Blurp - The GP32X Downtime Status Thread

[TrevorBradley]

He does own the forum and for years has ran it without problem. I get the feeling the recent problems was out of his control, and would obviously be out of any other admins control too. Give him credit where it is due, what has happened recently was pretty much out of the hands of him and any other admins. so no, an extra admin would not have solved this.

Please don't misunderstand me, this isn't about hando (who had been doing a magnificent job for many years), this is about the right way to operate complex systems and keep them working. For the bus number, it's not hando's fault that he might be hit by a bus (metaphorical, or real), but the community as a whole should prepare for it. There's a reason why airplanes have two pilots. It has far more to do with bad airline chicken than piloting skill.

However, I disagree that an extra admin would not have been able to solve the problems we've had of late. The bugs we've seen, and the server problems we've had should be solvable by a capable admin within 72 hours, tops. Even if it meant moving the site wholesale to a new server and a new country. I'm not speaking out of my ass here, I've been doing sysadmin work for a major university here in Canada for 7 years now. We dealt with dead or dying servers from software, hardware or OS issues, on a monthly basis to keep things operating smoothly. It's hard work, and if you're doing it right nobody even knows you're there.

i *know* what it's like and what it means to be hit by that metaphorical bus. I'm going through that myself right now. If he's just overwhelmed with everything else and is unable to operate the site properly he has my complete, unconditional sympathy. But if he cares about the community, he and sees it as something greater than himself should be willing to share those full admin rights with someone else who can keep things going in case of unforeseen circumstances. That's true of any complex system, and gp32x is no exception.

Dang it you made me climb out from under my rock, Fluffy!

 

[Alex.]

Of course he cares about the community, after all he has been providing us with a forum for seven years without asking for anything in return. You're making such a big deal out of such a little thing, what's two weeks compared to seven years? And read my last post on the previous page, your argument is disgusting, metaphorical or not.

 

[TrevorBradley]

/goes back to hide under his rock.

Or under a bus...

An internet forum pales in importance to a person's life, I can't believe you would push on such a selfish and macabre argument again and again.

I probably shouldn't be replying to this...

Please Alex, I've been on disability for two years now. I get, probably more than you do, that forums aren't worth shit compared to a person's life. I'd live quite happily if gp32x went down, and so would everyone else on it. It's not that big of a deal. But it is fun, and so are the games that are generated from all the discussion there. It would be sad if it went away, the site has been something to help me get through my really bad days this past year.

I've had to give up responsibilities too, ones I held that were important to me, for the good of the projects I worked on at work before I went on disabilty. It sucked, I hated it, but it was something I had to do so I could focus on making myself better, and so the people at work could move forward with what they had to do.

I'm sorry if I'm being selfish, I'm simply suggesting what I believe to be best for the community as a whole. I'm hoping this is just one of those things where the text only Internet takes good intentions and sours them with venom. If so, no worries, and take care.

/goes to find a small moon to crawl under, and resolves to try to not read the forum for a few weeks.

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

Sorry but a 2nd Admin would not have been able to solve the current problem, and if you are part of a team that provides a service you will already know that a single admin in a team will not be able to move the service to another host without consultation from the whole team.

Get a grip hun, a 2nd admin would only have so much power, and no it would not have solved any of the current problems.

I also have been an admin of current projects for over 20 years, so please do not quote the responsibility role to me.

 

[EvilDragon]

who said anyone would have more admin access? the forum would be the same as before, regardless of who the host is. If Hando gives Ed more access than before then so be it, but it will be exactly the same as before.

Well, I got admin access for the forum before they closed down, but not to the site itself

Technically, I have admin access - it's my server and I am root
I won't touch any of handos stuff until he tells me to do so, though

 

[Alex.]

I'm hoping this is just one of those things where the text only Internet takes good intentions and sours them with venom. If so, no worries, and take care.

Sorry pal, nothing personal. It's just that I found the whole idea of a "bus number" in relation to such a laid back project as GP32x a little out of place. I enjoy this community too, but I was a bit shocked by such a view, that's all.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, I hope things will get better for you in the future

 

[Username]

What does that grant you then ED, does it mean you can move to a different server in case problems arise again or is it not that much power?

 

[Zero3K]

Well, I think that GP32x is now hosted on one of his server(s). So, that would make it much easier to switch to another server if something were to go wrong with the one that its currently hosted on.

 

[gruso]

As I understand it, part of the problem before was that Hando did not have GP32X hosted on his own physical server; it was on a virtual server for cost reasons. So when the bits hit the fan, he was at the mercy of the provider to a degree - and how much they were willing/able to help. That won't be a concern now.

 

[sam fisher]

/goes back to hide under his rock.

Or under a bus...

An internet forum pales in importance to a person's life, I can't believe you would push on such a selfish and macabre argument again and again.

Clearly this forum IS TrevorBradleys life then. I mean, that is what logically follows....

Edit: Upon reading further posts I feel like an arse but the point still stands.

And about ED being entirely neutral, that is not possible if he is even slightly affiliated with the Pandora no matter how nice he is. For example, it would not be viable to let a Microsoft employee, no matter how nice he is or how much he likes the PS3, administrate the Sony PS3 forums. It IS a conflict of interest. By GP32x being hosted on a server that is not entirely neutral to all the consoles that it is based around it loses some of its neutrality and that is a shame . However, on the other hand, that doesn't mean its not worth it for performance reasons I suppose.

 

[EvilDragon]

As I understand it, part of the problem before was that Hando did not have GP32X hosted on his own physical server; it was on a virtual server for cost reasons. So when the bits hit the fan, he was at the mercy of the provider to a degree - and how much they were willing/able to help. That won't be a concern now.

Exactly. It wasn't his server - he couldn't just login and reinstall PHP or anything like that.
I got three dedicated servers and could switch from one to the other within seconds to hours (depending on where the domain is hosted and what's broken).

And about ED being entirely neutral, that is not possible if he is even slightly affiliated with the Pandora no matter how nice he is. For example, it would not be viable to let a Microsoft employee, no matter how nice he is or how much he likes the PS3, administrate the Sony PS3 forums. It IS a conflict of interest. By GP32x being hosted on a server that is not entirely neutral to all the consoles that it is based around it loses some of its neutrality and that is a shame . However, on the other hand, that doesn't mean its not worth it for performance reasons I suppose.

Well, then please show me one post, one SINGLE post where I haven't been neutral. Just ONE.

The forum won't lose any neutrality, because everything I COULD do because I have been affiliated with the Pandora are things I could've also done on the old server, as I haven been mod there as well.

But believe me, I really am quite neutral. I learnt all that at the TV Station, I guess. You HAVE to stay neutral, regardless what your own opinion is. And that's what I do here, too.

The Pandora doesn't get a better archive than the WiZ nor the GP2X nor the GP32.
I keep doing the same for ALL of them.

I still have no idea why some people think those devices can't coexist... I do think they can.

 

[gp32rich]

And about ED being entirely neutral, that is not possible if he is even slightly affiliated with the Pandora no matter how nice he is. For example, it would not be viable to let a Microsoft employee, no matter how nice he is or how much he likes the PS3, administrate the Sony PS3 forums. It IS a conflict of interest. By GP32x being hosted on a server that is not entirely neutral to all the consoles that it is based around it loses some of its neutrality and that is a shame . However, on the other hand, that doesn't mean its not worth it for performance reasons I suppose.

Bad Analogy!

If the M$ employee also was making money from promoting PS3 it would be closer to ED's situation.
See. ED is an agent to sell wiz. ED makes money from promoting wiz.
What part of ED supports wiz AND pandora don't you get? It isn't either-or.

 

[quote]

And about ED being entirely neutral, that is not possible if he is even slightly affiliated with the Pandora no matter how nice he is. For example, it would not be viable to let a Microsoft employee, no matter how nice he is or how much he likes the PS3, administrate the Sony PS3 forums. It IS a conflict of interest. By GP32x being hosted on a server that is not entirely neutral to all the consoles that it is based around it loses some of its neutrality and that is a shame . However, on the other hand, that doesn't mean its not worth it for performance reasons I suppose.

Posts like that one, from you, caused Craig to get offended and not bother as much with the Wiz in the community.
The same thing's starting to happen again, looking at ED's post.
If you care about the Wiz, button it.
Ta.

 

[sam fisher]

And about ED being entirely neutral, that is not possible if he is even slightly affiliated with the Pandora no matter how nice he is. For example, it would not be viable to let a Microsoft employee, no matter how nice he is or how much he likes the PS3, administrate the Sony PS3 forums. It IS a conflict of interest. By GP32x being hosted on a server that is not entirely neutral to all the consoles that it is based around it loses some of its neutrality and that is a shame . However, on the other hand, that doesn't mean its not worth it for performance reasons I suppose.

Posts like that one, from you, caused Craig to get offended and not bother as much with the Wiz in the community.
The same thing's starting to happen again, looking at ED's post.
If you care about the Wiz, button it.
Ta.

Craig was wrong that time. All but the first Wiz revisions have a D-pad pivot, it was just not the sort Craig was expecting so he posted it had none. Don't meddle with things you don't understand. When you have a Wiz then you can comment on whether or not I was right to correct it.

Oh, and yes. A logical analogy is so massively offensive.

Oh, and the Wiz community is better off without Craig making up lies about it not have things it has.

Edit: None of my posts were meant offensively to EvilDragon either. I am just pointing out that it doesn't matter how neutral he thinks he is or how nice he is. He is part of the OpenPandora team, therefore he has a stake in the Pandoras development and therefore he is not entirely neutral. Put it this way, is ED entirely indifferent to whether the Pandora succeeds or fails? Of course he wants it to succeed. That is a bias right there for example. I am of course biased towards the Wiz as I have had a hand in its development so therefore I am also a stakeholder. However, I am not hosting the Pandora forums so this is not an issue.

And to quell any "this is an anti-pandora" posts, this is not anti-Pandora. I still want to get a Pandora but just don't have enough money right now. This is just a rant about neutrality and the fact that everyone is blind to how this works. It doesn't matter how nice something is. If they are part of a company then they are not neutral with respect to that companies products vs another.

 

[javaJake]

Put it this way, is ED entirely indifferent to whether the Pandora succeeds or fails? Of course he wants it to succeed. That is a bias right there for example.

Of course ED has some bias in his logic! Who doesn't? The important question is "will that bias hurt the GP32X community?"

(You could argue the bias towards the Pandora will help GP2X, since it's in the Pandora's best interests to maintain the community the previous handhelds shared. Not sure if I'd bet any money on that though. )

 

[quote]

Craig was wrong that time. All but the first Wiz revisions have a D-pad pivot, it was just not the sort Craig was expecting so he posted it had none. Don't meddle with things you don't understand. When you have a Wiz then you can comment on whether or not I was right to correct it.

Oh, and yes. A logical analogy is so massively offensive.

Oh, and the Wiz community is better off without Craig making up lies about it not have things it has.

Edit: None of my posts were meant offensively to EvilDragon either. I am just pointing out that it doesn't matter how neutral he thinks he is or how nice he is. He is part of the OpenPandora team, therefore he has a stake in the Pandoras development and therefore he is not entirely neutral. Put it this way, is ED entirely indifferent to whether the Pandora succeeds or fails? Of course he wants it to succeed. That is a bias right there for example. I am of course biased towards the Wiz as I have had a hand in its development so therefore I am also a stakeholder. However, I am not hosting the Pandora forums so this is not an issue.

And to quell any "this is an anti-pandora" posts, this is not anti-Pandora. I still want to get a Pandora but just don't have enough money right now. This is just a rant about neutrality and the fact that everyone is blind to how this works. It doesn't matter how nice something is. If they are part of a company then they are not neutral with respect to that companies products vs another.

Being right's got nothing to do with it. And Craig didn't 'lie', he got something wrong when asking for help.
ED's right, the consoles can coexist. He believes that, and so there can be no bias in terms of want of success.
I mentiond nothing about your post being anti-pandora, even though I might agree with it if it was :wink: .

 

[Pickle]

This notion you can only support/be biased for wiz or pandora is getting stupid.

 

[lingenfr]

getting? No, it passed that a while ago...

 

[Dunny]

This notion you can only support/be biased for wiz or pandora is getting stupid.

Peter R and Orkie would make an ace wrestling tag-team.

D.

 

[sam fisher]

Ignoring the console exclusivity thing for now (which in my previous post I mentioned doesn't even effect me - and I am the supposed leader of this notion) Craig did lie and say the Wiz had no pivot. It clearly has a pivot, he need only press down. He was just trying to make GPH seem incompetent (in having removed something that we wanted lots) and it was not just down to ED that the pivot got added. The developers had Wizzes before even ED did (not by too much though) and the first thing we requested was separated buttons and a pivotted D-pad. They even sent out different concept sketches to pick from too see which people liked best.

Edit: And what does Orkie have to do with this?