Official Luthiers Forum!

Tried to post what I thought was useful information about ear protection. Got a message accusing me of spamming and saying I had exceeded the number of posts allowed.

Seems to me that we've been hearing about a change of OLF servers for over a year--longer even than it takes to order strings !   Do you guys maybe need to get someone else to take care of this? I've changed servers myself, and it took a couple of days.   I know you work hard; maybe you need to start delegating more.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Sorry Howard,
Nothing we can do in the short term, and poking my eye out like that is not going to help matter either.

We are "considering" changing to another server, one that is owned and operated by someone else other than Brock or I. Also, buying another forum software suite that is fully loaded with lots of fun stuff.
This is however a very expensive proposition, and one we will intentionally move very slow on. Its quite abit different than switching your personal guitar site to a new server. I did that too, took 10 minutes.

I'm sorry you lost your post, got told you were a spammer, but please - don't take it personal.

My only suggestion, compose your post in a word processor, then copy and paste, if you loose it while posting for what ever reason, you can try again.

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Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I've gotten that message a few times here myself and on other forums too.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

i have had the problem as well. someone who has more computer knowledge, which takes in just about everyone above the age of three, suggested that it can be due to hitting the mouse/pad to hard when i send. it can cause a double bounce effect which will trigger the software anti-spam utility.

as i have never lost a post when i received the message it seems a logical explanation to me.

[QUOTE=Howard Klepper] Tried to post what I thought was useful information about ear protection. Got a message accusing me of spamming and saying I had exceeded the number of posts allowed.

Seems to me that we've been hearing about a change of OLF servers for over a year--longer even than it takes to order strings !   Do you guys maybe need to get someone else to take care of this? I've changed servers myself, and it took a couple of days.   I know you work hard; maybe you need to start delegating more.

[/QUOTE]

That rant is a little over the top don't you think? Clearly this is a software glitch. I have seen it a couple times as well, but it isn't something that occurs very often. I am sure you are upset about losing your post, we all are when these things happen, but come on....   

And since you bring it up... I will give you the low down on a software migration.

First off, despite people always insisting that the slowness or weirdness of the system is due to underperforming hardware or not enough bandwidth, neither are the case. Our issue is that the software we are running was heavily modified to retain the look and feel of the original OLF (cascading threads) and this puts an enormous strain on the database server. What worked well with 300 memebers is drowning under the weight of 1400 members. So no amount of hardware or bandwidth will fix the problem, at best it just prolongs an ultimate solution.

So ... where does that leave us?

We have to find a new software package that is capable of taking our existing database structures, our membership database, our existing forum discussions, and the archive and integrating them into the system as part of a set up.

This is proving to be a challenge. Not an insurmountable one, but one that will take some time to sort through. And as Lance said, this is an expensive proposition both in terms of investment, professional services to assist in the move, and personal bandwidth.

This is no small task, but one we are working on.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Brock,
First-off, thanks for all of your work (and Lance's) keeping this place going so well. Just a thought about the upgrade to a new forum and server. It might be easier to just migrate the user-base and start with new posting data on the new forum. A link on the new forum could point to the archives on this one (for a while until the archive on the new forum gained a good knowledge base). Have a good weekend and thanks again.

[QUOTE=Brock Poling]
Clearly this is a software glitch. I have seen it a couple times as well, but it isn't something that occurs very often.
[/QUOTE]
Brock:
This (spam notice) used to happen to me all the time, and a number of other users have reported the same irritating 'bug'. Without a survey or some input from users, you really can't categorize the problem as infrequent. My guess is that you have 'trained' many users to keep their complaints to themselves.

Lots of people who contribute here are busy, and it would be a shame if we lost the input from folks like Howard because they got tired of wasting their time typing posts twice, or typing and pasting, etc.

John

It has happened to me only when I've had multiple threads open in multiple tabs and have tried to post in just about all of them one after another. Just type slower.   

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

[QUOTE=crazymanmichael]i have had the problem as well. someone who has more computer knowledge, which takes in just about everyone above the age of three, suggested that it can be due to hitting the mouse/pad to hard when i send. it can cause a double bounce effect which will trigger the software anti-spam utility.



as i have never lost a post when i received the message it seems a logical explanation to me.[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, I haven't yet had that problem here or on any other sites. I would think that if it was caused by too much pressure or "hitting" it, it would have definitely happened to me by now. Not only do I pretty forcibly "hit" the button, but I usually head-butt it and do a flying elbow-drop off the top ropes when I hit the "post" button. Go figure.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Re: Jared's (blindreality) post above. Ain't this a great place?

Even if your offer can't be used, good on you for making it, my friend! You haven't been here long, but you've already got the OLF spirit!

[QUOTE=JohnAbercrombie] [QUOTE=Brock Poling]
Clearly this is a software glitch. I have seen it a couple times as well, but it isn't something that occurs very often.
[/QUOTE]
My guess is that you have 'trained' many users to keep their complaints to themselves.[/QUOTE]

Based on the volume of mail I get when things don't work as they should I would challenge this... but you point is taken.

I don't often hear complaints about this particular problem.

And... with respect to Howard. He and I go back a ways.. I can't imagine that he is going to leave simply over getting caught by a software bug. It isn't a matter of not caring about it. We didn't write this software and there are just a certain amount of problems that are outside our control. Hopefully the new software will be better.

If I only had a dime for everytime I reboot windows.   

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Brock-
Thanks for the reply and also for the info about future plans.
Hopefully the new software will be both better and more 'administrator-friendly'.
BTW, I don't have the 'spam notice' problem any more- I've changed browsers (to Firefox) and mice, so I can't pin down the reason for the improvement. My old (defective) mouse was double-clicking instead of single, so that may be the cause.

Cheers
John