Site Announcements

Your Reptile and Amphibian Resource and Information Site

10/16/09 10:00PM

Archiving Updates....

Hey Everyone,
I will be working on archive outputs over the next couple of weeks to get the new archiving system. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up in case you see weird looking pages in that area.

If you have any problems, questions, or comments please feel free to contact me.

Doug - Webmaster.

Thanks,
Doug - Webmaster

05/06/09 04:00AM

RepticZone New Features and Updates...

Hello,
I wanted to let you all know that I am working on some new updates on RepticZone's forums. So I wanted to get everyone caught up.
The first new feature we added is the ability to add youtube videos on a post. At this time you can only post one video per post, but can have several throughout the thread. There is a bug I need to work out for you to be able to add more then one video per post.
To post a youtube video you can either click a link that will make the code for you or you can use the button that says video. You will see them right around the area where you type in your messages on a post. If you have any questions or problems please feel free to contact me.
We are now able to lock threads. Not that we lock a lot of them, but anything that is being archived will be locked as well. I will eventually add a way for members to suggest a thread to be locked.
The archiving is coming along. I'm still working on that. I have a large part of that done now. I just need to write a few more scripts and code. We should have the archives back by the end of this month. At that time we will be re-writing the search scripts to work with the new archiving system.
I also have one more feature I am adding. I have to really test it before I release it. I may just pick two or three forums to test it in. I don't want to mention what it is at this time just in case I overlooked something that may cause me to have to drop it. However, if it works out, it will be a feature that I'm pretty sure everyone will appreciate.
Thanks for taking time to read these updates. I will update you more as these features and updates become completed.

If you have any problems, questions, or comments please feel free to contact me.

Contact Doug - Webmaster.

Thanks,
Doug - Webmaster

04/18/09 08:00PM

IMPORTANT: HR669 - ALL MEMBERS & HOBBYISTS PLEASE READ

All Members and Fellow Hobbyists must read and take action on this. We have less then a week to act on this.

Please go to the following websites regarding information on your rights to own your pets.

This website has a video that explains the bill. It explains to you what is at risk and how you can do something about it. Plus they even took the courtesy to make it easy for you to send emails and locate the people you need to contact. The site also includes updates as well.
http://www.nohr669

The link below is the text of the bill.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h669ih.txt.pdf

Here is another site with information as well.
http://www.pijac.org/

Also try to keep all HR669 forum posts on RZ up towards the top so they are read by others. Make sure we have a post on all our forums. If there is not a post in other forums then please add one. This will be one of the few times we are allowing some spamming. For members that have been keeping on top of things please keep members here updated. That would be greatly appreciated. I thank every member that contacted me personally on this subject as well.

You will find other things you can do to help by reading some of the HR669 posts already circulating on the forum. I would strongly recommend having your family, friends (on-line friends as well), and co-workers respond to the bill as well.

Thanks for reading. If you have any question, comments, suggestions. Or if I have something wrong on here please feel free to contact me.

Contact Doug - Webmaster.

Thanks,
Doug - Webmaster

03/16/09 07:00PM

RepticZone Updates 3/16/09

Hello,

I just wanted to update everyone at RZ with what we are doing.

Care Sheets
Care Sheets have been updated consistently. I still have non-formatted care sheets to go through, but for the most part it is done.

The Archiving System
The archive system has been a slight problem for a while now, including the searches. At this time I am working on a new structure and database for the archived threads. This may take a little time for me to run through scenarios and tests. The search through the archives should be a lot better when I finish. We did upgrade the database in order to be able to have more reliable searches.

Other Features
Part of the scripting for the archive area will involve locking threads. So that capability will be available before the archive system is done.

Another feature that I will possibly be bringing back is keeping track of the amount of posts members have. This has been disabled for a while...longer then the week I mentioned 3 years ago. It will be more complicated for me to give members their numbers back once I set up the new archiving system. This will be member generated...so you will be instructed on how and when to update this. I will make it quick and easy to do and you will only have to do it once.

In the future I will be updating the profile section to accommodate new features that I will be writing throughout the year.

Photo Server
I am not sure at this point what we will be doing with the photos server. I may move it to this server, a new server, or just upgrade the old server. I will have to look at this in the way of available resources and what will be more economic.

I will be posting a thread in the Suggestion Area where I ask members to offer any new forums, new suggestions for a feature, or even a suggestion to better a feature we already have.

I thank everyone for their patience and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions...please feel free to contact me here.

Thanks,
Doug - Webmaster

01/25/09 03:00PM

Care Sheet Updates

Care Sheets
Care Sheets, for the most part, are done and updated. There is only a couple of handfuls of care sheets not completed. I did accidentally delete several care sheets in the process. So I apologize to those people. If your care sheet is not listed it was either accidentally deleted or it did not provide enough information. Care sheets with low rankings have been removed. I will review and update care sheets on a weekly basis.

Due to browser updates over the years, some care sheets now have a diamond with a question mark in the middle. If possible anybody that has a care sheet listed, please edit the care sheet and replace the marking with the proper punctuation. Also check spelling and grammar as well. This will be greatly appreciated and will help save me time going through them all to make these corrections. Leaving me to move on to the next project.

There are still a lot of things to fix and add at RZ. I will be working on organizing a schedule for the rest of the work that needs to be done during the next couple of weeks. I want to thank every one for their patience in this process. If you have any ideas, see issues I may of missed or need to be addressed please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please feel free to contact me here.

Thanks for being part of RepticZone
Doug - Webmaster

01/08/09 05:00PM

New Year Updates

I know it has been a while since I done any real updates on RepticZone, but I'm going to knock some of the rust off and start doing some more programming here.

Messaging System
I have a few new ideas that I would like to implement such as a new messaging system. I intend to write an entirely new system from programming to database, making the old system obsolete.

Photos Server
The photo server has a new router on it, but I decided that I was going to move this to another server. The reasons for this are going to be for faster speeds viewing, uploading, etc. The other reason is to relieve some of the money I dish out on the current photo server. In order to do this it will take me a few weeks to sort through photos. Everything will be moved to the new server. I may even write a new photo section.

Care Sheets Care Sheets are being updated now. I am spending this week and the next getting that out of the way and updated. Eventually I would like to re-write that section too.

I don't have any estimated times on completion of any section. I am in process of studying for a test at work. More importantly...I have not written an entire script in a couple of years now so I am extremely rusty at this point. I am in process of writing a script to help me go through care sheets faster, but I am struggling with that. Once I get back into the flow I am sure my full programming ability, and maybe even new ones, will come back.

Site Requests
After I go through the care sheets I will be taken requests on new forums and go back to answering questions on the suggestion forums.

I may need members help in some of the process as far as feedback, input, and other help.

Please feel free to contact me here.

Thanks for being part of RepticZone
Doug - Webmaster

07/25/08 10:00PM

PHOTO SERVER TEMPORARILY DOWN

07-25-2008

The photo server is temporarily down for the next few days. The router for the photo server hasn't been working properly and it will be a few days before I can get that working again.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

01/11/08 10:00PM

SERVER MIGRATION UPDATES

01-08-2009
I have already started transferring some of RZ's info to the new server. There are some areas and parts of the database that I can not move until just before we are ready to switch. I plan on finishing most of the transfer Wednesday night, possibly Thursday night. We will be working to get off this server either Thursday late night or Friday night. Some of you may be wondering what will be going on. So I am making a list of things we can expect and things that we might expect to happen.

*Forum Posts will be turned off. This means you will get the archiving message, but in more detail letting you know we are moving the database.

*The message system will be turned off. Not sure what you will receive as a message there.

*I will try to keep everyone updated on what is going from the main page of the site.

Now some things that may not work out the way I planned.

*I can't predict how long it will take once I give the ok to redirect the server. I had one site recently take 3 days, and another site take 3 hours. Majority of the time it should not take more then 24 hours. Let's hope for the shortest time period.

*Since we use several databases it is possible that I may have to make some adjustments on the databases to get things working properly.

I should have some time to test things out before everyone comes over to the new server.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me.

Thanks

Doug - Webmaster

12-30-2007
OK some new updates! I spent a large portion of the end of the week testing RZ scripts on the new server. There were a few things that I had concerns about in order to move to the new server. However, I have managed to resolve just about all the basic problems that I can think of off-hand at this time. I will do some larger scale testing over the next couple of days to make tp be ,pre sure. There will certainly be prolems, but I can resolve small ones over time. Currently I am concerned with bigger issues. There is one additional problem I haven't finished looking into, and that is down time. Hopefully I can get that established soon. So keep an eye on the announcements, we should be doing the move shortly after the new year. I will keep everyone updated. As always feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or suggestions. On the subject of suggestions, we will have a form for anyone interested in making suggestions for when I re-write the forum around March.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

12-21-2007
I am just updating everyone on the migration of RepticZone to a new server. Originally I was hiring company to move the site for me and do the original server administration stuff. However it has been a week now since they have given me any response in getting this done. So as of yesterday I have started configuring the server myself and knocking off my server admin rust.

I guess the advantage to me doing the migration is the ability to test a lot of things prior to moving everything over permanently. Something the company I was hiring wasn't allowing me to do. The server change will hopefully be done by next weekend. Check this admin message for updates

As always feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Doug - Webmaster

12-15-2007
I been talking the talk for several years now about upgrading RepticZone's server. I have purchased a new server for RZ. I am not sure what date we will move to the new server so I would recommend checking the Admin messages daily.

As far as what to expect for down time during the process, I don't think it should be long. However since we are moving to updated server with new software there may be some scripts and areas that will not work right away. The 4 main areas that I will work through first are the login, signup, forums, adminstration, and the messaging system. I know positively the database and several scripts will not work until I make adjustments.

I am currenlty researching scenarios that can possibly happen, so I can correct them as quick as possible. All the scripts of RZ will have to have some database adjustment and we have hundreds of scripts. So it may take me months to finally get through every script. Once I am comfortable about the challange that lies ahead I will post the date of the server migration.

Thanks for everyone's patiences all these years with the server glitches. In the long run, once this part is done we will be bringing back old features and adding a lot of new ones!

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

01/08/08 10:00PM

SERVER MIGRATION UPDATES

*Forum Posts will be turned off. This means you will get the archiving message, but in more detail letting you know we are moving the database.

*The message system will be turned off. Not sure what you will receive as a message there.

*I will try to keep everyone updated on what is going from the main page of the site.

Now some things that may not work out the way I planned.

*Since we use several databases it is possible that I may have to make some adjustments on the databases to get things working properly.

I should have some time to test things out before everyone comes over to the new server.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me.

Thanks

Doug - Webmaster

07/26/07 09:00AM

No Selling or Advertising on Forums

This is a reminder about our rule on selling and advertising on the forums. We are going to be less tolerant amongst members trying to sell reptiles on the forums. RepticZone's forums are for exchaing information and sharing our experiences, not for selling. We state this clearly in the rules. I am only making this warning because selling in the forums has been overwhelming in the last several months. So please abide by the rules.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

03/19/07 08:00PM

Disappearing Posts...

I received messages from a few members about some posts disappearing. We had a database crash and when repairing the datababse some posts are removed by the repair utility. Some posts will come back. If your post is gone please contact me and I will check the database to see if it is still available in the database.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

02/19/07 07:00PM

Sorry about the long archiving times!

I just wanted to apologize for the long archiving times today and some yesterday.So I am going to take a couple of minutes and explain what happened, happens, and what we are doing to better the problems in the near future.

So here is what happens. Usually the archiving is done at night and most of you will never notice because you are either sleeping or it is done on low peak hours. After archiving there are spaces left in the database just as if you removed files or programs from your computer. In order for the searches and insertion of information to run quicker I have to remove the spaces just as Window users have to run defrag on their hard drives. Yesterday the database was slowing up, so I put up the archiving notice to allow the database to catch up and had to "defrag" the database to resolve that issue. When "defragging" it usually takes about 20-30 minutes. The actual archiving that you don't notice so much takes several hours. When archiving you can still submit posts, but when "defragging" the database all inserts have to be held off.

Here is what happened...My work schedule for the last couple of months has been a little crazy. I mainly work nights and shifts of 12-16 hours. I am also required to do a lot of studying for my job. So today when I arrived home from work I tried to take that 20-30 minutes before I went to sleep to "defrag" the database and I ended up laying down for a minute, well that minute ended up being 5 hours! So when I woke up I realized that I never reset the forums to accept messages. I didn't even realize I fell asleep by accident.

Here is what we are doing about things...As of next week my job is temporarily changing my shifts to all day and evening shifts. Although I prefer the shift I am on, this other shift will allow me more time to work on RepticZone's upgrades and programming. Plus my required studying won't be so tough as it is now. The upgrades will resolve the archiving and defrag problems that we currently are having. We have a lot more traffic then we had a couple of months ago as well. On the message below this you will see we are trying to re-write the areas of the forums so they run much faster. I have a forum that I been testing and will work more aggressively on getting that done over the next couple of months while my new schedule lasts. We are also looking to move to a bigger and faster server as well.

I have a few new things lined up this year. As of now I have the start of a new food chart. it is currently geared to herbivores and omnivores, but will be further developed for all. It's a lot different then any reptile food chart out there and will be much more educational then any reptile food chart out there. The new chart will be interactive as well. Another area we are working on are suggested caging requirements and of course that will be interactive as well too.

In addition to programming RZ, I will be opening up a fitness site as well. My other hobby along with reptiles and amphibians is working out and diets. The new site is intended in helping people receive support and motivation while trying to trim down, bulk up, or just to help live a healthier life style and diet. So that is something that will be in progress by mid this year hopefully.

Anyway...I do apologize for falling asleep while working on the database. Thinking about it and seeing the time the database finished..I only had to be up another minute or two.

As always feel free to contact me on anything Contact Here

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

10/27/06 04:00PM

Updates You ALL Should Like!

Here is an update many of you may have been waiting for. As of today I started writing and testing some new updates to the forums. This new update will speed up the time of waiting for your post to turn over to the index. So I am re-writing and restructuring the scripts and database tables to do this. So far things are looking positive and just a few more tests that I will do over the next week before we start the process of converting the forums over to the new structure. Once the testing is done, I estimate I will move 1-2 forums a day over to the new structure, so it may take about 2-3 months. Maybe considerably less than that depending on how smooth everything goes once I start the process. I know there are scripts that work with the forums now that will have to be changed as well. So that will take some additional time.

I know I have been slow on the archiving and updates, but I'm hoping to have more time to spend at RZ like I used to. Right now my job requires me to study for tests and be on call, not to mention work and sleep crazy hours. So I apologize to everyone for that.

As always feel free to contact me on anything Contact Here

Thanks Everyone
Doug - Webmaster

09/15/06 10:00AM

Photo Server Down

We are having problems with the photo server coming back up. The whole partition is corrupted which means that some or all of the photos can possibly be lost. I may be able to recoup some, but definitely not all. Until I get the server accessible I cannot give you any exact information on what will happen to the photos you have uploaded. Worst case scenario I need a new drive, reinstall the operating system, and find the last backup I have. Which unfortunately wasn't a recent back up.

So between this and my ac going out...it is going to be a trying day!

Any comments or questions please contact me.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

06/06/06 09:00PM

More Forum Script Updates!

Now
Ok I starting some major updates to the sites which involve the database. I made one update today which information is below this message. That switch was made pretty flawlessly and most probably didn't notice because I added a few lines of codes to accommondate the old table. I'm currently in process of moving information from large tables into smaller tables which will have quicker access times. I didn't develop this database to withstand the traffic we currently have.

Current problems you may be experiencing now and during the transformation of the database is bogging down and double posts. This isn't going to be permanent. The change that I made early today has already shown relief. However tonights major slow down was my own stupidity. I seen a window of opportunity where load averages were low so I ran two database intensive scripts for the archiving project that is being undertaken. In 3.5 years I should of known better then to run those scripts in the evening when they are normally ran between 2am-3:30am and then again between 5am-7am. I was trying to save me time of not sleeping or not having to wake up in the middle of sleeping.

Another reason for some slow down is the fact that I am removing large chunks from the database, which effects search times greatly. My only solution to that is optimizing the database which can only be done about 5am or I have to shut down the webserver because no data can be inserted.

So that is the scoop. As usual always feel free to contact with whatever questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns you have.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

1:00pm
I will be working on the some of the forum scripts today. Making changes to the formats of tables, adding new tables, and trying to reduce datbase seek time.

At this time I am working on the views of each thread. Threads before today will no longer have the views counted. Threads that are created today will have their views counted. Part of this process involves me staring at the queries coming through the computer to make sure the seek times in the database on this query is cut down dramatically.

This is one step into speeding up the forums, this was an issue that I need to take action with for a while. I fortunately have a whole week off so I am taking advantage of that by making needed changes to help improve RZ performance.

If you have any questions concerning this particular update, or want info on some of the other updates always feel free to contact me

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

05/27/06 01:00PM

Messaging System Updates

We are currently working on the messaging system to update some site security features. You may get an error saying that you are on a probation period. Please ignore this. The estimated time for this process to be done is sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Sorry for any inconvience and please feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

05/20/06 03:30AM

Photo Sever is Currently Down Update.

Updated Message
Just an update, I managed to get the photo server back up and running. New parts are going to have to be ordered, but for now it has a decent banadage on it.

Thanks Doug - Webmaster

Original Message
Due to some hardware issues the photo server is down. It will most likely be down for several days as I determine the cause and try to correct the problem.

Sorry for any inconvience.

Doug - Webmaster

02/18/06 12:00AM

Server Maintenance Tonight

I will be doing some server maintenance tonight. Changing and testing different sever settings along with testing the archiving script. So you may notice increase in speeds, then slow responses and even a chance of no response for a small period of time. Just wanted to let everyone know what to expect over the next 4 hours.

If you come across any problems contact me right away to make me aware of any issues I overlooked. Also feel free to give me feedback if the server seems faster or slower, etc.

Thanks Doug - Webmaster

02/13/06 02:00AM

New Updates and Problems Associated With It

I been currently working on some new updates this weekend. Once again this is an update to conserve resources. Some of you may of noticed that you received a "Forbidden" message a couple of times. If you do see this message. Cut and paste the url from your browser and email it to me at webmaster@repticzone.com
For subject just put type in "Forbidden Url". This will help me sort out some of the problems that I didn't recognize myself.

One other notes...I'm still working on the archiving section. Which will lead to a couple of new features that we will be adding on as well.

If things go right we may be upgrading RZ to a larger and faster server.

Thanks and feel free to contact me anytime.
Doug - Webmaster

01/21/06 06:00PM

New Year Updates...

Some good news and bad news

...Good news is the archiving system part of the site has been coming along and may possibly be done in a couple of weeks. Making the archives updated in about 3 weeks. Maybe less, maybe more...didn't expect the second part of archiving would take almost 2 months. We just finished moving archived threads to a different part of the database. Still have to optimize the table to remove all the empty spaces left. This will be done when the server is off-line. There is still more work ahead for the archiving system. Which should also ease some of the resources of the server.

Missing Amount of Posts?
This is already coded into the scripts, however because I have to pull the information from two tables I have to make sure I can properly optimize this which I haven't done so far.

The bad news...is actually good news, just bad news for my pockets! We will be moving RepticZone to a larger and faster server. I tried putting it off with all this programming, but we have just outgrown the resources of this server. We have nearly doubled the traffic this January already compared to the full month of January of 2005.

Hope you are all enjoying the new year. Thanks to everyone for being part of RepticZone
Doug - Webmaster

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