New CFC Chess Forum

[Steve Douglas]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

Hi Chris:

The CFC forum has gone back to being a slug for me.

Steve

[Duncan Smith]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

Duncan,

I've set up dozens of websites, I'm not exactly inexperienced.

Given that 95% of visitors have not had the problem, most who did are no longer having the problem, and that I did nothing to try to fix it, it seems clear it is not a problem caused by anything that I did.

Well, it will be easy to fix then. So far it doesn't work, Sympatico is a mainstream vendor that you have to work with.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

Well, it will be easy to fix then. So far it doesn't work, Sympatico is a mainstream vendor that you have to work with.

It is not the case that the forum doesn't work with Sympatico, but it might be true that some Sympatico users are having problems accessing the site. Sympatico, like any large ISP, has peering arrangements with other large pipe owners and they pay for bandwidth. Sometimes, the interconnections get fubar'd and they stay that way until someone fixes the issue (a fried switch; a router with brain damage etc. the list is endless)

As Chris stated elsewhere, the problem is likely a temporary one and is NOT related to the site per se. He could temporarily change the site to a 3 line text file and it would likely make no difference!

[Christopher Mallon]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

Actually, it's up to the end-user to contact their ISP for this type of problem. If I call Sympatico as a site operator and say "Hey some of my visitors are getting really slow access" they'll just tell me to have to users call them. Because they need the users to do stuff for them like traceroutes etc. so they can see exactly where the problem is.

Sure, I know how to do that, and I could get you guys to do it for me.. but the end result will be just making the tech support call to Sympatico 10 seconds shorter, if that. (I don't know about Bell, but Rogers techs don't like to believe that you know anything)

[Duncan Smith]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

The CFC has to become customer friendly now and drop the attitude.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

The CFC has to become customer friendly now and drop the attitude.

Are you a CFC member? If not ...

Chris was merely pointing out the most expeditious way to get this issue resolved since it almost certainly is a problem with Sympatico's connectivity to the hosting site. What part of that do you object to?

[Christopher Mallon]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

He just wanted an excuse to bring up past gripes, apparently.

Although I don't recall him offering his "expertise" on the errors we were getting on the ratings, we already knew what the problems (yes, plural) were that were causing that. Most were fixed.

[Steve Douglas]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

Hi Chris:

I will complain to Bell/Sympatico if the problems persist after a few more days. I am with Sympatico and *I* am their client so they will actually listen to me. I would hate to see what my bill would be if Sympatico or Pathcom or whoever wasted their time responding to every porn site operator who complains that their "clients" have difficulty accessing the best of Sexie Susie every time they change their domain and/or host. Sheesh.

Steve

[Duncan Smith]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

Chris, are you saying you knew how to fix the ratings software in the year 2000 but chose to fix it in the year 2008 ? Seems like a strange policy. I could have fixed the worst errors within days. Could also have added excellent archiving features, better error handling, and many SQL based features you still don't have. Maybe some filtering of players by category as well, so we don't still see V. Gansvind as best female player in Canada.

Anyways, Chris, websites are not my thing you could say anything and I ( like the other governors ) would just have to believe you. Provided it works of course. And of course Kerry is right I'm not a member, have very little use for the new CFC website except read only curiosity, and many of my own reasons to care about this stuff are getting dated.

[Christopher Mallon]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

You obviously don't remember just how bad it was if you think I waited until 2008 to get some things fixed. And I was not a member nor did I visit the web page from about 1999 to 2002. It didn't get really bad until early 2004. You'll also recall that in 2006 I had a proposal for a whole new website that would have fixed all the problems and added the kind of advanced (relatively speaking) features you mention. I did as much as I could do.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

Chris, are you saying you knew how to fix the ratings software in the year 2000 but chose to fix it in the year 2008 ? Seems like a strange policy. I could have fixed the worst errors within days. Could also have added excellent archiving features, better error handling, and many SQL based features you still don't have. Maybe some filtering of players by category as well, so we don't still see V. Gansvind as best female player in Canada.

I think the thing to remember is that you didn't fix the problems. Someone else did.

Kind of reminds me of when I did TV repair in the days of tubes. I'd present the bill and the customer would tell me he could have done that. The point was he didn't fix it. I did. Or the guys who waited until I had fixed the set and then said they didn't have the money. Off came the back of the set and out came the parts. Even the parts I had to cut out.

What exactly did you do for the CFC so we'll know?

[Duncan Smith]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

The technology details aren't that important my starting point was more in the area of organizational structure and communications. I would like to see the CFC as more of a cooperative model instead of what appears to be a bureaucratic government model. I'm not dreaming it's going to happen but D. Lavin's a wildcard I believe he's successful in a fairly nontraditional business.

Creativity has always been lacking in my opinion. The chess talent has been there and at some points growing grassroots interest in chess.

ps It's nothing personal I know you tried. As did Hal Bond who I believe was a lot closer to
a correct path then the governor's realized. The bureaucracy took over again.

[Christopher Mallon]

Re: New CFC Chess Forum

I have been curious how many votes against that plan were merely "how DARE you not involve us" votes against. Not many, but probably a few...