Red Dwarf Official Website is on Downtime (For the time being)

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[Stephen Abootman]

In keeping with the theme, Chris Barrie’s website hasn’t been updated since he wished everyone a happy new year. For 2021.

[GlenTokyo]

In keeping with the theme, Chris Barrie’s website hasn’t been updated since he wished everyone a happy new year. For 2021.

Rob Grant holds the cards, and is considering making a new Chris Barrie, but he is open to Chris Barrie also continuing to be Chris Barrie.

[Dave]

We want more Chris Barrie content coming out of Rob Grant’s Buttski.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Maybe Chris just doesn’t wish anyone a happy 2022, he wants us all to be miserable.

[Flap Jack]

When TOS finally comes back up and you try browsing, but it turns out the new “RG-Corp” server doesn’t approve of post 1993 content.

[Dave]

[RunawayTrain]

Maybe Chris just doesn’t wish anyone a happy 2022, he wants us all to be miserable.

Or perhaps he’s just given up wishing altogether, after the last couple of years.  

[Kris Carter]

[Kris Carter]

[GlenTokyo]

[Flap Jack]

[Dave]

Excellent.

[Rudolph]

[Dave]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[GlenTokyo]

[Dave]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[cwickham]

[Dave]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

[GlenTokyo]

[Flap Jack]

The other day I let myself think “Maybe the reason they’re doing this long migration is to ensure that the website looks good/performs well ahead of a big Red Dwarf announcement???”. Very dangerous for me to raise my own hopes like that.

Although on the more realistic side of optimistic, if they’re bothering then they’re at least predicting that the show will be alive enough that having an up to scratch official website is worth doing. Better than being in the “may as well keep the site online, but not worth properly maintaining it” Space Jam zone.

[Dave]

[Flap Jack]

*laughs nervously*

[si]

I’m no expert (no, really, I’m no expert), but isn’t the lengthy time offline anything to do with messing about with over twenty years’ worth of content? 

[GlenTokyo]

If they’re sourcing higher res images and removing that horrible scanline effect off all their A-Z entries but otherwise it’s exactly the same, it’ll have been a job well done.

I’m definitely suspicious of it taking so long though, but I’ve never migrated a site that’s been online for 20 years or so though so maybe this is how long it takes? Especially when you’re doing it on the cheap.

[Flap Jack]

I’m no expert (no, really, I’m no expert), but isn’t the lengthy time offline anything to do with messing about with over twenty years’ worth of content?

Yeah, that seems like a reasonable assumption.

But when you hear “This will entail a short break in service” and “Hopefully, we won’t be down too long”, you don’t tend to think “this will be 6 weeks, if not longer”. So either the maintenance post was deliberate sugarcoating, or the downtime just wasn’t best planned and the scale of the migration complexity was not yet understood.

Fair enough I guess. These things happen, and it’s not like reddwarf.co.uk is a life or death service. It being down for so long just makes me slightly anxious. 😄

[Jenuall]

I don’t have huge knowledge of site migrations, but have been very loosely involved in a couple over the years and whilst they can absolutely be long, hard jobs, there’s also no denying that this downtime from TOS has definitely been on the long side. Either there is something else going on or they have encountered significant unexpected problems during the process. 

[Jonathan Capps]

I’m no expert (no, really, I’m no expert), but isn’t the lengthy time offline anything to do with messing about with over twenty years’ worth of content? 

It depends. TOS is saying it’s being migrated to a new provider, which to my mind is hosting company and possible domain management company. As a comparison, G&T migrated webhosts and domain managements companies late last year and no one noticed because there was no downtime in the process as it was essentially copying files to another location and repointing things.

However, if this is a move that involves a rebuild and reindexing of everything then that would indeed be a giant job because TOS has been especially good at keeping hold of its legacy content which will no doubt be a bitch to port into a new content system. That said, something like that is usually done in the background while the existing site stays up as normal, rather than everything being taken offline like this.

Basically: this doesn’t match any sort of normal migration or site rebuild behaviour.

[si]

Oh well. New Tax Year now, innit? See what happens Friday.

[Flap Jack]

Basically: this doesn’t match any sort of normal migration or site rebuild behaviour.

Intriguing. That certainly fuels suspicions about there being secret layers to this outage. Or possibly it just fuels suspicions of web development incompetence. Guess we’ll see when we see.

I’ll hope for “bobblehead storefront” but I’ll settle for “Geek Chase still works”.

[GlenTokyo]

Basically: this doesn’t match any sort of normal migration or site rebuild behaviour.
Intriguing. That certainly fuels suspicions about there being secret layers to this outage. Or possibly it just fuels suspicions of web development incompetence. Guess we’ll see when we see.
I’ll hope for “bobblehead storefront” but I’ll settle for “Geek Chase still works”.

Incompetence is always an option with Red Dwarf. Possibly the most likely option.

[Jonathan Capps]

Intriguing. That certainly fuels suspicions about there being secret layers to this outage. Or possibly it just fuels suspicions of web development incompetence. Guess we’ll see when we see.

I think any web dev that’s kept that thing going for this long (as Andy has) can be given the benefit of the doubt. I’m just taking this as yet another symptom of the company’s ongoing nonsense.

[Dave]

I’m just taking this as yet another symptom of the company’s ongoing nonsense.

That’s been my assumption too. It’s a shame if it’s extended so far that even maintaining a web presence is jeopardised.

[GlenTokyo]

I’m just taking this as yet another symptom of the company’s ongoing nonsense.
That’s been my assumption too. It’s a shame if it’s extended so far that even maintaining a web presence is jeopardised.

Everyone is bigged up equally on TOS so it seems particularly odd that GNP legal bollocks could be the cause, unless it’s literally a case of “who’s paying?”

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

How long before someone forgets to renew the domain name and then G&T can buy it and point it at an image of Rob Grant’s buttski. 

[Dave]

How long before someone forgets to renew the domain name and then G&T can buy it and point it at an image of Rob Grant’s buttski. 

Under a cloche.

[Flap Jack]

Jeez, things have gotten pretty grim if the GNP legal disagreements are even preventing Red Dwarf from having a live website. So far you guys really aren’t getting behind my “what if TOS being down for ages is good, actually?” theorising.

You’ll eat your words when TOS finally comes back online and the debut news post is “Red Dwarf Commissioned For Series XIII, XIV and XV, Hattie Hayridge To Return, Fans To Be Sent £20,000 Each”.

[International Debris]

“Agreement between Doug and GNP reached: one 20 panel comic strip to be produced per month for the next five years, concluding the story of the Red Dwarf characters at the end. Doug given rights to Kill Crazy and Data Doctor spinoffs coming to Shudder once the comic strip series is complete. Graham Linehan assigned as script editor. Series VII-XII to be viewed by Rob with mind to editing jokes and stories he does not approve of for future releases and streaming contracts. Official site limited to links to social media and purchase/streaming options, as well as new store selling ‘Better Semg Than Dead’ t-shirts and boxer shorts.”

[loadoftottnumb]

Yeah I’ve been involved with numerous site migrations/re-launches and downtime like this simply doesn’t happen, even a few hours is rare, it’s an odd situation. Even if they were taking their time launching a brand new super sexy site they’d just leave the old one up until it’s ready, it doesn’t make sense. 

[Flap Jack]

[Pete Part Three]

Oh well. New Tax Year now, innit? See what happens Friday.

We’re going to be taxed for the official site? 

Fuck you, Boris.

[Ian Symes]

I would be very sad indeed if TOS was no longer updated. Over 20 years of weekly updates, with barely a week skipped, is a phenomenal achievement, and it’s only in the last few weeks that I’ve realised just how ingrained into my weekly routine it is to refresh the site at 11:30am every Friday. That ending would be a huge shame.

But it would be an absolute tragedy if that huge archive was no longer available. It would be an act of vandalism. It’s such a hugely useful resource (I’ve already had to use archive.org to find info that I’d normally go to TOS for), and a document of unfolding cultural history. On a more personal note, a huge chunk of that archive is written by my now dead friend, and it’s among the work he was most proud of.

[Flap Jack]

Yeah, the archive being lost would be such a disaster. The weirdness of this extended downtime can lead to conspiratorial thinking, but I hope we can trust they wouldn’t be that careless. If they were going to do that, you’d think they’d at least give us a warning so we had a chance to archive everything externally.

Weekly updates ending would also be a huge shame as you say, but potentially more understandable at least.

I do feel overall that the most likely explanation is the simplest: the Downtime message is the truth, but they ran into difficulties in the migration process and they’re just making certain that everything is done right before the site goes back up.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

If it gets to the point where it seems like it definitely isn’t coming back, is there no way of G&T or reaching out to GNP and offering to host the site in the state it was when it went offline?  With the agreement that it would pass back to GNP if it was ever needed for official purposes?

[Flap Jack]

I find it hard to imagine a scenario where moving the site to a new provider is indefinitely blocked but handing control of the site over to a third party would be doable (and if it is a matter of hosting costs, that would be hugely embarrassing for GNP, surely they wouldn’t admit it).

But I feel like if the unavailability breaks the 2 months mark then we ought to petition them for answers and assurances (if people haven’t already been doing that).

[Pete Part Three]

You’ll all stop being so concerned when the site comes back with a funky flash animation of Doug and Mr Flibble.

Web 2.0 baby!

[Author]

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