Site Outage

I rarely check the site announcements so it came as a bit of a shock when rhp went down at midnight.

I didn't have a clue it was a planned outage and had no idea when it would return so I was wondering if instead, or as well as, a message could be sent to all members advising that the site's going to be going down?

This would probably be impractical due to the huge number of dormant accounts on here. There is an RHP feed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/redhotpawn

Originally posted by Gixxer
This would probably be impractical due to the huge number of dormant accounts on here. There is an RHP feed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/redhotpawn

If they can stick a recent new blog note in the only chess forum, why not have a 24hr outage notice after logging in?

Originally posted by leestatic
If they can stick a recent new blog note in the only chess forum, why not have a 24hr outage notice after logging in?

I bet Russ will pop in soon to tell us that there's a feature like that in the new UI he's releasing in Feb 2011.

I very briefly noticed the 'closed..site maintenance' note literally a split second before my automatic response of closing the browser after making a move ( this time with text attached, quite alot )..I lost the text, the move wasn't made..no big deal and the maintenance was announced but delayed.. but I'd have pasted the damned text, emailed it to myself, to save the repeat later, had I known that the likelyhood of closure was that evening \ morning. Although the closure planned, I don't visit 'site announcements' every few hours, maybe every couple of days..I can't promise more than once a day 😉

I've been caught that way before. Now if something happens I click "back" in my browser to get the previous screen, copy the text and paste it into a Notepad document from where I can collect it later.

Not everyone reads the forums, in fact only a minority even go there. Many people leave themselves logged in for days at a time. Important announcements really need to have their own way of showing up. My suggestion would be a flashing or brightly coloured icon on the playing screen, as it's the only one that is 100% guaranteed to be seen by everyone.

Originally posted by Kewpie
I've been caught that way before. Now if something happens I click "back" in my browser to get the previous screen, copy the text and paste it into a Notepad document from where I can collect it later.

Not everyone reads the forums, in fact only a minority even go there. Many people leave themselves logged in for days at a time. Important announcements ...[text shortened]... on the playing screen, as it's the only one that is 100% guaranteed to be seen by everyone.

That's a very good point, all of.. other sites have a flashing message box that you plainly can't miss but if it's constantly full, and flashing, it won;t raise ones attentions..RHP can 'float' a new blog posted over the first few threads in the chess forum, surely something similar could be considered over the games page for 'must see announcements'.. given PM'ing everyone here, apart from the vast impractical aspects, it doesn't guarantee anything..

Originally posted by Daemon Sin
I bet Russ will pop in soon to tell us that there's a feature like that in the new UI he's releasing in Feb 2011.

I see Russ developing into a sort of Max Headroom character who arrives in your private forum:

"H-H-H-Hello reeeeedhaaawwwwwtpoooorners, I've just pooped, err sorry popped in to s-s-s-s-say that the jolly old site is going down for a f-f-f-few hours tonight. Stay online good buddies *wink*