I went ahead and moved the SBWS servers up to Amazon Web Services. I’ve setup the whole mess to be super resilient and pretty speedy too.

Some cool features to note: The site is now on servers that span 3 geographic availability zones. If an earthquake takes out a data center, the site will stay online.

The site will scale up to meet demand - if things slow down, it should only be for a moment while AWS stacks more servers into the mix.

The site is also now using SSL - note the green “Secure” indication in your address bar. Anything you send or receive from the website is now encrypted during transit (including things like your username/password, etc.).

Anyway - hoping that bolstering the infrastructure and making the site more reliable might convince people to start using it again.

hello? Is this thing on? Anyone out there?

@tlfreek I’m still around too - check in from time to time.

I think social media has largely made forum sites like this obsolete … which is unfortunate. I hate social-media, and I don’t do Facebook.

Maybe someday the new-car luster will wear off of the Facebooks of the world, and people will swing back to the old forums? Hard to tell … I’ll keep running this site as long as I can. It’s ready for the return … if and when that ever happens.

Well, I suppose I’ll create the first post in the Oregon forum. I know it has been years since this has occurred, but I’m kind of wiping the slate here (wiping it hard. So hard - you’ll have to re-create your old username, etc). I remember a sportbikes.ws from over a decade ago that was a thriving and vibrant community. I miss that group of people and I miss the synergy between us all. I miss the group rides and the Old Market Pub gatherings. I miss the connection and the friendships.

I know many of us have moved on and possibly don’t even have our 2-wheeled stallions any longer. But perhaps I’m waxing nostalgic, believing that there are a lot of us still out there, still riding, and just wishing our forum could be what it once was … and I’m talking before it degenerated into hooliganisms, political debates, and drifted away from the thing we’re all here to share and enjoy: RIDING SPORTBIKES.

Anyway - I put this post out there hoping to be a seed. I put this new software out there hoping it will integrate better with today’s modern social-network landscape and mobile internet. I put this out there in hopes that we can rebuild something really cool.

If you’re really desperate to find something on the old forums, you can still find them out there at http://archive.sportbikes.ws …

Welcome back to all my Oregon friends who find your way here. I’ll look forward to seeing you on the web … and on the asphalt.

-Murph

@doc_rock Also made you a moderator here … not that there’s anything to moderate. But maybe someday?

Of course! Wouldn’t want to have the forum around with some of the more valuable topic areas.

I check in every now and again - keep the lights on, etc. Maybe someday people will ‘rediscover’ forums that exist outside of the social media giants.

@rob What’s hilarious is that this will eventually come full-circle. Eventually Menstrual-gram will be “for old people” too, and all the kids will be like “man - have you guys discovered this amazing new thing called a ‘FORUM’ ?? WHUUT!!?”

I’ll be here waiting patiently.

@rob LOL as it should!

Can’t be having the site offline … the Facebook Armageddon may come and suddenly people will start flooding back here!

Turns out the site was down for a bit. Sorry about that! Good thing nobody reads this thing anyway!

@tlfreek I’m still around too - check in from time to time.

I think social media has largely made forum sites like this obsolete … which is unfortunate. I hate social-media, and I don’t do Facebook.

Maybe someday the new-car luster will wear off of the Facebooks of the world, and people will swing back to the old forums? Hard to tell … I’ll keep running this site as long as I can. It’s ready for the return … if and when that ever happens.

@zx250r I’m still holding out hope that FakeBook and Twatter will stop being the places of preference when it comes to forums. Not sure whatever was the huge draw…FakeBook groups suck and it’s a bitch to carry on a conversation as threads get lost over time.

When that fad dies down, SBWS will be here waiting.

@Nicegy525 yeah - I think this is a key component here - regular in-person/real-life meetings. The reason people turn into douche-canoes on the iNtArWeBz is because of this overblown sense of anonymity; it affords them a false sense of protection - so they say things and act in ways they would never even entertain if they were hanging out with other people in person.

Back when this used to be an active and vibrant community - folks would meet regularly at Old Market Pub on a weekly basis and ride on weekends together. We all got along and had good times - nobody acted like a jerk…but that fell off, and the online agitators started to really join en masse and the place fell apart - the moderators couldn’t keep up - and when they tried, the screams of draconian enforcement echoed throughout the forums.

It would be nice if the core group of people could get back together and use this as a communication platform to once again shoot the shit about motorcycles and coordinate rides.

Man … I miss those days… Can’t believe it was 20 years ago now. Time flies…