A new pool forum

[SeanB.]

Hey, I just wanted to let eveyone know that in the abscence of Ben and in the inability for new members to join here, I have set up a new forum. I think I paid homage to this site, but I have tried not to duplicate it. I hope that it will have the same kind of active participation but with it's own flair. I hope to emphasize not only pool care but also just enjoying backyard living.

Anyway, the site is: http://www.troublefreepool.com/. Just pm me from my site since this one set to only allow 2 and mine seems to stay full.

I certainly think there is room for more than one great pool forum and like the rest of you, am not sure of the future of this site.

[SeanB.]

I just wanted to thank everyone who has stopped by the new site. I appreciate the positive words and feedback and hopefully the site is getting better each day.

Like all of you, I don't want to see all of these great members and content disappear. I don't want to plagiarize and won't copy material without permision, but if any of you who were the original creators of some of the fact filled stickies would like them duplicated on my site for posterity, PLEASE let me know and I'll be happy to get them up.

Sean
www.troublefreepool.com

[CanuckPool]

Are people starting to make the trek to other pool forums??

I am seeing a decrease (or at least it seems to me) in the number of postings on this forum. Are people starting to abandon ship? Should I be posting questions and looking up answers over 3 forums now? I get the sinking feeling by the summer this forum will be dead.

[waste]

CP, I for one will not abandon this forum until the day comes that I try to log on and it's not here! Yes, I've registered on the other 2 new 'splinter' forums and will participate on them as time allows (I'm going back to my pool job soon and I usually work 10 - 12 hrs/ day Mon - Sat and try to get at least 9 holes of golf in on Sun), but this forum will be my first priority when time to 'play on the computer' is limited (I also have a wife and dog who need a certain amt of my time).

If more people feel like you (in wanting to leave because Ben has been MIA for a few months), then perhaps the forum is doomed. HOWEVER (!), this forum is the starting point for the other 2 and it was Ben who started this forum and provided us all the information which has made this one soooo popular and benificial! I believe that Falken and SeanB started their sites ONLY to provide us a meeting place in the event that this one disappears and to allow folks who can not register here access to the folks and info that poolsolutions/ forum provides. We don't know why Ben has been absent so long, and not meeting his test kit obligations - but he at least left us with Lisa, Janet, Carl and Al, who are maintaining the site quite well, and the forum IS STILL HERE!
I, as well as many others, hope and pray that all will turn out well for Ben and he will come back and make everything right with the forum! (and if he needs a little $$, everyone who saved money by not having to call out the 'pool pros' should send a few bucks to him!). In the mean while, the other forums allow us (poolforum members) the opportunity to help those who can't access this site.

[CanuckPool]

Thanks waste, thats a good point you bring up about future members at least having somewhere to go and ask questions. Its always good to have new members, even if they are not as experienced (like me) they do bring their own enthusiasm and knowledge to the forums, or sometimes they bring a new problem that has never been seen.

Do you know if BEn has to pay for the upkeep of this site or is it a free service?

[SeanB.]

I'm not really viewing my site as a "back-up" site. I think it has it's own style and hopefully some appeal but you are absolutely correct that the idea started here at PF and I would probably never had made a forum if Ben were still maintaining this one. We all owe him a lot and I admire the loyalty of the mods and members. Heck, I still haven't bought a good test kit because I was hoping he would start selling his again. But I'm not going to wait for the water to turn green before I go get one.

Even as just a resource to search through, this is a great site and the members and mods who are still participating are fantastic. I hope Ben makes a triumphant return, new members can join and all will be right with the world. However, if that happens I do hope that people will continue to visit my site as well. I'm not trying to be PFII and I hope no one feels that way.

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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[sevver]

there is currently a login problem there sir.

[SeanB.]

there is currently a login problem there sir.

Should be working. Sent you an e-mail.

Anyone else have any issues, not being able to get setup or anythig?

[sevver]

Odd, I just deleted all my cookies, and it worked after that...:rolleyes:

[waste]

Sean, I meant no insult nor slur for the new sites, I think it's great to have different venues for the info. I'll support all (at this time) 3. There are quite a few different forums for pools out there (I couldn't stand the others that I joined, just because they don't have the BBB menality and are poorly 'topic-ed') I came to this site because I don't know all the answers I need to have for my boss' customers, and wanted to learn more about better serving/ servicing the pools I have to deal with in the course of my work. This doesn't make me a 'HERO', but I have, personally known 100s of 'pool dudes' and I'm the only one who cares enough to, at least try, do a better job of it by going on line and researching --- my payback is offering help/ advice when I think I can :)

I wish the other forums well, and will be a participating member of all of them as time allows. (though my time to be on line will be greatly reduced for the next few months, I will still check in on a ~regular basis to see if I can't be of assistance to the newbies on both sites)

[Poconos]

Canuck,
Yes, Ben, or somebody, does have to pay to keep the site alive. He did tell me a number one time and I think that was just for the bandwidth.....not cheap. Throw in the hardware and software and the cost only goes higher.
Al

[sevver]

Canuck,
Yes, Ben, or somebody, does have to pay to keep the site alive. He did tell me a number one time and I think that was just for the bandwidth.....not cheap. Throw in the hardware and software and the cost only goes higher.
Al

I would imagine that it is probably roughly $100 a year. A forum is basically a limited website, not alot of graphics, not alot of storage requirements, mostly text, all images are stored offsite, like at imageshack or photobucket. Hardware... meh... the provider, provides that, software is a one time investment, unless you upgrade that is. If he paid for like say two years at a time like I did when I had a computer repair forum, then it could be like this for an indeterminable amount of time. But as for a high cost of running this, I don't see it, all you have is a domain name and a host. This is a template, out of the box site with little to no additional tweaking.

[mammallama]

I run a forum much smaller than this and it's NOT cheap. There are NO ads on this site, to have an ad-free site costs $$. We have the ability to post attachments here. That also costs $$. :eek:

These things may not cost a lot individually, but if the fees are monthly (like they are on MY site), there is definitely costs involved that one may not have thought about. ;)

I DO hope that life for Ben starts to settle down and that he can find his way back to his forum (and business). I've learned so much here and would hate to see it flounder into oblivion. :(

[SeanB.]

Just a quick bump. I've steadily been making changes to the site, including the ability to upload attachments.

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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[Poconos]

The $100 a year is way off base. That's less than the cost of a dialup connection. Keep in mind, all this stuff is hosted on Bens computers and under his total control. That means bandwidth has to be leased. If you look at the forum stats at the bottom of the home page, there are a lot of members, 20,000+, and 588 active whatever that means, and the number online at any one time can be quite high. Even with a bunch of people on at one time I have never seen an access slowdown.
Al

[SeanB.]

Just wanted to give a heads up to anyone who may be dropping by my site and may not have seen the announcement. As part of ongoing efforts to improve the hosting platform, the host company will be performing a full network upgrade on Saturday, April 14th. This will include moving networks which will result in a 12-24 hour downtime while our DNS Cache updates.

It will begin at approximately 12pm PST, and depending on your isp, could last anywhere from 2-24 hrs before the site is available again. On the bright side, performance and access will be MUCH improved.

Thanks for your patience,
Sean

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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[Poolsean]

Hi Sean,

I registered a month ago and now it's telling me that it doesn't recognize my e-mail or sign on. help?

[SeanB.]

Hi Sean,

I registered a month ago and now it's telling me that it doesn't recognize my e-mail or sign on. help?


hmmm. I had actually looked, hoping you had signed up, but never saw your name as a user. I didn't want to be too pushy. ;)

Could you try and register one more time? If that doesn't work, shoot me an e-mail.

Thanks,
Sean

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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[RavenNS]

just tried to register
got message :( :

Failed sending email :: PHP ::

DEBUG MODE

Line : 234
File : emailer.php

[SeanB.]

just tried to register
got message :( :

Failed sending email :: PHP ::

DEBUG MODE

Line : 234
File : emailer.php

Were you able to log in? I show a new member RavenNS created today.


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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[jnorris]

Sean, I'm having problems with the new site this morning. When I'm logged in, and click on Forums, I get an error page. If I click Log Out, then the Forums page comes up. I tried deleting my cookies and temp files, and logging back into the site, but no change.

[SeanB.]

Sean, I'm having problems with the new site this morning. When I'm logged in, and click on Forums, I get an error page. If I click Log Out, then the Forums page comes up. I tried deleting my cookies and temp files, and logging back into the site, but no change.

Thanks. I'm aware of the problem, but apparently the upgrade caused a few bugs, which are being worked on. In the meantime, you can get to the forum with the following link:

http://www.troublefreepool.com/index

Hopefully this will be resolved SOON.

Thanks,
Sean

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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[SeanB.]

OK, all the issues have been fixed (fingers crossed) and you should be able to login and use the forum as normal.

You should also notice considerably faster page loads!

Sean

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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[jnorris]

OK, all the issues have been fixed (fingers crossed) and you should be able to login and use the forum as normal.

You should also notice considerably faster page loads!

Sean

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www.troublefreepool.com

Thanks Sean. It's all good now. Now if we could just get more people over there posting. I still consider myself new to the pool game, and I learn so much from other people posting about their problems.

[SeanB.]

I wish I could say the forum was still down as part of the upgrade process but I don't believe that to be the case. It went down around 6 PM CST last night. The host company I have been using gave no prior notice of any expected downtime or even slowness. The rumor is that they got hacked, but I have no way of knowing if that is the case, nor if that could bring down their entire system, which appears to have happened. None of the sites they host, including their own website, are available right now.

Needless to say, I'm going to be moving the site to a new host. The really frustrating part about this is that in order to simply MOVE the site, the current host needs to be up and running. If they are not, I might have to start from scratch. I also purchased my .com name through them, so I'm not sure if there will be any complications of starting at a new host with the same domain name. I hope not.

For the time being, all I can do is hope that they get everything back up again as quickly as possible. My preference is to wait until they are operational again before trying to switch hosts, but if they are not up, or have not somehow provided word as to what is going on within 24hrs, I will begin the process of moving to a new host.

I'm sure this is frustrating to all of you as it is extremely aggravating to me. But please rest assured, I WILL get the site back on-line as quickly as possible. Thanks for all of your support and continued patience.

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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[NWMNMom]

Well!!! That explains it. I have been clicking like ever and thinking its my Norton or something that won't let me connect! Hope its back up soon!

[SeanB.]

Well!!! That explains it. I have been clicking like ever and thinking its my Norton or something that won't let me connect! Hope its back up soon!


Well, so far no word or anything from the host company. I'm looking into new hosting options already. It may take me a day or two to get it back up and running again.

Check back here for updates (if the mods are gracious enough to allw me to contiue posting this infor here) OR send me an e-mail to admn.troublefreepool@yahoo.com. I'll start a list of everyone to notify when the site is back up. Unfortunatley, my mass e-mail capability is also down with the host -argghhh or I could have just updated EVERYONE that way.

I promise though, I'm not giving up or going anywhere. Apparently, I just made a very poor decision on my hosting company - won't happen again!

Sean

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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[SeanB.]

From the host:

Over the past 24 hours (host company) experienced DNS caching issues. This caused problems with accessing forums on our network. We have been working hard over the past 24 hours and have been able to resolve these issues. However due to the nature of the problem it will take 24-48 hours for your DNS Cache to update.

We regret and apologize for any inconvenience this downtime may have caused. We are committed to providing our customers with the highest service level in the industry. The upgrade in servers will provide our customers with faster and more reliable connections; as well as the ability to offer new features and capabilities in the future. Thank you for your support.


You should start seeing the site again soon. I know have access again. It will vary by each ISP. I'll still be looking for a new host, but this will make that transition much easier, without data loss.

Thanks again,
Sean


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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[jasontx]

Sean-

While it costs a bit (not much) I've found that having your DNS registered somewhere other than your ISP solves problems related to downtimes and switchovers of your ISP. That way you can just switch your host when you want and not have to worry about the handoff of DNS at the same time (which always seems to take forever). I think I remember you mentioning this is related to your field so this is probably not that insightful.

Jason

[SeanB.]

Sean-

While it costs a bit (not much) I've found that having your DNS registered somewhere other than your ISP solves problems related to downtimes and switchovers of your ISP. That way you can just switch your host when you want and not have to worry about the handoff of DNS at the same time (which always seems to take forever). I think I remember you mentioning this is related to your field so this is probably not that insightful.

Jason

Thanks Jason. I sent you a pm.

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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[Watermom]

SeanB,
I tried to send you a PM, but wasn't able to. Is your inbox full by any chance?

[SeanB.]

SeanB,
I tried to send you a PM, but wasn't able to. Is your inbox full by any chance?

Here or at my site? Mine has plenty of room. The pm's here only hold two so depending on when you tried, it may have been full. Should be OK now.


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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[Watermom]

It was on this site. I just now again tried to send a PM to you and it still won't go. This is the message I got:

SeanB has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.

[SeanB.]

:confused: I just went into my pm's and they box's are all empty and my user cp says pm'ing is enabled. I've received another pm already today with no problem.

Feel free to send me an e-mail at admn.troublefreepool@yahoo.com or you can pm me from my site.


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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[dp_vegas]

Not Available

[SeanB.]

Server maintenance is going on at the moment, but shouldn't last too long.

I was going to make a post about this tomorrow but now seems like a good time. As many of you have noticed, my current host has been doing lots of "maintenance." I will be moving to a new host, hopefully early tomorrow. While this is done, you can use the domain, www.troublefreepools.com. (with an S on the end)

That domain is not yet active though. Once it is, my site will be transfered. You should only have to use that url for a couple of days and then www.troublefreepool.com will work again.

Sean

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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[waste]

sean, any chance of editing your posts here to refleect the new site (My wife hasn't shown me how to 'desktop' the new sites, so I just go to your and Falkons newer posts to connect). (It's late for me, but I plan to $upport your site tomorrow)

[SeanB.]

sean, any chance of editing your posts here to refleect the new site (My wife hasn't shown me how to 'desktop' the new sites, so I just go to your and Falkons newer posts to connect). (It's late for me, but I plan to $upport your site tomorrow)

Sure. Actually the old url is not lost. It will just take a couple day to update. In the meantime, you can use the second domain name I just set up which is www.troublefreepools.com - notice the S on the end, is the only difference.

FYI - any posts made at the old url as of this afternoon, will not transfer over, so please just use www.troublefreepools.com for the next couple of days.

Thanks,
Sean

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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[Cammie895]

I made an account a few days ago and made one post while there, but now I can't seem to get in. :(

[SeanB.]

Cammie, you may have been one of a handful of people who registered during our transition to the new host server in which case you will need to do it again.

If you have any further difficulty, please send me an e-mail at admn.troublefreepool.com

Thanks,
SeanB


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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[SeanB.]

Just thought I'd post a site update for TFP.

The site has been growing steadily all year with over 2,000 new members and about 20,000 thousand new posts since my last reply in this thread. The response has been wonderful and it's been great seeing so many familiar users joining and participating.

Like any pool care site, we have slowed a bit during the off-season, but there are still plenty of users around to answer questions and share information (for those who can't register and post here).

Also, on the homepage, you'll notice a button to subscribe to our newsletter. The first issue will go out next week! I've been putting in a lot of time on this project and am very excited. As always, we are looking for ways to improve the site, so any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,
Sean

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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[SeanB.]

It kind of snuck up on me, but we just passed the one year mark at TFP a couple of days ago. I remembered this thread and read back through it and had to laugh at all the server issues and stuff we had the first couple of months. Thanks to everyone who hung in there. I'm glad to say it's been pretty smooth sailing for quite a while now. :)




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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[duraleigh]

As a reminder to those that are unable to post and get questions answered here, www.troublefreepool.com is open for registration and there's a lot of great advice.

Approaching 3,000 members, it is a busy place and your questions are usually answered within the hour.

[waste]

But some not as well as they used to be;)

[SeanB.]

As a reminder to those that are unable to post and get questions answered here, www.troublefreepool.com is open for registration and there's a lot of great advice.

Approaching 3,000 members, it is a busy place and your questions are usually answered within the hour.

Thanks Dave! We do our best! :D


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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[CarlD]

We have decided to re-open this thread. We just ask that you remember the Forum's rules.

Thank you.

Carl