1. Check the 2023 Stage48 Member Ranking Results, how did your Oshimen rank this year?

Regarding the Recent Downtime

Discussion in 'Announcements & News' started by ithebigc, Jun 6, 2017.

  1. ithebigc

    ithebigc Stage48 Admin Retired Staff

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2008
    Location:
    Fukuoka, Japan
    Twitter:
    ithebigc
    I've seen a lot of users concerned, rightfully so, about how the forum has been down a lot recently, but I've also seen some people making claims based on wrong information so let me state what are the known facts in this thread. I'll probably merge this into the existing Suggestions thread once the discussion is over, but since a lot of people don't like to read, I thought the best way to have an informed discussion would be if I made a new thread for now discussing the problems.

    The first time the forum went down was because of a bandwidth issue. No, I don't know what caused the bandwidth issue either, but I believe the only way that was fixed was throwing money at it. Whether that becomes a problem in the future again, I have no idea.

    The second time was because the company we pay for our domain name stopped accepting Paypal, which is what our autopayment was set to. That has since been fixed too and I think we're good to go for another year at least.

    A lot of you at first contacted either me, @Cristafari or @MurasakiSora for help when it went down, but sadly none of us were able to do anything. Cristafari and MurasakiSora are moderators and their permissions largely allow them to deal with forum problems only, such as moving threads, editing posts, policing the forum, etc. As the administrator, I have more powers and can help with more things they can't, but even then I don't have full access to the forum like a Super Administrator does, who in this case is @Mr Waffle, the current owner of the forum who handles our hosting, bills, upgrading, etc.

    On that point, many have expressed worry on why he is so hard to reach. I don't know, although the fact that his oshimen graduated a long time ago probably has a lot to do with why his interest in the 48 Group has gradually waned. So, a lot of people have proposed changing ownership over to someone who is more accessible. That presents its own set of problems. Let's examine them.
    1. Mr Waffle has so far shown no intention he is willing to hand the reigns over, and none of us can force him to. Assuming he does want to transfer ownership, then...
    2. You need to find a way to contact him. People keep saying he's not active on Twitter, which is not quite right. He doesn't tweet anymore, but when there are major problems the moderators and I all contact him through Twitter DM and he usually shows up to solve the problems within a few days. That said, there are a lot of improvements I've wanted to have done to the forum that I've tried talking to him about but have gotten no response. This goes back months, years. If you feel you'll somehow have better luck in getting him to come talk, be my guest. He basically shows up when the forum goes down, fixes whatever it is, then disappears, and none of us are wiser as to what was the problem in the first place.
    3. Now, assuming he wants to transfer ownership AND you can contact him, we run into perhaps our biggest problem - we actually need a replacement. I don't mean a replacement to pay the bills, I mean a replacement who actually has the technical knowledge required to run the back end of a forum which was why Mr Waffle was chosen as replacement from the original owners, kyobu and kaito. We need to upgrade Xenforo? That person needs to know how to migrate our forum, with all its code and special templates, without breaking out forum. We want to add some new custom features to our forum? That person, again, needs to know how to do it. Banner sizing issues, banner replacement issues? You know where I'm going with it at this point, right?
    4. Unfortunately, I am not qualified in that respect, and neither are any of the current forum staff. I've gotten very good at using BBcode and the like, and even most of the administrative tools, but all I know how to do is use the tools that I'm given. I'll continue serving as the administrator and solving any problems within my power and so will the moderators, but we need someone who knows how to work behind the scenes of Stage48. If you do, please feel free to float your name below.
    5. Lastly, whoever this new replacement is, in addition to all the skills listed above, we need someone who will be dedicated and is trustworthy. It's pointless if we transfer the keys only to have that person also ditch us after a year or two. Putting time into something we don't get paid for sucks, and all you can rely on is your passion to keep you going. I don't want another HoneyRoastedPeanuts situation on our hands, basically.
    So...let's get talking, I guess. That is the state of the forum as it is now. I know there are members here who deeply care about the forum, so if you think you can contribute to improving our forum, I wanted to create a space where we can work together and get things done. The active staff care about the forum too, maybe even more so, but at times our hands are tied. It was my hope that by elucidating some of the workings behind the scenes, you all have gained a clearer sense of how our forum is actually and you can suggest solutions based on that that we can actively work together to implement.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  2. broz0rs

    broz0rs Next Girls

    Joined:
    Jan 3, 2015
    Oshimen:
    sashihararino
    Good luck in transferring ownership of the site!

    As far as bandwidth, this is the only forum that I've seen that allows and encourages uploading images internally to your servers. Perhaps you can save bandwidth costs by disabling that feature and encouraging external hosting of images?
     
  3. gocchisama

    gocchisama Member Stage48 Donor

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Location:
    Paris,France
    Oshimen:
    hirateyurina
    Twitter:
    Gocchisama
    Is there someone working for the CIA to contact Waffle?
     
  4. Odd_Cinderella

    Odd_Cinderella Next Girls

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2014
    Location:
    FL, USA
    Oshimen:
    เฌอปราง อารีย์กุล
    Don't know who this kid is, but they were attempting something.
     
  5. kyoto48☀︎☂

    kyoto48☀︎☂ Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2015
    Seriously, I have no problem if he doesn't want to hand the forum over. But this guy not only won't hand over the forum, but refuses to even discuss making changes to make it better.
    He's like the donald trump of forum super administrators.

    Mod Edit: Edited for language
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 8, 2017
    • Dislike Dislike x 1
  6. hjr1891

    hjr1891 Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2013
    Location:
    Anywhere, Everywhere
    Oshimen:
    IxR
    Not cool to insult people, especially if you don't know them.

    As I told someone the other day, makes you look like an asshat. Don't do that.

    That said, you have a forum to discuss the 48g/46G members you are a fan of, and more, BECAUSE of Mr Waffle. Has he been a stellar owner? No. But he deserves a bit more respect for keeping this place alive when his interests clearly lie elsewhere now.

    And careful with the Trump dig. I got warned for being "political" when I quoted clearly non-political statements from the guy.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  7. gakushan

    gakushan Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Thank you for the update.

    Is there any possibility of splitting up powers or responsibilities? Software upgrades and paying bills are separate issues so I don't see why they need to be the same person. This can at least reduce the responsibility for Mr Waffle.

    Alternatively, would any of the current staff be interested in learning how to maintain the forum? Assuming Mr Waffle is willing to share powers with another staff member, this staff member could be trained to handle disaster recovery in the future.

    Even if a full replacement cannot be found immediately, there may be some alternatives worth exploring.

    edit: another thought came up. If ownership should be transferred, someone with legal background may want to explore if setting up an LLC to own the rights to the site and bank accounts is a viable option.
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2017
    • Like Like x 1
  8. ptakbfan

    ptakbfan Kenkyuusei Stage48 Donor

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2015
    Oshimen:
    watanaberika
    Based on ithebigc's post, it sounds like a pointless endeavor to get Waffle to "hand over" the responsibilities. He clearly keeps an eye on Twitter if the forum staff can expect him to resolve problems within a few days; it sounds like he is purposely ignoring anything that asks more of him than a few minutes of time (let's be honest, renewing a domain and paying for bandwidth are largely administrative tasks that don't take very long relative to most other tasks one could be involved with on the back end). As much as we want to have him share the power/responsibilities or transfer them to a more involved party, I don't see it happening.

    If the way I see it is the most accurate picture (not that I am assuming it is), the only real option is to create a new entity. The massive drawback here is losing all of the history of Stage48, both posts and sentimental feelings toward the place. But... it would allow the community a chance to move forward without worrying that our forum will be randomly gone one day.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  9. kanjo

    kanjo Stage48 Moderator Staff Member Stage48 Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2012
    Location:
    Ireland->Shimane
    Oshimen:
    Nishino Nanase
    Thanks for opening up.

    I agree with the suggesting of getting a statement on Mr. Waffle's intentions and future plans.

    One issue which I believe hasn't been brought up before is that we might see a reduction in donations since the person in charge of receiving them and paying is absent. Especially after the long periods of down time.
    I don't think it will be a problem with the long term users, but the userbase is changing and I think many have never seen Mr. Waffle do anything except for the donations request last year.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  10. ET920

    ET920 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2010
    Location:
    Buenos Aires, Argentina
    Sounds like a good idea. How about calling it everyday48.net? :awesome:

    All of ithebigc's assumptions were based on the fact that the whole site could be maintained, in this server or somewhere else. That's apparently not possible from what has been mentioned here. If so, there's nothing people can do except wait until Waffle decides to shut the site down.

    However, it'd be interesting to start recruiting technical staff to see how many users are actually able to run a site like this, either with the current database or from scratch, while people are still coming here actively (it would be hard to recruit people if the site goes down for good without warning). And indeed, the keys should be kept between several trusted people (even if that means there's the risk of someone picking up the latest backup and creating their own copy of the site). Right now this site disappeared from Google search, which means for the casual user this site does not exist. I'd think that's a price too high to pay for having an administrator who's seeing this more like a chore than a hobby.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  11. hjr1891

    hjr1891 Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2013
    Location:
    Anywhere, Everywhere
    Oshimen:
    IxR
    Still the first result for both Google and Yahoo for me. And I wipe my google history on the regular.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  12. ET920

    ET920 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2010
    Location:
    Buenos Aires, Argentina
    If you search for Stage48, yes. But if you search for any member, the site doesn't come at all for me at least.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  13. ptakbfan

    ptakbfan Kenkyuusei Stage48 Donor

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2015
    Oshimen:
    watanaberika
    Yeah, I have this same issue. And actually, even using a fresh browser, a Google search of "stage48" brings up results for the club, not the forum. I think in the past the forum was somewhere on the first page, but I know for sure that I used to get Stage48 Wiki as the #1 result if I did a Google search of any AKB member.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  14. mai48_

    mai48_ Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2014
    Twitter:
    maiakikochan
    This is true. I was looking up for BNK48's Cherprang on Google and no wiki48 link came up on the first page. I didn't bother to check the second page and since I still have stage48 in my history, I just access it from the forum. I felt disappointed not being able to find wiki48 result within the first few search result on google.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  15. kanjo

    kanjo Stage48 Moderator Staff Member Stage48 Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2012
    Location:
    Ireland->Shimane
    Oshimen:
    Nishino Nanase
    It's so bad adding "wiki48" doesn't get wiki48 results.

    This problem should solve itself within the month though. As long as regular site use returns googlebots will notice the site is active again and correct it.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  16. Explorerdk

    Explorerdk Kenkyuusei Stage48 Donor

    Joined:
    May 30, 2013
    Location:
    Denmark
    Oshimen:
    miyawakisakura
    Hiya,

    After trying to get to the the Domain renewed, as In out right paying for an extension, be it donation / gifting or whatever, without taking over, just getting it up. I am very happy that the domain got renewed.

    On the other hand, we do need an Technical staff here, as much as there need an Moderating staff, to support an dedicated person as @ithebigc as System Admin. Here im not saying MrWaffle has not done a good job of managing the site, hosting, technical etc, but the time might be to either expand the Technical team with more than MrWaffle, also for MrWaffle sake, so Waffle dont have the whole comunity bitching at Waffle, I actually think it no wonder, that MrWaffle is not around anymore, as even when you fix an issue, it's not an good thing.

    I would like to See an Technical team, where there is an setup, where there is an Account privilige linked to maybe an team account or such, so for times, like happend recently, these persons are allowed to fix the issue or contact Hoster or Registrar for assistance, as approved contacts.

    In above sence, I pledge to assist with the Technical sides of things, if allowed, as that is what I work with daily anyway, with hosting, support, troubleshooting and DataCenter works. I also host several projects and friends sites on the side, for the fun of it and also I host www.flyingsuperkids.com sites and manage their backends and support frames.

    I have experience running forums, I admit that is usually Phpbb boards + Mysql, but which have customized settings, I like working with Teams, but I am also very direct in fixing issues.
    In this last instance, I f.ex. registred the domain Stage48.org and pointed it to the same A record, just to see if it worked (which it didnt, as it missed an Virtual Host alias directive on server itself, but anyway, that was an shot in the dark).

    I'm sure that I would be able to handle Xenforo, if needed be, in cooperation with others. I have been on this board board since 2013 and am an fan of HKT48 and Kami is Miyawaki Sakura :) I also like melonpan :p

    I apologize for the rant, but I hope we can all come to a soloution, which all parties in this can agree on the issue, bottom line though, I do not want to see Stage48.net or Wiki or any of the other pr0jects die out by acccident.

    /Expdk
     
    • Like Like x 1
  17. hjr1891

    hjr1891 Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2013
    Location:
    Anywhere, Everywhere
    Oshimen:
    IxR
    Kashiwagi Yuki brings up her Wiki48 page as second result on Yahoo. No result for S48 or Wiki48 searching her on Google, however. Got to wait for their crawler to get back in after the domain outage it would appear.

    If it was not outright blocked. @Cristafari said something about all the bots ~maybe~ eating up the bandwidth, in relation to the short outage we saw a fewdays before the Domain expired. Could be an admin or mod blocked the wrong bots. Maybe?
     
    • Like Like x 1
  18. gakushan

    gakushan Kenkyuusei

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Can one of the admins set up a discord, twitter, facebook, etc. that can serve as a backup communication channel and put a link up in a place everyone will see? I found https://twitter.com/stage48 on google during the bandwidth outage but saw no tweets about anything till recently. Is Mr Waffle also in charge of this? Ideally, there should be at least one admin in each of Asia/Australia, America and Europe for quick response and to serve as backups for each other.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  19. hjr1891

    hjr1891 Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2013
    Location:
    Anywhere, Everywhere
    Oshimen:
    IxR
    Yes he is.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  20. kyoto48☀︎☂

    kyoto48☀︎☂ Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2015
    No sorry, if you hold on to the only super admin privileges and then flat out refuse to even speak about forum improvements for years, then you are deserving of hate from others. He never created this forum, but his dictatorial reign over here has lasted for quite a while. Unfortunately there's no way to kick him out so as long as he continues to act like a 12 year old kid then we're all stuck with this.

    I give mad props to ithebigc for putting up with this and doing his best to keep the forum running though.
     
    • Dislike Dislike x 1

Share This Page