Author Topic: Attic down?  (Read 5573 times)

Offline jcompton

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Attic down?
« on: June 03, 2010, 09:44:30 AM »
It looks like the Attic is down--I get a blank screen with no HTML. Anybody have any insight?
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Offline Kulyok

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2010, 10:35:45 AM »
Was up a few days ago, but, yep, down now. (It isn't your usual case of "forgot to pay for the domain", right? Who'd hack the Attic?)

Offline jcompton

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2010, 11:19:38 AM »
99.9% of website hacks are nothing personal. Automated bots go after soft targets wherever they can find them. But no, the domain's paid up.
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Offline jcompton

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2010, 10:13:58 PM »
They updated, saying a server upgrade broke the site. I believe it--they were using a pretty old and somewhat hacky system. (Although we are living in a bit of a glass house ourselves...)
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Offline devSin

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #4 on: June 03, 2010, 10:24:10 PM »
Me, as a normal red-blooded American, wants to know what the f- you're all going on about. Is this "The Attic" LGBTQ youth group or is this "The Attic: The new extremely scary movie from the Director of Pet Semetary"?

Because those are the only attics Google can find.

Offline jcompton

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2010, 10:41:53 PM »
Me, as a normal red-blooded American, wants to know what the f- you're all going on about. Is this "The Attic" LGBTQ youth group or is this "The Attic: The new extremely scary movie from the Director of Pet Semetary"?

Because those are the only attics Google can find.

I think you're teasing again, but I'll play.

The Attic is/was a long-running BG-related fanfic board, more or less directly responsible for spinning off some of its writers into modders. It's been enduring its own "long afternoon" for the past 2-3 years but I poke my head in every once in a while.

Oh, and it is at "gamejag.net" for some reason.
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Offline devSin

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2010, 10:54:21 PM »
Nah. I thought it was kind of catchy (and really, "from the Director of Pet Semetery" used as a compliment is just something that has to happen more often on teh 'Nets), but if I ever knew what people here were talking about when referring to "the Attic," I must have forgotten long ago.

I almost thought you were going to get through that whole explanation and not post a link. But you cut through the bull quicker than a scalpel through Fred Gwynne's heel in the end, so thanks.

Offline jcompton

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2010, 11:03:54 PM »
Nah. I thought it was kind of catchy (and really, "from the Director of Pet Semetery" used as a compliment is just something that has to happen more often on teh 'Nets)

She's had quite a busy career, all things considered.

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I almost thought you were going to get through that whole explanation and not post a link. But you cut through the bull quicker than a scalpel through Fred Gwynne's heel in the end, so thanks.

I actually did, probably because I had a mental block about typing out "gamejag" without giggling. But I did a quick edit.
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Offline devSin

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2010, 11:18:37 PM »
She's had quite a busy career, all things considered.
It wasn't until I posted that I A) realized I had no idea who directed the film (I was, what, 8 at the time), and B) would look incredibly stupid when it turned out to be directed by an answer to a E! Before They Were Ultra-Famous trivia question (that comes up before the commercial break to try to keep you from changing the channel, because you care that much about the answer to the question that is so worthless nobody has ever thought to even ask it before) or something. How cute will my snide remark be when it turns out to be Scorsese's side project while directing Goodfellas or the false start to Silence of the Lambs.

Oh, well. Live and learn.

Offline jcompton

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2010, 11:39:54 AM »
Speaking of "live and learn", they're switching to Invision.

If anybody is listening (questionable) with ties to the Attic (doubtful) who actually values my experienced opinion (improbable)--you're making a mistake.
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Offline Kulyok

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2010, 12:38:55 PM »
It's pretty scary how the hoster doesn't want to support the old protocols, though. Meaning, if you've got a forum, you're bound to update every few years, or everything disappears? This sucks. What if you fall sick or die? (And leave the money to pay for the next N years, but, naturally, you're not around to do the updates). Or just want the forum to be preserved?

Anyway, Invision is this horrible thing that stutters each time I post a quick reply at Studios, right? Then, yes, a mistake it is.

Offline jcompton

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #11 on: June 07, 2010, 12:51:39 PM »
It's pretty scary how the hoster doesn't want to support the old protocols, though. Meaning, if you've got a forum, you're bound to update every few years, or everything disappears? This sucks. What if you fall sick or die? (And leave the money to pay for the next N years, but, naturally, you're not around to do the updates). Or just want the forum to be preserved?

For reasons of functionality and security, these types of things march on. Particularly on a low-cost, shared server, the risks of leaving old software running are far too great, because one site could compromise many, many others.

I expect that there will be a niche industry in the future for "digital trustees." As there is in the world of finance, where one turns over daily management of investments to a trustee for years, decades, or even centuries, a business could be built around doing this sort of thing--"make sure my blog is always readable, no matter how Internet technology evolves in the years to come."

The Attic's biggest mistake was in using PostNuke in the first place, which was always a crummy hack. They made such little use of the portal aspect (and the shared login never actually worked) that they should have just stuck with the basic phpBB forum, or switched over to it once it became obvious that it wasn't actually providing value. In fact, I'm not convinced that they couldn't more easily just port the forum-based data and abandon the (valueless) portal data, but I don't know enough about how PostNuke messed with the phpBB data organization to be totally certain. There are a lot of phpBB experts out there, though, and I would expect that one of them could deal with it in fairly short order and keep people on the forum software they're already accustomed to.

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Anyway, Invision is this horrible thing that stutters each time I post a quick reply at Studios, right? Then, yes, a mistake it is.

Studios has a much, much bigger database and higher traffic (and I will always be convinced that starting out on the early, super buggy first versions of Invision led to problems that linger today) but yeah, it's what G3, Studios, and BWL run on.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2010, 01:07:56 PM by jcompton »
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Offline jcompton

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2010, 09:51:56 PM »
Incidentally, they finally got the forum back online.

Pro tip: don't migrate between forum software providers if you can ever help it.
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Offline AnnabelleRose

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #13 on: September 13, 2010, 06:48:28 AM »
I will always wonder how long they can keep hitting the snooze button on their fifteen minutes of fame.

IMO - SMF > IPB
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Offline jcompton

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #14 on: September 13, 2010, 08:02:31 AM »
I will always wonder how long they can keep hitting the snooze button on their fifteen minutes of fame.

IMO - SMF > IPB

Well, as much as I like getting a good hate on for Invision, my warning isn't "because they moved to Invision" but "because they moved off phpBB."
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Offline AnnabelleRose

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Re: Attic down?
« Reply #15 on: September 14, 2010, 11:43:54 AM »
I will always wonder how long they can keep hitting the snooze button on their fifteen minutes of fame.

IMO - SMF > IPB

Well, as much as I like getting a good hate on for Invision, my warning isn't "because they moved to Invision" but "because they moved off phpBB."

I actually prefer SMF to phpBB.
"A good pipe and tobacco will make you a patient philosopher or a philistine depending on how you are bent." - Ted's Pipe Shop