Scheduled maintenance for Tuesday 23rd June

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Some of the nonsense contained herein may be very loosely related to The Sisters of Mercy, but I wouldn't bet your PayPal account on it. In keeping with the internet's general theme nothing written here should be taken as Gospel: over three quarters of it is utter gibberish, and most of the forum's denizens haven't spoken to another human being face-to-face for decades. Don't worry your pretty little heads about it. Above all else, remember this: You don't have to stay forever. I will understand.
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Quiff Boy
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Hey folks

Heads up that I will be doing some maintenance on the Heartland servers on Tuesday 23rd June 2020.

The maintenance includes moving the site onto a new webserver, which means there will likely be some downtime while this happens.

One thing to note is that I will need to change the url "myheartland.co.uk" from pointing at the old server to the new one. This involves changing something known as "DNS settings".

Once I've changed these DNS settings, all your internet service providers (Sky, BT, etc etc) should pick the change up over the course of a couple of hours and folks should gradually start to see the new server instead of the old one.

Why am I doing this?
- The main reason is to move the site back onto a server hosted in the UK. It's currently located in the US, and given the current political situation over there I'm not entirely comfortable with this.
- A secondary reason is that I'm moving it onto a newer version of the Ubuntu OS. It's currently running on Ubuntu 12 (stop laughing at the back!), which is super old and creaky now. I've been working on the basis of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but this can't last forever... The "repatriation" of the site has prompted me to install the forum on a newer OS ( Ubuntu 18 ) while I'm at it.
- Sadly there will not be any update of Heartland’s underlying forum software - I (still) won't be upgrading to phpBB v3, mainly because Heartland's version of phpBB2 is so heavily modified that any move would likely break all manner of things. Sorry folks.

When will all this start?
- I will be taking the site offline at approximately 11am on Tuesday 23rd June.
- I expect maintenance to be complete by 8pm that evening.

What to do if you have any problems
When it's all complete you shouldn't see any change, but there may be a few quirks and bugs pop up that I hadn't spotted...

- First up, if you can't get on, just wait. It may be that your ISP is still rolling the DNS changes out and you're still seeing the old version of the site.
- Once you are able to log back on the site, if you spot any bugs please log them here in this thread.
- While the maintenance is happening, keep an eye on our twitter feed for updates: http://twitter.com/heartlandforum
- Likewise, if you are having any trouble getting back on after the move, drop us a message @ the above Twitter account

Hope this all makes sense, and sorry for any inconvenience.

I'll pop another post in this thread just before maintenance starts, to give you a few mins warning.

Thanks in advance for your patience.
Last edited by Quiff Boy on 29 Jun 2020, 10:35, edited 1 time in total.
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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Quiff Boy
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Reminder that HL will be down for maintenance at 11am BST today (that's in 2 hours)
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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Charlie
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Good luck, hope it's not too much of a fiddly transition!

See you on the other side! :D :D
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Quiff Boy
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Charlie wrote:Good luck, hope it's not too much of a fiddly transition!

See you on the other side! :D :D
Thanks. It might be a tad fiddly, so fingers crossed! :D
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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ruffers
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Don't break it....
Chucking another log on
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ruffers wrote:Don't break it....
Yeah. That's our job :lol:
Cheers.
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Quiff Boy
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ruffers wrote:Don't break it....
There are no guarantees in life...
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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Quiff Boy
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Pista wrote:
ruffers wrote:Don't break it....
Yeah. That's our job :lol:
...apart from this one.
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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Quiff Boy
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Once the move is complete you will be able to tell you are looking at the new server because the randomised lyric snippet on the homepage:

Image

will look like this for a day or so:

Image
Yep, this is the new server!...
Note: that's only visible on the site's main/default theme. If you have any of the other board styles selected you (probably) don't see that lyric snippet.
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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iesus
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I posted c/p the announcement for maintenance in FB for those not know and have FB about forum works with the FAQ about problems that might appear ;D
Thank you Mr.Q :notworthy: :notworthy:
'Are we the Baddies?'...
"Someday! Someday, everything you need, is just gonna fall out of the sky..." -A.E. Reading 1991
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Quiff Boy
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iesus wrote:I posted c/p the announcement for maintenance in FB for those not know and have FB about forum works with the FAQ about problems that might appear ;D
Thank you Mr.Q :notworthy: :notworthy:
Cool, thanks :)
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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Pista
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Brace, brace brace!
Cheers.
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Quiff Boy
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Assume crash positions...
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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Quiff Boy
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And we're back.
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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vicus
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Hellooooo!
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Das machte viele Leute sehr wütend und wurde allenthalben als Schritt in die falsche Richtung angesehen."


http://www.poison-door.net/
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Quiff Boy
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Toot toot! Wotcha, vicus :)
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
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iesus
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Back. I receive no lyrics up left, just the message "Yep that's the new server" ;D ;D
Smooth!! :notworthy:
'Are we the Baddies?'...
"Someday! Someday, everything you need, is just gonna fall out of the sky..." -A.E. Reading 1991
"Don't forget that most of the judges in witches trials had harvard degrees."
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Charlie
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Awesome, nice one! :D :notworthy: :notworthy:
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mh
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Yayyy! Works here too! :notworthy:
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Pista
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Quiff Boy wrote:And we're back.
Working here. :D
Cheers.
Steve
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Spiggy Sage
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Oy oy 😊
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Works. Smooth and fast ... :D :notworthy: :notworthy: ...





Well, part of the statistics might start counting from zero ... :wink: ...
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Icon
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Quiff Boy wrote:And we're back.
Thank you so much for taking the time and doing this stuff!
Works a treat :D
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emilystrange
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*headcount*
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Quiff Boy wrote:If you have any of the other board styles selected you (probably) don't see that lyric snippet.
Aw, you took away my half-arsed (well, more like quarter-arsed) HTML5 board style!

Probably for the best TBH :lol:
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
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