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ActiveRain forums a solution to the dreaded Proxy Error ?

By Maureen McCabe

Real Estate Agent with HER Realtors

March 26, 2010 12:31 AM

Are ActiveRain forums a solution to the dreaded Proxy Error?

Proxy Error

Do you remember ActiveRain forums?

A comment from Cheryl Johnson on Bob Stewart's post Hyper Local challenge continued again is sure a blast from the past. Did you know there were Forums on ActiveRain at the beginning... I don't remember when the ActiveRain forums disappeared. Do you?

ActiveRain forums are now live was written by Matt Heaton. Posted July 20, 2006... that was before my time! Matt wrote:

"There are currently about 20 different discussion forums on various topics ranging from "Introductions" to "Search Engine Strategy" to "Feedback on ActiveRain"

Of course ActiveRain forums are gone. Long gone. The links in Matt's post take you to error messages. Kinder gentler error messages than the "Proxy Error" or "Bad Gateway" error messages.

Perhaps ActiveRain Forums went away in fall 2006 when the first Localism was introduced?

I am going to quote the whole big chunk of what Cheryl Johnson said on Bob's current content post because it is important:

"This comment is not a link to a post ... But I thought I'd toss this idea out:

1. Set aside one server for nothing but contest posts.

2. Modify the old AR forum software to use for contest entry-posts on this server. I could see the forum format working in such a way that there could be one opening post by the AR staffer followed by a bazillion entry-posts all in chronological or reverse-chronological order.

3. The AR staffer would continue to post frequent reminders of the contest in their AR blog, always giving the link to the contest server, and everyone would click that link to add their comment giving their link back to their contest post. (Same way we are doing here, it just sounds weird to describe it).

The jump from the AR server to the contest server back to the AR server would be invisible to the user.

It would make it easier to keep track of everyone's entries and ease the slow-load problem on the AR staffer's blog..."

Are ActiveRain forums a solution to the dreaded Proxy Error?

Now that we are talking about what is being done to get the Proxy Errors and Bad Gateways under control...(there are three new servers going online) I wonder if Cheryl's Forum idea has merit. Cheryl is smarter than the average bear if you know what I mean.

The ActiveRain forum as I recall stopped getting action because people would blog a question or an asnwer for points rather than discuss it in the ActiveRain forums. I don't think we got points for anything to do with the forum.

The forum conversations were a lot about how to use ActiveRain as I recall. I know the ActiveRain Forum was helpful to me.

The forum conversations showed up in Google from the very beginning. They were public. I know I was mortified that some dumb question I asked about ActiveRain showed up in Google... but that was 2006. If I had blogged it Members Only it would not make me look as dumb. Or that was my perception way back when.

Bad Gateway

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Claudette Millette

The Buyers' Counsel - Ashland, MA

Buyer, Broker - Metrowest Mass

Hi, Maureen:

I guess the Active Rain forums are before my time here. I can't believe there was yet another feature of this system. Do you think they should be brought back?

Mar 26, 2010 12:46 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

If they could help with Proxy Errors and Bad Gateways... I would be all for it. Bob's post will have to be a 7 part series I believe to get all the links that are necessary for this CHALLENGE... or maybe the new servers will ease the pain of posts that have too many comments and timeout.

If anything can help keep us from going through this again in the future.... I am for it.

I am not geeky enough to know if there is anything about the way a forum is structured that would make it more stable. I don't typically like forums, I did back in 1993. I prefer blogs...

Mar 26, 2010 12:53 AM

Mike Jaquish

Realty Arts - Cary, NC

919-880-2769 Cary, NC, Real Estate

Maureen,

I like forums, particularly if they are locally focused. They are a great way to interact with consumers. But, they take a LOT of hands-on moderation to keep them civilized. Anyway, I don't think forums would help AR deliver better technical execution.

I think the AR complex has been patched together over the years, is a little cumbersome, and has just outgrown its hardware, and that the traffic has superceded the original vision. I just have a feeling that 3 new servers is a start, but that the system site map might inspire Rube Goldberg.

Mar 26, 2010 01:13 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

I don't like forums because I believe they are less civilized than blogs.

I think the forums being public on AR did and could keep them more civilized personally than something like I remember from 1992, 1993...

I am disappointed in your "Anyway, I don't think forums would help AR deliver better technical execution." but then again I do not know what the difference in the structure is.

I just would hate to go through this again in 2012 or 2014. And maybe it is not the big bloated posts that are the problem. I know AR is all patched together and we have gone through this before. I WANT the consumer content, particularly the Outside blogs to be accessible to the general public and the posts that are just horsing around (Members Only) to be jettisoned into outer space personally.

And I know there are some great Members Only content discussions but... it has been very easy for me to start HATING some members and their antics which were just mildly annoying before the Proxy Errors.

Mar 26, 2010 01:29 AM

Cheryl Johnson

Highland Park, CA

Let's see if I can describe my idea a little more clearly:

Whenever one of the staffers creates a contest such as Bob Stewart's HyperLocal Post Challenge (I was going to put a link to the contest post here but I got a Proxy error.....:-)

Anyway whenever there is a contest, comments on the contest post quickly exceed hundreds and the staffer's blog drags to a halt.

My first thought was a dedicated server for keeping track of contest entries. And my second thought was the existing forum software (wherever it is) could be modified to run the contest-entry database. The actual entries would still be on the individual's AR blog ..... the modified-forum would just be maintaining the list of entries ... and each entry on the forum would contain the link back to the individual's actual blog post.

I probably muddied the waters even worse. Oh well.

smarter than the average bear

So, just in case any readers are confused, my idea was ~not~ about bringing the forums back ... but about repurposing the forum software for one particular, specialized task.

Mar 26, 2010 02:27 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Nope that is exactly what I understood from your comment. Thanks Cheryl.

Maybe I am muddying the water waxing nolstalgic over forums... no reason to bring forums back at all but if a forum is better suited to collecting comments on a challenge, like the one that is underway they ought to consider it. Everything else is a blog, record keeping is done via a forum. Those comments are not conversation anyway. It is reporting.

People will not put up with their time being wasted this way. ActiveRain has to look at ways of doing some things differently and I think this is a great suggestion on one way to make reporting on the challenges less painful.

Mar 26, 2010 04:52 AM

Cheryl Johnson

Highland Park, CA

@Maureen, I knew you got it. :-) But I don't often get the chance to say "repurposing" in a real sentence.

Mar 27, 2010 12:48 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

great word... I am going to try to use it verbally today... somehow...

seems quiet on the Proxy Error front.

keep your fingers crossed!

Mar 27, 2010 12:55 AM

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