Total War Center Down?

[Spartan198]

Oops, is swearing allowed here? I'm used to TWC and it's love-smiley censor. It won't let me edit my post :(
Junior members can't edit their posts.

[BDIZZLE]

I hope its true TWC will be up again today/tonite, i figured id register here anyway for the next time this happens : (

This has been happening way too much lately...

[Bisonbob]

Hello, another refugee,

I have some bad news. A couple of days ago I saw a post (i forget which web site it was) stating that TWCenter was shut down permanently due to a dispute between the two owners.

[BDIZZLE]

Hello, another refugee,

I have some bad news. A couple of days ago I saw a post (i forget which web site it was) stating that TWCenter was shut down permanently due to a dispute between the two owners.

Thats no good, but unless there is any info or proof to back it up you could say sasquatch ate TWC, which i also hope is not the case... lol

[anshuvio2]

Hello, another refugee,

I have some bad news. A couple of days ago I saw a post (i forget which web site it was) stating that TWCenter was shut down permanently due to a dispute between the two owners.

I don't think that's entirely true, I don't think. On the Java chat people said that the server actually exploded (which I doubt) and Sim and GED are working to fix again. GED was on vacation which is why the site is down for so long. I think GED is occasionally checking in with the members in the Java chat.

[mic1402]

not true. sim said on the chat that he was having problems and would try again tomorrow.

[adamsleath]

man.... i just get a new graphics card...and twc server failure :upset:

[wudang_clown]

Hello, another refugee,

I have some bad news. A couple of days ago I saw a post (i forget which web site it was) stating that TWCenter was shut down permanently due to a dispute between the two owners.
So it's not Martian invasion? Because I've read somewhere that it is and that alien ship was dog fighting with one of our brave NATO fighters, Mirage-Fokker FTM 213704. It's top secret machine, but on that forum they had the info from reliable source; actually "FTM" is for "f... the Martians"; anyway, Martians couldn't hit him at all and one of their laser beams actually hit the TWC server!!!

Latest news: Sim is fighting with their stormtroopers trying to take what left from TWC servers and GED infiltrated their landing craft to steal top secret materials which may help humanity to prevail!!

[Magraev]

This just shows how vulnerable it is to have all your eggs/mods in one basket.

Back when I joined the org (10 years ago!) it was bigger than twcenter, but things change. Today it seems most mods, and most members, are at twcenter.

Maybe mod-makers shoud make a copy and put it over here? just a thought.

[Spartan198]

Maybe mod-makers shoud make a copy and put it over here? just a thought.
Yeah, I've been thinking that, too. I'll probably suggest to my team leaders that we request a hosted forum here so we can keep in contact when TWC goes down.

[Irishguy]

I've found in these last few days that you can actually bore your brains out (je kapot vervelen in Dutch, and yes I know it's a horrible translation :-)) I can't even watch tv without thinking this is so boring I want TWC..... I was even working in the garden 8-o and I actually watched the entire football game NL-Uruguay! I hate football! well..... hope it get's up soon... I was also thinking... what about an alliance between the .org and twc? if one of them is down both sites will have refugee centers and hot coco for the refugees... and also not to have discussions like "TWC is better! NO! The .org is better" and so on...

[Visor]

Same here. All the hotseats I'm in will have stalled.

BTW, Google Translate says "je kapot vervelen" actually means "break you bored".

[Alexzander]

It would make a lot of sense to have Mods like Third Age Total War here.

Seems there may be some movement i am now getting a 404 message and there is a time for the forum to come back.

[Andres]

Oops, is swearing allowed here? I'm used to TWC and it's love-smiley censor. It won't let me edit my post :(

Hey there. No, swearing is not allowed, the .Org is rather strict on language. You can't edit because you're a junior, but the local mod will edit it out as soon as he's available.

Don't worry too much about it, you've got nothing to fear, except 50 lashes and being burned at the stake.

[pevergreen]

Hey there. No, swearing is not allowed, the .Org is rather strict on language. You can't edit because you're a junior, but the local mod will edit it out as soon as he's available.

Don't worry too much about it, you've got nothing to fear, except 50 lashes and being burned at the stake.

Don't forget, he can elect to skip that punishment, and 'volunteer' to work under me in the camel stables.

They miss you Andres...

Addon to your post Andres:

Swear words are out, as is just bleeping part of it. So you can't say, for example: pever*reen, it has to be **********.

Its best to just avoid them entirely.

[Irishguy]

Same here. All the hotseats I'm in will have stalled.

BTW, Google Translate says "je kapot vervelen" actually means "break you bored".

Hahaha that's even worse than my translation xD well surely hope twc is up tonight!

[WilliVonBill]

This just shows how vulnerable it is to have all your eggs/mods in one basket.

Back when I joined the org (10 years ago!) it was bigger than twcenter, but things change. Today it seems most mods, and most members, are at twcenter.

Maybe mod-makers shoud make a copy and put it over here? just a thought.

Agreed. Perhaps we can start making that very suggestion in the relevant mod threads over at TWCenter once its back up. :idea2:

BTW guys, love what you've done with the TotalWar.org site. Very 'Shogun-y'. Very apt for the upcoming new TW release. :thumbsup:

[Wundai]

Lol please don't try to typ Dutch, it cracks up the real Dutch people like me :P

Well it seems we'll be here a little longer at the good ol' Guild.

Keep us updated on Shogun 2 will ya? :)

[Dai-Sifu]

I hope there isn't any TWC content lost with this downed server - I do not want to lose my to 2 Rep points - man, they were hard work :sweatdrop:

Oh well whilst I'm waiting I'm going to ride this cool turtle :turtle:

How longs it been now?

[NONOPUST]

Hey there. No, swearing is not allowed, the .Org is rather strict on language. You can't edit because you're a junior, but the local mod will edit it out as soon as he's available.

Don't worry too much about it, you've got nothing to fear, except 50 lashes and being burned at the stake.

I want the camel stables with pevergreen! :sweatdrop:
It won't happen again I swear :lipsrsealed::grin3:

[Andres]

I want the camel stables with pevergreen! :sweatdrop:
It won't happen again I swear :lipsrsealed::grin3:

Camel stables it will be then. Standard procedure before you start cleaning is being given 50 lashes to make sure you won't forget your duties. Failing to show up on time will result in being burned at the stake.

Enjoy your cleaning duties! Oh, you only get a shovel until after a 60 day trial period. You have two hands at your disposal. To shower, you need to..., hm, the showers haven't been fixed since they last broke down... in 2006 or so. That smelly fellow over there is your colleague, peverthenotsogreenanymore. He works there as a volunteer. We don't know why he keeps doing it either.

[alpaca]

This just shows how vulnerable it is to have all your eggs/mods in one basket.

Back when I joined the org (10 years ago!) it was bigger than twcenter, but things change. Today it seems most mods, and most members, are at twcenter.

Maybe mod-makers shoud make a copy and put it over here? just a thought.

Unfortunately, the mod forums here at the .org have been declining since M2TW and are now all but dead. That's the primary reason I barely visit here anymore. There's probably not a large number of fans who look here for mods anymore, either.

[NONOPUST]

Camel stables it will be then. Standard procedure before you start cleaning is being given 50 lashes to make sure you won't forget your duties. Failing to show up on time will result in being burned at the stake.

Enjoy your cleaning duties! Oh, you only get a shovel until after a 60 day trial period. You have two hands at your disposal. To shower, you need to..., hm, the showers haven't been fixed since they last broke down... in 2006 or so. That smelly fellow over there is your colleague, peverthenotsogreenanymore. He works there as a volunteer. We don't know why he keeps doing it either.

Oh my, that doesn't sound like fun at all o_o
I didn't want the lashes :no:

Hopefully pevergreen is good company. Though by the sounds of it he may be off his rocker :wacko:

Also on a side note: When can I stop being a Junior Member?

[NONOPUST]

Er nevermind, I just noticed the FAQ. /facepalm
Forgive the double post. No more lashes please!

[pevergreen]

Er nevermind, I just noticed the FAQ. /facepalm
Forgive the double post. No more lashes please!

Its ok, double shoveling duties for you. :yes:

alpaca - you're right, it has been.

Andres, I'm the master of the stables now. I'll admit, no pay yet, but the career opportunities!

And you just had to throw my favourite quote in my face didnt you, AndrestheCunning. :wink:

[Strelok]

I had a dream about making a new thread on the EMM on TWC with all my post data retained and all sectors of the forum loaded (in accordance to my linear perception of time) instantly according to the eye. I clicked post thread and then I got a page load error and my web browser crashed. I woke up because I had fallen out of my dead. One can presume my sub-conscious was prepared to do demeaning things such as smashing my keyboard and trying to dive into the cached version of the website.

[aquilaXXI]

I´d REALLY like toknow what must be happening with these people! Didn´t they buy new hardware stuff a few days ago! I remember that they even asked for funds to offer a better service. This is happenin´too often , and i do not know what to think about all this...

[the red knight]

I´d REALLY like toknow what must be happening with these people! Didn´t they buy new hardware stuff a few days ago! I remember that they even asked for funds to offer a better service. This is happenin´too often , and i do not know what to think about all this...
They asked for donations to buy parts for a second server, but it hasn't been build yet afaik.

[juvenus]

Yeah, my very first post on the .org ever.:sweetheart:

This place has every chance to become a harbor for the TWC's refugees.:pirate:
I'm not into asking some hard questions, like why .org and TWC don't do this or do that or something....You probably have your reasons for maintaining .org alive even though it's not that popular like TWC.

Anyway, it's good to have a place to flee:titanic: in the emergency situations like this one:tumbleweed::captain:

And yes, I like your smiles and the style of this forum-very nice~:wave:

Cheers from:serbia:

[GrnEyedDvl]

Hello, another refugee,

I have some bad news. A couple of days ago I saw a post (i forget which web site it was) stating that TWCenter was shut down permanently due to a dispute between the two owners.
There is absolutely no truth to this at all. There is only one owner, Garb. Though he does sometimes have multiple personalities, the site being down has nothing to do with him.




They asked for donations to buy parts for a second server, but it hasn't been build yet afaik.
It hasn't, the last of the parts should be here today UPS willing. I am going to try and get that up and running tonight, but right now our main concern is getting the site back up and running. Expect to see a post from Sim in a few minutes on that. We have had a massive drive failure, with new drives I might add. we are making another copy of the original 500 gig drive just to make sure we do not lose it, and then I will take that drive to the host. Trying to copy that much data from my house would take forever.

[pevergreen]

I'm not into asking some hard questions, like why .org and TWC don't do this or do that or something....You probably have your reasons for maintaining .org alive even though it's not that popular like TWC.

Recent trends have meant that the large mod teams (besides the EB teams? Not entirely sure) and innovation in modding is done over at the TWC. If there is a multiplayer scene, its at the TWC as well.

The org is more...a laid back, nice place where people can come to talk. Many members arent here because of Total War, but because of the people.

If it wasn't for members like this place has, I wouldn't have stuck round for nearly 4 years now. Nor would I have this obscene amount of posts.

However, lets not turn this into a comparison of forums, just wanted to express my internet-friendship with many of the .org members.

What we should focus on, is that we have a friendly relationship between the two biggest unofficial forum sites for Total War. :yes:

[juvenus]

Strangely, the TWC is reporting an error after error. Firstly, it's been 505 or 500...Now it's 404-Not found.
I wonder how many types of error exist:speechless:

[Simetrical]

Okay, so here's basically what happened. On Friday we were moving all our data to some new disks. Friday night, this failed somehow, and the server crashed and didn't restart properly. I'm never available Friday night or Saturday. Saturday night, I tried to get it to work, but it wouldn't boot fully, so I couldn't access it remotely. I needed to wait for the on-site guy, GrnEyedDvl (GED). Unfortunately, he was a on a three-day vacation.

So Monday night he got back, and late yesterday afternoon (after the site had been down for almost four days) he went down to the server room. We got the machine to boot, and I started trying to figure out what went wrong and piece things back together.

Unfortunately, it seems like the new disks we were switching to were bad. The non-root filesystems suffered repeated massive corruption. Thankfully, by luck, the root filesystem was not moved to the new disks, so it's intact, and I'm able to administer the system remotely.

All data on the system itself is lost, but we made sure to pull one of the old disks with all the data on it as a backup. We did this several hours before the crash, so we'll only lose several hours of data. Currently the backup disk is sitting at GED's house attached to a test machine, and I'm having it copy everything to another disk so we have an extra backup. Once that's done, probably sometime this afternoon, GED will take the old disk back to the data center and we'll resync to that and restart the site. The site should then work, although it will be slow, as it's been the last week or so before the crash (since one of the VelociRaptors failed and we moved everything essential to the 7200 RPM disks).

Meanwhile, I'm working on figuring out which VelociRaptors are bad, by running SMART tests and also read-write badblocks tests. We know one is bad, but one of the other two seems to be as well, and we need to confirm that before we proceed. Once we figure out what Raptors are usable, we can consider moving everything to them again. Or maybe setting up the new server and just copying everything, so we don't ever have only one copy of anything.

Lessons learned:

Have redundant servers. This would have been a total nonissue if we'd gotten the second server set up before this happened. We could have just transferred all the traffic there, maybe even automatically. (Most of the parts have arrived, but not all, and it's not actually installed at the data center yet. Thanks to everyone who donated!)
Always keep good backups. If not for the disk we pulled, we'd have to restore a weeks-old backup. This is bad, but not as bad as it could be. It pays to be paranoid when it comes to data integrity.
Check new disks for errors before using them. I'm definitely going to be doing extended SMART self-tests and destructive read-write badblocks tests on every new disk we get before we use it.

Thanks to the Guild for letting TWC members use this forum to talk about the downtime. (I used to actually post here quite a lot, as you can see from my post count. Then I became a mod and eventually admin at TWC, so . . .) You can also go to the TWC IRC chat at http://java.surrealchat.net/chat/twcenter while the site is down.

[Strelok]

Interesting that my (only) VelociRaptor dies around the time that one of the TWC server's is diagnosed faulty.

[juvenus]

All right, it's good to know you guys have it under control now.

[Strelok]

How necessary are VelociRaptor's for the server anyway? I'd presume the system would have a lot of memory and that the VelociRaptor's would mainly save time when the server initially boots when it's caching into RAM and reading more data from the disk but after that have a minimal effect.

[Audacia]

Okay, so here's basically what happened. On Friday we were moving all our data to some new disks. Friday night, this failed somehow, and the server crashed and didn't restart properly. I'm never available Friday night or Saturday. Saturday night, I tried to get it to work, but it wouldn't boot fully, so I couldn't access it remotely. I needed to wait for the on-site guy, GrnEyedDvl (GED). Unfortunately, he was a on a three-day vacation.

So Monday night he got back, and late yesterday afternoon (after the site had been down for almost four days) he went down to the server room. We got the machine to boot, and I started trying to figure out what went wrong and piece things back together.

Unfortunately, it seems like the new disks we were switching to were bad. The non-root filesystems suffered repeated massive corruption. Thankfully, by luck, the root filesystem was not moved to the new disks, so it's intact, and I'm able to administer the system remotely.

All data on the system itself is lost, but we made sure to pull one of the old disks with all the data on it as a backup. We did this several hours before the crash, so we'll only lose several hours of data. Currently the backup disk is sitting at GED's house attached to a test machine, and I'm having it copy everything to another disk so we have an extra backup. Once that's done, probably sometime this afternoon, GED will take the old disk back to the data center and we'll resync to that and restart the site. The site should then work, although it will be slow, as it's been the last week or so before the crash (since one of the VelociRaptors failed and we moved everything essential to the 7200 RPM disks).

Meanwhile, I'm working on figuring out which VelociRaptors are bad, by running SMART tests and also read-write badblocks tests. We know one is bad, but one of the other two seems to be as well, and we need to confirm that before we proceed. Once we figure out what Raptors are usable, we can consider moving everything to them again. Or maybe setting up the new server and just copying everything, so we don't ever have only one copy of anything.

Lessons learned:

Have redundant servers. This would have been a total nonissue if we'd gotten the second server set up before this happened. We could have just transferred all the traffic there, maybe even automatically. (Most of the parts have arrived, but not all, and it's not actually installed at the data center yet. Thanks to everyone who donated!)
Always keep good backups. If not for the disk we pulled, we'd have to restore a weeks-old backup. This is bad, but not as bad as it could be. It pays to be paranoid when it comes to data integrity.
Check new disks for errors before using them. I'm definitely going to be doing extended SMART self-tests and destructive read-write badblocks tests on every new disk we get before we use it.

Thanks to the Guild for letting TWC members use this forum to talk about the downtime. (I used to actually post here quite a lot, as you can see from my post count. Then I became a mod and eventually admin at TWC, so . . .) You can also go to the TWC IRC chat at http://java.surrealchat.net/chat/twcenter while the site is down.

Thanks so much for the update, and we all appreciate your hard work. A few hours lost is not that bad, I'm sure we can all live with a little bit of lost rep and a few posts!

[Audacia]

I hope its true TWC will be up again today/tonite, i figured id register here anyway for the next time this happens : (

This has been happening way too much lately...

Sorry for the double post. but good to see another Great War member here!

[Nicholas Rush]

How necessary are VelociRaptor's for the server anyway? I'd presume the system would have a lot of memory and that the VelociRaptor's would mainly save time when the server initially boots when it's caching into RAM and reading more data from the disk but after that have a minimal effect.

I was curious about that as well. I didnt think that the raptors were the best choice for a high-traffic server.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Interesting that my (only) VelociRaptor dies around the time that one of the TWC server's is diagnosed faulty.
I am honestly not impressed with these. Thor (main TWC server) originally had 2 Raptors. About two weeks ago one (dev/sdc) of them threw an error and we had to rebuild the RAID array. It did rebuild and pass the SMART testing but it still concerned us and I planned on replacing it. When I ordered the drives for the second server that we are building, I ordered five. Four for the new machine and one to replace sdc in thor. The day before they arrived /dev/sdd in thor completely failed. I cant get into it at all.

We replaced that one (dev/sdd) with the drive I bought to replace /dev/sdc, which meant that I was now a drive short for the new server since /dev/sdc still needs to be replaced. I can get it replaced under warranty and run the new server on 3 drives, which was the plan, but it still threw a kink in our plans.

So since we were kind of hosed anyways we decided to go ahead and swap out the slower 500 gig drives with the faster Raptor drives. We were doing this one at a time so the array could rebuild. That is what we were doing Friday night. I pulled one of the 500 gig drives and replaced it with the Raptor and we were moving files when it locked up. This is now the third Raptor to have issues, and its a brand spanking new one. The other two were brand new in January.



How necessary are VelociRaptor's for the server anyway? I'd presume the system would have a lot of memory and that the VelociRaptor's would mainly save time when the server initially boots when it's caching into RAM and reading more data from the disk but after that have a minimal effect.
The read/write speed is ridiculously faster on the Raptors, and we do a TON of database writes.

[magpie]

Thanks for the updates Sim and GEG. Sorry to see you are having problems with those hard drives, Just maybe, its been said before, when there is a few dollars in the kitty switch to solid state hard drives. Seems the raptors are going down in quality these days.

[Simetrical]

Interesting that my (only) VelociRaptor dies around the time that one of the TWC server's is diagnosed faulty.
We've now had at least two, possibly three Raptors fail outright, and one more that's thrown some errors. I'm not at all happy with this. But Raptors are the only 10k RPM SATA disks out there, so if we want something faster than consumer-grade disks (and we do), they're really our only choice. They're under warranty, anyway, and disk failures are the reason RAID exists.

How necessary are VelociRaptor's for the server anyway? I'd presume the system would have a lot of memory and that the VelociRaptor's would mainly save time when the server initially boots when it's caching into RAM and reading more data from the disk but after that have a minimal effect.
We have 16 GB of RAM, so you're right, reads are no problem at all. Writes are the issue. When the database commits a transaction, it will fsync(), so it blocks until the data actually hits the physical disk. So memory buffering doesn't help you here. For other writes, memory does help, but only so much – you can do write combining and less seeking if you buffer in memory for a while, but you still have to do the writes.

So fast drives really do help. There's a very noticeable difference in site performance when we're running on the Raptors instead of the 7200 RPM 500 GB drives we started with. Especially when we're doing backups, search index rebuilds, or other things that do a lot of writes. On the 500 GB drives, the site can become very sluggish when we do those, even freeze up entirely on the new OS.

This is mostly only true for database servers, of course. Application servers tend to do basically no writes, so you can throw in cheap disks. We only have one server, though (soon two), so we need good disk performance for the database's sake. If we were big enough to have separate application and database servers, we'd have cheap disks but expensive CPUs on the app servers, cheap CPUs but expensive disks on the database servers, and lots of RAM for both. As it stands, we have to have good everything.

I was curious about that as well. I didnt think that the raptors were the best choice for a high-traffic server.
It's true that Raptors are really high-end consumer drives. But good server-class drives are expensive. A 150 GB Raptor is $140 at newegg.com, but their 10k RPM SCSI/SAS are 146 GB for $240-300. Plus you have to add the extra cost of a SCSI-supporting motherboard (ours is SATA). Basically, though, for SATA, Raptors are the only decent drives out there.

If we had enough money and needed the performance, we'd really go for a battery-backed disk controller. That way you can defer writes as long as you like, just send them to the controller and you know they'll get written eventually. This is what most serious database servers have. I recall Wikipedia used to run its databases on six 15k RPM SCSIs in RAID 0, presumably with battery-backed RAID. But we don't really need that level of performance, so the expense isn't justifiable even if we could raise the money.

[Dodge_272]

This place has every chance to become a harbor for the TWC's refugees.:pirate:

90% of TWC posters are too stupid to be allowed to post here.

[Simetrical]

Thanks for the updates Sim and GEG. Sorry to see you are having problems with those hard drives, Just maybe, its been said before, when there is a few dollars in the kitty switch to solid state hard drives. Seems the raptors are going down in quality these days.
SSDs are a possibility, but they're much more expensive (if you're talking about the decent kind that can actually handle random writes), and there's no reason to think they'd fail less often than Raptors under this kind of load. And we don't need the performance, Raptors are fine for us in that respect. So we have no real reason to try them. It's a possibility for the future when the price comes down, of course.

[Strelok]

To get a reliable, non-sequential write friendly you are looking at around $300-$400+ for 64GB at a time.

[King Doom]

So TWC will be back up sometime today?

[Strelok]

We have 16 GB of RAM, so you're right, reads are no problem at all. Writes are the issue. When the database commits a transaction, it will fsync(), so it blocks until the data actually hits the physical disk. So memory buffering doesn't help you here. For other writes, memory does help, but only so much – you can do write combining and less seeking if you buffer in memory for a while, but you still have to do the writes.I see. I didn't really take into account the frequent random writes that would be performed as I was thinking more of sequential write differences in my mind.

[Simetrical]

To get a reliable, non-sequential write friendly you are looking at around $300-$400+ for 64GB at a time.
Pretty much. An X25-M 80 GB might be good enough, and that's only $215 each, so $430 for two in RAID 1. Not completely out of our budget, and our database would fit in that space (although not all our other stuff), but it's just not worth it.

So TWC will be back up sometime today?
That's the plan, sometime late today. I don't see anything further that's likely to go wrong. But then, one never does.

[Strelok]

I don't see anything further that's likely to go wrong. But then, one never does. Not really relevant to context, but I once had memory allocation errors because of one bit of dust in a singular RAM slot. That...was really weird.

[Simetrical]

Not really relevant to context, but I once had memory allocation errors because of one bit of dust in a singular RAM slot. That...was really weird.
Yeah, crazy stuff can happen. This is why you really really need redundant servers. You can have redundant power supplies, RAID, ECC RAM, but you never know when some fluke is going to take down a server regardless. With any luck we'll have the second server installed physically this week, and I might be able to get it working properly next week (although I've never set up this kind of thing before, Heartbeat and all that jazz).

[Paladin247]

It's been a solace to hang here when tracking TWC's casualty in this very cordial environment. Thanks Guild.

[Irishguy]

great update! thanks :)
And yes, thanks Guild for letting all the TWC refugees hang around here!

[anshuvio2]

Yeah we really appreciate it. Maybe I'll chill in both forums from now on.

On another note: I had a dream that the TWC was back up....something is wrong with me.

[juvenus]

90% of TWC posters are too stupid to be allowed to post here.

Regardless of your motives for posting such an outburst of intolerance, I urge you to maintain some decorum-for the sake of others.

BTW, under normal circumstances the moderator would need to sanction such a behavior. But again, the TWC is down so.....nothing is normal.

[-TopCat-]

Thanks to all here at the org for having us:)
Will be opening mod threads here as well in the future:)

[Dodge_272]

Regardless of your motives for posting such an outburst of intolerance, I urge you to maintain some decorum-for the sake of others.

BTW, under normal circumstances the moderator would need to sanction such a behavior. But again, the TWC is down so.....nothing is normal.

Well it is true. TWCenter is probably the worst forum I've ever been on for mindless nationalism and all-round stupidity. No wonder the Total War franchise is dumbing down.

Having said that, for whatever reason, I can't stay away! Hence how I ended up in this thread again!

[Caesar Augustus]

My thanks to the org for taking in all us TWC refugees during this difficult period.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I suggested to Quinn Inuit from TWC that we maintian a presence here for ExRM. Perhaps when the sites back up some of you guys would like to come check it out. It's a subforum in the RTR section.

Now, I'm going to get out my camp chair and enjoy some of this delightful cocoa...

[Strelok]

Well it is true. TWCenter is probably the worst forum I've ever been on for mindless nationalism and all-round stupidity. No wonder the Total War franchise is dumbing down.

Having said that, for whatever reason, I can't stay away! Hence how I ended up in this thread again!I find nationalism tends to get laughed at in the mudpit/academy sections.

[juvenus]

Well it is true. TWCenter is probably the worst forum I've ever been on for mindless nationalism and all-round stupidity. No wonder the Total War franchise is dumbing down.

Having said that, for whatever reason, I can't stay away! Hence how I ended up in this thread again!
You know, you may be right. Believe you or not, I've never been to any of those side-line subforums at TWC. For me, the TWC is all about the mods. And for many other members as well. So, there's no reason for designating "90% of TWC posters" as too stupid. It's just the way too harsh.

[CiviC]

Well it is true. TWCenter is probably the worst forum I've ever been on for mindless nationalism and all-round stupidity. No wonder the Total War franchise is dumbing down.

Having said that, for whatever reason, I can't stay away! Hence how I ended up in this thread again!

I had myself many arguments with/against "mindless nationalists" and I bet some others considered me a "mindless natonalist" (see my dispute with Serbians about Kosovo a while ago), but I never considered them lacking in intelligence (or "stupid"). I still respect my adversaries, and their difference in opinions helped me to define better my opinions about some subjects.

[wudang_clown]

You know, you may be right. Believe you or not, I've never been to any of those side-line subforums at TWC. For me, the TWC is all about the mods. And for many other members as well. So, there's no reason for designating "90% of TWC posters" as too stupid. It's just the way too harsh.

Actually, people use most of (sub-)forums on TWC to write stupid things, even those hosting mods. Some forums are so full of dropped bricks (like TATW, e.g.) that one could build a solid wall out of it.

[Pedro_Ortiz]

Well it is true. TWCenter is probably the worst forum I've ever been on for mindless nationalism and all-round stupidity. No wonder the Total War franchise is dumbing down.

Nationalism and general stupidity are rampant throughout the Internet, and TWC isn't even close to the worst of it.

[wudang_clown]

Nationalism and general stupidity are rampant throughout the Internet, and TWC isn't even close to the worst of it.

Identifying or assiciating nationalism with general stupidity isn't accurate, imo. There are stupid nationalists, sure, but there are also stupid inter-nationalists.

[AnthoniusII]

I have read what TWC technicians said...I do not understand the technical terms but we can wait a bit more.
Now some said that TWC is full of nationalists ...That is not strange. In a democracy (and internet has been the most "democratic tool"
everyone has a place for him and his opinion. It is up to the rest if they will continue conversasion,ignore him or what ever.
We are all fans of a game series..This fact does not make us automaticaly "perfect" people.
Personally i like the fact that i can read what others think despite the fact that i may not agree with them.
They probably wont agree with me either. That is democracy.You can not have it by keeping some out of it.

[Irishguy]

well.... a bit of nationalism can help though IMO, like in the Netherlands with our extreme right party of the PVV, you should be caring for your country right?

BTW: I'm not a PVV follower!

[drone]

We have our own share of nationalists here at the Org. The staff does a pretty good job at keeping the mindless portion of their posts under control, but sometimes they sneak through.

Glad to hear TWC is almost back online for you guys. When the Org goes down, I get the shakes. The last time it happened for an extended time, I actually registered at TWC to get my fix, but it too went down after a couple of posts and my account was lost in the backup. It was not my day... :laugh4:

[Maraud]

If you care for your country, you don't vote for parties like PVV.

And if this Dodge character is also called Dodge in TWC, then he doesn't have much right to speak

[Irishguy]

yes... that's what i was trying to say... if you don't care for your country you won't vote AGAINST the PVV....

[eggthief]

Well it is true. TWCenter is probably the worst forum I've ever been on for mindless nationalism and all-round stupidity. No wonder the Total War franchise is dumbing down.

Having said that, for whatever reason, I can't stay away! Hence how I ended up in this thread again!

Interesting, the content of the TW games is adjusted by the content of the TWC posts.


yes... that's what i was trying to say... if you don't care for your country you won't vote AGAINST the PVV....

Negations much?

[Audacia]

Thanks to all here at the org for having us:)
Will be opening mod threads here as well in the future:)

Good to see more familiar faces, you too Caesar Augustus, and it would be awesome to see the Great War mod at the org too

Every post I make references the Great War, hmmm, maybe I really am having TGW withdrawal

[Caesar Augustus]

Good to see more familiar faces, you too Caesar Augustus, and it would be awesome to see the Great War mod at the org too

Every post I make references the Great War, hmmm, maybe I really am having TGW withdrawal

Sorry, are you known as Audacia at TWC too? I'm not sure if I've seen you there, my memory's on the blink at the moment.

The recent situation with stability really has brought home to me the disadvantages of keeping all of one's eggs in one basket.

As for the nationalism discussion going on at the moment, it should probably be continued in a more appropriate of the forum.

[Irishguy]

well I'm going to bed I'll see if TWC is up tomorrow... good night everyone!

[Caesar Augustus]

G'night dude!

[King Sama]

Hello to Bdizzle and Audacia and TopCat

Maybe we should make a GW thread in this forum too

Anyways, hopefully TWC will be back soon. Thanks for all the work Sim and GED

And to that guy calling people on TWC stupid, the percentage is more like 15-20, and statements like that would be characteristic of people in that category

[Dodge_272]

If you care for your country, you don't vote for parties like PVV.

And if this Dodge character is also called Dodge in TWC, then he doesn't have much right to speak

I certainly am, and if you actually read my post, I made a joke of that.

[maximus92]

Well, I'm new to the TW community, but not new to the games, having played since Shogun. So I await, with baited breath, for TWC to reopen, and I can get my mod on. :)

[Spartain t]

Ave everyone! Another wayward refugee reporting. Good site you guys have here :~) but i have one question and that is: Is there anywhere besides TWC that i can downlad the S.P.Q.R mod 7.0 i think it is? (i have version 1.6 patch for RTWBI) :help:

[cpdwane]

Well, I'm new to the TW community, but not new to the games, having played since Shogun. So I await, with baited breath, for TWC to reopen, and I can get my mod on. :)

Do you think you could tell us a bit about your mod in the meantime?

:grin2:

[alpaca]

Get cracking GED & Sim :whip:

I prepared a new tutorial that I should be able to put live tomorrow. If the TWC is still down by the time I uploaded it, it'll go to the .org exclusively. The guild has better smilies anyways.





Just kidding, you guys do a really good job for very little credit. Keep up the good work :love:

[Audacia]

Hello to Bdizzle and Audacia and TopCat

Maybe we should make a GW thread in this forum too

Anyways, hopefully TWC will be back soon. Thanks for all the work Sim and GED

And to that guy calling people on TWC stupid, the percentage is more like 15-20, and statements like that would be characteristic of people in that category

Hey King Sama! Yes we should have a GW thread in this forum, in fact, there already is one under the NTW singleplayer thread call a "WWI Mod" so people here are definitely interested

@Caesar, yeah I'm Audacia at TWC too, I play RTR and used to play ExRM a lot, I took a long break tho so that's probably why you don't remember me

[LDKsoldier]

A song for all TWC exiles, Trololo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA

:)

[Josst]

Get cracking GED & Sim :whip:

I prepared a new tutorial that I should be able to put live tomorrow. If the TWC is still down by the time I uploaded it, it'll go to the .org exclusively. The guild has better smilies anyways.


What sort of tutorial Alpaca?

[Myrddraal]

Get cracking GED & Sim :whip:

I prepared a new tutorial that I should be able to put live tomorrow. If the TWC is still down by the time I uploaded it, it'll go to the .org exclusively. The guild has better smilies anyways.

Hello alpaca, it's been a while since I've seen you around ~:wave:. You're being a bit harsh aren't you? Having said that, there's nothing to stop you giving us and exclusive preview of the tutorial. Exclusive in the sense that it will be exclusive by necessity until the TWC is back up :wink:

[chris7394]

I really love the calm, welcoming environment of the .org site. I wish twcenter could be more like it.

[Ramashan]

The org does have a lot of great tutorials, all really well organized. Many my tutorial book marks are from this site. Just seem to like the community feel of TWC better. Also, and its probably a setting that I'm completely ignorant of, I can never see more than one page of posts anywhere i go here. Just makes it seem like not a lot goes on. But, I am great full for the refuge and the sanctuary that has always been offered here.

What sort of tutorial have you got for us Alpaca?

[Wundai]

For Alpaca's tutorial.
My guess is something small, like Battlemap Buildings for M2TW. lol

:laugh4:

[mic1402]

For Alpaca's tutorial.
My guess is something small, like Battlemap Buildings for M2TW. lol

:laugh4:

dude it won't be that. there's like 70+ page thread on twc trying to work out how to change the battlemap buildings. they haven't worked it out yet.

[Audacia]

What sort of tutorial Alpaca?

Josst! Was there a new update for NTW? If so have we worked out any compatiblity issues it might have with TGW?

I'm sure TGW team has been hard at work over this long break......:tongue3:

:wizard: This one's cool

[King Sama]

Josst! Was there a new update for NTW? If so have we worked out any compatiblity issues it might have with TGW?

I'm sure TGW team has been hard at work over this long break......:tongue3:

:wizard: This one's cool

1. I don't think there are any compatability issues
2. ummm, sure
3. It is cool

[oudysseos]

Recent trends have meant that the large mod teams (besides the EB teams? Not entirely sure) and innovation in modding is done over at the TWC. If there is a multiplayer scene, its at the TWC as well.

EBH is far too big to move from the org - and why would we want to? The org is great!

[King Sama]

TWC is back up! Screw this forum! (just joking)

But its very slow.

[Simetrical]

Yeah, the site is back up. It will be very slow until caches get filled. It should become pretty usable after that, although not as fast as it used to be for the time being (because it's not using the Raptors).

[GrnEyedDvl]

Get cracking GED & Sim :whip:
Of all the people. I think I might cry. :bigcry:




Just kidding, you guys do a really good job for very little credit. Keep up the good work :love:
Well we try anyways. This drive situation has been driving me nuts for 2 weeks now.

The good news is that the site is back up. It will be running a bit slowly as the cache rebuilds.

[the red knight]

Yes!! We're back in business. Thank you, Sim and GED. And thank you .Org for your hospitality. :grin2:

[Spartan198]

I love the "end of the world" tag that was given to this topic. :laugh4:

[Corleone]

it's back? awww... and I literally just got around to registering here. curse my laziness.

ah well, it's been a fun few minutes with you crazy .org denizens. expect us back here sometime in the not-too-distant future.

nice forum you've got here, I might add. shame if somebody were to "set fire to it"...

[Daniel Cooper]

Well it's been fun here, until the next crash!

[pevergreen]

We have our own share of nationalists here at the Org. The staff does a pretty good job at keeping the mindless portion of their posts under control, but sometimes they sneak through.

Glad to hear TWC is almost back online for you guys. When the Org goes down, I get the shakes. The last time it happened for an extended time, I actually registered at TWC to get my fix, but it too went down after a couple of posts and my account was lost in the backup. It was not my day... :laugh4:

Thankfully we've got the experienced eyes of Kukri and the gaze of our most loved Camel Lord, Mithrandir, watching over this thread.

So lets keep it nice, alright? The stables are always looking for new "volunteers". :evilgrin:

[-Finn-]

Nice work Sim/GED!!It's nice to finally be able to catch up in all things RTR. :smile:

[Audacia]

I'm glad to see the site is back up, but I'm not leaving the org just yet

I think I'll stick around with you guys here, its been fun! Thanks for the refugee camp haha, finally I can get my fix of TGW on TWC!!

[Martok]

Glad to see TWC is back up (I just logged in there myself a few minutes ago)! :beam:

For those of you heading back there, I wish you well. For those of you who are staying and/or extending your visit here, you're most welcome! :bow:

[Garbarsardar]

Thank you all for your concern. We are back up, indeed. We had a technical issue which has been now resolved: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=371109

And many thanks to the people here in the .org for the hospitality.

Take care,
Garb.

[Andres]

Good to hear you guys are back in the air :2thumbsup:

[Brigadier Graham]

Well TWC is back up and all that.
Thanks for putting a roof over our heads whilst it was down chaps, I would still be interested in offering my mods over here.
Once again thanks for you hospitality.

[Viking Prince]

Thanks for the refugee services. I had fun -- posted in a few threads regarding S2TW and my favorite M2TW. Browsed the backroom. It is so pleasant here. I am certain that the TWCers will return. Hopefully many will pop in on a regular basis because we were treated so well. If you (heaven forbid) have a technical problem -- your private place will always be available for you at TWC as well.

[juvenus]

I'm following all those before me: thanx for providing us the place to communicate during the black-out. Nice forum. Until the next occasion...

[Irishguy]

I think still you'll see me around here! but thanks for all the hospitality!

[alpaca]

Hello alpaca, it's been a while since I've seen you around ~:wave:. You're being a bit harsh aren't you? Having said that, there's nothing to stop you giving us and exclusive preview of the tutorial. Exclusive in the sense that it will be exclusive by necessity until the TWC is back up :wink:

Hey, Myr. Yeah, I'm not here too often anymore. I mostly visit the modding forums and the modding forums on the .org aren't very busy since M2TW. I decided to move with the time. Anyhow, the TWC is back up so I think an exclusive preview would not really be in order ;)


What sort of tutorial Alpaca?

A beginner tutorial. You'll see.


For Alpaca's tutorial.
My guess is something small, like Battlemap Buildings for M2TW. lol

:laugh4:
No, I don't mod M2TW anymore.

[eggthief]

Am I the only one receiving a database error when I try to go to twc now?

[juvenus]

As I said, until the next occasion....Well, the next occasion is now. TWC is now reporting "database error". I can't freaking believe.....again.

[juvenus]

No you're not. It's down again!

[Soul Reaver]

I'm getting a database error, it must have gone down again. :shame:

[juvenus]

Reopen that fugitives camp, please. We'll need it again:wall::builder2:

[Myrddraal]

Gah! :sad: And we had just finished clearing away the tents and washing the tea cups too. Welcome back anyway, help yourselves to our selection of cakes and sub-forums. :coffeenews:

[King Doom]

DAMMIT!:furious3::wall: Does Sim or GED know what is the problem now?

[pevergreen]

I'm sure if its a big thing, they'll post here first chance they get, to let you guys know. :yes:

[Nicholas Rush]

Down again, reminds me of watching a dog after it got hit by a car, slow, agonizing death.

[King Doom]

Down again, reminds me of watching a dog after it got hit by a car, slow, agonizing death.
What! How did you see that? Was it you who pushed the dog in? LOL!:laugh3:

[the red knight]

Am I the only one receiving a database error when I try to go to twc now?
No. :embarassed:

[Cretan]

The gods are cruel to torment me so.:uhoh2:


I bet this is due to a piece of popcorn stuck in the servers cooling fans again.

[juvenus]

Gah! :sad: And we had just finished clearing away the tents and washing the tea cups too. Welcome back anyway, help yourselves to our selection of cakes and sub-forums. :coffeenews:

well done man, good one:laugh4::gathering:

[TheRoyalGuard1]

Hi! Another refugee here from TWC. I is getting a database error so I have on thing to say : :wall: :end: :sweatdrop: Well the guild does have better smilies so lets get comfortable here :laugh4: Darn right in the middle of a intense mod tuturial lookup session.... :book: Gotta love these smilies or whatever they called :2thumbsup:

[Soul Reaver]

This unfortunately will end up giving me the Drink trait. :dizzy2:

[Caesar Augustus]

@Caesar, yeah I'm Audacia at TWC too, I play RTR and used to play ExRM a lot, I took a long break tho so that's probably why you don't remember me

My bad dude, when TWC is back up I'll befriend you on there. Can't believe it's gone down again.

Whilst I'm here I think I shall go for a nice slice of carrot cake and peruse a few of the suib fora.

[Caesar Augustus]

Make that sub (not suib).

[King Doom]

Plz Sim or GED post to tell us what is wrong and how long until TWC is back up!:help:

[wudang_clown]

I'm afraid that's another serious crash...

[King Doom]

I'm afraid that's another serious crash...
How do you know?

[wudang_clown]

How do you know?

I don't know. I suppose.

[anshuvio2]

I don't know. I suppose.

In the IRC chat someone said it was just maintenance this time, but I'm not sure. I hope we didn't lose anything from those precious few hours.

[magpie]

I think the Gods are playing with us again, Just a little taste for the mere mortals, Then withdraw the favour, Like a cat with a mouse!
I was just about to post the new hight map to our team, sigh!

[juvenus]

I don't know. I suppose.

Well don't suppose like that:rifle:

The future is grim for the TWC members again:drama3:
Will we end up like:titanic:
Or the TWC is suffering from:tnt:

Oh mine, I love these similes or whatever their name is.

[AnthoniusII]

I believe that they install the new server but i might be wrong.

[Martok]

In the IRC chat someone said it was just maintenance this time, but I'm not sure. I hope we didn't lose anything from those precious few hours.
Given that it's now a "database error" and not a DNS message, my feeling is that it's not as serious this time. I'd guess that Sim & GED are having to do some work with backing things up and/or restoring info/functions.


Fret not, good people; I have a feeling the site will return before too long. In the meantime, please allow us to make you as comfortable as possible. :bow:

[Goodguy1066]

CURSES!

[TB666]

Considering the search function was down it could be the downtime is to fix that.
Of course that's just a wild guess.

[Daniel Cooper]

Damn lol, what happened now?:furious3:

[Dodge_272]

In the meantime, please allow us to make you as comfortable as possible. :bow:

That's what doctors say to people who are beyond help and are dying. :dizzy2::skull:

[the red knight]

In the IRC chat someone said it was just maintenance this time, but I'm not sure.
I doubt that. Maintenance is usually announced in advance.

[Pedro_Ortiz]

I doubt that. Maintenance is usually announced in advance.

As soon as Simetrical logs on, the site should be back.

[wudang_clown]

I doubt that. Maintenance is usually announced in advance.

That's true. I think that after five days of shut down they'd think about announcement and doing maintenance after some time, and not immediately after such a long crash.

[chris7394]

The site is down for repairs. You can verify this by checking the twcenter IRC chat page.
http://java.surrealchat.net/chat/twcenter:shame:

[wudang_clown]

Thanks for this, Chris, but what should I do to log in? Because doing the most reasonable thing doesn't work...

[King Doom]

The site is down for repairs. You can verify this by checking the twcenter IRC chat page.
http://java.surrealchat.net/chat/twcenter:shame:

Yeah I went on it but my computer says there is a warning(risk of virus or something). What did you do?

[Pedro_Ortiz]

It's back online.

[juvenus]

Yeah baby, the good ol' TWC is back in track. So gents, again, until the next occasion....:drummer:

[Pedro_Ortiz]

As a note, Sim is trying to fix database corruption, so making new posts won't work (for the time-being).

[Nikos_Rouvelas]

It's off line again.

[wudang_clown]

I find it quite funny. Sometime around 2 PM I was writing a PM which I was forced to abandon for three hours (women... ~:doh:). When I came back and hit the "send" button it appeared that the site isn't working. Some time ago it was working again, so I sit to write the PM again, I wrote it and hit the "send" button. And guess what happened? :laugh4:

[TheRoyalGuard1]

Im starting to lose all sanity again :wall: :dizzy2: :sweatdrop:
Gotta love these smilies or whatever they called :laugh4:

[King Doom]

Oh no! I missed the half an hour when TWc was up. Its down again. Its so annoying. WHY!!!!!

[Simetrical]

Yeah, this is really not our week. An index on our biggest table (post) apparently got corrupted somehow. I'm rebuilding the table now, which should take at least another couple of hours. The wiki still works, but the forums are shut down so we don't have attempts to access the corrupt index (which could crash MySQL and force me to restart the rebuild).

[King Doom]

Sorry to double post but I found out that Sim is online Total war. org. Could be good news.

[Pedro_Ortiz]

Haha, King Doom, you don't say. :P

[King Doom]

Woah! Post by Sim at the same time! Thanks for the update:laugh4:. How long do you think it will take to get TWC back up?

[Simetrical]

Woah! Post by Sim at the same time! Thanks for the update:laugh4:. How long do you think it will take to get TWC back up?
Did you try reading the post I just made?

[wudang_clown]

Yeah, this is really not our week. An index on our biggest table (post) apparently got corrupted somehow. I'm rebuilding the table now, which should take at least another couple of hours. The wiki still works, but the forums are shut down so we don't have attempts to access the corrupt index (which could crash MySQL and force me to restart the rebuild).

Thanks for the news and thanks for the efforts, you guys are spending so much time voluntarily managing TWC...

[Audacia]

Thanks for the update, @ King Doom, Sim said a couple hours.
A couple hours of agony that is..... ;)

[TheRoyalGuard1]

Thanks for the update, @ King Doom, Sim said a couple hours.
A couple hours of agony that is..... ;)

that doesnt sound fun :sweatdrop:
oh well we waited almost a week we can do it :2thumbsup:

[wudang_clown]

For all who can't stand waiting - just take care of some outstanding work or do some push ups (the latter are particularly cool) or listen to some music (like this, for instance... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfuGHE_8tNE&feature=related))...

[King Doom]

Thanks for the update, @ King Doom, Sim said a couple hours.
A couple hours of agony that is..... ;)
Yeah I didn't read that bit in the post.:embarassed:
I agree with you: A couple of hours...:sweatdrop:

[juvenus]

Yeah, this is really not our week. An index on our biggest table (post) apparently got corrupted somehow. I'm rebuilding the table now, which should take at least another couple of hours. The wiki still works, but the forums are shut down so we don't have attempts to access the corrupt index (which could crash MySQL and force me to restart the rebuild).

Yup, it's not our week....Maybe we should abandon the TWC for good.....oops, I just dodged a bullet......oops, another one....no stop, I was joking, I was joking:hanged:

[Irishguy]

and life turns to :daisy: in seconds... (good name for a tv show xD) well I'm gonna need the .org for spamming again :P

[wudang_clown]

http://www.mywot.com/files/imagepicker/d/Deborah%20S./grumpy%20old%20men%20with%20trophiessmall.png

[davide.cool]

lucky me tube8 always works like a crazy :skull:

[TheRoyalGuard1]

get cracking or else youll end up on the neuse like these guys: :hanged::hanged::hanged: or maybe even this guy: :book:


jk, jk, jk, :shame:

[Ramashan]

This just shows us not to count TWC up until it hatches.

[Audacia]

In the meantime, there are always these smilies too

:indian_chief: :beatnik2: :pumpkin: :batman: :hat: :hmg:

:iloveyou: :toilet: :couch: :smg: :washing:

OMG THERE ARE SO MANY!!

[juvenus]

lucky me tube8 always works like a crazy :skull:

You've been a naughty boy huh:whip::earmuffs::angel:

:laugh4::laugh4:

[cpdwane]

Yeah, this is really not our week. An index on our biggest table (post) apparently got corrupted somehow. I'm rebuilding the table now, which should take at least another couple of hours. The wiki still works, but the forums are shut down so we don't have attempts to access the corrupt index (which could crash MySQL and force me to restart the rebuild).

Not our week? As far as we're concerned, TWC hasn't HAD a week :tongueg:

No seriously, your doing us a great service trying to get it running again.

PS: I can't get over these smilies

:strawman2::surrender::robot::brakelamp:~:handball:

Hey look it's a vuvuzela! :horn:

Could we take some of these back with us as trophies please?

[juvenus]

Thank God so the humans had developed the beautiful thing called torrent.
I've just dl the American Revolution mod for etw via torrent 3.6GB.

[Nikos_Rouvelas]

When TWC is back up, I'm going to propose a new award called "The Savior of TWC" to be given to Sim and the other tech staff who are working to get TWC back on line.

[Soul Reaver]

When TWC is back up, I'm going to propose a new award called "The Savior of TWC" to be given to Sim and the other tech staff who are working to get TWC back on line.

You could also give the .org a mention in dispatches too.:idea:

[davide.cool]

You've been a naughty boy huh:whip::earmuffs::angel:

:laugh4::laugh4:

i think i've lost some dioptre in my left eye in like 10 mins.. that is bad

[TheRoyalGuard1]

When TWC is back up, I'm going to propose a new award called "The Savior of TWC" to be given to Sim and the other tech staff who are working to get TWC back on line.

dont forget to propose a "Best smilies on the Internet" award for all those with a .org and twcenter account :laugh4:

i still cant get over these :balloon2: :book: :dizzy2: :embarassed: :furious3: :help: :idea2: :inquisitive: :juggle2: :laugh4: :no: :oops: :shame: :skull: :sweatdrop: :rifle: :toilet: :pokemon: :turtle: :spammer: and i just love this one: :book:
this one makes me remember the good ol days of johto: :pokemon: speaking of which ill go restart my soulsilver while im waiting for the site to come back up

[Simetrical]

Okay, so the corruption causes MySQL to crash every time it reads a particular row from the post table. I'm using innodb_force_recovery to try avoiding the crashes, and running queries to figure out which row is causing the crashes. My current priority is to take a full non-binary database backup. We still have a copy of the old files, but those might be corrupt too (I'm also checking that). I have no ETA on the uptime yet; it depends on how long it takes to recover the data. If it takes long enough, or seems like it won't work, then I might try restoring an old backup and replaying binary logs. This will work as long as binary logs aren't also corrupt. But I'm no longer sure whether the site will be back up today.

[Simetrical]

innodb_force_recovery isn't working. I'm going to try recovery from binary logs now.

[wudang_clown]

Um, so, how serious consequences of that corruption may be, if I may ask?

Like, say, 50% of the site data lost, or something?

[King Doom]

Um, so, how serious consequences of that corruption may be, if I may ask?

Like, say, 50% of the site data lost, or something?
Woah if it is that much then most TWC users wont be very happy.

[Audacia]

Wait a minute we are going to lose more data? can we confirm this?

[Simetrical]

Almost all the data is there. There's some corruption, though, so MySQL freaks out and refuses to read it. So I'm restoring from a non-corrupted backup. This may take some time, but all data should be intact if it does work. I have tested restoration from binlogs before, and it did work, but that was quite a long time ago.

Damn these flaky consumer disks. This would be going a bloody lot faster if we were on the Raptors.

[Irishguy]

I think you've been cursed... this shouldn't be happening so often, even with those slower thingies... I presume your not using windows?

[Audacia]

Almost all the data is there. There's some corruption, though, so MySQL freaks out and refuses to read it. So I'm restoring from a non-corrupted backup. This may take some time, but all data should be intact if it does work. I have tested restoration from binlogs before, and it did work, but that was quite a long time ago.

Damn these flaky consumer disks. This would be going a bloody lot faster if we were on the Raptors.

Ok thanks for the update

[Simetrical]

No, we're using Linux. And I'm now restoring the backups onto a new partition on the Raptors. Too bad we only have two of them; I've kept redundancy for the restore. The initial database reload looks like it's taking a couple of hours, and after that replaying the binary logs will take at least another hour or so. So it won't be up today, or at best it will be up late tonight. Probably depending on how late I stay up this time, since I was up rather late for me the last two nights . . .

[emotion_name]

Yup. im getting Database error also again! :(

[The Celt]

We appreciate all the hard work your doing Sim.

[Simetrical]

Okay, finished the initial data load, from June 22 (took an hour and twenty minutes). Now I'm going to start replaying the binlogs, after I refresh my memory on how that works. Should take at least an hour more.

[Ramashan]

Thanks for all your hard work Sim, but remember not to kill yourself, I'm sure we'll all be going back if its up tonight, tomorrow, or two days from now. Good luck.

[Audacia]

Yes Sim we do thank you, your help is appreciated and if we could pay you I'm sure we would ;)

[-Finn-]

Thanks for the updates Sim! and best of Luck with the remaining work you have to do.

[Simetrical]

Binlogs are only working with a lot of manual fidgeting, since I had idiotically been leaving two tables (postparsed and sigparsed) out of the backups on the theory they could be regenerated. They can, but their absence means the binlog replay is repeatedly failing. I've written a shell script that should skip all the error-inducing entries . . . I already messed up once and replayed some binlogs I didn't mean to, but hopefully that won't cause problems. I don't want to have to do another reimport.

On the bright side, the binlog replaying is going pretty fast, so it might still get back up tonight. Or, maybe not.

[Simetrical]

Okay, so my script was a stupid idea. Much simpler to do mysql -f. Since I accidentally replayed some things twice and my script might have had other bugs, I've wiped everything again and am attempting another restore from scratch, this time using mysql -f to skip any errors. I'll check whether it worked first thing tomorrow morning, and if so, I'll start up the site.

[Audacia]

Alrighty man, now go get some sleep!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Head to the Gameroom or the Backroom, TWCer's. Your Admin is hard at work and only patience is demanded.

In short, the outage still sucketh. Sorry, but your team is working on it.

[Simetrical]

I wish we had a whole team. But anyway, I'm off to bed. Nothing more I can do for at least the next two hours, probably more, and I'm not staying up that late again on the off chance I can get the site up a few hours earlier.

[TheRoyalGuard1]

Sim you should go get some sleep, trust me it will make things go A LOT smoother... we all shall like you no matter how long it takes so good luck and take your time (just not too much)

[Audacia]

So we wont have data from the 22nd of June on? I've already begun to rewrite all the important PM's I sent in the last week, and I shall lose all my rep!!!
hahaha no biggie, I'll get over it......maybe

[Simetrical]

No, you should have everything since the forum went down this afternoon. The original backup was from June 22nd, but we keep binary logs as well, and those contain all the intervening data. Basically, we have full backups theoretically daily (but we stopped taking them due to disk load a couple weeks ago), and we also have up-to-the-minute data changes written out into binlogs, which we keep for two weeks. So as long as we have a full backup from the last two weeks, we can load that backup, then replay the binlogs to get all changes since then up to the second the problems occurred. No data lost. (Actually we might lose a few wiki edits, but not many.)

Okay, now I'm going to bed for real now. By the way, GED said he's staying up late and I've given him instructions on how to tell when the backup is fully loaded and how to restart the site when that happens. So the site might actually be up within a couple of hours. But I wouldn't count on our luck at this point.

[Strelok]

It's GED's fault. His mere presence produces advanced EMI waves that eventually lead to random .misc malfunctions in any components you have.

[GrnEyedDvl]

I am indeed up late. Its currently 10:00 PM and the backup is still running. I will check back in a bit.

[magpie]

Goodluck with the bug hunt guys, Just a thing I did notice leading up to our CTD issue,s, Some of your adds on say Q&A page ect mainly the more active adds, which liked to download data, were really slowing things downs, others were not displaying, while others were working fine.
Could we have a few lurking bugs!

[Alexzander]

I wish i could help i am an experienced computer user. But most of this is above my head and i am 2,000 miles away.

Maybe we could contribute in some other way though. If you had a wish list of things that would make TWC better what would that be i will contribute money to help and i am sure others would do the same.

[Miguel Carvajal]

how many of my fellow refugees are here?

[Limskj]

I am :D

[Irishguy]

allot... I've seen so many twc'ers I've lost count.

[juvenus]

well I rechecked at the refugee's camp last night. Luckily, the good people at the .org served some pizza and milkshakes (what a combination:grin:).
Hope we'll get something nice for the breakfast:nice:
In the meantime, many others joined as well, like these guys:sombrero::punk::batman::afro:
Even the king:elvis: joined the camp.

[visiar]

I would be member from TWC as well.

[WilliVonBill]

Man... they do have the best smilies over here at the .org, don't they? Anyplace that has Elvis :elvis: Mr. T :Mr-T: and dancing girls :belly: is doing something right!

[emotion_name]

Ohhh, im being teased now!

The main page of TWC is working, but when i click the Forums Index, or anything else for that matter, i get the database error screen!

Hopefully wont be too long now, man i didnt realise how hard a few days without good 'ole TWC would be!

:mickey: Mickey Mouse has joined us refugees!! :laugh4:

:gorgeous::bobby2::singer::virgo::leo::wales: are all good smilies as well!

Maybe someone could make a "I was a refugee at .Org" smilie, or something similar? Along with others though, i agree we should take some of these from the camp back to TWC with us!

[Baron von Manteuffel]

They've even have "The Village People" here. :builder2::cowboy::policeman::indian_chief::army::biker:

[Irishguy]

Lets steal the smilies !

[AnthoniusII]

how many of my fellow refugees are here?

Actually i am not a refugee.
I was 1st a member of the .org long before i became a TWC one.:laugh4:

[Caesar Augustus]

The smilies really do rock.

I say we take them back to TWC as "souvenirs" :deal2:

[Simetrical]

Okay, site should be back up again. Hopefully for good this time, fingers crossed.

I did forget how many awesome smilies the Guild has. They'd look weird on TWC, though, because they don't match the style of our current ones at all. They match the default vB icons' style, but we originally used IPB and our icons are from that.

[Visor]

It's up again.
:logic::medievalcheers::medievalcheers::rtwyes::dancinglock::dancinglock::horn:

They are cool.

[juvenus]

all right gents, pack it up! As Sim said this time for good-fingers crossed:applause:
however, if we get forced to return to this nice forum, I suggest that we overwhelm it with our numerous spams and steal all their smiles during their confusion:charge::jumping:

[Irishguy]

agree!

[TheRoyalGuard1]

yay its back up :2thumbsup: hey is there a dancing banana smilie :stupido2: it would be EPIC (like this guy: :wizard: or this guy: :pokemon:) now excuse me while i go to twcenter with a turtle full :turtle: of smilies while reading this awsome book :book: gotta love the smilies :hippie: :viking: :stupido: :shakehands: :barrel: :medievalcheers: :san_laugh: :7stripper: :cancer: :virgo: :gemini: :pisces: :taurus: :aquarius: :libra: :capricorn: :scorpio: :sagittarius: :leo: :focus: :toilet: :thumbsup:

[Audacia]

Finally, thanks Sim good thing we'll have those few hours lol

[Lord of Lent]

You should all stay here!

[Rob The Bastard]

They came
They saw
They swiped the smilies.

Go in peace, our brothers.

[Caesar Augustus]

I think I'll linger around these parts for a while longer, not just for the smilies!

[WilliVonBill]

They came
They saw
They swiped the smilies.

Go in peace, our brothers.


LOL... okay that was pretty good. :laugh4:

Thanks for the tempory digs, guys. You've been great hosts. I, for one, will make a habit of hanging around here a bit more.

Oh, and you might want to count the good silver. You know how we can be! :mask:

[Lord of Lent]

WilliVonBil, I want to introduce you to my guard dog Brutus. He's here to make sure you won't steal anything!

[Soul Reaver]

Cannot access the site again anyone else having problems.

[Visor]

Yep, ain't loading for me either.

[Caesar Augustus]

I too, am having issues. Gah!

[ddo]

No go The center seems to be down, oh brother!

[Wundai]

Sigh yes again there are issues, I hope it will stop...

[emotion_name]

Anyone else think is slightly ridiculous?

I wouldnt mind not having TWC for a few weeks if it meant when it came back up, it stayed bloody up! This 2 days working followed by 3 days not is really cracking me up now!:furious3:

Well, you might find this refugee camp becomes something of a small settlement at this rate!

While we here again, lets begin the smilie spam!

:skull::egypt::clown:

:bobby2::singer::party:

:indian_brave::indian_chief::clock:

:download::sharky::wizard:

Wonder when the 'whelm for these smilies will pass?

[Visor]

NEVER!!!:stop::joker::gossip::yougotmail::bling::date::hijacked::birthday2::wizard:~:snowman::404::h ourglass::damnmate::faq::painting::tredmil::holiday2::weirdthread::scastle::elephant::elephant::canc er:

You have the Welsh Commandments here as well.:laugh4:

[Nikos_Rouvelas]

well I'll be damned, TWC is down again!

[Baron von Manteuffel]

:worried: This sucks!!! Oops! Internet Explorer could not connect to www.twcenter.net

[Soul Reaver]

Anyone else think is slightly ridiculous?

I wouldnt mind not having TWC for a few weeks if it meant when it came back up, it stayed bloody up! This 2 days working followed by 3 days not is really cracking me up now!:furious3:

Well, you might find this refugee camp becomes something of a small settlement at this rate!

I agree, this small settlement we have could eventually become a small town.

[the red knight]

Not again! :help:

[Goodguy1066]

Jesus Christ!!

[emotion_name]

You have the Welsh Commandments here as well.:laugh4:

Yup!:laugh4:

So, anyone have any ideas why its down this time?

Has the hard drive or whatever gone :tnt:

Have them Raptors been made extinct by the War Turtle :turtle:

Or was it just a good old fashioned :smash: on the server?

[the red knight]

Jesus Christ!!
Holy Moses! :laugh4:

[King Doom]

Not again! Whats the problem now?

[emotion_name]

I agree, this small settlement we have could eventually become a small town.

Well, i call dibs on spot furthest away from the toilet hole that has been dug!

Someone should really clean it out or something! :)

[the red knight]

And TWC is back!

[Goodguy1066]

The thing I like most about this forum are the smilies. And the lack of Poet or Amagi. :laugh2:

[athanaric]

**** it went down mid-post. Again.



The thing I like most about this forum are the smilies. And the lack of Poet or Amagi. :laugh2:
You have to admit though it's almost awesome that the major trolls of TWC are an Islamist, a Nazi, and a Commie (Nikitin).

[pevergreen]

Its up for me.

[emotion_name]

Hmmm, could be short term thing, but i cannot seem to get to TWC again!

Since im the first one back in this abandoned refugee camp, should i start setting up some tents in anticipation of those soon to arrive??

[Visor]

Yep, it's down for me as well. Start getting those refugees in line.

[pevergreen]

Don't worry, the camel milk from last time is still good.