French Car Forum

The forum is due for a software update on several components, including the PHP engine, the forum core software and several forum extensions. I have been doing preparatory work on this for a few weeks, and I think that all of the packages are ready.
I intend to start on this this week, which will require the forum to be offline for several hours...

I identified what appears to be a small syntax error in the forum software which appears to have been upsetting the Google search bot. I have (temporarily) applied a patch to see if it makes any difference.

If I have done it correctly, there will be no difference in behaviour for normal users, but I thought that I should warn you just in case......

I need to make some configuration changes to this site's security certificate over the next few days.

If all goes well, there will be no impact for users, but there is a small possibility that the reconfiguration will cause some temporary problems, leading to security warnings from browsers.

There seems to be some issues with the Forum display size at present (certainly for desktop users). We are aware of the problem and hopefully it will only be a temporary issue.

About 70% of posts won't open for me, the progress bar stops at around 10% yet other posts open right away, is this a known problem?

I need to reconfigure the server to use more current maintenance streams of some of the software applications.

This may take a couple of hours. I will attempt to do this tomorrow morning.

:? :? :? :? :? :? :? :?
That link took me to a discussion on Bagatelle? Am I being thick? :)

As per subject.
As at 10.15pm UK time, when I use 'quote' function, all I get in the text box is (example):

No text is present in the text box to edit.

Edit - Also getting the 'debug' script at the top of the page as per previous issue.

Second edit - quote function working in some posts and not others. Debug info visible in some, not...

This particular session and on some other sessions I have noticed some techy monitoring/error type messages appearing in bold at the top of my screen. Here's one

PHP Notice: in file /ext/v12mike/imageredirect/event/listener.php on line 53: Undefined offset: 1

I seem to be able to complete what I need to do.

Also occasionally the quote function...

The forum is currently unreachable via ipv4, but working normally via ipv6.

Our hosting company is aware of the issue and are working to mitigate a sophisticated DDoS attack on their network, not aimed at our site.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as...

see if this works start a new topic see if i can make a post without getting the topic doesnt exist message.

Edit 1

answer yes I can! fooled the system. Seeing as its a brand new post of course its not going to exist until I press submit. But can anyone actually reply to it once its created without getting the messsage

the topic doesnt exist...

I often use the quote button to reply to posts.

Got a message when trying to replying to a couple of Mickthemaverick's posts just now. Logging out and back in again and not quoting I managed to post a reply....odd never happened before

I have failed to screen print the message but it was something like the requested post does not exist

I will...

Hi all

Since I changed my computer I am not getting any post notifications, probably something silly I have done - or not done. Can you help.

Thanks

Peter

Ok so the boot wont open on my 2013 1.5 dci megane. It's not the motor and I dont think it's the switch because when all the doors are locked, the central locking disengages when you press it. Looking under the boot panel, there a cable for the tailgate motor (which is connected) and the switch cable is also connected. The mystery is theres a 3rd...

We cannot currently deliver notification or registration emails to users with @outlook.com an @hotmail.com email addresses.

This is due to Microsoft having designated our server as being a junk mail source, apparently because some users have been moving our notification emails to their 'junk' folders.

There appears to be nothing that we can do...

As part of the work being done to improve the deliverability of emails, I have made some changes to the system for unsubscribing from email notifications.

These changes are to ensure stricter compliance with RFC2369 and RFC8058 (which are the internet standards for such things), there are also some additions for Microsoft-specific rules which are...

On Thursday morning the forum will be offline for an hour or so while I attempt to install an improved email unsubscription system as part of the work to get emails flowing to Hotmail, Outlook and other Microsoft mail systems.

Not sure of the exact timing, but I intend to have it done by 9:30 am UK time.

I have been advised that our hosting company will be taking our server off-line to replace the CPU cooler and some SSD drives. The shut-down should start about 10:45 and last about 90 minutes.

I need to perform a database engine upgrade on the server. I will do this one morning this week, probably Tuesday.
I am not sure how long the process will take, but it should not be more than an hour or two.

Due some issues which I have just been made aware of, I will postpone this upgrade for a couple of weeks!

I am trialling some minor changes to the forum layout.

Today's change should only affect the layout of the forum header bar. The buttons have moved back inside the image (where they were until I moved them outside of the image last year).

You may need to clear your browser cache (ctrl-f5 on a PC) to actually see any change.

On some phones,...

The forum was off-line for several hours this evening due to a database corruption on the server.

Despite repeated attempts, I was unable to recover the posts made today and it has been necessary to revert to the backup made early on the morning of 26/05/2019.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this data loss.

It is likely that a...

Our hosting provider is installing some security updates, and will be taking our server off-line for a short period some time on Tuesday.

They are not giving a scheduled time, so it will happen when it happens...

This site should restart itself cleanly after the reboot.

With the update today to phpBB 3.2.7, support for remotely hosted avatars has been dropped. This is apparently due to a security issue (I am not responsible).

Users now have a choice of:
A locally uploaded avatar
A remote avatar hosted on Gravatar
No avatar.

Over the next week or so I will be making some adjustments to the configuration of this server, and installing some application software updates.

There will be some brief disruptions to normal operation, but these should only last a few minutes. I will be carrying out this work between 7am and 4pm UK time.

As there are several different tasks...

The forum was unexpectedly off-line for about 90 minutes today.

The logs show that the server was manually shut-down, but it was not by any of our admins. I am seeking more information from the hosting company.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

For those of you who use Photobucket as an image hosting provider, you may be aware that as of 28th June 2017, Photobucket changed their TOS (Terms of Service).

As a result, they have now locked all hosted images unless you upgrade to a paid account. This means that for users who have previously added image links from Photobucket from basic /...

Not an everyday sight

Did a general search and got over 100 pages in the result, skimmed over titles on first page to the bottom, hit next page, and it just reloaded the first. Can't seem to view any other pages, it just reloads the same first page regardless which page I click. Anyone else have this problem?

One way or another I can usually frame a search query to get what I want but have to admit I'm stuck.

I have started a new thread with the view of occasionally digging up the posts made on a particular date, selecting one, and bringing it forward into the thread......yes complete madness. When you do look back though there has been some...

I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish all my French Car Forum Colleagues and Members a Peaceful and Happy Christmas. :Santa:

If you don't celebrate Christmas, have a great holiday period, and if you're not having a holiday, keep calm and carry on. :-D

Best wishes

Marc

Anyone having issues with image uploads?

Today I've uploaded a couple and they're showing as in the below screenshot - if it works...

Screenshot_20181120-191548.jpg

Is this just a local issue here or is there something odd going on?

I think my PM's stopped working.

I was in the middle of a conversation awaiting a response to my last sent on 1st Nov.

Just now, I'd thought I'd check my Outbox to see if it might not have been read yet but there was nothing showing.
I then checked my Sent Messages and my reply was not there either.

Ok, perhaps I messed up, better re-reply to...

About a week ago, I made and saved a draft post, which I later edited and posted, I started getting the error message The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again. . Clicking Submit again is always successful but this error pops up with every message I now make.

Whether the cause was due to the draft creation, I don't know but thought I'd...

This forum was down for about 5 hours this morning (1/10/2018).

The exact cause of the failure is not clear yet, but while attempting to resolve a server performance issue, it was found that the forum database was corrupted and has been subsequently restored from backup. This process took rather longer than normal.

Fortunately the failure...

The forum has been intermittently a bit slow for the part couple of days, but tonight it is at times unusable.

As far as I can tell at present, this is due to an abnormally high number of hits on the forum (maybe 200x our usual load).

I am monitoring the situation, and will update this when more is known.

Having just posted that, the server...

I have updated the Post Like extension on this forum. There are a few background changes, but you will notice that the Like button has moved up to the row of buttons at the top of each post.

Let me know if this causes any problems.

You can do me a favour, and click the Like button for this post, just to test what it looks like when the number...

The FCF Forum will be off-line for about 2 hours on Tuesday morning for a software upgrade and database maintenance.

I don't have firm start or finish times, but it should begin some time between 5am and 7am UK time.

I have adjusted the server software to improve the efficiency of processing image links. There is a chance (I hope small) that some links may not be handled correcctly.

If you see any browser warnings for insecure content, or if any images seem to have suddenly disappeared, please let me know here.

After some consideration and some external queries, the Team have decided to add a DS Automobiles technical sub-forum to the site.

DS Automobiles Sub-Forum

Although many of the engines and systems are identical to the Citroen and Peugeot marques, we felt it was about time there was a dedicated section.

The eagle-eyed among you may notice a few minor changes to the FCF forum. I have been making a few changes, partly addressing some issues that had previously had short-term patches applied, and partly in preparation for a forum software upgrade that I expect to happen in the next month or two.

The changes are:

The Google site-search facility...

I have had a couple of reports recently of emails from the forum going into spam or junk folders. We have gone to some trouble to ensure that our email server has a good reputation, and implements currently recommended security measures, but some email providers have strange algorithms for determining what is spam.

It probably only affects one or...

I have enabled a software extension on this forum that allow easier use of mathematical and other symbols in posts.

You will see a group of tabs above the block of smilies in the editor window.

These select sets of symbols, which are inserted when the corresponding button in the table is clicked.

The feature is experimental, and I may...