504 Gateway time out is back

[York1]

Right now for me, the forum is responding faster than I can remember.  Hope?

[Overmod]

Someone deleted or corrupted a key part of the Telligent software installation, perhaps when moving the servers out of the building that has to be vacated by July 15th.

Based on what Mr. Otte and others had said, I was worried 'this was the end' because Kalmbach had no way to reinstall the missing files.  The site went from the DLL error to a by-now-normal 504, and since the site is back up I presume they were successful at restoring from backup.

During the outage I did a little research to see if a repository or organization had access to the missing files.  It turns out that the current version of the successor package (Verint Community 13, current 2024) has a full suite of online videos on how to install, configure, and administer it -- just what Firecrown needs to use to assure compatibility with 'legacy' post information and other data.  We can all use it, too, to understand what the forum software does and what options it can be set up to have.

https://community.telligent.com/p/all-documentation

[Erik_Mag]

I got the same error over at least a 12 hour period - looked like some files were missing from the Windows server hosting the website, notably the ".dll" files needed for applications to run. Got a 504 error when trying to post a few hours ago.

Update: No 504 error when posting and response was quick.

[blue streak 1]

I have never seen a message like the one yesterday. Does IT have any idea?  Suggest that if any of these items happen again a message on News Wire might be appropriate.

[charlie hebdo]

BaltACD

Got a different type error the afternoon of 6/25

 

Yes, Bizarro World

[BaltACD]

Got a different type error the afternoon of 6/25

[railfanjohn]

69.    

Hired out with Southern Railway (Trainman) 1977.

SRy. became Norfolk Southern 1982.

Promoted to Locomotive Fireman 1984.

Promoted to Locomotive Engineer 1985.

Left NS 1997.  20 years service.

Saw reduction in train crew from up to 5 down to as few as 2.

Saw elimination of cabooses.

Saw Southern Railway join AMTRAK.

Began drawing Railroad Retirement 2022.

 

[Erik_Mag]

I remember you wrote that QST has gone on-line only after over 100 years of publication. The Internet Archive has collection of older QST issues, got a kick out of seeing a picture of Don Wallace (W6AM  SK) in a mid 1920's issue as I had met him in person a few times and had a neighbor (W6ID also SK) who met him at a 1924 convention.

Reading a paper document is usually less stressful than reading on-line, though large 4k or 5k monitors plus gigabit fiber optic connection does make reading on-line a lot more tolerable.

Books still seem to be going strong, though books are much less focused on news than magazines.With websites, news can be delivered almost instantly, whereas a monthly magazine may have a month or more turnaround time.

[tree68]

Erik_Mag

Was a bit distressing to see how thin MR is getting, and also disconcerting to see the index of advertisers. OTOH, I'm seeing the same thing in a lot of other magazines.

It's a common phenomenon across pretty much all magazines, and a good many have given up the ghost entirely.  A magazine that comes with my membership in an organization has gone entirely on-line.  I haven't bothered to check it out since it did.

[Erik_Mag]

For nostalgia's sake, I've picked up the June and July issues of MR in part to get the last one with the Kalmbach masthead - I have my father-in-laws first 10 to 12 volumes of MR along with a ragged June 1964 issue of MR that my parents bought for me.

Was a bit distressing to see how thin MR is getting, and also disconcerting to see the index of advertisers. OTOH, I'm seeing the same thing in a lot of other magazines.

Forum seems to be pretty snappy at the moment, though it is having a bit of a problem with page numbers on this thread.

[Flintlock76]

OWTX

names that got let go

Now THAT we won't know until the post-Firecrown purchase publications show up with the new mastheads.  There's names I HOPE I don't see.

[tree68]

NKP guy

(I look at that number and can't believe it actually applies to me.)

Same here - 73.

[OWTX]

Still in the blaming the people who got let go stage. Eventually somebody will have to decide whether to punt the forums or pay for the fix.

Pro tip - remove any names that got let go when submitting their plan for approval by the new bosses.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

A mere youth, I'm only 71.  Incidentally, the only mainline steam that I remember was NKP 2-8-4's.

[charlie hebdo]

A few more yungens like Overmod and Zugmann and Tree plus elders Balt and Dave K.

[adkrr64]

59, turning 60 in August

[Paul of Covington]

  83

[NKP guy]

I'm 76. 

 

(I look at that number and can't believe it actually applies to me.)

 

[Erik_Mag]

I'll be 70 in October.

I'm ~5 years too young to have any memories of mainline steam, but old enough to remember dozens of class 1's, pre-Amtrak passenger trains and loose car freight. There is generally less variety in the industry with the possible exception of comuter rail.

Dramatic changes in the industry pre-date my existence in this world, with one example of Lucius Beebe's Mixed Train Daily documenting aspects of railroading that was rapidly disappearing after the end of WW2.

Having said that, what got me hooked on reaading Trains was the article about the D&H high pressure experimentals in the June 1967 issue of Trains. I also get a kick out of reading the old issues of Trains in the magazine archives, e.g. the article on the East Broad Top written when it was still a going concern in 1941.

[Flintlock76]

I'll be 71 in August.

For what it's worth the current editor of "Classic Toy Trains" Rene Schweitzer says there's no plans to drop the various former Kalmbach Forums. 

[charlie hebdo]

We could survey the dozen or so of us lingerers?  

I'm 77.

[diningcar]

charlie hebdo

maybe well north.

Does 92 apply?

[charlie hebdo]

tree68

The lack of activity predates the current accessibility issues.  As has been mentioned, a lot of the old timers have passed on or moved on.  And most of them were very active.  And users come and go on any forum.   

Very true. The Trains fora are populated (in terms of posts) by a handful of old timers.  I suspect the median age is north of 70, maybe well north.

[tree68]

charlie hebdo

Looking at the Trains Forum this morning shows it is pretty moribund in terms of activity, even though it is working well.

The lack of activity predates the current accessibility issues.  As has been mentioned, a lot of the old timers have passed on or moved on.  And most of them were very active.  And users come and go on any forum.   

Charlie Hebdo

Time to pull the plug?

I wouldn't go that far, as long as the fora are kept on-line.  With so many options for on-line activity (FB, Instagram, the list goes on) it may be difficult to re-harness users.  Some promotion in the magazines, newsletters, etc., might help.

[BaltACD]

charlie hebdo

Looking at the Trains Forum this morning shows it is pretty moribund in terms of activity, even though it is working well.  

Time to pull the plug?

It is working, but is far from well.

[tree68]

At least it works some/most of the time.

Ham radio's "Logbook of the World" got hacked several weeks ago and still isn't back on-line.  It's one of the tools hams use to keep track of their contacts.  Dissatisfaction with management is much stronger there than it is here, trust me.

[Erik_Mag]

Not sure if it is time to pull the plug as the website was being erratic a couple of minutes ago. It almost made it to a 504 timeout before responding - I minimized the waste of time by making use of browser tabs to read another website during the time to respond.

Edit (12 hours later): Website came up promptly, but wondering if I jinxed things by writing that....

[charlie hebdo]

Looking at the Trains Forum this morning shows it is pretty moribund in terms of activity, even though it is working well.  

Time to pull the plug?

[Euclid]

adkrr64

 

 

Euclid

I think it is noteworthy that Kalmbach has not offered any explanation for the technical problems with this forum, and no indication of an intent to repair these problems. It is as if they don't even know about the problems. 

 

 

Not true. A Kalmbach IT person posted some commentary about the forums and the problems associated with them some time ago, early in 2024 if I recall correctly. He acknowledged these forums run on old software that is no longer supported. He said the likely solution was to switch to a modern forum platform (like phpBB or similar). He solicited input about the need to transfer existing posts into a new system, or start the new system from scratch.

This person has not posted in some time, and may not even be with Kalmbach or the new owner at this point. But while it was still under Kalmbach ownership, somene there did know the forums were a problem and was at least scoping out potential solutions.

 

I do recall that person you refer to that was posting maybe 10 months ago, and was apparently tasked with solving the technical problems with the forum.  I took it as a ray of hope.  But I do not recall any formal announcement by Kalmbach staff that has offered any plan to solve the problem.  Their most recent comment that I recall was to inform us that the problem was being caused by malware on our computers. And that response was framed in the context of the “problem” being the presence of pop-up ads on the forum display.  Nothing was said about the time-out failures to load.

 

There are two problems that result:  The obvious one is that people are prevented from posting, and so they leave the forum and forget about it.  The less obvious problem is that people who linger on are less inclined to post because they sense no reception for their comments.  This issue is that even if the software was made perfect today, it would take a long time for the participation to return.