Hello again Sanctum Dwellers.
First, sorry about the impromptu vacation. No, none of you were banned (Not even you, you know who you are), it was a site error.
What happened?
TL;DR: James broke the site
The long story: So around noon, I was working on the Admin Control Panel and went to install an add-on. I won't say what it did, but it was an incredibly basic feature designed to help me rework some site prefixes. This is completely normal, Otys and I have done it probably a hundred times between us at this point. Press button, upload zip file, done.
This time, the site crashed.
So here is what happened. It turns out, the add-on was for a higher PHP version than the Sanctum is running. Normally, this isn't a problem, the site just pops an error message, I swear a bit and we schedule an update.
But, you see, dear dwellers, it turns out, unbeknownst to us (and for the record, to any admins of any Xenforo site), that compatibility warning is not part of the site software. It is a failsafe built into the add-ons themselves. But this add-on was special, because it was programmed by a moron. And not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill moron. I'm talking a "brain so smooth you could skip it across a pond" moron. Not only did he not include the failsafe, he didn't even put the PHP version requirements in the installation instructions. So when it was uploaded, everything immediately broke.
That was actually a fairly simple fix, just uninstall the add-on—but the crash also affected the Admin Panel, so we needed to access the server itself. As a result, we needed to wait the several hours for our friendly tech guy to get home, as he was the only one who had the key.
Some changes:
1. So, now that we know that add-ons do not in fact have safeguards, we will be reopening an old testing ground for future additions
2. We have plans to add a way to more easily access the backend of the site in an emergency
3. Long story short, this should never happen again
Additionally:
Back in 2016, we made a Facebook and a Twitter to make announcements during downtime (our server was a lot worse in those days). However, recent events have made both of these sites, well, completely useless
I had planned to address this at some point, in the downtime we agreed on a solution. Introducing: The Sanctum Announcements Discord (Link expires in one week): Join the Sanctum Announcements Server Discord Server!
To be clear: This is not a site Discord Server like you might have experience with. It has no chat right now, nor will it. We have seen the problems they have created for other sites and we are not touching that particular landmine. It will be used for only three reasons:
1. To provide a place for users to get updates during scheduled downtime
2. For site announcements
3. For emergencies
Join it and you can get occasional announcements, major and minor.
I will say this only once: Do not message other users off the server. The only exception is that you can use it to contact Admins. If we catch anyone doing it, the ban will be immediate and permanent. We maintain our rules and policy on off-site contact information, this server is exclusively intended as a replacement for now largely defunct social media platforms.
First, sorry about the impromptu vacation. No, none of you were banned (Not even you, you know who you are), it was a site error.
What happened?
TL;DR: James broke the site
The long story: So around noon, I was working on the Admin Control Panel and went to install an add-on. I won't say what it did, but it was an incredibly basic feature designed to help me rework some site prefixes. This is completely normal, Otys and I have done it probably a hundred times between us at this point. Press button, upload zip file, done.
This time, the site crashed.
So here is what happened. It turns out, the add-on was for a higher PHP version than the Sanctum is running. Normally, this isn't a problem, the site just pops an error message, I swear a bit and we schedule an update.
But, you see, dear dwellers, it turns out, unbeknownst to us (and for the record, to any admins of any Xenforo site), that compatibility warning is not part of the site software. It is a failsafe built into the add-ons themselves. But this add-on was special, because it was programmed by a moron. And not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill moron. I'm talking a "brain so smooth you could skip it across a pond" moron. Not only did he not include the failsafe, he didn't even put the PHP version requirements in the installation instructions. So when it was uploaded, everything immediately broke.
That was actually a fairly simple fix, just uninstall the add-on—but the crash also affected the Admin Panel, so we needed to access the server itself. As a result, we needed to wait the several hours for our friendly tech guy to get home, as he was the only one who had the key.
Some changes:
1. So, now that we know that add-ons do not in fact have safeguards, we will be reopening an old testing ground for future additions
2. We have plans to add a way to more easily access the backend of the site in an emergency
3. Long story short, this should never happen again
Additionally:
Back in 2016, we made a Facebook and a Twitter to make announcements during downtime (our server was a lot worse in those days). However, recent events have made both of these sites, well, completely useless
I had planned to address this at some point, in the downtime we agreed on a solution. Introducing: The Sanctum Announcements Discord (Link expires in one week): Join the Sanctum Announcements Server Discord Server!
To be clear: This is not a site Discord Server like you might have experience with. It has no chat right now, nor will it. We have seen the problems they have created for other sites and we are not touching that particular landmine. It will be used for only three reasons:
1. To provide a place for users to get updates during scheduled downtime
2. For site announcements
3. For emergencies
Join it and you can get occasional announcements, major and minor.
I will say this only once: Do not message other users off the server. The only exception is that you can use it to contact Admins. If we catch anyone doing it, the ban will be immediate and permanent. We maintain our rules and policy on off-site contact information, this server is exclusively intended as a replacement for now largely defunct social media platforms.
