Hello all, long time no see- an update regarding the modarchive problems that have been popping up lately.
We had a disk-full situation which resulted in a database corruption, caused by an oversight during the transfer of the website to the scenesat server some time ago, this will be remedied (I have my original notes from the original server I managed) so it hopefully won't happen again.
There are some database tables missing as a result of the crash, but I will be working to restore these with no effective loss of data, the main tables are safe. A big thank you to fnord of Scenesat for recovering what we could from the unaffected database files.
Regarding some changes to the artist system, regrettably one feature used to expedite artists associating their own orphaned modules to their profiles will need to be removed as it was abused by someone to do damage to the site where a bt was programmed to associated every module with their own profile. Instead the method for helping orphaned modules be associated with their accounts will be carried out as it used to be via the forums, providing staff with a list of module IDs and their own artist ID. We can then vet and minimize issues like this in the future. It is a shame, but unfortunately we no longer live in the era 20 years ago where we could trust our users to behave,
Additional improvements will be coming to help optimize the speed of the website, as currently the server is using a technology which I had discarded long ago (apache2) in favor of a lighter httpd, fine tuned for the specific needs of modarchive. I believe I still have backups of my original configurations before the site was moved by 3rd party to scenesat hosting.
I have been making a list of additional tweaks including plans to instate a trust based credential, which means new accounts will not be able to make publicly visible comments or use the interactive features until some form of check has been made to ensure that there is no malicous intent. This still needs some though put to it but just letting you know that there may still be users that post spam. In light of this I will be expanding the crew tools to help clean up the mess in some areas that were previously forgotton about.
Regarding my health, ,I (m0d) am going through chemo which means every couple of weeks I will be absolutely wiped out and unable to even look at a screen for days, this week I was told I had to pause chemo for a week because I was too weak after losing 13 Kilos in only a couple of weeks! Not from the places I'd like such as my old beer belly, but the muscles.
This pause will give me a window to perform this work and I would very much appreciate it if you would be quietly patient as some things may get accidentally borken while I am revisiting my very first code written a long time ago. :-)
Taking modarchive back on under my wing again is actually a blessing to help take my mind off the rest of the bad stuff going on around.
Wishing you all a very happy Christmas, happy holidays and to a brighter future for your favorite module website.
All the best,
m0d, (Greg)
