Lowyat.NET: Latest topics in Announcements

New Administrator,

RBR — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:01:52 +0800

We have a new addition to the Forum Admin group, and it is goldfries!

Congratulations and welcome to the hallowed and now expanded club of 3

Server Migration to AIMS and Connectivity Issues,

se7en — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:44:33 +0800

As most of you might have noticed, we recently migrated our servers out of Jaring to the AIMS datacenter. There were two primary reasons why we made the option to move.

1. Jaring's new revised prices meant we had to pay about 300% more compared to what we were previously paying. With a peak bandwidth utilization hitting about 25MB/s, that was a huge increase in costs.

2. AIMS sells bandwidth that is connected directly to the Malaysian Internet Exchange. By selling local and international bandwidth separately, we are able to get more bandwidth at a lower cost. Its still an increase in costs, but not as much as if we remained in Jaring.

The migration also takes into account our future plans to provide streaming locally produced videos and media content via Lowyat.TV. By having the option to purchase local bandwidth for a cheaper cost, we should be able to roll out more media intensive content over the next few months.

The migration however isn't without problems. At the moment, there seems to be some minor connectivity and routing problems between the datacenter and some of the major ISP's. We are aware those on Maxis broadband connection are experiencing lag to the site due to routing issues, and TMnet users have experienced intermittent breakdowns from time to time.

Rest assured that we are working with the service providers and the datacenter to fix the issues as soon as possible.

Garage Sales Price Police, Please read.

RBR — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:56:30 +0800

This rule clarification relates to all sales threads in the forums, particularly in Garage Sales and Bulk Orders.

Price police are users who post on a thread informing others that the thread starter's prices are too high or unrealistic. This is not prohibited - as sales in LYN are conducted in a forum based environment, it is an advantage we have as compared to other trading sites. However, to be fair and to prevent any misleading comments or sales sabotages, if your post informs others that a price is too high or unrealistic, you must also include some proof that a similar product can be obtained for a cheaper price. This may consist of:-

1) A link to another sales but not one which is conducted by you yourself;

2) A link to another website;

3) A personal account of experience, provided details are given, ie. shop name and location, where possible.

Trade police', however, must not continually post asking the thread starter to lower his price. One post is sufficient to get your point across.

Warnings will be given to first time offenders. Please direct any queries relating to the above to one of the moderators.

Mobile Phones & PDAs,

RBR — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:33:36 +0800

The Mobile Phones subforum and PDAs subforum have been merged into a single "Mobile Phones and PDAs" subforum to move with the times.

New subforums will be introduced there shortly and pinned threads will be tidied up in the upcoming days.

Bear with us, renovations in progress!

Special Interest- Restructure,

RBR — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:51:30 +0800

I've just effected a minor restructure at Special Interests.

1. Home Entertainment has been created to discuss TVs, DVD players, cables and other home entertainment/theatre discussions. I believe this would include general discussions about satellite/cable tv as well.

2. Audiophiles has been absorbed to Home Entertainment.

3. Musicians now stands alone in Special Interests.

If you have any comments regarding the new structure, please open a thread in Feedback Desk.

New moderator - Fyonne,

RBR — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:41:29 +0800

Fyonne comes on board the moderating team to watch over Anime Shrine, and perhaps Arts & Design too.

New moderator - davidgary73,

RBR — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:09:39 +0800

davidgary73 has been appointed moderator for the Apple Byte and iPhone subforums

New Moderator - pizzaboy, at Health & Fitness

RBR — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:54:52 +0800

Just a quick note to announce that pizzaboy is now a moderator for Health & Fitness, alongside malaysianPotato

Database restoration,

wKkaY — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:22:44 +0800

We suffered a major database crash this morning caused firstly by diskspace issues, and secondly a missing InnoDB journal.

Backups have been restored from the previous day, but any new data (posts and PMs) from 5AM 24th Feb are permanently gone.

We will be investigating further, and will implement measures to avoid this in the future. On behalf of the LYN team, I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you.

[addedon]February 25, 2009, 2:32 pm[/addedon]Oh, and the good news is that if you were banned yesterday, you would probably escape the ban

Fashion subforum,

RBR — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:55:23 +0800

Please note that the "Fashion & Beauty" subforum is now moved to its own home under Lifestyle.

Anyone can post anywhere, but the main subforum is for girl fashion or general things. Boys can talk boy fashion here: Men's Style & Fashion

When reporting a post,

RBR — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:16:09 +0800

We have been experiencing a major surge in reported posts recently. A very high percentage of them are simply discarded as they are not of reportable nature.

Below is a guide of when to report and when not to report:

When should I report?

Personal attacks: When someone makes a post that is personally attacking another person.

Illegal / inappropriate: When someone is posting a link to or asking for help acquiring illegal, copyrighted or otherwise inappropriate material. This includes things such as warez, porn, or anything against any law of the country.

Blatant and persistent foul language: Excessive use of profanity is neither constructive nor communicative. The odd minor infraction in an otherwise helpful and on-topic post isn't such a big deal, but frequent use, or the use of 'harder' language certainly warrants a report.

Off-topic / hijacking: Blatant attempts to drag a thread offtopic, or to 'hijack' a thread, unless the thread is in the Lifestyle Sections.

When should I not?

Wrong information: Being incorrect is not grounds for the removal of a post. If you believe that someone has lead someone else astray, write a response to offer what you believe is correct.

Singe use of foul language: Ignore it.

Personal issues: Live with it.

Double posts/Triple posts: Its minor and unintentional. Ignore it.

Spam in Lifestyle Sections: This is unavoidable. The sheer volume of posts there makes it impossible for us to effectively and expeditiously attend to reports, particularly in Kopitiam.

How should I report

Provide us with sufficient information to make a good judgment call. If there are multiple posts that are infringing in the same page, report just one post and let the moderator know the details.

If there is a duplicate thread, provide us with a link to the other thread.

If the thread should be moved, a suggestion as to where you think its more suitable would be appreciated!

Temporary downtime at Jaring,

se7en — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:37:31 +0800

Our service provider at Jaring experienced a temporary outage of service earlier today. Most of the connectivity issues were rectified by around 11pm. There are still some minor packet loss issues that we hope will be ironed out by the time the early morning traffic comes in.

No bunnies were hurt during the service restoration process.

//se7en

Selamat Menyambut Bulan Ramadhan, from Lowyat.NET

wKkaY — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:35:45 +0800

On behalf of Lowyat.NET, I would like to extend our best wishes to our Muslim community who commence the Ramadhan season today.

To commemorate this season as well as Aidilfitri next month, we have put up songkok smileys, courtesy of firedauz

Temporary downtime 260808,

se7en — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:45:35 +0800

Our service provider experienced a loss of network connection earlier today during a planned uplink upgrade exercise.

The faults have since been rectified and order is now officially restored to the LYN Universe.

*goes back to troll hunting*

Kopitiam Cleanup Operation,

se7en — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:11:17 +0800

We were hoping they would grow up, but that seems to be wishful thinking now.

For the next week, and until a time when we believe order has been restored, moderators have been instructed to suspend on sight any member found trolling, creating unnecessary flame threads and using profanities (short form and creative spelling included) anywhere across the board - especially the Kopitiam sections.

We do allow for the occasional random postings, even unnecessary spam in the kopitiam, but please do not abuse it to the point that it interferes with the topic being discussed. Treat your fellow members with respect, and post constructively.

PM upgrade - conversation-style messaging,

wKkaY — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:41:20 +0800

The PM system has been upgraded to incorporate conversations. When you read a message now, other messages in the conversation will also be shown. To help distinguish the current message, the other messages are faded. Some messages may be missing however, if either party deletes them.

This feature should hopefully help you track PMs more easily. And as a bonus to us, it allows us to save storage space (as nested quotes are not necessary anymore), so expect a inbox size upgrade soon

As part of the migration to the system, quotes in old messages are currently shown in <spoiler> tags to prevent them from filling up the page. New messages will NOT be quoted and will therefore NOT have this spoiler tag.

As usual, please post your feedback in the Feedback/Helpdesk section of the forum..

Just a few things...,

RBR — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:35:48 +0800

Some personnel changes:-

1. alien2003 is now a full moderator.

2. Asendure and shockw@ve have tendered their resignations as Staffs due to work and other commitments.

3. jhcj, yongkailoon and stevenistelrooy have been appointed as Staffs.

New feature - Topic thumbnails,

wKkaY — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:20:35 +0800

The Photo Gallery and Galleries de Celebrities sections have been enabled with thumbnails. This limited trial may be extended to other subforums later on.

[attachmentid=436159]

To set a thumbnail for an existing topic, simply edit the first post and enter an image URL into the textbox labeled "Thumbnail URL". This textbox also appears when you create a new topic.

[attachmentid=436160]

Minor feature - "Recently viewed me",

wKkaY — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 02:06:49 +0800

You are now able to see the people who have recently viewed your profile. Depending on their visibility setting, you will see either their member group or their name. An example is provided below.

[attachmentid=434421]

You can change your visibility to others here --> http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=04 . By default, only your member group is shown (i.e. "stalker mode").

Moderator accounts compromised,

wKkaY — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:47:50 +0800

Two moderator accounts were compromised yesterday.

Goldfries - MSN account on Sunday night
Ah Wang - LYN account at about 1-2am

Solicitations for cash and Paypal funds have been made through these accounts. If you have received these solicitations, please contact me at waikeen@lowyat.net to help with our investigation.

Please take caution when dealing with anyone, including the members of our moderating team.