Here's an update on the status of the IRTC site:

The site is once again operational after a few days of being down.  The 
problem was that I was trying to install a new version of the software 
for the site but a recent upgrade of the operating system left some 
critical Unix commands not working.  I couldn't proceed with the upgrade 
until that was repaired.

I haven't yet opened the current round for voting.  I need to submit 
several entries that didn't make it in time because of server problems 
on the last night of the round.  I also want to do some more testing of 
the voting process to make sure it's ready.

The last round exposed a serious bug in the voting process.  As many of 
you noticed, comments were clipped after the first line. I had put in 
measures to make sure that the votes were all recorded along with the 
comments.  A combination of problems conspired to lose the original 
comments.  All I had left was the first line of each comment. I 
sincerely apologize for this problem.  It was a combination of CR/LF 
translations on different operating systems along with a reboot of the 
server and a third bug in the way the votes were loaded back into the 
system that caused the problem.  These problems have been fixed in the 
current version of the software.

I now have a dilemma.  The comments for the last round are frequently 
useless and deceiving when only the first line is displayed.  I have 
several options:

	1) Leave the comments as they are
	2) Delete the comments completely for that round
	3) Add software to allow users go back and edit or re-enter the 
comments for that round.

Your opinions on the above options would be appreciated.

All this is coming at a time when I've become super busy with real life. 
  I'll be talking to Chris Cason to come up with a game plan for keeping 
the site going smoothly even if I don't have time to work on it. For a 
while, I had a second volunteer who was looking into problems, but he's 
become busy as well.  When we have a plan, we'll let you know.

For now, please give me a few more days before opening the round for 
voting.  I want to make sure it's working properly and that we won't 
have a repeat of any of the previous problems.

Thanks and my apologies for the problems with the site.

David Buck

Post a reply to this message

David, thank you for your work.
I prefer the option 3, is more general. But... have you the time to 
working on? Do you need some help?
;-)
Paolo

 >David Buck  on date 05/11/2009 03:47 wrote:
> Here's an update on the status of the IRTC site:
> 
> The site is once again operational after a few days of being down.  The 
> problem was that I was trying to install a new version of the software 
> for the site but a recent upgrade of the operating system left some 
> critical Unix commands not working.  I couldn't proceed with the upgrade 
> until that was repaired.
> 
> I haven't yet opened the current round for voting.  I need to submit 
> several entries that didn't make it in time because of server problems 
> on the last night of the round.  I also want to do some more testing of 
> the voting process to make sure it's ready.
> 
> The last round exposed a serious bug in the voting process.  As many of 
> you noticed, comments were clipped after the first line. I had put in 
> measures to make sure that the votes were all recorded along with the 
> comments.  A combination of problems conspired to lose the original 
> comments.  All I had left was the first line of each comment. I 
> sincerely apologize for this problem.  It was a combination of CR/LF 
> translations on different operating systems along with a reboot of the 
> server and a third bug in the way the votes were loaded back into the 
> system that caused the problem.  These problems have been fixed in the 
> current version of the software.
> 
> I now have a dilemma.  The comments for the last round are frequently 
> useless and deceiving when only the first line is displayed.  I have 
> several options:
> 
>     1) Leave the comments as they are
>     2) Delete the comments completely for that round
>     3) Add software to allow users go back and edit or re-enter the 
> comments for that round.
> 
> Your opinions on the above options would be appreciated.
> 
> All this is coming at a time when I've become super busy with real life. 
>  I'll be talking to Chris Cason to come up with a game plan for keeping 
> the site going smoothly even if I don't have time to work on it. For a 
> while, I had a second volunteer who was looking into problems, but he's 
> become busy as well.  When we have a plan, we'll let you know.
> 
> For now, please give me a few more days before opening the round for 
> voting.  I want to make sure it's working properly and that we won't 
> have a repeat of any of the previous problems.
> 
> Thanks and my apologies for the problems with the site.
> 
> David Buck

Post a reply to this message

In irtc.general David Buck <dav### [at] simberoncom> wrote:
> The last round exposed a serious bug in the voting process.  As many of 
> you noticed, comments were clipped after the first line. I had put in 
> measures to make sure that the votes were all recorded along with the 
> comments.  A combination of problems conspired to lose the original 
> comments.

  Doesn't the http server store logs somewhere?

>         2) Delete the comments completely for that round

  I don't remember my comments anymore, so please delete at least mine.
I don't want crippled versions of them floating around.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> In irtc.general David Buck <dav### [at] simberoncom> wrote:
>> The last round exposed a serious bug in the voting process.  As many of 
>> you noticed, comments were clipped after the first line. I had put in 
>> measures to make sure that the votes were all recorded along with the 
>> comments.  A combination of problems conspired to lose the original 
>> comments.
> 
>   Doesn't the http server store logs somewhere?
> 
>>         2) Delete the comments completely for that round
> 
>   I don't remember my comments anymore, so please delete at least mine.
> I don't want crippled versions of them floating around.
> 

Do you want me to delete the comments you made on other people's 
submissions or the comments that other people made on your submission?

David

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> In irtc.general David Buck <dav### [at] simberoncom> wrote:
>> The last round exposed a serious bug in the voting process.  As many of 
>> you noticed, comments were clipped after the first line. I had put in 
>> measures to make sure that the votes were all recorded along with the 
>> comments.  A combination of problems conspired to lose the original 
>> comments.
> 
>   Doesn't the http server store logs somewhere?
> 
>>         2) Delete the comments completely for that round
> 
>   I don't remember my comments anymore, so please delete at least mine.
> I don't want crippled versions of them floating around.
> 

It's the server logs that went wrong.  The logs were written out with 
the full text of the comments written into the file but with CR/LF's. 
When they were read back in after the restart, it only read up to the 
first CR and missed the rest.  A separate bug got log numbers mixed up 
and ended up over-writing the log files with the truncated ones.

David

Post a reply to this message

In irtc.general David Buck <dav### [at] simberoncom> wrote:
> Do you want me to delete the comments you made on other people's 
> submissions or the comments that other people made on your submission?

  The comments I made.

  (If you set up a way to re-comment, then I might see if I could do that
for some of the images.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message