The Lead Adventure Forum will go offline for migration

[WargamesIllustrated]

Hi everyone,

As many of you know, the Lead Adventure Forum has been plagued with outages over the past few months. The initial culprit was a surge in AI-driven bot crawlers, which we managed to fend off with Cloudflare’s security tools (have no fear, none of your data has been compromised; that’s not what these do).

Unfortunately, the deeper problem lies with our hosting: the site still runs on IONOS’ now-discontinued Managed Dedicated Server package, which has grown increasingly unstable.

We’re now seeing daily downtime, and the support from IONOS has been, frankly, unhelpful.

We need to act and fix a forum that has not had any meaningful updates for about a decade! Before that, I want to answer a few inevitable questions:

Q: What’s the situation right now?
Despite repeated attempts (and chats with IONOS support), we haven’t been able to properly diagnose or fix the errors that are ongoing. The limitations of the package the LAF is hosted on mean we have no direct access to the server, logs, or core tools we need.

Q: What’s the plan?
We’re not giving up. Instead, we’re moving the forum to a new Bluehost unmanaged dedicated server. This will finally give us full control: direct access to logs, the ability to restart the server ourselves, manage server requirements, keep things up to date, and handle issues ourselves, without being stuck waiting on poor support.

Q: What does this mean in the short term?
The migration is a big step and will require the forum to go offline. This could take upwards of a week while we transfer all files, move the database, and configure the new server.

During that time, you’ll see a holding page and will not be able to post; this prevents new posts or uploads from being lost when the switch completes.

If the migration runs longer than a week, we’ll keep you updated via the Wargames Illustrated and North Star Facebook pages, so make sure to give them a follow.

Date for migration: Monday 8 September
Expected downtime: up to one week

Q: Will everything be fixed once the LAF is live again?
We’d love to say yes, but realistically, we will need to do more work. This is a very old Simple Machines Forum installation (last updated in the mid-2010s), and moving it to a new server will likely surface quirks and issues we’ll need to iron out. That’s where you come in: once we’re live again, we’ll need your help stress-testing and reporting problems.

The good news: once the dust settles, we’ll be ready to update the look and performance of the forum. We’ll talk to moderators about their requirements, share previews of the forum’s possible new look, and get your feedback on which features you’d like us to keep whilst we upgrade to the latest Simple Machines Forum version.

This process may take a while, but it’s the only way that we can keep the LAF going, maintain the huge archive of posts and uploads, and add stability to the forum overall.

Thank you all for your patience during these rough months and for the extra patience that will be needed ahead. We know the outages have been frustrating; we’re confident this migration is the first big step toward getting the forum back on solid ground.

Joe
Web and Media Developer
For Wargames Illustrated and North Star - joint operators of the LAF

[Garanhir]

Thanks for the heads-up, and for taking on the hard work of preserving and nurturing the LAF. In a world full of Social Media ephemera, the long memory of an active and thriving forum is more precious than ever.

[Mikai]

Thanks for the work! Can only agree with Garanhir!

[Ray Rivers]

Thanks for all the effort!

Have enjoyed these forums for 17 years and visit it daily.

[Silent Invader]

I enjoy the forum and I hope have been a useful contributor.

It's great news that LAF has a future mapped out ahead of where we are now.

At risk of seeming selfish, quite a few of us have project logs (not just the word but also the images) hosted as threads on LAF. Is there any risk that this content might be lost? Is there anything that we need to do ahead of the 8th? For example, is it possible to download an entire thread as a PDF backup?

Thanks for all that you are doing.

[Mammoth miniatures]

I'm really glad to hear the forum is being given a full workover - It's nice to know it's going to keep going and won't end up lost to the winds of time when a server somewhere finally dies.

As much as the site could probably use a bit of a refresh, don't go changing too much - this is one of the last bastions of old fashioned internet that still sees regular use - the weird emojis and odd green colour are all part of the charm

[WargamesIllustrated]

I enjoy the forum and I hope have been a useful contributor.

It's great news that LAF has a future mapped out ahead of where we are now.

At risk of seeming selfish, quite a few of us have project logs (not just the word but also the images) hosted as threads on LAF. Is there any risk that this content might be lost? Is there anything that we need to do ahead of the 8th? For example, is it possible to download an entire thread as a PDF backup?

Thanks for all that you are doing.

No data will be lost in the move. This is a complete migration. 

[Dean]

Best of luck with the move guys and I’m sure we all appreciate the hard work you are putting in to keep LAF going.

[Sunjester]

I also make LAF part of my daily regular view, so good luck with the change over and thanks for all your efforts.

[OSHIROmodels]

Thank you for the previous, behind the scenes and upcoming work.

[Ragsta]

Thank you LAF Team for all your hard work, and for this nice wee forum in general.

Please do keep the colours and weird emojis if poss

[AKULA]

Thanks Joe for the update, and to everyone that makes LAF what it is

Look forward to a shiny new clubhouse 

[Storm Wolf]

Fingers crossed everyone, good luck and hopefully see you on the other side

[majorsmith]

That’s good news! Don’t want to lose the laf! It’s so much better than social media! So many people I’ve met thru this wonderful site! Long may it continue!

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Thank you for the continuing support - LAF is an amazing source of inspiration and information and vastly more useful than the majority of social media out there for the hobby. Really glad to see it retaining support over the years.