Travis

Howdy all. Here's a little update of where we are. I've been trying to track down the login issue for the last couple days. What I think is going on is when you click a link, the web server is returning a cached version of that page. When it does that, the cached version does not have you logged in, and may not have the most up to date posts. I found if you click the Ctrl+F5, it forces the web browser to retrieve a new page, not a cached page. It works for me (I'm using Google Chrome and Firefox on PC, and Google Chrome on Mac), but other folks are not having as much luck. So the solution is to have the web server stop cacheing the pages. There's the rub. The hosting company put a restriction on SSV because we're using too many server resources. During this lockdown, a caching system kicks in on the server to save CPU. That, in turn, causes all of our problems with the logins and webpages go haywire. Once we are no longer using too many server resources, the caching stops and I think our login problems go away. That's great! Let's do that! Well, we go back to our original problem: using too many server resources. I thought updating PHP, optimizing MySQL tables, and updating the software would help. While it helps, it turns out it's not enough. So we gotta reduce our load. SSV is a great place. We all know that. We have a great forum, tons of information, and a huge pattern library. As such, lots of folks like to stop by. At any one point, we have anywhere between 40-120 people browsing the website. However, the vast majority of them are not members of SSV. They pop in to read the forums and grab free patterns. As of this writing, we have 100 people online. Only 15 of them are signed in as members. Everybody else is browsing as a guest. Here's the difficult part. When I started SSV in 2009, I wanted to share as much information about this wonderful hobby as I could. Share patterns to anybody who wants them. All of this for free, without registering or logging in. I was really in love with the idea of a free society and wanted to help as many people as I could. That mission worked great, up until last week when we hit critical mass. 85% of our traffic is taking up valuable resources. And the 15% of us who care enough to register for an account and participate in this awesome community are paying the price. That doesn't seem fair. In order for me to bring down the server load so we can get SSV back on track, I have to limit what we can share with Guest browsers. It pains me to do this, but here's what i'm going to do. The Gallery and Pattern Library will no longer be browsable unless you're logged in. I think this will make a big difference on our server load. Guests will be able to see the forums and the topics, but they won't be able to read the topics unless they're logged in. The blogs, chat room and articles will also be for members only too. I'll bring back some of the other pages on a case by case basis. I still want to share information to the general public, as long as it's not taking a toll on the website. Eventually, I'll release parts of SSV to the general public. I still think it's important to serve the whole scrolling community. But we gotta get our house in order first. SSV is still free! You can still register for a free membership. You'll just need to be logged in to access all the great stuff SSV has to offer. If we reduce our server load, the hosting company will lift the restrictions. Once the restrictions are lifted, SSV will operate properly. Once SSV is working the way it needs to, we can continue to share and chat and enjoy eachother's company. And hopefully, everything will be back to normal.

Yah, it's not really fixed. I did a little something to trick the server to generate a new page instead of a cached one. I'm not confident it'll last, though. I think I might have a strategy I'm gunna try. I'm still working out the details and I'll let y'all know sometime this evening.

Yes and no. I have the banner ads at the top of the forum. I've been turning them on and off throughout the day trying to get things to work. The other ads, like Adsense has been turned off until I get everything working again.

OK...this is dumb. But, if you're having trouble keeping your login status to stick, try adding a ? mark behind the web address in the browser bar. It will force the page to reload a new page and not load the cached version. So it will look like: www.scrollsawvillage.com/? It's not a solution yet, but it is a workaround.

If your login name isn't what it's supposed to be, shoot me a message. Tell me what it was supposed to be and I'll change it back. It looks like the upgrade changed some user names to real names if they used Facebook login to create the account.

I have the source code from the old site. But it's a completely different version. I think they updated the architecture of the software. I'll take a peek just to see if I see anything unusual. I think that might mean we have to update their links. I noticed some of the links have different paths now.

You can try CTL+F5. It's the same thing as ctrl/refresh. But worth at try.

Thanks guys! I've installed the PayPal button on the front page. Thanks everybody who has thrown a few bucks my way. I really appreciate it.

Shoot. I thought that ctrl/refresh would help. Its working for me at the office and I thought it would work for you guys too. I also used the same technique at home on my mac. I'm using Google Chrome and Firefox. @dgman I didn't get it to work on the iPad either. I don't know of a way to clear cache either. I haven't' tested it extensively, though.

When you log into SSV, you'll get a popup that asks if you want to recieve desktop notifications. If you click yes, you'll get notified if someone posts in one of your threads. I haven't looked at it close enough to see what the notifications are or how often they happen. You can turn it off in your browser settings. Here's an article on how to do that, depending on your web browser: https://support.kona.com/hc/en-us/articles/210777186-How-do-I-turn-off-desktop-notifications-

I'll work on the theme and colors after I get some of the functionality working again. I find some parts hard to read since it's hard to see where one post starts and ends. I'll add it to the list.

Ha! It's like an Easter Egg hunt. That would be neat, since I don't know where all the bells and whistles are yet. Just be forewarned, some features that are here today might be gone tomorrow. I've already found a couple features that conflict with others.

What did you want to do with the browse button? I moved all those links to the top navigation bar. Did I miss moving something?

It's that green number next to your avatar. It's also on your profile page.

Thank you guys for your kind words. That really means a lot. After dealing with a bunch of angry emails, I really needed that to boost my spirits. For those who want to support the site by buying a Supporter Badge, that is one area that isn't working correctly right now. I'll get it back on track soon enough and post an announcement when that is working. Several folks kindly said they'd like to pitch in a few bucks extra. That is a lovely gesture and I'm blessed to have SSV members care that much. I'll put on a PayPal donate button on the sidebar if you want to help. It probably won't be there until this afternoon, though. Please don't feel like you have to donate. SSV is a free site. But if you want to help, it'll be there. You guys are awesome!

@NC Scroller @meflick @DonR @dpchow So I think this is a caching problem. The new software uses AJAX (it's a javascript) for dynamic updating. I think it's referring to a previously cached page if it doesn't get an immediate response back from the server. I'm going to try to disable it and see if that helps. I'll update y'all if it works. In the meantime, if you know you're already logged in, but a page shows you that you're logged out, hold down your Control key and click the refresh button in your browser. That seems to do the trick for me.

Howdy All. I know there is a lot of work that still needs to happen to get SSV back to it's former glory. I'm going to start a list of some of the common problems and the solution to fixing them here. I'll update this list as I can. If you are experiencing trouble, looking for something or want to report a bug, this is the place to ask. If you are having trouble logging in, you can email me at travis@scrollsawvillage.com or use the Contact Us link at the bottom of the website. SSV keeps logging me out. Clean our your cache. Find out here. Hold down the Ctrl button and click the refresh button on your browser. Press Ctrl+F5 to refresh. Add a question mark behind the address in your browser window and hit return. My user name has changed to my real name. Why do I have to be logged in to view the website?

Howdy All. So SSV looks a bit different lately. Things aren't where they used to be, other things I can't just find. What's going on!? Well, let me explain for those who haven't been keeping up with the different threads scattered around SSV. I thought I'd pull it all together in one spot, so you all know what's going on. Last week, my hosting company sent me an email saying that SSV is taking too much server resources and they are limiting our server load. They basically told me that I have to optimize the website so it requires less resources. If I'm unable to comply, I'll have to upgrade my server, move my website somewhere else, or they will lock down the site. While SSV seems like a small community, we have over 250,000 posts, 10,500 images, 6,500 members. There usually is anywhere between 40-120 people on SSV simultaneously. So we do use a lot of computing power. The thought of a dedicated server is certainly appealing, however, it's tremendously expensive. I can barely afford to keep SSV running on it's own. And moving to a new server would take the costs of running SSV from a few hundred dollars a year, to a few thousand dollars a year. And while SSV Supporter Badges help me offset the costs, it comes no where close to paying for a dedicated server. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of a large publishing company to flip the bill for us. So my next best move is to do my best to optimize the website the best I can. I've cleaned up the databases and updated our PHP. Our software is a few years out of date and inefficient. So I had to update the forum software too. As you can imagine, when you upgrade software, they introduce new features, remove old features, update the look and fix performance issues. During this move, it re-arranged certain things, but I'm getting them back to their right place. The forums are in place and work the same way as before. They have a slightly different look, but nothing too dramatic. The Gallery and Pattern Library is also in place. I have some more tweeking to do to that, but it's completely functional and seems to work well. Blogs and Chat Room are still there and work the same way. The Articles section is still intact, however the new software treats them differently. So I have to figure out how to organize and update them before I make them public again. The old pages are still there, but I have to fix them to work with the new software. After that, it's mostly cosmetic. I have a huge list of things I'm working on. Some have higher priority than others, but I'm getting to them as fast as I can...I promise. This move came very sudden and I had to act quickly or risk losing SSV forever. I drained my scroll saw fund to save the Village (I was a only couple weeks out from getting the new Jet scroll saw). But it is worth it if we keep the lights on. I poured my heart and soul into this community over the last 8 years. I do not want to see it go away. Rest assured that I will do everything I can to make SSV a great place to be. I've already received a number of angry emails and even one rage quit. While I understand that things have changed, I didn't do it out of spite. I did it to save SSV and the wonderful community we have built. I'm just a regular guy. I go to work every day, take care of my family, and I enjoy making sawdust in my garage whenever I can sneak away. I'm not an expert IT guy. Just someone who knows enough about computers to be dangerous. I'm doing the best I can as fast as I can. If you need to post or send me an email, take a moment to realize there is a regular person on the other side of that email doing everything he can to make it right. I'm happy to answer any of your questions here. Please be nice to me. I've had a rough week.

A lot of the background processes finished up late last night/early morning, so I think the website should be loading pretty well. Now it's about putting things where they're supposed to be and making it pretty again. It's a struggle...they really changed how the software works. I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to get it to work the way we want it. If you're having trouble, there might be old website cache in your web browser that is conflicting with the new software. You can check out this post on how to clear that out.

There has been several people who are having trouble logging in. Sometimes when they are logged in, they go to a different page and it appears like they're logged out. For those who are having sign-in issues, give this a try. I think there's old cache data from the old software in your web browser that might be interfering with the new software. Try clearing your cache in your web browser: Instructions on how to clear cache: Chrome Firefox Internet Explorer Safari

Reputation is how many likes you have. So if you post some cool content like a pic of a project, good answer to a question, or some good news, people click the "Like" button and you get a Reputation point. I think the the old system had it too, but was called something else, or it was less obvious. LOL. My reputation is pretty weak compared to some members. Maybe I'm less trustworthy.

One fun thing to do is check your profile. Your personal profile page is much cooler.

Yah, I'm noticing that too. It's also like that on mobile devices. I put in a ticket with the software company. Hopefully they'll be able to help me. One thing that worked for me, if you hold down the CTR button and hit the refresh button on your browser, your login status bounces back. It's a workaround until I can figure this thing out.

It'll take me some time to work out the kinks. Bear with me. Its a ton of work and I have a lot of things to configure.

Gotta give me time to polish it up. I just barely turned on the lightswitch. There's a lot of background processes happening to rebuild the site. I'm hoping things will improve when those have been taken care of.