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Www.largeformatphotography down for the count?

Canis lupus

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Canis lupus

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choiliefan

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I haven't been able to access the LF site for quite awhile.
Did I miss something tragic?
 
LFF has been down (and sometimes up) for several months now. Their website wasn't built as spam-proof and bot-proof as photrio, thanks to @Sean and the mods here. There is a surge of bots scraping user generated content sites, for AI training data.
 
The weekend works for me; I guess we'll just have to wait until they migrate the forum to a new platform.
They said they were working on it, but didn't give a timeline...
 
Haven't tried today
But it had been getting faster and more reliable
 
Another reason to look forward to the weekend.
 
Early morning/late afternoon US EST, the site is pretty available.

BUT, during the course of the working day for the USA, it is jammed by bots and scrapers.
 
I typically have problems with LFF earlier in the day, here on the West Coast. Worked fine today. But lately I've suddenly had problems with all kinds of sites, probably due to enhanced security concerns at some level, including my own web provider. "Tragic" can take on whole other level of connotation when the potential for cyber-warfare is a real concern, not to mention all the typical crookery going on day by day. Quite a number of sites have had to restructure before my provider's (AT&T) firewall would let them pass through.
 
The bots are done for the day. The site is back. It's a bit slow because it's been a tiring day. Y'all can relax now...
 
Ive been on it several times this last few weeks and did not notice any cyber ills.

I'll be glad to hear when it's 100% for all its users here and elsewhere.
 
Some overlap, including we participants; but in other ways, there are some real and appreciated differences between LFF and Photrio. LF devotees really needs their own dedicated site, along with, well, er, a less tight rein on comment style, since there's a smaller sampling of people involved, and if anything, even stronger opinions, balanced out by the fact we get to know each other better in the long run, despite some bare knuckles episodes like the heated "pyro wars" of a couple decades ago.

It's also good to have its own classified section. Equip sales listing are often duplicated between the sites; but again, a difference in emphasis, and knowing who's who.
 
  • Franklee
  • Franklee
  • Deleted
  • Reason: inflammatory, rude and dismissive and unnecessary
  • DREW WILEY
  • Deleted
  • Reason: response to deleted post
I feel for them, it can be a real nightmare.

Having a look at the site, off the top of my head I would do the following:

-Get a fully managed VPS server at Liquidweb, $100/month for a decent enough spec (I couldn't be more happy with these folks)
-migrate the current vbulletin site to the new server and just get it back up and running while next steps are worked on
next steps:
-obtain a xenforo license and setup a xenforo dev environment on the new server
-obtain migration scripts and run some vbulletin to xenforo database migration tests
-if testing looks good, install a production xenforo build
-on the production xenforo build, install spam tools/prevention stack, akismet, expanded moderator tools, adjust spam settings, create promotional groups to hinder spammers, etc
-install elastisearch to get searches out of the db
-config caching and performance tweaks
-lock the old vbulletin site
-run db migration script to xenforo
-old site is now migrated to xenforo, cleanup/adjust permissions and run final checks
-re-open the site
-adjust any redirects (so any old weblinks find the new paths)
-setup the subscriber system so you can manage some of the VPS, xenforo license, akismet license costs
-setup 2x daily db backups and off-site rsync of files

I probably left a few things out, but it is generally how I would sort it out.
 
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As Nopo said, we are working on it, but we don't have the (human) bandwidth to get it done overnight. We will post updates as soon as we have something material to report.

Apologies for the ongoing hassles... we appreciate everyone's patience and understanding, and also the opportunity to post the occasional response or update here at times when we're down.
 
Thanks for setting people's minds at ease on this @Oren Grad, and good luck with whatever needs to be done at this point to get the site to run reliably. It's evidently considered as an invaluable resource; hopefully that serves as a solid motivational factor!
 
Is LFF funded by donations like photrio is?
I believe I tried to register a while back but failed. It’s still a place I frequent a lot from web searches. Makes me appreciate how well maintained photrio is.
 
7:40 am PST Just tried LFF.
"The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later."
Up and down like a yo-yo for quite sometime.
It's a daily running fire drill for the folks running the show at LFF.
That's got to get old real fast.
 
As Nopo said, we are working on it, but we don't have the (human) bandwidth to get it done overnight. We will post updates as soon as we have something material to report.

Apologies for the ongoing hassles... we appreciate everyone's patience and understanding, and also the opportunity to post the occasional response or update here at times when we're down.

Have you considered doing what Sean suggests? It doesn't sound expensive, but perhaps (volunteer) labor-intensive.
 
I can log in, but when I click on "New Posts" all I get is a server too busy message. Bern that way for a few days now.
 
Yes, it seems almost as if someone is reading this exchange and decided to knock the site offline.

Busy at all hours, all times now...
 
At least the server responds! I take that message as the equivalent of a static “Out of the office; be back soon” sign.
 
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