Hey tropers, we are about to undergo a large update to the tvtropes' database to convert the encoding. During this time the login system will be offline. You'll still be able to read TVTropes but you won't be able to post or edit anything during the conversion.
How long will the login system be down?
My most recent test run took 9 hours (my first test took 20+ hours so this is after a lot of optimizations to get down to 9 hours). ***it will now take 11 hours. see update below
Can you give me more details?
TVTropes was originally hosted on Windows' servers back in the day and all content on the site is encoded with Windows 1252 (a superset of ISO-8859-1, aka latin1).
According to the W3Tech, only 1.3% of internet traffic is ISO-8859-1. I'm guessing a large amount of that is TVTropes considering we have millions of pages defined with that charset.
The majority of the internet is encoded in UTF8. By doing this conversion it will bring us up to modern standards with the rest of the web and allow us to more easily support other languages and icons. It will also allow us to use more modern tools to help with editing such adding a WYSIWYG editor option. It will also help with code development as we often have to add special workarounds to continue to support this long deprecated charset.
Are we changing anything else?
While we have the login system offline, we are going to upgrade the edits history database table to include a sequence number. We've always wanted to do this but it could not be done while the site was online. That table has 40M+ rows of data. With this change we'll be able to make it so we can easily jump to any page when filtering to edits from a specific page or from a specific user. We have this for the forum and that's why you can jump to page 500 for example of a long running thread and not have a long delay.
When will this happen?
UPDATE: (take two) This is now scheduled for Mon Dec 5th at 8:30PM PST until Tue Dec 6th at 7:30AM
At 8:30PM PST you will be logged-off of TVTropes so make sure to save anything before that time. Once the conversion is done the next morning, I'll point the code to the new server and everyone should be auto logged in. If not, when you see the all clear announcement at the top of the page, go ahead and try logging in again.
The process will take approximately 11 hours. I had it down to 9 hours until I found examples of utf8 encoded values inside latin1 columns so I had to add some extra testing to ensure that data doesn't get double encoded in the process.
If you have any issues during the migration please send an email to thestaff@tvtropes.org
UPDATE: (complete) The migration is officially complete. It ended up taking nearly 12 hours but we got there. All data on TVTropes (hundreds of millions of rows of data) has now been converted from Latin1 to UTF8. We now have the same encoding as 99% of other websites and can support special characters and other languages. It will also allow us to build other tools such as a WYSIWYG editor.
Edited by itcdr on Dec 6th 2023 at 8:48:40 AM
Just a heads-up, the notice up above doesn't seem to be site-wide (not on front page, or on any of the important linked pages out there to the side).
Reminder: worldwide time-frame for conversion.
AFK with issues, will returnIf you x'd out of it, it won't show up again.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure PurenessMight have done that, shouldn't closing it be disabled? I mean it is a pretty important thing.
AFK with issues, will returnSure, but once you read it, who wants a banner on every page they visit?
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure PurenessI don't, but I'm not concerned for my situation. More concerned for those that have closed it without reading it.
AFK with issues, will returnQuick question, should I have to logout before the database overhaul to avoid some problems or conflicts ?
So, one question. If I don't make it until after the site goes back up will this affect my ability to sign in once it is back up?
Edited by Bullman on Dec 4th 2023 at 4:53:53 AM
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup threadThere shouldn't be any problems if you did, if you can stay away from the site for the duration, you might still be logged in after it — basing this on the mention that cookie settings will be transferred too.
Well, since it is getting late here, I'll see you peeps tomorrow, hopefully the characters won't look just like I feel by then. 😜
AFK with issues, will returnWe have memberships?
Find the Light in the DarkI see... the database update is going to be crucial considering we're running on an outdated programming code.
May this process go safely. Best of luck, staff, we're hoping for the process to safely and successfully work.
Everyone's got their unique qualities.Thank you and good luck with the updates/repairs!
I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. - TolkienWait, did you say a new server? As in, everything on this website will be transferred to another? What will happen to this one?
So should I logout before the maintenance? And after said maintenance should I just log back in?
For the Imperium!!!No one needs to log out. The system should automatically log you back in once the server transfer is done and if it doesn’t, you can easily click the login button and it will work just fine.
The old database is still being kept in case we have any issues we can instantly point the site back at the original db and it’ll be exactly as it was before the switch. We did it this way to make sure if we have any issues it’ll just be a few minutes to switch it right back.
Edited by kory on Dec 4th 2023 at 5:05:47 AM
Now monitoring Wishlist and BugsThanks for the update and good luck!
Your receipt. You can keep the freakin' change.Godspeed, staff. I’m still logged in, but I’m in EST time and it’s 9:43 here.
Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!Hope everyone has peaceful times until the update ends.
Ignore - accidental double post.
Edited by Flameal15k on Dec 4th 2023 at 6:46:41 AM
Same, I'm still logged in and it's 10:55 AM December 5 in my timezone.
Edited by AudioSpeaks2 on Dec 4th 2023 at 10:55:46 PM
Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation projectWe've been through a wild ride. Hope the conversion goes well.
MB Pending | MB Drafts | MB DatesBest of luck on the overhaul!
Just to clarify, will the site be down entirely or just read-only while this is going on?
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Re: Loggins; good to know that everything will be saved.
She/Her | Currently cleaning N/A