It was just a little over a year ago that ThreeStooges.net was shut down due to unreasonable demands on the server's resources. This week it happened again.
On Monday, June 9th, I got a notice from the hosting company saying that they had shut down the site due to heavy overloads on the server's CPU. When I investigated it seemed that something about using the forum's API to blend the forum into the main site was causing the problem, although I wasn't able to narrow it down further than that. Ironically, this is essentially the same issue as last year; I thought everything had been worked out, but apparently I was wrong.
Fortunately, as soon as I saw that it was the forum interaction that was causing the problem, I was able to cut the links between the site and the forum fairly quickly, although it took a while to get the okay from the hosting company. (I guess they had to test the load for a few hours to make sure it was resolved.) ThreeStooges.net, sans forum, was backup and running by Monday evening.
Needless to say, this is frustrating, since I used the members info from the forum to authenticate users on the main site, so you could post reviews and rate the episodes, etc. - not to mention enabling the admin functions for the Team Stooge members.
Fortunately, I think I've found a solution that was designed for the coding framework I use to develop ThreeStooges.net. I think I can install and adapt it to take the place of the forum's API without too much trouble. I can import the members' data from the forum database into the new system on ThreeStooges.net, although there is one drawback:
- The passwords are encrypted and can't be copied over, so everyone will have to request a password reset before logging in the first time. A nuisance, but I don't see away around it. The password reset will get sent to the email account used for the forum, and you should be able to just reset it to the password that you use for the forum.
I'll be looking at the steps to integrate the new system into the site tonight, and should have it done this weekend (if not sooner.) I will post an announcement here and on the Facebook page to let everyone know when it's ready for use.
For the forum, I decided to go bare bones with a fresh install of the latest version of the software, with only one mod (to fight the spammers) and, obviously, a new theme. I imported the database from ThreeStooges.net and copied over the various attachments, avatars and special smileys, so we should be good to go, but please let me know if anything seems "broken." (Previously added-on forum features, like the picture gallery and the games arcade, were deleted deliberately and probably won't be restored.)
It's a bit of a drag to have the two features separated like this, but the alternative is a dedicated server, and frankly that is too expensive. The links to the forum will still be on the ThreeStooges.net menu, and I added a link back to the .net site on the forum's menu bar, above, so it shouldn't be
too hard to move back and forth.
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