"certificate expired"?

On 11/6/2023 at 11:18 AM, Sanford said:

Also blocked on Firefox and Chrome.

I have never seen such a level of irresponsibility in my life. What about the people who use this site for courses or selling ?

I was able get trough from my Firefox browser which has a button to bypass the certificate issue. You can also access the site by bringing up the Incognito page in Chrome and going through that. The only problem I had with the incognito mode is that it doesn't remember your User id or Password. I forgot my password so I could not get in. Firefox remembers your User Id and password so I was able to get through, but unfortunately the password is greyed out.   

Dear owner of photo.net,

If you are not interested in running this website anymore, would you consider let photrio.com to manage it? I can connect you with their system admin Sean, who is passionate and competent about photography forums.

I joined photo.net since the very beginning with Philip Greenspan. Even though the community here is quite small today and there were occasional spam photo issues, this site still holds a large wealth of photographical knowledge contributed by members over the years. It will be a waste to let it languish like this. Please do consider.

On the other hand, if you decide to fix the certificate issue and keep running photo.net that will be totally sweet too.

Thank you!

Thank you web admin, happy to see the site back! 

20 minutes ago, bruce_z._li2 said:

Thank you web admin, happy to see the site back! 

Great news.

I think we have Admin [argh] to thank - anyway whomever it was - thank you.

Ok gang, it's back.  On the plus side, Fiverr moving photo.net to Invision means that a whole team of folks (i.e. not a single hobbyist) is paid to manage and improve forum/gallery platform features.  On the down side, it means that since nobody is paid to run PN in particular, nobody notices when it goes away until someone sends email to support @ CL.  W're not involved with PN since we the Fiverr acquisition, but at least I know who to nudge at Invision since I was peripherally involved in the migration.

(The root cause of this particular issue that site ownership had previously been verified in a manner that meant automatic certificate renewal wasn't set up, so manual intervention was needed.  We've now added DNS records that should make it automatic in the future.)

12 minutes ago, argh said:

Ok gang, it's back.  On the plus side, Fiverr moving photo.net to Invision means that a whole team of folks (i.e. not a single hobbyist) is paid to manage and improve forum/gallery platform features.  On the down side, it means that since nobody is paid to run PN in particular, nobody notices when it goes away until someone sends email to support @ CL.  We're not actually involved with PN since the Fiverr acquisition, but at least I know who to nudge at Invision since I was peripherally involved in the migration.

(The root cause of this particular issue that site ownership had previously been verified in a manner that meant automatic certificate renewal wasn't set up, so manual intervention was needed.  We've now added DNS records that should make it automatic in the future.)

Great. Thank you.

Roger, many thanks!

I am really glad it is back. I thought it was gone for good this time. 

This is a wonderful outcome!  Thanks Roger!  .

1 hour ago, argh said:

Ok gang, it's back.  On the plus side, Fiverr moving photo.net to Invision means that a whole team of folks (i.e. not a single hobbyist) is paid to manage and improve forum/gallery platform features.  On the down side, it means that since nobody is paid to run PN in particular, nobody notices when it goes away until someone sends email to support @ CL.  W're not involved with PN since we the Fiverr acquisition, but at least I know who to nudge at Invision since I was peripherally involved in the migration.

(The root cause of this particular issue that site ownership had previously been verified in a manner that meant automatic certificate renewal wasn't set up, so manual intervention was needed.  We've now added DNS records that should make it automatic in the future.)

Again, thanks Roger for acting on this.  I had tried contacting Invision on Tuesday (see a previous post), but because I was not a listed admin that became the end of it.  I believe that you also gave Sandy a credential boost back at the beginning of the year.  If so, thank you for that--as it enabled us to do A LOT of work on the new platform.

I do want to address your message above, as some of the information might be seen as misleading.

Brand hosting is all the thing, and as you say--that is what made the most sense to Fiveer when they acquired this tchotchke (pun intended) as part of their acquisition of Creative Live.  It is important to note that the "whole team of folks are paid to manage...." only concerns the core operations of the software platform.  You know, things like updates, security patches, feature fixes, and enhancements--so on and so forth.  You can pay them about $90 bucks an hour contract and they can help with other things.  Otherwise, as long someone pays their invoices--they could care less about PhotoNet or what becomes of it. 

The rest is the responsibility of the domain owner/publisher to provide services such as contract developers, purchasing add-ons, domain registration, etcetera.  Oh, and the forum-level operational staff to mind day-to-day business.

As you well know, we had a pretty solid platform running before the acquisition and migration.  That trashed many things that were not directly frangible between the platforms and eliminated many beloved features and abilities.  We were left in October of last year with a plain vanilla install of Invision and an unknowledgeable administrator (Matt Jensen) who disappeared at the end of the month.  Heck, people could not access or create albums, post to categories, or delete their own images, or get into their accounts--does everyone remember just how messed up it was? 

Here is a reminder of how PhotoNet looked at the time of Matt's departure, until  January 19,  2023:

Awe Inspiring, isn't it?  Then we were given the key. 😎  Do you like the front portal to this site?  I built that from scratch and committed over 500 administrative changes to this platform.  Those with staff privileges here can find many of the summary change log documents and development discussions in the super-secret staff board. No "whole team of folks paid to manage...." had a single thing to do with that, and apparently still doesn't.  While all of this was going on, NO ONE from corporate--either in the States or in Israel saw fit to respond to dozens of messages sent to them by a group of 4 of us.  Or even now.  I gotta tell you that I am still a bit miffed that none of them have ever deemed fit to thank any of us for repeatedly rescuing their site and preserving its value.

There is no team running anything here.  If it were not for the dedicated core of volunteer moderators, administrators, and support heroes--this place would have real trouble.  What happens when our absent overlords forget to pay the domain name renewal to Enom?

Let's talk about those volunteers for a bit.  As everyone on 'staff' can attest, they were never contacted prior to or after the acquisition and migration.  No one at Fiveer acknowledged them and certainly did not reauthorize or officially empower them to do anything on this site.  Three times now a volunteer, not authorized by the owners--has stepped up to fix a major bollix.  These dear friends are our support team.  Then there is the matter of exposure and liability for any volunteer who takes any administrative or moderation action.  Do you have an agreement that absolves you of responsibility if something goes south?  That's why two of us are no longer doing administrative or moderation things.  I don't like being sued... 🥸

At the end of the day (as the hackneyed phrase goes) here are the irrefutable facts about PhotoNet currently:

• The owners acquired the site as a piece of something else they wanted.  A number of factors demonstrate PN as not something they are really interested in, or can easily monetize.
• In the last year, NO ONE from Fiveer has taken a formal and active administrative role or felt a need to communicate to the membership.
• Many features remain broken, missing, or far too difficult to use.  No investment has been made in functionality or features.
• This site was dysfunctional for a week before a VOLUNTEER not associated with Fiveer stepped in to help us.
• It appears as if no one from Fiveer is even aware of this, as shown by the last time any of them logged in months ago.

You know what?  This degree of disrespect for the community and its membership is deplorable.  Sure doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence, and certainly not somewhere I would risk my money on a subscription.  

I would also like to address that personal jibe in your message "a single hobbyist" and then touting the invisible mythical support resources for this venue.  I take that as shade thrown on my new community website in that it is unreliable and poorly supported.  Well, here is the deal.  I am a professional web developer with around 30 years of experience in customer application and site development, network engineering, administration, and maintenance.    Several of my previous client sites currently have over 1M members. 

FotoFora has a core team of contract app developers, full technical support for all platform updates, plus the full weight of 24-hour business class technical support with Inmotion Hosting VPS, and Amazon Web Services.   And I am not the only senior administrator available.  Two other developers I worked with designing FF are available to assuming active roles if necessary.  FotoFora is a formal LLC that is structured and seed-funded to assure continuity into the future, with a business plan, transition plan, full technical changelog documentation of every step taken and line of code written to ensure the site is solidly credible. 

Oh, support is pretty quick for FF members too, not that much has been necessary.  After over 20 years of membership (most of it paid) here at PhotoNet, I wish I could say the same for it.  It makes my little hobbyist heart sad.

But enough!  Let's celebrate PN's resurrection from Bollix world!

Lets keep this week in mind when we change the clocks again in six months. BTW, counting a half digital cameras, microwave oven, car, three watches, etc, I had to adjust more than 10 clocks. Time we did away with this tradition.

4 minutes ago, Sanford said:

Lets keep this week in mind when we change the clocks again in six months. BTW, counting a half digital cameras, microwave oven, car, three watches, etc, I had to adjust more than 10 clocks. Time we did away with this tradition.

No Sanford, Savings time had nothing to do with what happened.

What happened was due to disinterest, abandonment, negligence, and disrespect for this community.  It should have never happened, and if it were not for the actions of a volunteer--would still be FUBAR.

Glad to see everyone back again, Hope it lasts. 

50 minutes ago, Sanford said:

Lets keep this week in mind when we change the clocks again in six months. BTW, counting a half digital cameras, microwave oven, car, three watches, etc, I had to adjust more than 10 clocks. Time we did away with this tradition.

As per Papa Tango's reply this was not a clock issue.

In a previous comment I wrote: "My expectation is that it will be fixed when someone with access to fix it, realizes that there is an issue, which, on the face of it, appears to be a clock sync/certificate issue which on most internet search engines triggers either a warning not to proceed or denies the capacity to proceed to the site."

Sorry for the ambiguity - the phrase clock sync/certificate issue   meant 'clock sync and/or certificate issue".  At that time, I didn't know which was the cause or if it were both.

I concur with Papa Tango's technical analysis above; moreover I defer to his knowledge and experience and thank him for the details he provided.

WW

1 hour ago, PapaTango said:

I do want to address your message above  . . . This degree of disrespect for the community and its membership is deplorable.  Sure doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence, and certainly not somewhere I would risk my money on a subscription.  

Certainly there are times when publication of fact are required, this is one such time.

Facts have been articulated previously and have been ignored or dismissed.

Above is contained a synopsis of an historic log of events, concerning only a snippet in time, of the long Photo.net journey.

In and of itself, that snapshot published by Papa Tango is a worthy and true recognition of the value which many Members have given and received.

WW

Thanks @argh

How about taking up photography as a hobby and hang out here in your spare time?

Many thanks to all who have helped to fix this issue!  Respect! Yes, there have been workarounds but it's just so nice not to have to use them.

Mike

19 hours ago, William Michael said:

As per Papa Tango's reply this was not a clock issue.

Best thing to do is blame it on Elon Musk. There's got to be some connection. 😅

9 hours ago, samstevens said:

Best thing to do is blame it on Elon Musk. There's got to be some connection. 😅

Sam, there might be a connection. We better be careful evoking his name three times, Like Beetlejuice. He might buy it and everyone will need a blue checkmark to POST. 

20 hours ago, Mark Keefer said:

Sam, there might be a connection. We better be careful evoking his name three times, Like Beetlejuice. He might buy it and everyone will need a blue checkmark to POST. 

And that would only be the beginning.  Have you noticed that Hulu is being acquired by a minority stakeholder, Disney?  Buh bye Hulu.  Soon, a group of corporate interests that one can count on one hand will own or control the majority of the media we have available and consume.

Sadly, I dumped that chucklehead and his Ecks (the sewer formerly known as Shitter) pretty soon after he began eliminating his various content review and moderation teams.  

Not to get political--but anyone is more honest and open when they think they are amongst friends.  My sincere apologies for Smucker Goebbeler (aka Tucker Carlson), and for Tusk too--but these clowns are holding a dangerous major stake in the consciousness and beliefs of several societies.  We have to pay attention and speak until we and no one else can speak for us.  My apologies to Pastor Niemoller... 👮‍♂️

The robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th century could not hold a candle to the Musk', Bezo's, Buffet's, Zuckerberg's, and others.  Multinationals are buying up everything.  Heck, PhotoNet's C-Suite offices are located in Israel.  I can't do anything about them, so I have figured the best course is to do things that make me happy.  Like making and sharing images and noxious opinions!  🤪

Maybe it's that Trilateral Commission I heard about in the 70s, working with Musk, George Soros, and Bill Gates to control our minds here on PhotoNet.  And keep an eye out for the CIA or NSA.  I know that they have to be skulking about in this conspiracy.

I would write more, but it's time for my pills and nightly telephone therapy session.  🤔

On 11/10/2023 at 5:30 PM, Sanford said:

Time we did away with this tradition.

They are looking at that option in some Canadian provinces; there are a couple that never did have Daylight Savings Time.