I wonder if the owners of the ForumUP web domain know enough to run it? I've never been on a web site with as many problems as they seem to have. - Millet

Down all weekend for me, Millet. And, I can't get any assistance from anyone there, since I am apparently banned (for some inexplicable reason). I hope Laaz has not had kittens over this last outage. I sure would have.

Out for me too. I had two PMs I could not get to. I have no idea about site management but weekends is the worst time for a site to go down. I think serious consideration may have to be given to a new site host. I'm guessing there is money involved. I have said it before but I'd be willing to go to a pay system or maybe a one time registration/user fee at the new site to help defray the cost.

Yes, as was the .com domain too. This is really pissing me off. I am looking for another host, but transferring all the data here to another host is going to be a nightmare.

I missed the forum all weekend but I am happy now ! Tom

Dang do I miss this forum when it's not working. I'm glad we're back online.

Best,

Skinn30a

Yep, the forum was down for me too, both .org and .com.

Laaz, just a thought: maybe the "new forum" (whatever you select as an alternative to forumdown) support team could help with migration? And I agree, the situation is very frustrating but, please, do not give up on this work!

YET ONCE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Millet

Struggling to connect today for sure.

If there was any prior doubt, the last few weeks have clearly demonstrated that the administrators of Forumup are incompetent.

Hopefully it will not be too difficult to migrate to another forum host. Unfortunately it appears Forumup does not want to provide database backups, so transferring the data may not be very simple.
While forumup.org and .com were down, I found this gem of a thread on the .it site:

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fstaff.forumup.it%2F&act=url

Here's the money post:


So in a few months he wants to charge 1000 euros for a DB backup!!!! It almost seems as if he doing this on purpose to keep people from leaving.

There are other free forum sites that use the same forum software and either offer database backups for free or for minimal cost.

Here is one example I just found:
http://www.prophpbb.com/

It seems like there are many free forums: another one with back-up option http://www.freeforums.org/ No idea what software they use and how to migrate to their domain though.

Another thought: if select their "premium service" (that is about $67/year - should be easy to rise), they offer free database transfer: http://www.freeforums.org/advanced.php

I wonder if a free forum is false economy.

I manage the tools & technology for a number of companies so I'm using support forums on a wide variety of subjects. They all work pretty well EXCEPT this one.

One uses vBulletin software and seems to work very well. vBulletin Software is only $250 but you would probably want to upgrade whenever a new version comes out at a current cost of $209. That probably adds up to something around $100-200 per year. Current users include EA Games, Sony, Steam, NASA, Zynga. If it is needed in order to save this information for future use, I will buy the software.

I'm in the first year of a 5 year contract for a web server that lets me host whatever websites I want at no additional cost. There IS a traffic limit but it is perfect for low traffic sites. I would donate the use of that if the traffic is low enough that it wouldn't cost more money. I'm assuming as long as pictures are hosted elsewhere, as in the current forum, the traffic would be low. Never heard a single customer complain they couldn't get to the website:
www.lee-stires.com
www.magnumabrasives.com
www.jhsimstrucking.com
www.proformausa.com
or any of the dozen others


There will be two relatives at my mom's birthday party this Sunday that administer much larger forums than this. I will ask some questions.

If the cost is $250.00 per year I will personally pay the entire cost for a year. - Millet

I believe the bigger problem is that the current site doesn't have the DB available for transfer. The sites that offer free transfer cannot transfer what they do not have access to!

Am I wrong?

That is correct. This forum does generate a lot of traffic as well. I had no idea when I created this forum back in 2005 that it would grow as it has.