AOPA forums down?

I'm convinced that the government is keeping the forum down because they need time to erase a thread that was hijacked by a 9/11 conspiracy theorist! :goofy:
 
Palmpilot said:
I'm convinced that the government is keeping the forum down because they need time to erase a thread that was hijacked by a 9/11 conspiracy theorist! :goofy:
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I tell you it was done by that theorist who was tired of being identified as a blathering idiot. He was aided by his mentors who analyze FDR's and write ludicrous fiction.

Cheers
 
Down again...

I just wish my high school girlfriends would have gone...

Oh, nevermind.

You know, I'm not an IT guy but it would seem to be one thing to allow this to happen in the first place but...to let it drag on for five days?

Seems to be a huge cluster.
 
timwinters said:
Down again...

I just wish my high school girlfriends would have gone...

Oh, nevermind.

You know, I'm not an IT guy but it would seem to be one thing to allow this to happen in the first place but...to let it drag on for five days?

Seems to be a huge cluster.
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I've dealt with some pretty impressive down times, and managed them back to health. If any of them had lasted 5 days, however, I'd be out on the street looking in the window wishing I still had a job.

At some point, someone needed to make a call to roll back. If there was no option to roll back, then the organization needs some help with change management 101.

A production stoppage (and lets be frank, for AOPA, not having the ability to facilitate new member signups is stoppage) for 5 days is unacceptable to any legitimate IT organization.

Right now, heads roll for us after 45 minutes. We strive for 99.99% uptime - which means less than 53 minutes PER YEAR of downtime.
 
X3 Skier said:
They apparently managed to screw up the AOPA Magazine app while they were at it. I got an authentication error when I tried to sign in. Deleted reloaded with no success.

What a bunch of idiots.

Cheers
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I suspect the app is fine but the back end hashing of your credentials is hosed.
 
Any organization that does not produce measurable results inevitably becomes political. Logic predicts it. There's no other way to evaluate people besides who they know, who likes them, and how well they stroke their superiors. As politics dominates, the competent people leave because competence is not what is rewarded. Look at government departments, nonprofits, and post-secondary educational institutions. Examples are everywhere.

This may be why AOPA has the IT problems that it does. Hard to know from the outside, but that's where I would start looking.

... lets be frank, for AOPA, not having the ability to facilitate new member signups is stoppage ...
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Yes, that is a measurable result but they are really not in the position of losing members to a competitor because of the downtime. Almost all of those who would have signed up during the downtime will sign up later. Dues are less than a buck a week, so little loss accrues.

Contrast this to a convenience store that is closed for even a brief period. Customers simply switch their gas, beer, cigarette, and lottery ticket purchases to a competing store. When the closed store reopens, some of the customers never come back.
 
jesse said:
Based on what I see of their technology and the way they've been running things they need to boot whomever has been in charge of making their technology decisions and find someone that knows how to do things right.
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Amen. I very seldom use their site .. it's difficult to navigate and I can hardly ever get my password to work twice in a row.
 
flhrci said:
"MEMBER ALERT: AOPA has transitioned to a new database and member management system. Web login passwords are now CASE SENSITIVE. Additionally, if you would like to sign up or upgrade Pilot Protection Services, please call Member Services at 1-800-872-2672 as the online applications
are temporarily unavailable. Finally, the member forums are down temporarily. We are attempting to bring them back online. Learn more here about member services during the transition. Thank you for your patience."
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Christ. Test your crap,,make sure it works, flip the DNS.

How hard is that?

Why is my chosen industry full of complete idiots who only know how to make pretty Visio drawings of things that don't work and whohave no idea how to test them before they take them live?

This stuff really isn't that hard. And when it truly is hard, there's a million ways to hide the mess from the public.
 
I find myself wondering if AOPA has any performance standards in their contract with whoever is doing the work.
 
I find myself wondering if AOPA has any performance standards in their contract with whoever is doing the work.
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Funny story: Just after my brother took over as Executive Director of a medium-sized nonprofit he was telling me about a problem he had.

They had a vendor developing an improved version of that vendor's software for them, had paid the vendor several hundred K, had nothing to show for it, really didn't know what they would be getting or when.

I asked: "Is there a specification?" Long pause. Another long pause. "No" This was on a Sunday.

I told him that, on Monday, he should inform the vendor that he was cutting off payments until the vendor created a mutually acceptable specification for what would be done.

The vendor's attention became marvelously and instantaneously focused and in the end the project turned out fine.
 
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Is there a good thread/way to get a flavor for the POA board? I like what I see so far and I suspect alot of displaced Red Board users will be looking for a new site.
 
Pilawt said:
I'd be curious how much traffic has increased here over the past week. The weeds must be getting pretty high over at Red by now.
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Actually, the traffic here is up a respectable amount over the past months. Especially since the PHP access notice began it's frequent appearance.


I too am disappointed at the lack of care they are putting into that. It is a big part of their online face to the world and they are really losing ground.

Sorta like the receptionist, delivery driver, or on site CSR. They are the face and voice of your company to many of your clients. This lower paid, lower on the totem pole individual can make your company look like a hero, or quickly like an absolute zero.


I wonder if anyone at a high enough decision authority has even noticed the problem....
 
Hmph.... What's happening over on AOPA forums reminds me of the new story about what happened to the cargo ship departing Hong Kong for Long Beach, CA with a load of yo-yo's.

It ran into a really bad storm and sank three thousand, six hundred, and eighty three times.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Hmph.... What's happening over on AOPA forums reminds me of the new story about what happened to the cargo ship departing Hong Kong for Long Beach, CA with a load of yo-yo's.

It ran into a really bad storm and sank three thousand, six hundred, and eighty three times.
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ROFL

Day 6 and it's still down.

I love the splash at the top of their homepage in which they say "Last weekend, AOPA successfully transitioned to a new member management system."

Successfully?

You mean like they successfully saved KISZ?

Or were instrumental in saving 5EX?
 
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AggieMike88 said:
I wonder if anyone at a high enough decision authority has even noticed the problem....
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Busy getting ready for OSH probably. And scheduled a major website upgrade only days before one of the largest GA events in the world. Apparently without a back-out plan. Not smart at all.
 
AOPA has

a) never made much effort with the forums
b) seemed to imply that if given the chance they'd get rid of them


Mission Accomplished.

Exactly what is AOPA doing now? What is their mission and is it being accomplished?

What have they done for me as the owner / operator of a complex single piston aircraft?
 
comanchepilot said:
What have they done for me as the owner / operator of a complex single piston aircraft?
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Well, they have collected a huge war chest, you know, just in case it is ever important that the organization needs to, um...
 
Well, the down fall of the first AOPA Board (the "Yellow Board") was the genesis of Pilots of America.

Let them do what they do best, and we can be the best place there is to chat about aviation.
 
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SCCutler said:
Well, the down fall of the first AOA Board (the "Yellow Board") was the genesis of Pilots of America.

Let them do what they do best, and we can be the best place there is to chat about aviation.
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Chat or argue? :confused:

David
 
The forum is pretty much the only reason I keep my aopa membership.
I lurk on this board after hearing about it on the red board.
 
Those magnificent men, in their flying machines, they go up de de de up, the come down de down down. Up, down, flying around, loop de da loop . . . .
 
It's good that these folks supposedly represent GA in congress and in front of the executive office.

/sarcasm
 
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