Maintenance Banner

[metulburr]

   

Reboot scheduled

This type of banner means there was a server update and the server needs to be rebooted. We are informing you of when we are scheduling a reboot in case of issues that may arise and cause downtime. Most of the time (and hopefully all the time) this banner will be removed and you will not know any difference. This also gives awareness to those that jump in and expect to use the site and will know why the server is down beforehand. Down time. There really is no way around down time during a reboot. Sometimes a server just needs to be rebooted. We try to do this at low traffic times. But sometimes maintenance may require it.

   

Server maintenance occurring.

This banner is put up during maintenance of the server. It is just a warning for possible outcomes. It does not mean that they will happen. But ongoing modifications are occurring. You should be aware of this in case you are posting a long post or are in depth conversation in a thread.

The possible outcomes include

• snapshot back peddling resulting in data loss of unknown amount of time. This amount of time depends on when the last snapshot of the server took place. During maintenance this time is shortened.
  
• Site Changes. This can be anywhere from new pages to editing the forum templates.
  
• Down-time. Sometimes things require server reboot. This reboot process should take no more than 5 minutes. However it may take longer if there are more complicated issues.
  

We always want no down time and no data loss. The only other option is to shut down the board completely. However since loss of data and down time is rare, we leave it up. The banner is just a warning that it is possible. As well as to give everyone notice of what is going on.

If you post a long post, or want to ensure the existence of a thread if the banner is present, you can use the way back machine to archive that thread at that very moment. With that alone we can reinstate posts to the proper users and their content posted if there was an event of data loss. All you have to do is make your post here as normal, and then copy and paste that thread URL into the archive and select save. This will make a copy of that thread forever. Then if data loss does occur, just give us the archive link and we will reinstate the data.

We are sorry for any inconvenience that any of this causes.