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User Discussions => Other Discussion => Topic started by: rickmastfan67 on March 26, 2024, 08:51:16 am

Title: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on March 26, 2024, 08:51:16 am
I'm working on trying to get the AARoads forum into a usable state to open it up as fast as possible.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: Jim on March 26, 2024, 10:24:33 am
Figured I'd split this off in case rickmastfan67 or others want to post updates about the AARoads forum.  AARoads gave TM discussions a home as the old CHM forum was crumbling away and before we got this forum off the ground.  We can certainly provide some space for updates here if the AARoads Forum admins deem it appropriate.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: froggie on March 26, 2024, 10:31:35 am
SQL server issue as I understand it, yes/no?
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on March 26, 2024, 10:35:47 am
SQL server issue as I understand it, yes/no?

Was more than that.  However, I'm just about to reopen the forums after an insane night ironing out the bugs to get the forum ready to roll in the most basic setup (no forum themes for the time being as well).
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: froggie on March 26, 2024, 12:14:49 pm
Copy that.  Is there an intent to bring back themes?  I picked the one I did becausee it was easier to read with my eyes.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on March 26, 2024, 02:28:30 pm
Is there an intent to bring back themes?  I picked the one I did becausee it was easier to read with my eyes.

Yes, but it will take time, as new themes have to be created from scratch.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: Jim on July 31, 2024, 09:04:32 am
It looks like the aaroads.com domain is showing a domain parking page this morning (I assume not just for me).  AAroads admins are welcome to post any updates in this thread if they wish.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on July 31, 2024, 11:16:59 am
It looks like the aaroads.com domain is showing a domain parking page this morning (I assume not just for me).  AAroads admins are welcome to post any updates in this thread if they wish.

Beats me what happened.

Isn't the first time this has supposedly happened recently.
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=34840.0
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: CoreySamson on May 14, 2025, 11:09:34 am
Just curious to see what the current state of the AARoads Forum is right now concerning its battle with bots. For the past two days I've been getting a 403 Forbidden error. I assume some work is happening behind the scenes?
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on May 14, 2025, 08:38:29 pm
Might be awhile sadly, unless we can figure out a way to stop the bots from going crazy.  The bots were making the site crash every few minutes the other day, and Alex just couldn't keep up rebooting, and he had other stuff he needed to get done.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: vdeane on May 14, 2025, 09:25:18 pm
Are there any other places than here and Facebook for following roads stuff in the US/world?  The AARF was my primary source of everything, and Facebook makes groups cumbersome if you want to check them like forums rather than just view whatever posts the algorithm decides to put in your feed.  I've limited myself to 6 because that's what I can access easily with the left column shortcuts, and that only gets me the Northeast + Ontario and Québec.  Alas, it feels like the AARF might be "temporarily offline" in the same sense that some rest areas in NY have been "temporarily closed" since 2011.

Might be awhile sadly, unless we can figure out a way to stop the bots from going crazy.  The bots were making the site crash every few minutes the other day, and Alex just couldn't keep up rebooting, and he had other stuff he needed to get done.
Scott mentioned the thing the wiki is doing to try to combat them; how's that going and could that work for the forum?
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on May 15, 2025, 08:54:35 pm
AA Roads Forum is back up again. For now.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: pderocco on May 30, 2025, 01:44:09 am
Now it's back down again. This time, the entire domain is down, not just the forum. Doesn't even respond to a ping.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: osu-lsu on May 30, 2025, 05:56:26 pm
Evidently, it was back up as of 8:30 AM EDT.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: cenlaroads on June 16, 2025, 11:45:21 am
Does anyone have an update on when the forum will be working?  I'm still getting a 403 error when trying to access it.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: Markkos1992 on June 16, 2025, 12:22:04 pm
It just worked for me right now.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: Jim on June 16, 2025, 02:42:24 pm
I've been looking in off and on to AARoads all day today, no disruptions.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: cenlaroads on June 16, 2025, 06:42:50 pm
Weird.  I just tried it on my Linux machine and it was fine, but my desktop running Windows 7 still gets the 403 error.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: froggie on June 17, 2025, 04:14:10 pm
^ Clear your cache, maybe?  It's been working fine for me for several days.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: Jim on June 17, 2025, 08:01:27 pm
I think there was a mention about only current browsers being supported, which sounds like it could be an issue with Windows 7.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: cenlaroads on June 17, 2025, 09:16:57 pm
It's not the cache, but probably the browser.  I'm on Firefox Extended Support Release for Windows 7.  I probably should have realized that in the first place.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on June 18, 2025, 04:02:23 am
It's not the cache, but probably the browser.  I'm on Firefox Extended Support Release for Windows 7.  I probably should have realized that in the first place.

W7 isn't the reason w/ ESR Firefox.  I can get into the forums.  However, they just don't work right for some odd reason for the theme.

I know it shouldn't be like that, as the SMF website itself is working fine and it's running the same version as it.  Just not sure why yet.

Weird thing is this:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php = WORKS
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/ = 403

I'll have to talk to Alex about this.  Sounds like something he did in the backend of the site that I can't adjust.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on June 18, 2025, 07:49:09 pm
It's not the cache, but probably the browser.  I'm on Firefox Extended Support Release for Windows 7.  I probably should have realized that in the first place.

Install this mod: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/uaswitcher/
Override just aaroads when you try to load into it with any FF user agent, and you should be able to get the forums working correctly again.

I'm working with Alex to try to figure out why it's otherwise messing up without overriding the user-agent.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: vdeane on June 18, 2025, 09:26:37 pm
It's not the cache, but probably the browser.  I'm on Firefox Extended Support Release for Windows 7.  I probably should have realized that in the first place.

Install this mod: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/uaswitcher/
Override just aaroads when you try to load into it with any FF user agent, and you should be able to get the forums working correctly again.

I'm working with Alex to try to figure out why it's otherwise messing up without overriding the user-agent.
Didn't he say something about blocking old OSes due to the bots?  It sounds familiar for some reason.
Title: Re: AARoads Forum
Post by: rickmastfan67 on June 18, 2025, 09:31:59 pm
It's not the cache, but probably the browser.  I'm on Firefox Extended Support Release for Windows 7.  I probably should have realized that in the first place.

Install this mod: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/uaswitcher/
Override just aaroads when you try to load into it with any FF user agent, and you should be able to get the forums working correctly again.

I'm working with Alex to try to figure out why it's otherwise messing up without overriding the user-agent.
Didn't he say something about blocking old OSes due to the bots?  It sounds familiar for some reason.

Not that I can recall, but who knows.