On behalf of the Brains Trust (am I allowed to say that? ) I would like to deeply apologise for the downtime that happened recently. It came down all of a sudden and Planeteers who tried to access the forums got a 403 error.
Hereās the full story:
About Tuesday 13th, the forums had an unexpected surge on the index page script, bringing high usage to the server, and our hosts suspending the forums. Dash was quick to be informed of this, unfortunately he was/is currently ill. Thomas (bawcpwpn) and I stepped in to address this matter in lieu of Dash. We have made some changes to the index script so it is not as intensive and the forums were subsequently unsuspended.
I was working hard to get the forums up and running again. A compromise I had to make is that the recent thread titles on the homepage will not appear. I am terribly sorry for that, and I am working on a resolution to this. Every other aspect of the site is not affected in any way. I will also be working with Dash & Thomas to see if we can find a long-term solution to this so this does not happen again.
I would like to mention that we did not intentionally pull it down for maintanance, nor were changing any aspects of the site (i.e. rehaul). The rehaul is still happening, but thatās for another post to discuss.
Again, we are terribly sorry for any inconvenicence caused, and hope you Planeteers didnāt suffer too much from the seperation anxiety (I know I did! )
Iām still pretty knocked out by medication and I know as a poster Iāve been fairly elusive on the forums but I wanted to express my sincere thanks to Phileas for his quick response and offer to help during this time. We all owe him great gratitude and along with his forthcoming updates he has offered to continue helping in the realms of the tech world. So, as such I hope you will all thank him and join me in welcoming him as the newest member of The Brain Trust. He is already a valued member of our community and Iām excited about what he will be bringing to the table in the future!
Thank you and welcome!
I also owe a great deal of thanks to Thomas for his continued work, support and help!
And to all of our other members sorry for the downtime; welcome back and happy posting!
Iāll say more later but for now I must return to doctor ordered bed rest.
lol, I was rocking back and forth in a fetal position during the downtime.
Thanks Phileas! Glad that the site is back online, pretty much. Thanks again to Phileas, Dash, bawpcwpn, martini833 and anyone else who helped to keep us informed, or help with getting the forums back up. Thanks goodness for Skype and twitter so we could all still keep in contact, huh?
I checked the Google cache version of the site and on October 12 there were about 400 guests online, when the usual number is around 50 guests browsing. Well, look on the bright side - at least Pixar Planet was really popular for a bit. Maybe further along the road we can look into upgrading the hosting if we start getting a lot of visitors again.
And to make it easier to browse new posts, seeing as the latest posts arenāt able to be viewed on the front page for the time being: click āview posts made since your last visitā which is to the right of your avatar on the top of the page when you are logged in. Or alternatively click here (you have to be logged in). Or you can just click the icons to be taken to the latest mystery post in each sub-forum, I guess.
Thank the stars! Weāre back. Big thanks to everybody involved, and congratulations on the promotion to the brain trust Phileas! thatās really awesome! I think you definitely deserve it, you were all over that stuff! And nice to see you back for at least a bit Dash although under mixed conditions, get better soon!
As well as everyone else here, Iāve felt a bit empty inside without this place (haha, maybe not as much as Rachel, but close), itās definitely good to be back in action, I pretty much live here.
Congrats on the promotion to the Brain Trust, Phileas! Aussies represent! We should really get an icon happening for people in the Brain Trust to differentiate them from the moderators.
Man, Iād had been refreshing the forums for the past few days in hopes that it would come back up (Itās not like I donāt do that already). I believe I may have even been one of the first to get a 403 because of it (lol).
But back to the subject at hand, Thanks Phileas, along with Dash, bawpcwpn, martini833 in restoring Pixar Planet! (At least until the next surge of guestsā¦)
Speaking of which, I wonder if the new Toy Story 3 trailer, along with TS1&23D and a few other smaller things may be the reason for the amazing amount of guests! I wouldnāt be surprised, it seems not just us Pixar fans are extremely exited for the final film in the trilogy ~ Tom on Myspace and a few other people I know (who arenāt Pixar fans) Seem to be very exited as well.
Thanks guys for the congrats! It is much, much appreciated. Iād like to point out that Iāve asked and I hold a non-moderating position on the Brainsā Trust, mostly due to the fact that I canāt even moderate myself (youāre talking to the one person that normally slips his tounge ), but the position will ease me to develop the rehaul of PP.
And although Iāve said this again and again, a big āGet Well Soonā to Dash!
Thanks so much Phileas for getting the boards back up and running! I donāt know if I couldāve held out much longer without my daily dose of Pixar Planet. And congratulations on your promotion!
When I first saw the site was down, I was at school, so I thought they had finally found Pixar Planet and blocked it (they donāt like kids getting on forums sites). But when I got home, the same thing came up. Oh well, Iām just glad itās back online! And thanks a bunch, Philieas! And congrats on the promotion!
Yaaay, the Planet is back!! Like the rest of you, I was starting to have PixarPlanet withdrawlsā¦ D8
A big thanks to Phileas for putting so much of your time into getting this site back up and running - you have no idea how much we appreciate it! <3 And congratulations on becoming one of the Brain Trust!
I wonder whether the sudden influx had to do with the latest release of a certain sequel trailerā¦
Anyway, glad to see the site back again! I just replied a PM when I reloaded the page and found the 403 error. So, I thought it was a Mac problem, then I rebooted in XP, followed by trips to various school computers to no avail. Then I concluded there must be a connection problem in Australia. In the future, perhaps a notice can be put on the Pixar Planet main site or the Upcoming Pixar blog so users can be informed?
But itās good to see the ācrisisā has been neutralised. Big thanks to Thomas and Phileas, and a hearty congratulations to the latter on being the newest member of the Brains Trust!
It is quite ironic really, as I was considering a self-imposed exile until the end of my assessments, so to see it materialise as a freak occurence must be a signā¦
) I would like to deeply apologise for the downtime that happened recently. It came down all of a sudden and Planeteers who tried to access the forums got a 403 error.
icons to be taken to the latest mystery post in each sub-forum, I guess.
We should really get an icon happening for people in the Brain Trust to differentiate them from the moderators.
In the future, perhaps a notice can be put on the Pixar Planet main site or the Upcoming Pixar blog so users can be informed?