ECF website – service update

[Michael Flatt]

Strictly, this should have been discussed at the last Council meeting

Why? This is an entirely operational issue. Why should Council need to be involved?

There was an Agenda item about Communications which would have been an appropriate time to discuss Communication Strategy, including the Website and Forum.

I would expect plans on development of IT services to be shared with Council. I am sure that they would be most supportive if kept informed.

Being so secretive about future plans only creates distrust.

[Michael Bennett]

One thing I'm curious about is that a couple of years ago, the grading website used to be able to take whatever was thrown at it. It didn't fall over (so far as I recall) when a new grading list was published. Now the grading website or the forum website appear to fall over when encountering a slight volume of traffic. So what's changed? Or is it my perception that's incorrect?

The grading website was rewritten from scratch after I handed it over to Jon a couple of years ago.

[Angus French]

The ECF Forum has moved (HT Richard James on Facebook).

Please will all forum users note – the ECF Forum has moved to —

http://31.193.4.46/~andreww/Forum/

in a more stable location. Please update your bookmarks, as the old version will be frozen shortly and not allow any more posting. Please also note – the changeover was done as quickly as humanly possible but if your post went astray, please repost …

Please also note – should you encounter any security warnings, you may proceed safely past them. The WM is currently in contact with the new hosts to smooth this procedure out …

[Angus French]

So, it looks to me as though the web host has changed from Zen to UKFast.

I don't claim expertise in this area, but I'm wondering if it would have been better to:
1) Suspend updates to the website
2) Set up on the new host including transfer of data
3) Redirect http://www.englishchess.org.uk/ to point to the new IP address
4) Resume updates?

Are other URLs such as the one for the grading website going to change?

[Brian Towers]

Hard coded IP addresses! I feel more than 20 years younger. It must be the early 90's again when the web was the preserve of the privileged few who had access to the arcane knowledge.

[Carl Hibbard]

Not the best way of doing things I agree.

[Carl Hibbard]

The ECF Forum has moved (HT Richard James on Facebook).

Please will all forum users note – the ECF Forum has moved to —

http://31.193.4.46/~andreww/Forum/

in a more stable location. Please update your bookmarks, as the old version will be frozen shortly and not allow any more posting. Please also note – the changeover was done as quickly as humanly possible but if your post went astray, please repost …

Please also note – should you encounter any security warnings, you may proceed safely past them. The WM is currently in contact with the new hosts to smooth this procedure out …

No real excuse for it being the same the following day it needs sorting.

[Roger de Coverly]

No real excuse for it being the same the following day it needs sorting.

The new hosting is by a Manchester based company UKFast

http://www.ukfast.co.uk/

I would have expected some background wizardry to make www.englishchess.co.uk/forum point at somewhere in the ukfast domains whilst www.englishchess.co.uk stays where it is for the time being (Zen Internet?) .

[Carl Hibbard]

No real excuse for it being the same the following day it needs sorting.

The new hosting is by a Manchester based company UKFast

http://www.ukfast.co.uk/

I would have expected some background wizardry to make http://www.englishchess.co.uk/forum point at somewhere in the ukfast domains whilst http://www.englishchess.co.uk stays where it is for the time being (Zen Internet?) .

You cannot actually do that well not easily as you only have one A record to play with.

[Brian Towers]

I would have expected some background wizardry to make http://www.englishchess.co.uk/forum point at somewhere in the ukfast domains whilst http://www.englishchess.co.uk stays where it is for the time being (Zen Internet?) .

I would have expected that from the start. The simple approach would be to have a simple redirect performed in whatever is executed when you navigate to http://www.englishchess.co.uk/forum . This is really just net programming 101.

[Carl Hibbard]

Not strictly correct either as sub domain was perhaps the only other option without moving the lot.

[JustinHorton]

Is the rating list currently available?

[John Upham]

Is the rating list currently available?

Yes

[Carl Hibbard]

I am enjoying the posts this morning over on the other place even if it still unbelievably an IP address after a week!

[JustinHorton]

If you're referring to the David Sedgwick/Chris Fegan (and others) exchanges, I find them a bit bizarre.

A few days and no response? Luxury. I seem to recall emailing Phil Ehr over an important issue and waiting more than two months (and two reminders) for a response. When I got the response its numbers didn't add up - but when I asked for clarification I received no reply at all.

A few days? A mere pinprick in time by normal standards.