Site Updates (Site News)
Site News will be posted here. This means news about changes and enhancements to the web-site itself, not news of other Group activities nor general news/information about the KSFIoM situation
Please refrain from comments that are not directly related to the topic. If you have ideas for new features which should be added to the site, or changes to be made etc, please post them in this thread.
Please read the Site Updates from time to time.
(28 votes)
File attachments
Changed system permissions so that file attachments are now visible (downloadable) without being logged in. When uploading files, please first rename the file to remove any non-alphanumeric characters other than space, hyphen and period.
"Counter" removed and "Visitor statistics" added
There's a new Visitor statistics block, currently shown on the left of each page. The "counter" which was previously shown on the lower-right of each page has been removed (to reduce database size and disk space usage.) The link to http://chat.ksfiomdepositors.org/admin/reports/google-analytics shows further detail.
Time-out ?
Hi ng,
It seems that since your last intervention we get automatically logged-out after a certain time (which seems to be quite short), which was not the case before. Intentional or not? I note that Gordon 45 was caught out by this yesterday and thus lost what he was writing. If this situation is to remain, we need to be aware and not compose long texts directly online. It's very frustrating to write a longish piece and then lose it all.
Session timeout
Yes, there is now a session timeout that wasn't there before, but it supposed to be 24 hours. Perhaps it was by chance 24 hours since you actually logged in (i.e. the previous day) - otherwise something is not working properly. Let me know?
The reason for the change was to reduce disk space requirements, though actually the main problem is "anonymous" sessions, not registered users. I can tweak it if needbe.
Re session timeout
Indeed, something seems to be 'not working properly'. A timeout after 24 hours would be fine, but it's very much shorter than that. I frequently log in in the morning and am logged out automatically (according to my preference setting) when I shut down the computer at night. But over the weekend I was definitely logged out several times during the day - I would think after less than 2 hours (but can't say exactly).
How can unregistered users log in anyway??
Session timeout issue hopefully fixed
I've checked and the settings seem to be correct. So, I've changed some other things which I hope will fix it.
Unregistered users aren't logged-in as such, but the system keeps some data per user, such as whether they've already correctly responded to a captcha challenge (in which case they don't get asked again, until their session expires.)
For my own reference, settings in settings.php are now back to installation defaults, and so only the session expire module should be having any effect - that's set to clear sessions older than 24 hours but check every two days, so should allow between 24 and 48 hours.
Thanks NG!
Thanks Andy, for your tireless background nurturing of this website which is still such an important venue for those of us remaining...
Lou
Server downgraded
Around 10:30 GMT today the server was downgraded to the minimum hosting plan offered by xtrahost. This gives us 512MB RAM and 10GB disk-space, which should be adequate with the current level of activity (much much lower than a few years ago!). Everything seems to be working fine after the downgrade/reboot.
Note to myself: reduced the number of stored backup copies from 7 to 3 as we are now relatively low on disk space - currently 79% used - may need to make further changes to how backups are done to reduce disk space requirements.
Ability to edit your own posts
I've changed permissions so that it is now possible to edit your own form and news posts (it was already the case for blog posts.)
Note, that when you edit and save a post, the system automatically keeps a copy of the old version - if you later need access to the old version, or need to have some information permanently removed, contact me.
Public forums
I've tried to make all forum areas now public, with the exception of the old Core group area which I've deleted because it contained personal information.
Unfortunately one of the side effects seems to have been that various old post are appearing as updated even though they haven't been. Well, they've been made public, which may mean that they're now visible to you even though they weren't before, so in that sense they're new/updated.
I'm still testing to see if this has actually worked as intended - the idea is that all forum site content should now be visible (and searchable) on Google.
Added Forums back to the main
Added Forums back to the main menu, and to the "quick" menu (top-right corner) to make it easier for people to get directly there - the whole Groups concept now de-emphasized. Nostalgia sets in!
Reduced number of registered users
You may notice the number of registered members has dropped by about 1000. This was due to an automated deletion of all members who had not logged in during the past two years, and who had never posted on the site. At the time of writing we now have 1525 registered users.
"Latest projects and groups" block removed
I've removed the block that was shown in the left side-bar listing Latest projects and groups since it's pretty pointless these days. It can be switched back on if the groups feature starts being more actively used (i.e. with new groups being added.)
Public site update notifications removed
I've completely removed the notifications system on the public site - this is two avoid the same issues there as here - outdated email addresses causing mail bounces and "inactive" users complaining about email being received. In practice this will make little difference as the public site is rarely updated.
@ng - URGENT!
ng,
Suggest you should immediately delete your latest post "Deletion of "inactive" user accounts" (mass mailout). It is clearly most inappropriate that the email adresses of all recipients should appear here!
Yikes! I wasn't expecting
Yikes! I wasn't expecting that! This turns out to be an new "feature" of the module, and has been reported "incorrect" here: http://drupal.org/node/1113794
I have removed the list from public visibility and will look for a longer term solution.
I have now manually patched
I have now manually patched the offending module (mass_contact) to correct this flawed behaviour - I need to remember not to upgrade this module without checking that this issue has been fixed - http://drupal.org/node/1113794 - or re-implementing the patch.
For everybody else - apologies - this was not meant to happen, and thanks to anrigaut was caught quickly.
New members
I am working through about 130 new registrations that have come in over the past couple of years! Some of them are clearly spammers but some are bona fide requests.
User management issues
As most of you know, the site sends out automated emails for notifications and other features such as the lost password facility. At the moment I am having to wade through numerous bounced emails - these are emails sent by the site which are rejected by the target email service. The typical cause is an invalid email address, but in a few cases it seems that our emails have been flagged as spam (either manually or automatically).
In order to reduce this backscatter I have now enabled a system which will automatically block user accounts if that user has not logged-in to the site for a period of time. Currently the limit is once month, so in general please make sure you do log-in to the site at least once per month.
Blocked accounts will no longer receive emails via the notifications service.
If your account is blocked, please send me a message via the site contact form, giving your user-name and/or registered email address and requesting account activation.
Server tuning
Just running some tests and checking things. Right now everything is running nice and fast. The server is delivering around 360 requests per second for chat.ksfiomdepositors.org/ and up to about 400 for the www site.
@ng
Am now getting inundated with emails with headers like this:
De : noreply(?)ksfiomdepositors [dot] org
Objet : Update for Public Page: KSFIOM DAG web sites
Date : 17 octobre 2011 22:53:33 HAEC
À : anrigaut(?)gmail [dot] com
Répondre à : noreply(?)ksfiomdepositors [dot] org
Greetings anrigaut,
The group operates several websites:
but is now updated only infrequently - most current activity takes place
on the forum site [2].
depositors only.
Read more http://www.ksfiomdepositors.org/public-page/ksfiom-dag-web-sites -- This is an automatic message from Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Isle of Man (ksfiom) Depositors Action Group PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE - your reply would not go to the intended recipient. To manage your subscriptions, browse to http://www.ksfiomdepositors.org/user/1479/notifications You can unsubscribe at http://www.ksfiomdepositors.org/notifications/unsubscribe/sid/565?signat...
[1] http://www.ksfiomdepositors.org
[2] http://chat.ksfiomdepositors.org
[3] http://chat.ksfiomdepositors.org
..........................................
Are these going out to all members? Another unwanted side-effect??
I tried to email you (not via noreply@ !) but mail was rejected.
Email complications
Ok, there are two things happening here:
That's about a notification from the public site due to the fact that I updated the page. Nothing necessarily wrong with that - I updated the page several times, so you may have received several notifications. You can disable notifications there, or maybe I should turn off the feature - the idea was to allow people to be notified when content was added or changed on the public site.
My own incoming email service is rejecting email from ksfiomdepositors.org sites - that's totally independent - I'll take a look.
Re notifications
I would suggest you might usefully turn it off temporarily while you are making these changes. It could then perhaps be turned on again once a new system is up and running with real news updates.
Main menu broken on public site
The main (top) menu has stopped working, apparently an unwanted side-effect of today's system updates. For the time being I've added the menu as a block in the right side-bar. The menu itself probably needs a complete restructure anyway ... I don't think the current structure makes it particularly easy to find things (especially if you're a visitor.)
Any volunteers? Basically to re-think the hierarchy of the menu and how content is categorised. Right now there are way too many categories, with many of them having only one or two entries.
Site updates done
The Drupal CMS has been updated to the current version (6.22) as have all installed Drupal modules. There are a few outstanding minor glitches, but mostly the site is working as before.
I'm aware that the blocks on in the left and right margin are currently not collapsible as they used to be.
Collapsible blocks fixed
Blocks are now collapsible again. For my own reference: http://drupal.org/node/313597#comment-1089302
Re-enabled the workspace
Re-enabled the workspace module which is linked to from the my posts link top-right.
@ng: Repeated listing
Ng,
Whenever a new post is made in this thread, it appears 6 times in the list of contents - for me at least. This has been the case for some time, and (thankfully!) happens only with this forum. Can you do something to fix it?
Anrigaut
Repeated posts
Do you mean it appears listed multiple times on the site (e.g. in Recent comments) or that it gets repeated in the email notification? I'm assuming the latter, and I have noticed that too - there are various possible reasons - if you write a post or comment and then edit it, it will appear multiple times in the email, because, logically, the email notification is supposed to include all relevant updates.
What I really need to do is update the entire system - we are running a version which is now well out of date, and little glitches like this are probably fixed in later versions. There is definitely a bug in notifications in the version that we are using which can result in multiple copies being included in the email, and that is mentioned in my How to use Notifications. My guess is installing the updates will fix it, and there's really not much point in my trying to fix it without first installing the updates.
So the short answer is, yes I can fix it :) but I need to plan properly for a full upgrade to the site (the underlying Drupal CMS and all its add-on modules that we are using.) It's on my to-do list!
No ng. I am not talking
No ng. I am not talking about notifications (I am not subscribed to this forum but indeed get multiple email notifications from those I am subscribed to when posters re-edit - as you say).
With this particular forum - and no other - a new post appears 6 times on the site, under 'Recent comments'. Like this (for your latest post):
Groups Type Title Author Replies Updatedsort icon
Site Editors, IT People, (all members) Forum topic Site Updates (Site News) ng 370 16/10/2011 - 11:40
Site Editors, IT People, (all members) Forum topic Site Updates (Site News) ng 370 16/10/2011 - 11:40
Site Editors, IT People, (all members) Forum topic Site Updates (Site News) ng 370 16/10/2011 - 11:40
Site Editors, IT People, (all members) Forum topic Site Updates (Site News) ng 370 16/10/2011 - 11:40
Site Editors, IT People, (all members) Forum topic Site Updates (Site News) ng 370 16/10/2011 - 11:40
Site Editors, IT People, (all members) Forum topic Site Updates (Site News) ng 370 16/10/2011 - 11:40
I use Firefox on MAC, but have just checked it's the same with Safari (MAC). Do others have this?
PS (edited): The only difference I can see between this forum and others is that it is posted to 3 Groups - Site Editors, IT People, (all members). Maybe moving it to All Members alone would solve the problem?
Not browser related
Ok, understood. It's almost certainly unrelated to which browser you use. As you suggest, it may be related to the fact that the main Site News thread is in multiple groups - I've changed that now. Well, it seems to be a bug, and would probably be fixed by an upgrade.
Thanks ng. That's much better
Thanks ng. That's much better - it now appears twice, as opposed to six times before (when it was in 3 groups)!
Guess I can live with that! Thanks.
Minor site update
This is just for my own reference - users should not notice any difference. I've disabled/removed from the system a number of Drupal modules that we were not actually using - just to help keep things tidy and reduce server loading slightly.
Removed "objective" field
I've removed the rather annoying objective field from forum posts, as I don't think it's now necessary or useful. It was added back in the early days where we had a bit of a problem with some discussions threads becoming very off-topic and unrelated to the DAG's purpose.
Domain name
I've extended registration of the domain name ksfiomdepositors.org for a further two years, i.e. until 22-Oct-2013
cash
Dont forget to ask for cash if you need it! We all still need this site to stay in touch with things!!!!!!
Hi cottesmore - I don't think
Hi cottesmore - I don't think so - we had more than enough contributions a few months ago to pay for hosting etc and for me to spend some time on maintenance. The ideal situation for me would be for somebody else to take over management of contributions - any offers?!?
ng
i dont mind, 'shaking the tin for cash!'
I will gladly shout from the roof tops when you ask me. I am willing to let people send to my pay pal and transfer to you, or, to save money,best they send direct to your pay pal account. (no double charges incurred) Whatever suits people. I am willing to cash personal cheques and send the money on.
Just let me know buddy and i will always oblige.
File uploads - zip now allowed
As requested, I've added zip to the types of files allowed to be uploaded.
Server crash 26/12/2010
From: Xtraordinary Networks Support
Subject: xenshell75.xtrahost.co.uk Unexpected Reboot
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2010 19:18:32 +0000 (GMT) (12/26/2010 08:18:32 PM)
At 17:04 GMT, the host server running your VPS had an unexpected reboot. All VMs were back up by 17:45 GMT.
Messages entered and any other changes made shortly before the time of the crash may have been lost.
Happy 2011 everyone.
Just for my records - server crash
From: Xtraordinary Networks Support
Subject: Xtraordinary Networks Outage Notification for xenshell75.xtrahost.co.uk
Date: 18/10/10 01:43:40
At 00:15 GMT, the host server running your VPS crashed. The server was restarted, and all VMs were back up by 00:30 GMT.
We are investigating the crash, and will keep you informed of any maintenance required.
Logcheck extract:
From: logcheck system account
Subject: Reboot: ksfiomdepositors.org 2010-10-18 01:34 Security Events
Date: 18/10/10 02:34:17
System Events
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Oct 18 01:33:49 ksfiomdepositors mysqld[4259]: InnoDB: The log sequence number in ibdata files does not match
Oct 18 01:33:49 ksfiomdepositors mysqld[4259]: InnoDB: the log sequence number in the ib_logfiles!
Oct 18 01:33:49 ksfiomdepositors mysqld[4259]: 101018 1:33:49 InnoDB: Database was not shut down normally!
Oct 18 01:33:49 ksfiomdepositors mysqld[4259]: InnoDB: Starting crash recovery.
Oct 18 01:33:49 ksfiomdepositors mysqld[4259]: InnoDB: Reading tablespace information from the .ibd files...
Oct 18 01:33:50 ksfiomdepositors mysqld[4259]: InnoDB: Restoring possible half-written data pages from the doublewrite
Oct 18 01:33:50 ksfiomdepositors mysqld[4259]: InnoDB: buffer...
... conclusion, we may have suffered some database corruption. There's nothing I can do other than restore the DB from recent backup, which I'm not going to do unless there's an obvious problem. The site seems to be working normally now.
To ng
ng,
Thanks for keeping this so important site running,
Gordon 45
Google search
I've added a link Search this site with Google to the menu block in the top right. The same will be accessed if you click Search on the top menu. Google search is much faster than the system's internal search feature (now disabled.) We have not been using the Google search here previously because much of the content was set to be visible to logged-in members only and so not visible to Google (that's still the case for some content).
ksfiomdepositors.org web sites - a quick update
I'm on the site infrequently, mostly just checking that everything seems to be working. There's a security update needed for the Drupal framework, but it's not urgent as the security loophole in the current version does not affect us due to our site's access configuration. The underlying operating system (LAMP stack) is now up to date, after updates I installed a few days ago.
Comment viewing options
In response to a few requests on the subject, I've now switched on "Comment viewing options". This feature can easily be turned back off if it proves unpopular. It enables you to alter how comments are displayed, whether date order, reverse date order, "flat" or "threaded". The "threaded" and "newest first" view is what we have had been using by default, and is probably the most convenient setting - it allows you to see which comments are responses to other comments in the thread. However, some people my prefer the "flat" view in order to see all comments chronologically.
Scheduled down-time this week
The sites will be down some time between 22:00 GMT Wednesday 2nd and 01:00 GMT Thursday 3rd December, probably only for a few minutes, but possibly longer. This is due to maintenance to be performed by the hosting company.
We will be upgrading the Xen hypervisor and linux kernel on the host,
which requires a host reboot. We will shut your VPS down cleanly prior
to the maintenance, and start it back up afterwards.
Maintenance window start: 22:00 GMT Wednesday 2nd December 2009
Maintenance window end: 01:00 GMT Thursday 3rd December 2009
Visibility of posts and access to comments
It should now be possible to read entire threads in the All members area without logging in. This means that content there should also appear in Google (etc.) results. Previously comments were not visible (only the original post.)
Posting of comments by non-members (or members who are not logged in) is now permitted. Such comments will appear as posted any Anonymous. Posters still have to pass the captcha code test, which will hopefully prevent spam from being posted as anonymous comments.
Why have these changes been made?
Some people do not want to register, but do want to read general information and comment on it. Also because some people may be unable to log in due to problems with their account here (perhaps unable to access their email and have forgotten their account password here.)
Originally, visibility of posts and the ability to comment was restricted so as to encourage people to register on the site so that we could get a better idea of the number of depositors affected. That is probably no longer necessary.
Which areas of the site are affected?
The above applies to all non-group posts and to posts in All members. Posts in other group areas are generally only visible to members of that group, unless posts are specifically made public which is a restricted feature.
Notes
Forum site was unavailable today
The forum (chat) site was unavailable for much of today due to a technical fault at one of our hosting providers. Connectivity was restored around 15:49, but still seems a bit hit and miss. Hopefully ther problem will be fully resolved by tomorrow.
Notifications emails
Over the past 3 days (approx) notifications emails were not being sent out. You should now have received them. This was due to the cron service being stopped as a result of OS upgrade - now restarted.
Planned upgrades
Over the next few days I plan to install various necessary updates (primarily security updates) to the site's underlying CMS and operating system (they are long overdue.) As always, there is a small chance that something might break or cause undesired side effects. If you notice anything, please use the site contact form to let me know, providing as much detail as possible.