11.22.2011 - Forum back up & changes

[PCEngineFX]

After a short downtime, the pcengine-fx.com forums are back up.  Shoutbox has been removed due to abuse.  Looking into other changes as well.

[Bernie]

  The shoutbox was the best part of this site!!!! 

[SMF]

Shoutbox was nice but I hardly ever used it. Glad your back up.

[NecroPhile]

Thanks for bringing the ol' girl back to life and in relatively short order.  It's a Thanksgiving Day treat!

[Joe Redifer]

It's funny because I habitually selected the forums from my bookmarks as I usually do and started reading threads.  All was normal until I realized "Holy crap!  I'm looking at PCEFX and it's back up!"

Anyway, I personally will not miss the shoutbox.

[Bernie]

It's funny because I habitually selected the forums from my bookmarks as I usually do and started reading threads.  All was normal until I realized "Holy crap!  I'm looking at PCEFX and it's back up!"

Anyway, I personally will not miss the shoutbox.

I do the same thing, and hadnt done it today.  I however will miss the shoutbox, a lot.  Im sure I am not alone.  A lot of us have met some really good people in the shoutbox.  I guess its just more personal.

[chany60126]

I too will miss the shoutbox dearly. I spend more time on there than browsing the site. Lots of great people I like to talk to on there. How has the shoutbox been abused?? Sure we didn't always talk about Turbografx related topics, but we kept it clean. Anyway, glad the site is up again at least.

[nat]

He doesn't mean abused topic-wise.

[T2KFreeker]

I'm trying to understand the "Abused" comment as well since it sems like we were using it for what it was designed for.

[Bernie]

Its how the site was compromised.  Not that we were abusing it.

[PCEngineFX]

I'll see if I can get some kind of "shoutbox style" chat running on the forum for people to use.  Can't say when, as I first need to see if everything is secure on the site the way it is right now.

[Windy]

I dont know if you can use this shoutbox but it has a ton of options its real similar to the old shoutbox and is run independantly or would this one cause security issues? I use this shoutbox at my old Phantasy Star Zero blogs although nobody uses them anymore there was a time. Take a looky:
http://www.freeshoutbox.net/

You would need to appoint a couple of shoutbox mods which is very easily done

[nat]

People are taking this the wrong way.

Conversational topics wasn't the issue. Moderation of the shoutbox wasn't the issue. I think an unmoderated shoutbox is a good thing. It was simply a matter of security. If we can come up with some sort of real-time chat that doesn't compromise the security of the site, I think we'll be in business.

The one Windy linked to might be a contender, but Aaron will have to look it over and make the call.

For the time being, we'll have to make do without a chat interface. We operated for, what, 5 or 6 years without any kind of chat on the site? I think we can survive a little while without chat if it means we get something more secure in the long run.

[Windy]

that freeshoutbox does run ads on it but they disappear as people chat. ad blocker is nice using that chat

[Bernie]

I'll see if I can get some kind of "shoutbox style" chat running on the forum for people to use.  Can't say when, as I first need to see if everything is secure on the site the way it is right now.

Thanks!    Least we know it isnt totally nixed.

[Sparky]

glad to see it back... my wife was checking emails and she said " hey your pcefx is back up or something" i f@cking scrabbled to the computer ..
And please look into a chat area when you can as i really think it is part of the "life" of this forum.

[M1Savage]

Glad to see this place back up and running!

[Joe Redifer]

I will say this:  One thing I liked about the shoutbox that was here is that it could be permanently hidden and unobtrusive.  If you look at the chat thing Neo Geo forums has, it is just awful.  You can't close/hide it and it pops up on every forum page from what I've seen (I was only at the site for 2 or 3 minutes before bailing).  So if something MUST go up, please make sure it can be permanently hidden (as in I don't have to hide it each time I visit) or park it somewhere else other than the forums.

Thanks and have a great day.

[Mathius]

I couldn't believe my email subs just a minute ago! <<<kisses forum quick and repeatedly on the cheek>>>

[blueraven]

Aaron; Thanks dude for getting the forum back up so quickly.  And thanks for all that you've been doing, man. I understand the trials and tribulations of being a webhost, and am all too familiar with what happens when a client's site goes down.

Whatever you need to do to keep it going, cool.

Anyway, I personally will not miss the shoutbox.

I've only seen you ONCE in chat since I joined. haha. It was during the "Is fighting street going away" thing.

[rag-time4]

There are some guys like chop, steve, coolmod, and blueBMW who have been using the shoutbox heavily over recent years to help each other and everyone else with real time technical help with regard to repairs etc. Lots of progress has been made. Ive had lots of great conversations and lots of fun on the shoutbox since its been added, and i hope that finding a replacement is given high priority.

[Tatsujin]

Damn. Arron thx a lot fot the fast meassures to bring the site back on track

As for the shouter, yeah that was one hell of an important part of this site (imo).

To uphold the security, can't the shouter be run on a different/separated host/site/whatever, and just be embedded in here?

Sure I have no real clue about such issues. Just try to figure out..hehe ^^

[thesteve]

that sounds feasible to me tats

crazy thing is shout never went down, during the forum outage

[Duo_R]

Thanks for getting the site back up and so fast! For sure we can wait on the shoutbox but I also think  it is important component of this website. I have helped and been helped with mods and repairs here using the chat feature here.

Thanks again!

[c0ldb33r]

Awesome thanks for fixing the site.

I personally don't care about the shout box. I've never used it.

[Mathius]

There are some guys like chop, steve, coolmod, and blueBMW who have been using the shoutbox heavily over recent years to help each other and everyone else with real time technical help with regard to repairs etc. Lots of progress has been made. Ive had lots of great conversations and lots of fun on the shoutbox since its been added, and i hope that finding a replacement is given high priority.

This.


Plus, where else can Tats and me talk about Follin and teh SID?

[hoobs88]

Are there any other changes besides the lack of Shoutbox?

[Joe Redifer]

That particular shoutbox was crap, anyway.  People's names would constantly change color, making it hard to keep track of conversations.  If people could choose their own color or were assigned a color upon entry, that would be cool... though we'd have to hack it so that Arkhan would always get pink.  

[VestCunt]

Thanks Aaron!

[Samurai Ghost]

Great to see the site back!

[chany60126]

If I could offer a suggestion, it would be great if the mods could check up and update the high score threads more regularly. Many of these high score threads are started by people who don't post often. I just noticed a few of these that haven't been updated in a long while like Blazing Lazers and Super Star Soldier.

[munchiaz]

this is great news. Glad to see the site back up.

[TheClash603]

Ohhh yeah!  Welcome back everyone, now I have something extra to be thankful for!

Shoutbox I will miss, but this is a great step 1!

[nat]

If I could offer a suggestion, it would be great if the mods could check up and update the high score threads more regularly. Many of these high score threads are started by people who don't post often. I just noticed a few of these that haven't been updated in a long while like Blazing Lazers and Super Star Soldier.

It's hard when some members post a ton of incrementally higher scores for numerous days in a row. It's sort of a deterrent with regards to updating the master lists when I know they're just going to post a new, higher score the very next day.

That said, I'll try to get them updated a little more often.

EDIT: I just updated a bunch of them.

[chany60126]

Thanks!

[Tatsujin]

Plus, where else can Tats and me talk about Follin and teh SID?

very good and important point ma fren

[CGQuarterly]

Can't we just use an IRC channel instead of having the shout box?

[Tatsujin]

IRC is so 90s

[guyjin]

IRC is so 90s

so is teh PCE!

[MotherGunner]

LOL isn't "They Live" so 1988?

[Vecanti]

Can't we just use an IRC channel instead of having the shout box?

Opera has a built in IRC client.  So that makes it easy.

[geise]

Aaron I am so thankful for all the hard work you put into getting it all up and running again!  I was sad to see the shout not up but figured it was not there due to it being a security hazard for the site.  If there is ever a shout/chat box that works like what was on sunteam's amazing backup forum, that would be great.  The way it opened up in a totally different section was great.  Thanks again for all the work in restoring the forums.

[geralds]

Glad the site back up but untill the shout box is back up oh well.  Iv basicly lost all motivation to log in till the shout box is up basicly all i used rarely did i ever use the forums sence iv joined.

[Joe Redifer]

I haven't really been following this thread since it is mostly people just saying "thanks" but I just checked in.  Man people sure have a hard-on for this Shoutbox thing.  Where do people get the time to sit on their ass and type a whole back and forth conversation?  I like the forums because I'm usually in and out within 5 minutes.

[Mathius]

I haven't really been following this thread since it is mostly people just saying "thanks" but I just checked in.  Man people sure have a hard-on for this Shoutbox thing.  Where do people get the time to sit on their ass and type a whole back and forth conversation?  I like the forums because I'm usually in and out within 5 minutes.

It's real-time interaction with fellow Turbonuts, with some being good friends. Talking chiptunes with Tatsujin, console modding with BlueBMW, and shootin the shit with guys like Ceti, Sparky, D-Dan, Chany, Nectarsis, etc. Out of all the sites I have ever been a member of PCFX has the closest bunch of yahoos around.

...and I consider you in that pack, joejoe.

[Joe Redifer]

That's nice of you but I do feel more like an outsider here who loves the Turbo but isn't bonkers-obsessed with it.

[nat]

...whose instead bonkers-obsessed with the Genesis.

[Joe Redifer]

You only think that because I'm not as bonkers-obsessed with the Turbo.  Kind of the whole "If your not with us, you're against us" mentality.  Nice try, Bush. 

[Windy]

Well I installed mibbit which an IRC based chat client hosted by mibbit. you can also login using an irc client such as Xchat or Pidgeon or just login here at the Hupack. If you can Aaron this is a really nice free chat with the bells and whistles and is a simple copy and pasted to embed it http://hupack.blogspot.com/

[_Paul]

Has Nat got admin access yet?