Brummies Website

[manchesterpaul]

Last night in the play-off thread there was this posting from 'UK Martin'

"Not so much "crashed" as deliberately switched off by the people who "look after it" on behalf of the BSPA. Apparently the flow of traffic to the Brummies site was overworking their server so much that we became a threat to the usability of other team's web sites...like...well...pick a name..."

 

 

My response to that last night, and before the Birmingham statement had been issued, was as further below and going by the official Birmingham apology shockingly it is true that it was pulled. What on earth type of uber-cheapo contract do the BSPA have with their website providers in that it can't cope with the bandwidth demand that is hardly server stressing in this day and age.

 

"Gee surely they wouldn't do that? They could be costing them business as general sports fans or lapsed supporters could likely be trying to access the site to see when the final is etc.

 

At the moment the error message says the site doesn't actually exist! Well that would certainly stop newcomers from coming back and chasing up any queries. Normally if a site is overloaded you see a message saying so, not something saying it doesn't exist, very, very bad administration there not to set up a simple message.

"Web Server's Default Page

 

This page is generated by Parallels Plesk Panel, the leading hosting automation software. You see this page because there is no Web site at this address.

You can do the following:

Create domains and set up Web hosting using Parallels Plesk Panel.

For more information please contact Administrator." "

Edited October 1, 2013 by manchesterpaul

[OGT]

The whole situation is utterly pathetic.

We've seen Brum's take on it, be interesting to hear what the BSPA themselves have to say. :icon_smile_clown:

[Guest]

I have been making websites in school on adobe Dreamweaver and they are a similar standard to AP Media's.

 

Hougaard Racng Fans: I don't think that's something you should make general knowledge!

I clicked a link about the Swindon website and it took me to AP Media. The same Link came up for several other club websites that I tried.

http://www.apmedia.info/

Edited October 1, 2013 by Guest

[LagutaRacingFan]

I don't think that's something you should make general knowledge!

I clicked a link about the Swindon website and it took me to AP Media.

http://www.apmedia.info/

 

The best thing about that site is the bird, She looks nice.

 

I would appreciate it if Andy came onto the forum to discuss the issue and explain it to the fans.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Hougaard Racing Fans

[manchesterpaul]

Awww, young love

 

Destined to end in tears methinks as it's likely that is a stock photograph and the actual telephonist could be wildly different in age and looks lol (mind you not necessarily for the worse she could be even hotter!)

 

If you would like to see what a good speedway website looks like just check out Speedway365.com That is how you do web design right!

 

Oh wow! what a pleasant surprise that site is vastly improved. I had stopped using it several months ago and even un-bookmarked it as i was sick of text being overwritten on to other text and pictures being lopped off or distorted. I'll go back to using it now if the news etc. is up-to-date.

 

Has it changed hands or just been redesigned? Is it your company that does it?

Edited October 1, 2013 by manchesterpaul

[SpeedwayTShirts]

As this issue has been the tipping point, I thought I may aswell post this here as start a new thread in general speedway.

 

For the past 48 hours I have found myself irritated to the point of fury about Speedway. I am now in a better place where there are white fluffy clouds, a smell of clean bedding and San Miguel on draft free of charge. I guarantee no more rants for the foreseeable future!

 

I have come to conclusion that there are some things that you just can’t fix. It’s said you can’t help someone if they don’t want to be helped and I think that definitely applies with my favourite sport.

 

I think creating a state of world peace would be an easier objective than putting things right in British Speedway. If someone with the sway and money of Avtar Sandhu couldn’t crack it what hope do I have?

 

I’ve followed speedway for 39 years and is been a major part of my life as a fan, a rider, a manager and as a presenter.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the BIKERfm Speedway Show for the last 12 months and getting to interview the riders who still cherish the sport and embrace the fact they get paid for doing something that they love. But even that caused me issues, although it was enjoyed by 20,000+ people week in week out. It was a particular honour hosting the show that celebrated RICO’s life reaching an audience of over 80,000 people worldwide.

 

I love presenting at both Birmingham and Coventry (and Stoke in the past) and trying to add a bit of entertainment value to the average fans night out with all the jingles etc plus it gives me the chance to show off and be in the limelight. I’ve also enjoyed being the Press Officer at Birmingham this season at the request of the Promotion, it’s been challenging at times but something I’m glad I accepted.

 

But enough is enough, it’s having a knock on effect on my home life with 2 young children in the house and the time I devote to something that quite frankly doesn’t deserve it.

 

There are “some” great people out there, I was proud to be part of the airfence meeting at Buxton on Sunday where I offered my services free of charge to help with their fund raising, it was just like the good old days. Great job again Dean Felton.

 

From now on I’m not going to let the inner workings of British Speedway affect me. I’m going to just “hopefully” continue in the roles I play, enjoying the racing, the riders I class as friends and the genuine people I have the privilege to work with.

 

To think a mere person with good intentions could make a difference was very naïve.

 

So if you see me getting frustrated in the future remind me of these 9 simple words….

 

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME, YOU WON’T CHANGE A THING

[Tom Turner]

I am dissapointed to see my post has been removed.

 

The last thing speedway needs while it remains in this god awful state is censorship of the fans who are entitled as paying customers to speak their mind. The points I made yesterday are hard facts and it's exactly this "brush under the carpet" attitude that has gotten the sport into this mess to begin with.

 

Absolutely appalling British Speedway Forum.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Synikalle

[greyhoundp]

Im dissapointed to see you giving up trying to change things, that dont want to be changed Chris, however as you say, when it impacts on your home life, then it is time to reconsider, keep up trying to improve what YOU know that YOU can do Chris.

 

Now back on topic, its good to see the Topic re-instated, albeit the subject of some censorship, due apparently to some alleged liblelous remarks, i know promoters of The BSPA do come on here, I know bcuz one day one of them phoned me to ask me to remove a Topic that another promoter was unhappy about otherwise we may lose The Track that we share, i being a supporter of that Team for 50 years, I didnt want them to be without a Team for another 10+ years, so not wanting my fellow supporters to lose their Team again removed the Topic.

So they do indeed read certain Topics on here.

This subject of The BSPA asking AP Media to withdraw the Brummie website albeit temporarily STINKS, i take it other Teams did not suffer the same lack of service, and if not WHY not ?. AP Media do come on here, or have in the past, and they/he stated it was at the request of The BSPA, I think it is only right and proper to ask The BSPA to make a statement as to why they requested the Brummie website be removed, and apparently NO other.

[Guest]

I am dissapointed to see my post has been removed.

 

The last thing speedway needs while it remains in this god awful state is censorship of the fans who are entitled as paying customers to speak their mind. The points I made yesterday are hard facts and it's exactly this "brush under the carpet" attitude that has gotten the sport into this mess to begin with.

 

Absolutely appalling British Speedway Forum.

 

I was looking for this thread earlier in the day and wondered where it had gone. Now I know it - probably in HIDE mode but since reinstated? I even used the system to find threads and was told that I was being refused entry which rather puzzled me.

 

Im dissapointed to see you giving up trying to change things, that dont want to be changed Chris, however as you say, when it impacts on your home life, then it is time to reconsider, keep up trying to improve what YOU know that YOU can do Chris.

 

Now back on topic, its good to see the Topic re-instated, albeit the subject of some censorship, due apparently to some alleged liblelous remarks, i know promoters of The BSPA do come on here, I know bcuz one day one of them phoned me to ask me to remove a Topic that another promoter was unhappy about otherwise we may lose The Track that we share, i being a supporter of that Team for 50 years, I didnt want them to be without a Team for another 10+ years, so not wanting my fellow supporters to lose their Team again removed the Topic.

So they do indeed read certain Topics on here.

This subject of The BSPA asking AP Media to withdraw the Brummie website albeit temporarily STINKS, i take it other Teams did not suffer the same lack of service, and if not WHY not ?. AP Media do come on here, or have in the past, and they/he stated it was at the request of The BSPA, I think it is only right and proper to ask The BSPA to make a statement as to why they requested the Brummie website be removed, and apparently NO other.

 

I endorse your comments fully.

[Kester]

I am dissapointed to see my post has been removed.

 

The last thing speedway needs while it remains in this god awful state is censorship of the fans who are entitled as paying customers to speak their mind. The points I made yesterday are hard facts and it's exactly this "brush under the carpet" attitude that has gotten the sport into this mess to begin with.

 

Absolutely appalling British Speedway Forum.

 

Absolutely agree. Isn't it amazing how every now and then we see where the tentacles of those in power extend to, and how poor that the mods of the BSF kow-tow every time.

[TheReturn]

 

 

Also if the system was about crash why not temporally take down every team not involved in the plays off rather than the teams involved in the plays offs.

 

Server was perhaps set up to auto close any site going over agreed bandwidth. You cant close another business website just because one is on TV.

[Brummie Kev]

As this issue has been the tipping point, I thought I may aswell post this here as start a new thread in general speedway.

 

For the past 48 hours I have found myself irritated to the point of fury about Speedway. I am now in a better place where there are white fluffy clouds, a smell of clean bedding and San Miguel on draft free of charge. I guarantee no more rants for the foreseeable future!

 

I have come to conclusion that there are some things that you just can’t fix. It’s said you can’t help someone if they don’t want to be helped and I think that definitely applies with my favourite sport.

 

I think creating a state of world peace would be an easier objective than putting things right in British Speedway. If someone with the sway and money of Avtar Sandhu couldn’t crack it what hope do I have?

 

I’ve followed speedway for 39 years and is been a major part of my life as a fan, a rider, a manager and as a presenter.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the BIKERfm Speedway Show for the last 12 months and getting to interview the riders who still cherish the sport and embrace the fact they get paid for doing something that they love. But even that caused me issues, although it was enjoyed by 20,000+ people week in week out. It was a particular honour hosting the show that celebrated RICO’s life reaching an audience of over 80,000 people worldwide.

 

I love presenting at both Birmingham and Coventry (and Stoke in the past) and trying to add a bit of entertainment value to the average fans night out with all the jingles etc plus it gives me the chance to show off and be in the limelight. I’ve also enjoyed being the Press Officer at Birmingham this season at the request of the Promotion, it’s been challenging at times but something I’m glad I accepted.

 

But enough is enough, it’s having a knock on effect on my home life with 2 young children in the house and the time I devote to something that quite frankly doesn’t deserve it.

 

There are “some” great people out there, I was proud to be part of the airfence meeting at Buxton on Sunday where I offered my services free of charge to help with their fund raising, it was just like the good old days. Great job again Dean Felton.

 

From now on I’m not going to let the inner workings of British Speedway affect me. I’m going to just “hopefully” continue in the roles I play, enjoying the racing, the riders I class as friends and the genuine people I have the privilege to work with.

 

To think a mere person with good intentions could make a difference was very naïve.

 

So if you see me getting frustrated in the future remind me of these 9 simple words….

 

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME, YOU WON’T CHANGE A THING

 

Chris, you do an amazing job and there is no one better at presenting at the Brummies, the crowd always responds to your warcrys etc. Its so sad to see you feel like that.

 

First chance, I have had to air my opinion about the disgrace of removing our website after the biggest meeting of our recent history on Monday. In the Brummies Statement, it states that the site was removed because the servers couldnt cope with our site. So why hasnt there been any problems with the Poole site, Swindon or Wolves sites. Whether you believe the Brummies Statement or not, we the fans deserve an explanation from AP Media and the BSPA but true to form wall of silence. Just one word sums up this whole thing to me, that word is SPITE.

[John Leslie]

Also some criticism over general quality of the products of AP Media.

One of mine has gone. And it wasn't libellous or anything. I was only commenting that I thought that APmedia website was poor and had several spelling mistakes and a really crap 1980s animated gif.

[OGT]

Just one word sums up this whole thing to me, that word is SPITE.

 

Why a "P" instead of an "H", Kev?

[SteveLyric2]

One of mine has gone. And it wasn't libellous or anything. I was only commenting that I thought that APmedia website was poor and had several spelling mistakes and a really crap 1980s animated gif.

perhaps you mis-spelled 'gif' in your original post??!

[SCB]

Server was perhaps set up to auto close any site going over agreed bandwidth. You cant close another business website just because one is on TV.

If the server cannot cope with a few extra fans on the day of the play-offs then maybe clubs shouldn't be made to host the site on the BSPA server?!

[uk_martin]

Sorry I cannot for the life of me believe that the Brum site was taken down due to traffic. I used to run a few very popular websites which got between 240,000 - 450,000 visitors. A day. My servers never broke sweat ( although the punters would have!)

 

With bandwidth free today (unlimited) there is no way on gods earth the Brum site would have anywhere near enough visitors to cause an issue.

 

According to Google Analytics, the Brummies site peaked on Monday between 11am - 12noon with 227 unique visitors. Hour by hour the numbers then declined 187, 147, 145...until by the time that the meeting started, when everyone interested in Birmingham Speedway was either in the stadium or watching telly, the number fell to just 4 between 7pm and 8pm, rising to a "threatening" 27 between 10pm and 11pm

 

In terms of page views...the figures are in proportion with the peak "page views" being 584 between 11am and 12noon.

 

I was able to use the web site as sweet as a nut in my lunch break. I have no idea why the site should cause the server to wobble later in the evening.

 

I did sort of wonder who our web audience would be on match night. Who would tune into a static web site that had no live coverage of the meeting when they could be at the stadium or watching telly? I can understand Speedway Updates or BSF getting busier, but not the Brummies site. There's nothing on it at 9pm that isn't there at 6pm.

 

Folks, you are the web-visiting audience...do you visit a club's web site during a meeting?

[Guest]

Absolutely agree. Isn't it amazing how every now and then we see where the tentacles of those in power extend to, and how poor that the mods of the BSF kow-tow every time.

 

Yes indeed. Very surprising - promoters are hardly going to ban every BSF user - even if they could!

[Tom Turner]

Server was perhaps set up to auto close any site going over agreed bandwidth. You cant close another business website just because one is on TV.

 

Nope.

 

When the website "went down" we were served with a Parallels Plesk default page. This tells us that the website was moved, deleted from its hosting or the domain nameservers were changed. The only thing that could cause this would be an intentional removal from an administrator or hacker.

 

You would not be served with this page if you had exceeded your bandwidth.

 

Websites are generally rather small when you look at it in terms of bandwidth. The average web page is about 320kb. To put that into perspective, a professional web server is capable of supplying that data over 3000 times a second. It was not bandwidth related.

[Jacques]

Unsurprisingly, there is quite a bit of discussion about this topic on facebook. Those that have had posts removed and have received bans would appreciate an explanation. Phil??