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Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Fri May 01, 2020 7:38 am
by Thomas W-P
Lovely rowers.

I sit here trying to work out how to roll over the meterboard and find that even I can make no sense of my code from 7 years ago. The backup of the 2020 board failed and I can't work out how to recover and archive that information (it is in the database but I can't make it pretty). As I type, my rower is disassembled and in the garage. It is a long time since I rowed in any way other than a warm up at the gym. I cycle now and have done since 2014.

I have kept the meterboard going year on year out of affection and duty, but the time has come to pass on the baton. It really needs rewriting from scratch. Really. I look at the code and it makes me weep inside.

So...

I will only run the meterboard for one more year. On 1st May 2021 it will no longer work unless someone builds it again like I did from Jonathan Lemon's beautiful creation in 2006. Yes. 2006! JL did 2006 to 2013 and I have done 2013 to 2020. 7 years seems a fair commitment. I am happy to pass on the database as Jonathan did to me, but I think the code is worse than useless to the next person should they step up.

As for the web site... It will still cost money to run, but I have disabled donations and cancelled all the PayPal subscriptions whilst I think about what to do with the forum. It runs on phpBB3, so there are hosting options out there should I decide to give that up altogether, but my current thinking is I will keep the forum going for another two years at least, maybe with the subscription button again, though I know that the meterboard is the main hook. The hosting does cost money though...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I have so many other things taking up my time that I think this needs to be carried on to someone who has the passion.

Cheers

Thomas

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Fri May 01, 2020 8:07 am
by RdGkA
Hello!

Even when the meter board is gone I would like to see the subscription button again. The forum was always helpful for me and I used the pace-predictor long before I joint and was still rowing for C2TweetCrew.

Thanks for all your work!
Ralf

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Fri May 01, 2020 9:26 am
by MaxMacLaren1
Thomas, A huge thank you for everything you've done in keeping the Forum running. It's a fantastic community and I hope someone has the skills to carry on your great work.

Max

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 6:51 am
by fkoene
Yes, thanks very very much, Thomas. Like Max I hope someone is in the opportunity to keep everything running.

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 11:56 am
by Iain
Thomas, thanks for your hard work these 7 years, especially when your rowing participation faltered. I have no IT skills so am not capable of taking on this task, but ferverently hope someone can do so. Personally I find the forum very inspirational as well as the meterboard, so would hope that we can atleast keep that going and so would welcome the donations being restarted for this at least.

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 1:55 pm
by Draggon
Thomas, it's admirable that you've kept at it this long given your waning interest in rowing. I've walked away from commitments in my life for less, so I totally get it. I don't know the first thing about running a forum or a linked database like the Meterboard, but I can imagine it's an occasional headache at minimum - especially at the season-flip as I seem to recall every May 1 there seems to be some issue or another... :)

Okay, gang, how can we recruit an IT guru who can take the reins? Concept2 Forum advertisement? I know trusting someone "new" (an Outsider) would be tough at first, but it's better than losing this little treasure, no?

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 2:10 pm
by MikeM
Thank you Thomas, I understand your reasoning. I appreciate all you have done. The meterboard has always been a motivational tool for me and is the work of genius! Way beyond my thought process. Thank you!
I too would like to keep it all going somehow but it is far beyond my capabilities. I will continue to donate when and if that comes up again.

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 7:52 pm
by Tako
Dear Thomas, thank you very much for your great efforts to keep the forum and the Meterboard, and I think it is valid to say by that the whole Free Spirits IRC, alive!
As you know, I planned already earlier to give it a try to take over and so far I only managed with your occasional help to set up the icons for the challenges.
Work, kids, house, and life have kept me from digging into this, for me new, world of forum platform and database software.
However, as the forum and the Meterboard mean a lot to me, without it erging wouldn’t be the same, and if no one else steps up, I will give it a try. With your help I hope to learn enough to be able to take over by the end of the season or maybe earlier!
Thanks a lot for the pre-warning, which fortunately gives us the chance to keep
it alive. We stay in touch!

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 6:53 pm
by JonT
First of all - many, many thanks Thomas for all of your work and skill.

I have a hosting plan for my company which has plenty of capacity. I wonder whether it is worth looking at migrating the domain to this host and saving on the hosting cost. I will be paying anyway through my company so it doesn't matter a great deal to me.

My programming days are a long way behind me, so unless the site is written in COBOL, FORTRAN or the more esoteric ML, Miranda and Smalltalk then I don't think I will be a great deal of help. What are things like the Meterboard written in out of interest?

Jon

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 7:01 pm
by Thomas W-P
Currently PHP, but I'd probably move to python now.

But I'm no professional programmer. It's an ugly hack...

The financial cost of the hosting is not really the issue...



Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 7:05 am
by Wolfmiester
I'd like to add my thanks for the work done over the years Thomas (I know that's not the purpose of this thread, but it needs to be said).
Of course it would be lovely if someone is willing, and able, to take this on.
However, there's always the option (last resort?) of (re-)opening the Free Spirits page on the C2 forum.

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 7:07 am
by Thomas W-P
I'm sure the forum will continue. That's really not an issue.

But meterboard needs love and attention (or a better programmer who can write it once and forget about it!)

Re: Last year of the Meteboard?

Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 2:57 pm
by Dogma Dave
Sincere thanks to Thomas for all his time and effort in keeping the meterboard going for the past few years. I have found it a true inspiration, and would be very sad to see it discontinued. Happy to throw a few quid in the pot as and when needed...

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 6:40 pm
by Thomas W-P
I was chatting with Tako about the future of the meterboard, and made a flippant remark that if lockdown went on much longer I would rewrite it from scratch.

I have not done this.

But I have made a new version of the *display* page (I have done nothing to the scraping data from C2) that, with a little more work, would make rolling over the season automagical.

It is 100% slower to load (0.4s vs 0.2s) but is doing a whole lot more database querying and logic in the background. One nice side effect is you can see the meterboard from any day in history since I started meterboard2 some time in 2014.

It is not as sophisticated as the other board, but it is cleverer and the code is much more beautiful. You will need to use this link to get to it and "This is me" won't work until you click "this is not me" then "this is me" on your personal page. N.B. The personal page will not take you back to meterboard3 - you will need to be aware of that.

https://www.freespiritsrowing.com/meterboard3/

Please try to break it/spot any mistakes and comment here.

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 7:32 pm
by Grobi
Thomas, I just tried the meterboard 3 and got these error codes:

D241F575-CA9C-4F3A-8145-2313DEE91174.jpeg
D241F575-CA9C-4F3A-8145-2313DEE91174.jpeg (149.2 KiB) Viewed 3080 times

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 7:53 pm
by Thomas W-P
Well that's a great start 🤣. Will post here when in can reproduce it and have fixed it.

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 9:04 pm
by fkoene
Thomas W-P wrote: Fri May 15, 2020 7:53 pm Well that's a great start 🤣. Will post here when in can reproduce it and have fixed it.
I managed to reproduce it, Thomas :fswink:

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 9:19 pm
by Thomas W-P
So weird. I tested it just now and fine, now I get that error...

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 9:26 pm
by Thomas W-P
Try it now.

https://www.freespiritsrowing.com/meterboard3/

I had not tested it with a "live" forum user who was not me...

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 9:30 pm
by fkoene
That looks better now. I'll do some more testing tomorrow.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn FP3 met Tapatalk


Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 9:37 pm
by Thomas W-P
I also added Slovenia and Singapore as flags. The country codes I am using don't match the Concept 2 ones.

It doesn't do the personal flags at the moment. I had forgotten all about them!

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Sat May 16, 2020 5:54 am
by Grobi
Working fine now

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3

Posted: Sat May 16, 2020 9:14 am
by fkoene
Thomas W-P wrote: Fri May 15, 2020 6:40 pm It is not as sophisticated as the other board, but it is cleverer and the code is much more beautiful. You will need to use this link to get to it and "This is me" won't work until you click "this is not me" then "this is me" on your personal page. N.B. The personal page will take you to meterboard3 - you will need to be aware of that.

https://www.freespiritsrowing.com/meterboard3/

Please try to break it/spot any mistakes and comment here.
The page works allright now as far as I noticed. In the comment above you mention the personal page takes you to meterboard 3. You mean it takes you back to 2? At least that's what happens in my case.

Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Sat May 16, 2020 9:41 am
by Thomas W-P
Yes, personal page will return you to #2. I've corrected it. This is just a beta...



Re: Last year of the Meteboard? / Meterboard3?

Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 1:38 pm
by redshell
A big thank you Thomas.....lots of work by you over the years. I was only thinking the other day its about time I sent you some money....but the offer is there. Let's hope we have a volunteer soon...