Trade Deadline Outage

[ReasonablySober]

There's no bigger issue with the site than the lack of Bluesky embedding. Any word on that?

There appears to be an available solution. We'll add it to our to-do list and report back.

Thank you!

[El Turco]

Perhaps getting rid of the useless video highlights would help. It’s 2025, no one is going to a forum to watch daily highlights and recaps.

This, and that dumb play by play that you can't exit on the nfl forum.

The NFL forum play-by-play has been removed.

Much appreciated.

[CR Reina]

We sincerely apologize for the forum outages this week. This has been a frustrating few days where we had a brief outage on Wednesday and then a total outage for several hours at the trade deadline. Of all days to have an outage, this is obviously one of the worst, especially right as the trade deadline is wrapping and everyone wants to discuss it.

Our server host had issues with the increased demand and the alarms in place to fix it did not reach them for several hours. We were scrambling behind the scenes to bring them back live, but it took entirely too long for it to be fixed. More importantly, it shouldn't go down at all. This was a common occurrence at the trade deadline and draft approximately 20 years ago, but we've taken a number of steps to improve site performance over the years and it hasn't happened recently. We thought the forums could withstand the traffic, but we were clearly wrong.

We are already in the process of upgrading the servers and putting more failsafes in place for situations like this. We will also be asking for more feedback for other ways we can more broadly improve the user experience on the forums.

We've completed a number of fixes and we have complete confidence that the issue we experienced during trade deadline week has been permanently resolved. We have made several upgrades over the years to maximize how this forum is hosted. Because the software this forum is build upon is old, our host has had to develop custom solutions. This specific issue we experienced was due to a software issue that is very rare and was never apparent until we had this recent surge in traffic. Now that it was discovered, it has been fixed and we can continue to run the forums without issue at even three times our peak usage at the trade deadline, draft and free agency.

[genius-]

We sincerely apologize for the forum outages this week. This has been a frustrating few days where we had a brief outage on Wednesday and then a total outage for several hours at the trade deadline. Of all days to have an outage, this is obviously one of the worst, especially right as the trade deadline is wrapping and everyone wants to discuss it.

Our server host had issues with the increased demand and the alarms in place to fix it did not reach them for several hours. We were scrambling behind the scenes to bring them back live, but it took entirely too long for it to be fixed. More importantly, it shouldn't go down at all. This was a common occurrence at the trade deadline and draft approximately 20 years ago, but we've taken a number of steps to improve site performance over the years and it hasn't happened recently. We thought the forums could withstand the traffic, but we were clearly wrong.

We are already in the process of upgrading the servers and putting more failsafes in place for situations like this. We will also be asking for more feedback for other ways we can more broadly improve the user experience on the forums.

We've completed a number of fixes and we have complete confidence that the issue we experienced during trade deadline week has been permanently resolved. We have made several upgrades over the years to maximize how this forum is hosted. Because the software this forum is build upon is old, our host has had to develop custom solutions. This specific issue we experienced was due to a software issue that is very rare and was never apparent until we had this recent surge in traffic. Now that it was discovered, it has been fixed and we can continue to run the forums without issue at even three times our peak usage at the trade deadline, draft and free agency.

are there any plans to update the forums to a more modern layout?

[bwgood77]

[ Now that it was discovered, it has been fixed and we can continue to run the forums without issue at even three times our peak usage at the trade deadline, draft and free agency.

Thanks for this. Curious, is there any way to easily add a dark mode option?

[SuperDeluxe]

[ Now that it was discovered, it has been fixed and we can continue to run the forums without issue at even three times our peak usage at the trade deadline, draft and free agency.

Thanks for this. Curious, is there any way to easily add a dark mode option?

If you're on Chrome, download the Dark Reader plug-in.

[bwgood77]

Thanks for this. Curious, is there any way to easily add a dark mode option?

If you're on Chrome, download the Dark Reader plug-in.

Thanks. That helps a lot with pages that don't have dark mode. Glad to know this was there.

[paulpressey25]

are there any plans to update the forums to a more modern layout?

As someone who has to deal with new layouts and menu bars from Microsoft and Apple every six-months, I appreciate the fact this site has the same consistent look and feel. It’s home.

I’d just love if they’d ditch the video link and bring back the wiretap at the top.

[CR Reina]

are there any plans to update the forums to a more modern layout?

As someone who has to deal with new layouts and menu bars from Microsoft and Apple every six-months, I appreciate the fact this site has the same consistent look and feel. It’s home.

I’d just love if they’d ditch the video link and bring back the wiretap at the top.

We generally agree that modernizing the look and feel of the forums would be a net negative at this point. Over the coming weeks, we will be working on some enhancements around the menu bar to make it more user friendly, especially on mobile, and also add BlueSky if that is possible. We will also consider moving the Wiretap headlines back up the page.

[G_K_F]

We sincerely apologize for the forum outages this week. This has been a frustrating few days where we had a brief outage on Wednesday and then a total outage for several hours at the trade deadline. Of all days to have an outage, this is obviously one of the worst, especially right as the trade deadline is wrapping and everyone wants to discuss it.

Our server host had issues with the increased demand and the alarms in place to fix it did not reach them for several hours. We were scrambling behind the scenes to bring them back live, but it took entirely too long for it to be fixed. More importantly, it shouldn't go down at all. This was a common occurrence at the trade deadline and draft approximately 20 years ago, but we've taken a number of steps to improve site performance over the years and it hasn't happened recently. We thought the forums could withstand the traffic, but we were clearly wrong.

We are already in the process of upgrading the servers and putting more failsafes in place for situations like this. We will also be asking for more feedback for other ways we can more broadly improve the user experience on the forums.

We've completed a number of fixes and we have complete confidence that the issue we experienced during trade deadline week has been permanently resolved. We have made several upgrades over the years to maximize how this forum is hosted. Because the software this forum is build upon is old, our host has had to develop custom solutions. This specific issue we experienced was due to a software issue that is very rare and was never apparent until we had this recent surge in traffic. Now that it was discovered, it has been fixed and we can continue to run the forums without issue at even three times our peak usage at the trade deadline, draft and free agency.

This is great but an honest question for you - why are you still using old software?

I’m dumbfounded why in 2025 we are using forward from 2005. Is there a particular reason for this?

We still have emoji reactions dating back from the AIM days, etc. Feels very dated.

I enjoy the forum very much. Just want to get a general sense of why it can't be modernized. It would make many aspects smoother.

[G_K_F]

are there any plans to update the forums to a more modern layout?

As someone who has to deal with new layouts and menu bars from Microsoft and Apple every six-months, I appreciate the fact this site has the same consistent look and feel. It’s home.

I’d just love if they’d ditch the video link and bring back the wiretap at the top.

I understand your point but there is a difference between an update every 6 months and an interface and emojis and such looking exactly the same for 20 years.

I love nostalgia and I love using the wayback machine to visit old webpages but I don’t wish to be using those same webpages in 2025.

[Duffman100]

We sincerely apologize for the forum outages this week. This has been a frustrating few days where we had a brief outage on Wednesday and then a total outage for several hours at the trade deadline. Of all days to have an outage, this is obviously one of the worst, especially right as the trade deadline is wrapping and everyone wants to discuss it.

Our server host had issues with the increased demand and the alarms in place to fix it did not reach them for several hours. We were scrambling behind the scenes to bring them back live, but it took entirely too long for it to be fixed. More importantly, it shouldn't go down at all. This was a common occurrence at the trade deadline and draft approximately 20 years ago, but we've taken a number of steps to improve site performance over the years and it hasn't happened recently. We thought the forums could withstand the traffic, but we were clearly wrong.

We are already in the process of upgrading the servers and putting more failsafes in place for situations like this. We will also be asking for more feedback for other ways we can more broadly improve the user experience on the forums.

We've completed a number of fixes and we have complete confidence that the issue we experienced during trade deadline week has been permanently resolved. We have made several upgrades over the years to maximize how this forum is hosted. Because the software this forum is build upon is old, our host has had to develop custom solutions. This specific issue we experienced was due to a software issue that is very rare and was never apparent until we had this recent surge in traffic. Now that it was discovered, it has been fixed and we can continue to run the forums without issue at even three times our peak usage at the trade deadline, draft and free agency.

This is great but an honest question for you - why are you still using old software?

I’m dumbfounded why in 2025 we are using forward from 2005. Is there a particular reason for this?

We still have emoji reactions dating back from the AIM days, etc. Feels very dated.

I enjoy the forum very much. Just want to get a general sense of why it can't be modernized. It would make many aspects smoother.

I don't know the exact answer but I can speak as someone who's done a lot of upgrades like this.

Simple answer, sometimes its not easy. It could be that it's pretty far behind on updates and might require site downtime with risks.

Downtime combined with layout shift could see churn.

[MickeyDavis]

Who cares if it looks the same or the emojis are the same? We come here for basketball talk not emojis. And it looks fine (I also prefer Wiretap on top). Just keep the site running smoothly (I know that's being worked on) and we're good.

[lion6554]

Spam

[eyeatoma]

I know this would take a lot of work to migrate, but my biggest request, and one I've mentioned before is to change the server platform from PHPBB to something more modern like this site www.overclock.net.

I don't know what would entail in getting this done, but it would really improve the functionality of the site, and would bring new users as well. With social media being the main way we consume content a more modern forum hosting UI would be appropriate as PHPBB is in the dark ages.

[eyeatoma]

Who cares if it looks the same or the emojis are the same? We come here for basketball talk not emojis. And it looks fine (I also prefer Wiretap on top). Just keep the site running smoothly (I know that's being worked on) and we're good.

This platform is not mobile friendly. It does not have a dark mode, it has one of the worst apps out there, that just crashed for months on end. There are tons of reasons to migrate to a new site. People can be fine with the old system, but saying that just keep things the way they are so the site runs smoothly is a bit of a copout.

The servers crash frequently during the draft and trades. The ads on here are obscene, where it prevents you from interacting with the site. None of the buttons work to embed media content, if they do, its a mystery the the majority of the users. I can't even put on a gif properly, and that's one of the most basic integrations.

[eyeatoma]

are there any plans to update the forums to a more modern layout?

As someone who has to deal with new layouts and menu bars from Microsoft and Apple every six-months, I appreciate the fact this site has the same consistent look and feel. It’s home.

I’d just love if they’d ditch the video link and bring back the wiretap at the top.

We generally agree that modernizing the look and feel of the forums would be a net negative at this point. Over the coming weeks, we will be working on some enhancements around the menu bar to make it more user friendly, especially on mobile, and also add BlueSky if that is possible. We will also consider moving the Wiretap headlines back up the page.

Would this be something that can be voted on sitewide? I feel like many people would welcome a modernized feel. Again I get it would be a lot of work, but I've been on a bunch of forums that have transitioned.

[eyeatoma]

are there any plans to update the forums to a more modern layout?

As someone who has to deal with new layouts and menu bars from Microsoft and Apple every six-months, I appreciate the fact this site has the same consistent look and feel. It’s home.

I’d just love if they’d ditch the video link and bring back the wiretap at the top.

That's Apple and Microsoft. This is realgm, and they haven't made any big changes since I've joined. If a big one were to be made, I think we're pretty safe on it not being updated 6 months later.

[eyeatoma]

We sincerely apologize for the forum outages this week. This has been a frustrating few days where we had a brief outage on Wednesday and then a total outage for several hours at the trade deadline. Of all days to have an outage, this is obviously one of the worst, especially right as the trade deadline is wrapping and everyone wants to discuss it.

Our server host had issues with the increased demand and the alarms in place to fix it did not reach them for several hours. We were scrambling behind the scenes to bring them back live, but it took entirely too long for it to be fixed. More importantly, it shouldn't go down at all. This was a common occurrence at the trade deadline and draft approximately 20 years ago, but we've taken a number of steps to improve site performance over the years and it hasn't happened recently. We thought the forums could withstand the traffic, but we were clearly wrong.

We are already in the process of upgrading the servers and putting more failsafes in place for situations like this. We will also be asking for more feedback for other ways we can more broadly improve the user experience on the forums.

We've completed a number of fixes and we have complete confidence that the issue we experienced during trade deadline week has been permanently resolved. We have made several upgrades over the years to maximize how this forum is hosted. Because the software this forum is build upon is old, our host has had to develop custom solutions. This specific issue we experienced was due to a software issue that is very rare and was never apparent until we had this recent surge in traffic. Now that it was discovered, it has been fixed and we can continue to run the forums without issue at even three times our peak usage at the trade deadline, draft and free agency.

Could this not be another reason to migrate to a modern platform. If custom solutions needs to be created, I'm sure that's extremely time consuming, and doesn't allow for a lot of modern integration that many forums have.

[eyeatoma]

[ Now that it was discovered, it has been fixed and we can continue to run the forums without issue at even three times our peak usage at the trade deadline, draft and free agency.

Thanks for this. Curious, is there any way to easily add a dark mode option?

If you're on Chrome, download the Dark Reader plug-in.

Not the same. Dark reader is a bit of a hack job.