Welcome back to RemoteCentral.com! Please excuse our dust, since things are still being put back into place.

Right off the bat, I’m sure a burning question for many of you will be... what the bleep happened? Put simply, the data center housing Remote Central’s dedicated server was shutting down, and the site had to move. Only, as RC has been in development since 1998 with many [extremely] legacy aspects, it wasn’t a simple matter of dumping everything into a new, modern environment and flipping it back on – a lot of modernization work was needed.

The Problem

On the last possible day last December, someone who’s been helping me keep Remote Central up for 25 years did a complete site backup, and then my own server was decommissioned and destroyed. Plans were set to get the site back online, elsewhere, over the next few weeks. However, the person who performed this backup promptly ghosted me, with all of my data in their possession. Months of emails and texts went unanswered, which was particularly troubling since – as far as that person knew – they had the only complete backup of my server.

Thankfully, I did have my own backup. However, I am not a server admin and efforts at finding a new host and outside help in getting Remote Central back online were hampered by offers that fell through, business relationships that mysteriously vanished, and offers that weren’t a good fit for my needs.

I soon realized that if I wanted RC back, I was going to have to do it myself.

The Reluctant One Man Show

Queue crash course in Ubuntu server creation and administration – along with navigating 15 years worth of Apache, Perl, MySQL, and Manticore changes that broke my existing code.

But, here we are. All static pages are back online, the forum is complete and restored, the file area is complete and restored, as far as I know all minor related programs are also functional (other than a minor note below).

Things will generally look the same at first glance, but trust me when I say that was a big enough challenge! However, beneath the surface a ton of new development has been going on, and there are many new things to look forward to:

• Better security with an up-to-date OS, proper SSL, IPv6, and the latest versions of everything.
• All-new anti-spam measures! The system will automatically place questionable posts and/or accounts into a moderator revue queue, based on an 8-point check. This system is still experimental, most checks will only apply to new accounts, and I’ll be monitoring results to see what may need to be adjusted.
• Enhanced user post flagging will hide potentially spammy posts with multiple user reports, and automatically place them into the moderator queue.
• More mod power! Volunteer moderators now have more tools at their disposal, such as a suspension system and ability to “trust” users.
• New customizable avatars! If you don’t like the new stock “letter” avatar design, upload your own picture! Plus, special badges for certain account types. (Please contact me if you’re a developer or manufacturer/supplier rep for a CI-related company.)
• Finally, you can “like” posts! Show others you appreciate their content, and see who’s liked yours! Find a list of all posts you’ve liked under “My Account”.
• All-new reputation system (EXPERIMENTAL / IN DEVELOPMENT) that tracks and rewards user activity on the site. Earn points by visiting daily, posting and replying, starting active conversations, receiving likes on your posts, unlocking achievements (see below), and more! Find a list of recent reputation events under “My Account”. Note that your reputation score will only be counted going forwards, and I may reset it in these early days if adjustments need to be made.
• All-new achievement system (EXPERIMENTAL / IN DEVELOPMENT) adds a bit of fun to your time on RC. Currently there are 74 achievements to earn, many earning bonus reputation points. View a user’s unlocked achievements on their profile page, and find the complete list along with your progress under the “My Account” page. Historical achievements (ie. account age and post quantities) will be automatically unlocked as you use the system (some run overnight, so be patient). Note that the reputation and achievement systems have not yet been expanded to other site areas, such as files, but will be.
• Updated site font stack should render better on Android and Apple mobile devices.
• Other niceties: “Last active” reporting for users, warnings when replying to old inactive threads, pagination for account report pages and RC mail.

Note that some things still need work, or may not be working in their entirely:

• After 20+ years on a private IP address, I’m having issues finding an email relay for the server... and the new IP range used by the host is not liked by some big email providers. A temporary solution is in place, but due to limits, thread subscription emails will not be going out at this time. Know of a good relay I can use? Please contact me, or donate to RC to help support a paid solution!
• Forum and file area search is fully functional, however the old sitewide search engine has been decommissioned. Until I come up with something new, for now I’d recommend using Google (note that Google Custom Search will not be useful until it has fully re-indexed the domain).
• 27 years of “no specific character encoding” in files and database content has been a nightmare to update to a consistent UTF-8. If you spot any pages or areas showing “weird” characters, please let me know so I can fix them.
• Literally every page and piece of code on the site has needed touching to modernize and make functional again. I have no doubt that features and sections of the site will be broken, crashing, or just not doing what they should. If you spot anything that doesn’t seem right, please let me know!

How you can help:

Support RemoteCentral! Every small donation or monthly commitment helps cover my costs, and will assist in keeping RC online indefinitely... as well as expanding server capacity and developing other new features you’d like to see. Please contact me if you have any suggestions or ideas!