- Added support for having the client receive commands from more than one server. (see below)
- Changed the primary server the client uses to communicate with the H@H system. (see below)
- Added proper error messages for most errors that could be encountered while processing a HTTP request. These should now be specific to the cause of the error, unlike the general "Nothing to prepare" error that was printed before.
Note that the major change in this build is changing what server the client uses for primary communication. Moving the primary database to the new location a couple of weeks ago caused some problems for H@H, since the necessary operations against the database took much longer. Because of this, clients with a very large cache would take so long to initialize that the request simply timed out. It was therefore necessary to move the RPC server to a location closer to the primary database.
While this could have been handled for the H@H clients with a simple DNS change, this would cause all kinds of problems for clients that were already running, so I decided to do it like this. That allowed me to do some cleanup in the API spec as well, since I could deprecate older clients on the new RPC server.
Also, note that this or newer builds will be required for future operation, but for now old clients will continue as normal against the old API server. This will however be shut down somewhere in the not too distant future, so you should upgrade to the new build when you have the chance.
Yesterday around 17:30 UTC, E-Hentai.org and the E-Hentai forums were knocked offline due to a DDoS attack against another server hosted close in the network topology to our primary server. This saturated our host's upstream provider, and left all servers on the network unreachable. Note that the target of this DDos was *not* E-Hentai itself, but some guy named Roby. Unfortunately, being on the same switch meant that we went down as well, bringing an end to 571 days and change of constant uptime for the forums and main site. Total downtime was about 3.5 hours.
Note that the original E-Hentai.org and the forums don't currently have a failover server, mostly because of the superb historic performance of this server and our network provider, which until today hasn't recorded a minute of downtime in the past year and a half. There are of course daily backups, so in case of a total server failure, a full redeployment could be done in less than a day. This was not necessary today however, as the server itself was not affected in any way.
This brings us to the issues that were experienced on E-Hentai Galleries during this downtime. Since the start of the beta, Galleries has been closely tethered to the main server, sharing the login and authentication system used on the forums and main site, with no in-system backup solution if this link is severed. Therefore, every time anyone has wanted to do some restricted action that required authentication, like changing settings or favorites, or uploading a gallery, the Galleries system had to clear this with the main server before allowing the action. The emergency patch applied around 19:00 UTC yesterday was a crude implementation of a backup authentication system, which successfully restored partial access to everyone who was logged in before the main server went down.
This patch did unfortuantely, due to its rushed nature, cause some issues with Galleries even after the main server was restored. The primarily cause was that the implementation was only partial, and that parts of it had to be pushed untested since essential parts of the functionality played up against the main server. This lead to a return of the blank-name syndrome, a number of smaller issues with it not recognizing auras and failing to logging on users properly, and some problems recording gallery hits. Most if not all of these issues should now be fixed and cleared up, and the system can as a further bonus now operate mostly independent from the main site, should it ever go down again.
If you spot any curiosities or have any other problems that seem related to this, let me know.
A few days ago, I asked for feedback on the current situation with Real Porn galleries posted to the E-Hentai Galleries system, and got a lot of responses both publicly and privately. Based on this feedback, as well as some unrelated comments, I have now set up a new set of rules for what can be posted as the different categories that are displayed on the front page and in search results on this system.
Updated rules will be available under the Rules of Content Classification found here, but for the lazily inclined I have reproduced the current rule set below. Note that they may get further tweaked and refined in the future.
QUOTE
The Doujinshi, Manga, Artist CG, Game CG and Image Set sections should only be used for corresponding content that contain "hentai" or "ecchi" material.
The Cosplay section should only be used for real people involved in "costume play", that is, dressing up as anime-, manga- or game-related characters.
The Real Porn section should generally be defined as Asian Porn, With Some Exceptions. Asian Porn, as well as other exceptionally hot real porn galleries, can be posted here. Avoid posting stuff like mediocre soft-core generic porn galleries, there are so many other places you can go for that. Also, NO FAT CHICKS.
The Misc section can be used as a generic category for stuff that doesn't fall under the other ones, but that still would hold some interest for the average E-Hentai visitor. ALL NON-H MATERIAL SHOULD BE POSTED HERE.
Note that the category you pick affects the amount of GP you earn from the gallery. The six first categories are pegged at 100%, Real Porn is 50%, Misc is 25% and all private galleries is 10%.
Note that rewards have received another tweak.
When it comes to the Real Porn galleries, this is a fairly major change, which of course leaves open the question of what to do with the existing ones. Therefore, for now, the new rules will apply for galleries that are posted starting today. Since there are far too many old galleries to weed out the classifying ones, all previous Real Porn galleries will be re-classified as Private in a few days, making it up to each individual poster to determine which galleries can be re-submitted. Note that the galleries will not be removed from the system at this time, but they may eventually be affected by certain pruning systems that will be added in the future to remove private inactive galleries.
