News Item - January 30, 1999 05:09 PM
Well, it's FINALLY done. The tt.NET member database is now fully housed inside Microsoft SQL Server. :-) What this means to you is:
Written by Greg (Dallas)
News Item - January 28, 1999 02:29 PM
The database seems to be holding up for the time being. Greg already has the test forum running on SQL database. I must admit, it's like a shot of NOS! :-) This is going to allow us a few new twists in how the forum is used/viewed. Not going to promise anything, but if Greg & I can work out the ideas we've been discussing, tt.NET will improve dramatically. I've added a new feature to the EVENTS forum. It allows filtering of individual locations on the forum. So you no longer have to go hunting for events in 'Englishtown, NJ'. Just select it at the top. That's really the only superficial item out there now. We've been working on a LOT of behind the scenes things, that's why occasionally things don't work right... If you happen to find a bug, or something wrong, or something doesn't work anymore, etc. Fire off an e-mail to Admin@Twinturbo.NET. We'll get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible. We know chat has a problem. Something we're unable to deal with at the moment, because when Greg's laptop got stolen (see last NEWS update), the source code went with it. Once we get the SQL set up, we'll see what we can do about the chat room. It's still better than ParaCrap room we used to use. Gotta strive for perfection though. :-) Got Joe (Ft. Laud) working on the LINKS page. Hopefully we'll see what he's been up to in the next week or so. It's only been 7 months now, anything he can do is quicker than I am. Thanks for your help Joe! If he requests links on the forum, please respond.
Written by Dallas DamonZ
News Item - January 14, 1999 12:56 PM
The 'fix' on the database appearantly didn't work, it was broken when I got into the office this morning. When it rains it pours around here, Greg's office got broken into last night and his laptop is now stolen... which means Greg's coding is elsewhere, which means... well......... you get the picture. :-( We're still working on getting the database ported over to SQL now, but kinda handicapped doing it right this second. Please understand that we're having to revert to a back-up of the database, so any settings changed in your profile will be lost the next morning when we revert back. Including new members. It's not a whole lot of fun here either, we'll be back on track before you know it. :-)
Sorry for the inconvenience this will cause.
News Item - January 13, 1999 03:51 PM
Back on-line now. Hopefully the database Greg rebuilt today will last until we can get switched over to SQL. Thanks for your patience.
News Item - January 13, 1999 10:34 AM
The member database is down right now, this means the site is pretty much down as well. :-( Greg & I are working on it. Hopefully we'll be back up by end of day.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
News Item - January 11, 1999 04:41 PM
Greg, Steve & I had a roundtable discussion about what to do next this morning. In a nutshell, the forum was being abused. I shut it down to stop the abuse of the [ Vote to Delete ] function until a resolution could be found. Greg & myself were unable to fix the problems on the site over the weekend and it had to wait until today. Differences: First and foremost, [ Vote to Delete ] has been modified now. From a member standpoint it operates the same as before, from an overall performance standpoint, the adjustments should stop the abuses the feature has been involved in recently. Greg is trying to get the database straightened out right now, the corrupt file is slowly collapsing upon itself, shedding member profiles as it continues downhill. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause until we get switched over to SQL for the new database. The switch should speed things up some more. Stage IV server? :-) As far as the discussion leading up to the abuse & shutdown, 1 member has been banned now. Not for the initial post, but for subsequent responses to that particular post when criticized & also other instances where extreme profanity & other improper behavior was added to the forum in response to criticism prior to Saturday. Basically, a lack of maturity like what was displayed will not be tolerated here, no matter how long the member has 'contributed' to the forum. I've been pretty loose on the issue, but I will not tolerate such behavior in the future. It will erode the community tt.NET has turned into in the last 7 months. I won't let that happen quite so easily. I am investigating ways to vote on member status by the rest of the 'populace' to keep such inividuals in check by their peers.
Whew! What a day! Welcome back.. sorry for the withdrawls! 8^P
News Item - January 10, 1999 06:49 PM
Well, I understand there's some debate about what happened here... basically 3 things within 1 hour. 1st & second: Bugs were discovered in the forum that were detrimental to the future of the forum. I have fixed one of the bugs. Waiting for Greg to get home from skydiving to look at the 2nd one. 3rd: The ethical debate about Althug's ticket. I'm not 'censoring' anything, & if you feel I am... Please spend a little time reading your Constitution... particularly the 1st amendment... censorship is an act of government, not me. It's my house, I make the rules & for the most part we get along fine, but when a line is crossed, I will intervene for the sake of the forum's future. I offer no apology for my actions. I'm trying to keep this forum from turning into a s&%thole, if you have a problem with that, go elsewhere, please. I removed the messages of no relevence/bad behavior at least for the most part... I haven't had time to read everything & have no inclination to do so. My time is VERY limited right now, otherwise there probably wouldn't have been a 'shutdown'. Sorry, but I'm protecting the forum from misuse & since I can't babysit some of you, I'll take the 'toy' away from everyone & we'll have a little 'time out'. Not bad for a guy that's horrible with kids. LOL.... Hopefully we'll be back on track before tomorrow. Sorry for the withdrawls. I hope you understand my position. The people I have spoken with today agree it was the right move. I'm certain a majority of you would agree considering the circumstances that lead up to the shutdown.
News Item - January 09, 1999 05:59 PM
A situation has happened on the forum that I personally don't have time to moderate/deal with at this very moment. I've been working a LOT of hours here at the shop & happened to stop & look at my computer. I'm pretty much burned out on the ethics conversation. I think I'll leave the server off for a bit while working out some bugs here during breaks in my project. I also think some people need a little time out to clear their heads & stop seeing red. More later.. gotta go.
Sorry for the inconvenience of those members waiting for answers on technical information.
News Item - January 09, 1999 01:21 PM
Bad news. The member database has been corrupted. This has happened a couple times, but it was recoverable. Remember Thanksgiving? :-( Anyway, we are working on recovering the proper info & get the forum back on track. Please be patient if your account 'dissappears'... we have it, but the file keeps folding on itself & losing some data, so we just keep reseting it to a backup file from yesterday morning. The backup is corrupt as well, & starts the cycle over again... but appearantly all the data is still stored in it.
Sorry for any inconvenience this might cause.
On the flip side... Greg's chat room is getting a LOT of use. :-) I want to thank him for the hard work he puts into the site. Chat is yet another A+... we've still got more improvements to make on the room, so it will be even better (and more useable!). 'Boss Mode' :-)
News Item - January 07, 1999 06:14 PM
NEW CHAT!! We've been working diligently on a replacement for ParaChat and have finally gotten something that we like. The new chat is a bit of a hybrid between ICQ Chat and Parachat and is based on ActiveX technology. This means that members using Internet Explorer 4.0 can just surf to the chat page and work with ttNETChat inside the browser. Those of you using Netscape, which doesn't support ActiveX, will need to download a standalone ttNETChat program that you can run at will to connect to the chat server. Some of the goodies in the new chat include:
