Site updates in 2018

[Sysadmin]

Hello all,

As I am sure most of you have noticed, I have taken a more hands-off approach as of late, and focusing more time and effort on the site infrastructure. In the last few years, we've transferred from decent trustworthy hosting to now hosting ourselves in a different country. We have done lots of backend updates (moved to newer PHP versions, MySQL versions, Nginx, etc).

Now, I am here to talk to you about our latest updates:

• Dual-encrypted backups: We backup to 2 separates sources hourly, and encrypt all of our backups. It is worth noting, we have not had to restore a backup in quite some time, but it never hurt to be cautious.
• We have updated to the lastest Invison Power Suite software, 4.3 . This now allows us to have these new features:
  • New payment methods for subscriptions/donations: Google Pay, Apple Pay, Alipay, and the traditional credit cards and BitcoinPay are still available.
  • Better VIP system for those that use it.
  • Overall performance improvements.
  • Better search system using ElasticSearch.
  • Some new emojii (I know you were all waiting on this).
  • More reaction types (upvotes, downvotes, and emojii that count as reputation points).
  • Posts that have received lots of positive reputation are now automatically highlighted.
• We brought all our server software and kernel patches up to the latest versions, which includes various improvements (mostly security).
• Up until yesterday, our server had an uptime of over 365 days, something I personally as a nerd am proud of
• We only reported a few of you to the NSA.... (relax, I am just checking your attention span. I mean, why are you even reading at this point bro )
• We added some more bugs to annoy you. 
• Enyby is mad at me, send help 

Things to look forward to in the future:

• Multiple server hosting/load balancing. This should take the load off of our one server, while also enabling us to deliver content and downloads to you much faster.
• VIP rework/update. VIP is no longer about hidden/restricted content. It is more about continually supporting the site. However, I still want to have some sweet perks for those that help us.
• New logo/theme. I am currently looking for a designer to work with (if you are interested, send your portfolio along my way).
• Dark theme.  Implemented for VIP.
• Automatic content moderation (still to be implemented).  Implemented.

Here's to giving back more power to you, and less from those greedy lootboxing developers
- d2dyno

Edited May 23, 2018 by d2dyno
Implemented dark theme

[NoFear]

Is that for real? 365 days uptime? That's really impressive.

Lol at the things towards the end. 

Nice to see forum is doing well. Keep up the good work.

[Sysadmin]

Just now, NoFear said:

Is that for real? 365 days uptime? That's really impressive.

Lol at the things towards the end. 

Nice to see forum is doing well. Keep up the good work.

Yes, that is the real server uptime. It was a few weeks past that number, but I don't recall the exact figure.

I appreciate it, glad to see you still love me

[NoFear]

Just now, d2dyno said:

Yes, that is the real server uptime. It was a few weeks past that number, but I don't recall the exact figure.

I appreciate it, glad to see you still love me ">

Always and forever. Without you and Enyby I would have lots of free time...... Wait....  Hmmm....

The only app I leave open on my device 24/7. 

[geribaldi]

Whoooohooooooo. ViP section updated.....

 

VOTE FOR SELLING PREMIUM LUA SCRIPTS TO FILL THAT SECTION FAST

[gio117]

What was I doing reading at that point?

[Noirdua]

Thank you! The dev team and anyone working on this project are smart as *****. Seriously, that work takes some serious skills. Since you are working more hands off now, it would be godly if you could create more "in-depth tutorials" for us peasants. I've watched a few of your videos and they get the job done, I just want to know why it works and how, as that's how I learn. Much appreciated either way and long live GG

[Backlift]

On 5/21/2018 at 6:16 AM, d2dyno said:

• Enyby is mad at me, send help 

We are here men  

Just ask for any help

[danilo_scala]

nice.. fantastic.. thanks

[Sysadmin]

Some more updates:

• Our new downloads server is online and has been serving you the past few days. Enyby and I worked closely on getting this up, be sure to thank him! This will help keep site speed high, and mitigate some high bandwidth usage we had.
• Multiple backend security improvements.
• Improved caching methods in nginx, and updated nginx versions for faster loading.
• Hide user avatars on frontpage to improve main page loading. This reduces size to load to ~820KB, down from 1.3MB
• Some more SSL improvements (Gotta love keeping that green A+ SSL rating).
• Our privacy policy was already compliant with GDPR, in case you were curious.

I think that in and of itself is a lot of improvements. I am also currently tinkering with 2 new servers, in 2 different countries to eventually try to achieve a triple-server load-balancer. This will be great for site speed and also less downtime. ETA on this is unknown, as I have to learn a few new systems.