1 (edited by ireactions 2022-06-29 17:48:09)

Topic: Bboard Updates: PHP Updated

May 14, 2023
Our site has been updated to PHP 8.1 FastCGI at the advice/encouragement of Dreamhost.

June 29, 2022:
Our posting errors (Internal Server Error) should be resolved now: https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php … 031#p13031

May 29, 2022:
We apologize for our May 27 - 28 service outage. For a summary of what happened, please visit
https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php … 919#p12919

A user recently requested that "Last Posts" be visible to mobile devices viewing the forum's topic listing page. This has been added.

If you have questions or tech support issues, please post in this thread or email ireactions (at) gmail.com.

**

June 21, 2015
Hi, everyone! Sorry for the service outage! Our former host, Hosting Check, had a service failure that not only took us offline but corrupted our Bboard database. On the advice of a professional web developer, we have transitioned to Dreamhost.

To register, click here to enter your user name and email and we will create an account and send you a temporary password and you can email ireactions (at) gmail.com if you need any help.

Recently, some users have had trouble logging in and needed me to reset their passwords.

Sorry again for the issues. Rest assured that Dreamhost is reliable, stable and that this is a new dawn of Bboard stability.

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Welcome back! I missed this place. Good host choice, we use them for the podcast ourselves.

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Hey hey!

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Glad this place is running again as I've missed it. smile

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

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Thanks! I was worried (again) that this board was gone forever. This is the the 3rd board I've been a part of!

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Question, how do I change my user name? I tried re-registering and it won't let me. Sorry I messed it up when I initially registered, and it made my user name my e-mail.

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Whoever was able to fix that issue for me.... Thanks!

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Thank me by posting lots and lots!

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Will do! Thanks again!

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Good to see the place back online!

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You're a hard man to reach!

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ireactions wrote:

You're a hard man to reach!

Sorry about that. I've been out of town with little Internet time and/or access most of the last month.

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Where it says you must login or register at the top, the words "register" and "login" don't come up as links. They do at the bottom of the main page though. Anyone else have this issue?

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Register and Login appear in the coloured bar -- the third line of text from the top of the page.

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Okay, I didn't notice that. I was only looking at the first line at the top left where it says "you are not logged in. Please login or register."

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I miss Brand_S. And WrongArturo. And rafproductions. I've done my part in bringing the Bboard back! You people bring them back!

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Okay, on the "sliders questions" required to post - are they cap sensitive?  I feel like when I answer a "proper name" question, I have to answer another one, but when I answer an "object" question, it goes straight through.  Should I be answering "wade" instead of "Wade"?

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The answers are not case sensitive.

Did this really worry you?

19 (edited by tom.holste 2015-08-04 10:09:55)

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Sorry I'm late to the party, but I'm glad to see that the forum is alive and well!

(Note: I was formerly known as Wrong Arturo.)

20 (edited by omnimercurial 2015-08-05 05:45:24)

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tom.holste wrote:

Sorry I'm late to the party, but I'm glad to see that the forum is alive and well!

(Note: I was formerly known as Wrong Arturo.)

Good to see you back!

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

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Earth Prime is down due to an error with the database connection. Hopefully Matt is are just migrating stuff to a new server.

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Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. Earth Prime? Server? I have never heard of this Earth Prime site you describe, nor does the Internet Archive have any record of such a site. Was this a SLIDERS site of some kind? As far as I know, the only SLIDERS resource sites of significance are the Wikia and the Dimension of Continuity.

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Looks like we're back up!

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Only because you pointed it out here - thanks! smile

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

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You know what I found freaky? When the site went down, it was no longer visible on the Internet Archive either! I spent the day thinking I'd only ever imagined EP.COM.

26 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2016-01-03 17:14:46)

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Anyone else getting an error on EP.com?


Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Server unable to read htaccess file, denying access to be safe

Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Apache/2.4.16 (Unix) OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_fcgid/2.3.9 Server at www.earthprime.com Port 80

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Matt is switching to a new host.

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To be more specific, the site was "switched off" by my host because it was getting an erratic amount of resource usage. I cannot even access the folder containing all the themes/media to download it.

Once I do, I will transfer the site to the new host and cut the cord on the old one. Scrambling to migrate your entire digital presence from one place to the next is a GOOD way to ring in the new year! sad

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

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Transmodiar wrote:

To be more specific, the site was "switched off" by my host because it was getting an erratic amount of resource usage. I cannot even access the folder containing all the themes/media to download it.

Once I do, I will transfer the site to the new host and cut the cord on the old one. Scrambling to migrate your entire digital presence from one place to the next is a GOOD way to ring in the new year! sad

Thanks for everything you do with the site.

While I have you, can I ask, at one point I believe the comics were all available for download. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20110903064 … omics.html

On the current site, it lists each of the comics available for download in CBR format, but only some of them are actually linked.  Was that intentional on your part, or were you not aware?

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RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

Thanks for everything you do with the site.

While I have you, can I ask, at one point I believe the comics were all available for download. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20110903064 … omics.html

On the current site, it lists each of the comics available for download in CBR format, but only some of them are actually linked.  Was that intentional on your part, or were you not aware?

Okay, it looks like it's back up. Feel free to stress test it and let me know if you find anything wrong.

No, it was not intentional to selectively remove issues of the comics, but I don't have time to re-scan and re-compile them for upload. If someone wants to do that, I'll gladly host them and thank them for their time. smile

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

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I have the comics. I'll restore them near the end of the week when I have some time.

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Thanks guys. 

Matt, I'll definitely poke around EP.com to see everything looks good as soon as I get a chance.

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Poked around EP a bit, didn't see any problems.

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Comics re-uploaded. I lost my copies too, strangely. Ended up having to search some dark corners to find them.

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Hi I was once known as Professor Gimli on this board....been years since I checked in.  I'm Slider_Quinn21's Biggest Fan and possibly Slidemania's worst critic. 

Anyway concerning this post I just wanna say that while I don't go into Deviant Art that much these days one person had an interesting Idea that would have put Quinn in the "Professor" role in his imagined "SLIDERS The Next Generation" scenario. 

And if such a thing happened as a continuation in our time,  I'm sure someone out there would have had a clever way and reason to split Robert Floyd from Jerry O'Connel. 

PS:  Hey Slider_Quinn21  If I gave your Season 6 & 7 some minor grammar fixes and some theme openings for Earth 214, perhaps a better reason for Quinn to be mean with Maggie and some other stuff do you think you could add it to your 214 Site?

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Bah! Earth214 is over! It's had its time! All the action is over at SLIDERS REBORN now! Earth214 is a dinosaur!

No, I'm just kidding. Earth214 is a charming piece of work, but it was written by a teenager. SLIDERS REBORN is written by an adult who thinks like a teenager. When reading Earth214, I felt that the writing was terrible but the underlying concept, intentions, plots, ideas and overall direction were very well thought out -- it's just that the ability to deliver all that in an engaging, convincing and stirring format wasn't quite there yet. It's like Slider_Quinn21 had the raw talent but needed a few more English classes and maybe some screenwriting software. SQ21 says he's done with 214, but I still maintain that going through and rewriting it -- not the story, but the language and descriptions and dialogue -- would turn it from a charming artifact of youth into something very strong. Earth214 is like a very rough statue that just needs a few more sessions to finish chiseling it into something spectacular.

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maxcardun wrote:

PS:  Hey Slider_Quinn21  If I gave your Season 6 & 7 some minor grammar fixes and some theme openings for Earth 214, perhaps a better reason for Quinn to be mean with Maggie and some other stuff do you think you could add it to your 214 Site?

Ah, yikes, I didn't even know this was here.

And I think it's awesome that you've read E214 and had enough interest to think about alternate reasons.  That's freakin' awesome.  I'm surprised it's still out there - I wrote that as a teenager a really long time ago, and there are parts of it that really make me cringe.  But there's also a ton I'm really proud of.

The short answer to that question is no, simply because I don't have access to the site.  Blinker is who always updated the site, and I don't know where he is.

If you want to email me, I'd be happy to talk with you about your changes.  Again, I'd love to hear what you have to think.

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ireactions wrote:

No, I'm just kidding. Earth214 is a charming piece of work, but it was written by a teenager. SLIDERS REBORN is written by an adult who thinks like a teenager. When reading Earth214, I felt that the writing was terrible but the underlying concept, intentions, plots, ideas and overall direction were very well thought out -- it's just that the ability to deliver all that in an engaging, convincing and stirring format wasn't quite there yet. It's like Slider_Quinn21 had the raw talent but needed a few more English classes and maybe some screenwriting software. SQ21 says he's done with 214, but I still maintain that going through and rewriting it -- not the story, but the language and descriptions and dialogue -- would turn it from a charming artifact of youth into something very strong. Earth214 is like a very rough statue that just needs a few more sessions to finish chiseling it into something spectacular.

I don't disagree with any of this, and that's actually been my biggest struggle as a writer.  I feel like I have solid ideas but just an awful translation from brain to paper/screen.  I'm working on my second novel, and I love the story but get bored my some of my own writing.  Which is....bad. 

I have a dozen ideas that I absolutely *love* and want to get out there, and I'm considering putting them in a collection of short stories.  I think a lot of them would do better in a full version in someone else's hands, and if I can do some sort of Phillip K. Dick stories, maybe a handful of talented writers can make the next generation of Blade Runner/High Castle/Minority Report/etc.

Not that I'm anywhere near as good or talented or creative as Phillip K. Dick.  But you know, I can dream.

PS - I just checked my email, Ib.  On it.

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And, finally, the reason I'm here.  I had to answer the board question about 8 times when I posted in the DC thread.  I had to answer the Wade one about four times in a row.  Did something change or did I have bad luck?

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ireactions wrote:

Bah! Earth214 is over! It's had its time! All the action is over at SLIDERS REBORN now! Earth214 is a dinosaur!

No, I'm just kidding. Earth214 is a charming piece of work, but it was written by a teenager. SLIDERS REBORN is written by an adult who thinks like a teenager. When reading Earth214, I felt that the writing was terrible but the underlying concept, intentions, plots, ideas and overall direction were very well thought out -- it's just that the ability to deliver all that in an engaging, convincing and stirring format wasn't quite there yet. It's like Slider_Quinn21 had the raw talent but needed a few more English classes and maybe some screenwriting software. SQ21 says he's done with 214, but I still maintain that going through and rewriting it -- not the story, but the language and descriptions and dialogue -- would turn it from a charming artifact of youth into something very strong. Earth214 is like a very rough statue that just needs a few more sessions to finish chiseling it into something spectacular.

Well that all might be true, but at least it wasn't the turd that is Earth 30858 by Slidemania.  It's like the guy thought Peckenpah was an absolute genius at story's and wanted to overboard with the science fictional aspects or what I like to call "Science Fantasy"  Parallel Universes with real Greek gods, two references to Quantum Leap technology, Sliding to previous worlds that they visited in previous episodes of the show all except for home, going overboard with all the sexual, gay, and lesbian content, and every story just got longer and longer and longer to read.  Some other stories long and happily closed he brought back and made the endings more depressing, 10 Sliders at one time which is only ambitious if it's believable and unnecessarily bringing back both Geiger and Rickman, Quinn and Colon's parents live at Epcot Center, THE VORTEX IS PINK, Maggie is Blonde, planet wide epidemics can work at the speed of light with a knife prick, the Sliders start developing "superpowers" and best of all he didn't have the guts to finish his story but we should have seen it coming with all the flashbacks he inserted, not to mention the annoying Mary Sue character he made up known stereotypically as Janine Chen.

However.....I think his Dublian's had some potential if only they would've be harder to kill and more of a threatening backstory about the "Little Green Men"  From outer space.

Though I think now I'm seriously going to check out that SLIDERS REBORN place.

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I'm not sure why the Bboard is forcing everyone to answer the questions; I've disabled that for now and I'll watch to see if this leads to more spambot registrations.

As for Slidemania -- well, it is fanfic. Professional grade writing should be seen as a wonderful surprise rather than a basic requirement. I adore crazy fanfic. These are fans expressing their passion; they may not necessarily have the skill to create an enjoyable product, but the fact that they put their stuff out there is to be admired. Slider_Quinn21's vision of SLIDERS in his series was an extension of the Sci-Fi Channel years but with the original-cast and early-season elements blended with the latter-era sliders and storylines, presenting SLIDERS' tangled web as a beautiful tapestry. Slidemania's vision of SLIDERS was very fantasy-oriented, but any story is conceivably a SLIDERS story.

One favourite fanfic of mine is a sequel to "This Slide of Paradise" where Arturo tracks the gang to the world of animal human hybrids and spends an episode wandering around the forest set of that episode.

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ireactions wrote:

I'm not sure why the Bboard is forcing everyone to answer the questions; I've disabled that for now and I'll watch to see if this leads to more spambot registrations.

There was one night where I answered questions for literally 30-40 times until I just gave up (since the conversion from Sliders questions to "Hello" and "Earth" questions).  But since that time, it's worked perfectly.  I get questions every couple times, and it's only made me answer one (and on occasion, twice).

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I answered 'Earth Prime' and it seemed to accept that

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pilight wrote:

I answered 'Earth Prime' and it seemed to accept that

Ha, that's funny.  Well done smile

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Hi everyone. Due to Slider_Quinn21 running afoul of the spambot filter that kept asking him the same questions over and over again every time he tried to post, I have deactivated registration. Please email me at ireactions (at) gmail.com if you want an account and I will make one for you.

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I've set up a Create Account link in the top menu. It links to a Google Form that allows people to submit their username and email of choice. The form will send me any username requests and I can use that to create new accounts for people instead of asking them to email me personally. This isn't ideal, but the PunBB software hasn't been updated in some time and its extensions for spambot filtering have been falling into disrepair. I'm wondering if it's time to switch to something else, but I'm hesitant to move this Bboard to new software after all the upheaval of the past.

I also disabled the mobile theme as it wasn't working well with new mobile browsers.

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Hi, I've gotten two emails from people saying their passwords weren't working. Not sure why, but I reset them on their behalf. Please email ireactions (at) gmail.com if you need me to do the same.

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Regrettably, the archive of the former Bboard seems to have failed. We still have the files, but it looks like Hosting Check's mismatched database errors -- which crashed the old Bboard in the first place -- reached a state of permanent failure. For this reason, I've removed links to the previous Bboard as there's no point linking to threads that don't load. Thankfully, in 2015, Temporal Flux chose the excellent Dreamhost for our present home that has remained stable and reliable.

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Hi, everyone. Due to this forum being built in 2015, it was on HTTP instead of the supposedly more secure HTTPS. While nobody uses this site for private information except in the form of absurd personal oversharing, a lot of web browsers including little-used and obscure software like Google Chrome were refusing to load the forum, calling an HTTP connection a security risk. I've turned on HTTPS and updated the settings accordingly. There were some glitches at first (stylesheets not loading, directory links confused), but I believe I've corrected the issues now. However, if there are any problems you find, please post here or email ireactions (at) gmail.com. Serving you all makes my life worthwhile. I was just referring to "Prince of Wails" when saying that, but... I think it's true.

50 (edited by ireactions 2022-01-02 14:39:42)

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I've been testing a responsive theme for the last few months on a separate copy of this forum (that uses the same database for posts and accounts). I've activated it today on the main forum.

My intention has been to make the new theme purely additive. The board should look pretty much the same as always on a maximized desktop browser with the same purple gradients of the Sci-Fi Channel Bboard. However, if you narrow the desktop browser window to half the screen width, the text should now wrap correctly within the narrowed window instead of overflowing past the border.

And when viewing this site on a cell phone, the layout will hide some of the menu functions for the reduced space, increase the font size of the posts for readability, reduce the font size of the user names, and wrap the text to fit within the portrait screen of a phone browser so you don't have to pan right and left to read posts.

The original theme is still saved as a backup in case this new one proves to be a problem, of course.

I've also removed the Request Account link and changed the Register link to lead to the Google Form for registrations. Having both a Request Account and a Register button was apparently confusing people, but it took me some time to find the function that let me alter the Register page appropriately.

51 (edited by ireactions 2022-05-28 07:11:14)

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Hi, everyone. Sorry for our recent outage. We went offline because Dreamhost installed a database update bringing us from MySQL5.7 to MySQL8 which was incompatible with our Bboard software.

After installing a MySQL8-compatible Bboard on Thursday night, we spent Friday revising our Bboard database to be readable for our new Bboard platform.

As of Saturday morning, we seem to have restored all accounts, posts, private messages, the polling function, the spam prevention measures, the purple theme (an effort to mimic the Sci-Fi Channel purple as directed by TemporalFlux), the mobile-adapted layout, the search function and the user icons.

We aren't sure if previous polls are still working because we're having trouble finding those posts.

If you notice any anomalies, please post here or email ireactions (at) gmail.com. We will be testing the Bboard further before making a full reopening announcement via forum email.

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Jim_Hall wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

Testing.



smile

ggg

cide

What's up.

the forum!

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Seems to be rolling.

slidecage.com
Twitter @slidersfanblog
Instagram slidersfanblog

54 (edited by ireactions 2022-05-29 12:07:20)

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Another update: I've adjusted the mobile theme at RussianCabbie's suggestion so that the "Last Post" and the link to the most recent addition to each thread is visible on narrow smartphone screens. And in threads, the mobile theme now has a narrower author-byline column and the fonts on mobile are 20 - 25 per cent smaller to fit better on phones.

The desktop/laptop version of the forum is the same except I have made the font 7 per cent larger. The default PunBB theme was built in a world where most computer screens were 1366x768 pixels; now the midpoint is 1920x1080 with higher end screens being 4K. Text is smaller on such high resolutions. A slight increase is helpful.

You may need to clear your cache if you want to see the updated theme right away.

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Nice to be back!

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This doesn't affect anything, but in the years before I started having people fill out a Google Form to register, we were getting several spam registrations a day. I recently went through the database and deleted all of those hundreds of ridiculous spam accounts.

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A number of posters, myself included, have experienced Internal Server Errors when trying to post. I've spoken with the hosting service. It seems that their highly protective security measures would incorrectly flag various post submissions as an HTTPS Smuggling Request Attack. The hosting service has created the necessary exceptions in their security functions for our posts, so we shouldn't be getting these error messages anymore. If it happens again, let me know at ireactions (at) gmail.com

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Hi, everyone. At Dreamhost's advice/encouragement, I updated the PHP on Sliders.tv. If this post posts, it means all is well, but please let me know if any anomalies appear. Thanks!