Server 2003, probably). This alone means they're either storing the session in the database, or doing some really hacked-up programming to keep it going between Windows and Linux (I haven't tried that, but I've tried to maintain session between Classic ASP and ASP.NET, and it just didn't work due to the methods used to retrieve the data). They're so caught up in trying to integrate everything and have SSO (Single Sign On) that they aren't taking the steps to make sure it will work properly first. If they knew they were doing to want SSO capability, they should have either A: Written the Gleemax stuff in PHP and run it all on Linux (probably the easier option, since Gleemax was a "greenfield" application) or B: Redid the forums in ASP.NET.

Trying to make a Linux-based messageboard integrate completely with an ASP.NET login and site is probably the worst idea to pick from (which, of course, makes it unsurprising at all that it's the option they chose). It can be done, certainly, but it requires a lot of forethought and a very good sysadmin who knows what he's doing. WotC clearly has neither of these. Also, I recall reading once that the way they've set up their MySQL database is a bit wonky (I think it had to do with clustering, or space issues, but I can't remember the exact details), which almost certainly isn't helping things.

On the plus side, if I got off my lazy butt and finished working on my "Gleemax Killer" gaming social network site, I could probably steal people away from the real thing because it never works.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

On the plus side, if I got off my lazy butt and finished working on my "Gleemax Killer" gaming social network site, I could probably steal people away from the real thing because it never works.

Does this mean you're working on EN World 3? (or Advanced EN World)

I mean, come on, we have
- Blogs
- Wiki
- Message Boards
- Reviews
- News
What more do we really need? (Okay, more disk space, what else?)

PS: Wait - do we actually still have reviews?

 

[wayne62682]

Actually I started it before I knew ENWorld was doing a v2.0.

So I'd be competing with ENWorld as well, I guess. Lucky for you guys I'm lazy

 

[Xyxox]

WARNING: Geek/programmer stuff ahead

The problem with the WotC boards is that they're running them on a forked vBulletin (PHP/MySQL running from Apache on Linux [Red Hat, I believe]), but all of Gleemax is run via ASP.NET on Windows (Server 2003, probably). This alone means they're either storing the session in the database, or doing some really hacked-up programming to keep it going between Windows and Linux (I haven't tried that, but I've tried to maintain session between Classic ASP and ASP.NET, and it just didn't work due to the methods used to retrieve the data). They're so caught up in trying to integrate everything and have SSO (Single Sign On) that they aren't taking the steps to make sure it will work properly first. If they knew they were doing to want SSO capability, they should have either A: Written the Gleemax stuff in PHP and run it all on Linux (probably the easier option, since Gleemax was a "greenfield" application) or B: Redid the forums in ASP.NET.

Trying to make a Linux-based messageboard integrate completely with an ASP.NET login and site is probably the worst idea to pick from (which, of course, makes it unsurprising at all that it's the option they chose). It can be done, certainly, but it requires a lot of forethought and a very good sysadmin who knows what he's doing. WotC clearly has neither of these. Also, I recall reading once that the way they've set up their MySQL database is a bit wonky (I think it had to do with clustering, or space issues, but I can't remember the exact details), which almost certainly isn't helping things.

On the plus side, if I got off my lazy butt and finished working on my "Gleemax Killer" gaming social network site, I could probably steal people away from the real thing because it never works.

The REAL problem is DDI has been completely designed as a Windows based app and they don't want to migrate to a Windows format for the boards but still want to maintain SSO.

Any way you look at it, they're hosed.

 

[Michael Morris]

Well they do have an opening for a web developer. I applied (Hey, I need a job, and fixing that board at this point would be a bloody fun challenge).

Or at least very bloody

 

[James Heard]

I suppose if you really wanted a community effort to free up disk space you could ask people to go back into the boards and start tagging threads older than two years old for deletion - not for age, but for content. There's plenty of conversational nothingness from 2002 still around that could probably be lost forever an no one cry about it except post count hounds.