The Curbside Classic ethos is all about honoring old cars as they are, with all their attendant shortcomings. We love them for that; and that includes wimpy six cylinder engines, like the 129 hp 240 in my old yellow F100. But with the increased traffic and speeds these days, there comes a time when one has to seriously assess whether the old CC engine has what it takes to keep up.
We’ve gotten tired of the endless stalling, bucking and hesitation when we click on the go pedal at CC? How about you? Well, the CC mechanics have taken the issue to heart: As of 6AM PDT tomorrow (Wednesday), there’s going to be a new engine powering the site, with at least three times the power and speed. We’ve swapped in a 400 hp Coyote V8-equivalent server and new software, which should make a huge difference.
Like with any engine swap, this is a multi-step process, so there may be some hiccups along the way. Hopefully we’ll get through it without too many clouds of blue or white smoke, but if you notice that something doesn’t load right or seems a little amiss, please be patient.
So here it is, all installed and ready to roar as of tomorrow morning. We’ve replaced our ancient dedicated server with a virtual server that will operate vastly quicker and be able to handle the higher traffic that CC often experiences. And just as important, we’ve switched out our antique WP theme (software) to one that offers a fully responsive mobile version, since most of you now read CC on phones. Combined, the user experience at CC should drastically improve.
And it’s not just a new server and software either; there’s changes to the graphics and images, some of which won’t be implemented until after the switchover.
It’s easy for me to sit here and tell you all this, because I’ve done precious little of the work myself. So let’s have a drum roll and an ovation for the CC mechanics: long-time CC Contributors Tom Halter and Dave Saunders have led this initiative and put in a huge amount of time. Aaron Severson has contributed his knowledge to many facets of the program. Don Andreina, our dear friend in Australia with the keen eye, has made key suggestions for our graphic changes.
I don’t know how to thank them adequately, but it’s very gratifying to have mechanic friends who know how to do all of this.
While I’m at it, I’d like to also thank the growing number of CC Members who pay a small ($10) monthly subscription which helps support the site as well as providing them with a fully ad-free version of CC. Please consider joining them.
I can’t wait to take ‘er for a spin…
Looking forward to the switch! What a great site this is. Good luck, these migrations always take a bit of good fortune. And patience, for all of us.
How blessed we are to have contributors ‘on-site’ with the knowledge and experience for this. It’ll be ‘interesting’ taking ‘er out after the Coyote swap to see how she goes! Hope my ancient laptop can take the newfound power…
Thanks to all of you. It’s a joy to read CC day after day for years now.
Here’s hoping it’s a seamless and positive up grade .
-Nate
(still wheezing along just fine in my 4 cylinder vehicles)
I really enjoy sending in articles and this week hopefully help things along. And I hope you’ll welcome my articles.
I wasn’t aware of the contribution avenue but Mrs Chip and I will start that to help the cause.
Thank you Paul, for all you do. Maybe someday I’ll finally get to meet you and talk about your love for old Fords! I purposely watched the chase scene from Magnum Force tonight, thinking that Clint’s driving may well have been how you drove those beasts!
Welcome to the other side. A big thank you to Tom who did the lion’s share of the work.
And to you and everyone who pitched in. It’s a huge upgrade. I’m grateful and thrilled.
Looks great so far, and does seem to load a bit quicker – thanks for all the work on this!
+1 My contribution can be measured in hours, whereas Tom’s must be measured in months. Extraordinary work, very ably assisted by you David as well as Aaron and Rich.
Paul, please tell me you are upgrading the brakes. I personally would have settled for a remanufactured Windsor, but I can see where you are going with the Coyote.
This is all about going faster and not slowing down. And we’re talking about the CC site, not my actual truck, which still has its trusty 240 six. You might want to reread the post.
Yeah, I figured it out after I posted.
One unfortunate side effect of the upgrade – The avatar plugin we used for authors and commenters was badly outdated and no longer works on the new site. This is why you are seeing a bunch of blank boxes for most contributor and commenter avatars.
WordPress now uses Gravatar to manage user avatars (and has for many years). Gravatar is a free external service you will need to sign up for. If you already have a Gravatar account, it should automatically pick up your avatar (it is keyed by email address).
Tom, do you have a link to Gravatar – never heard of it!
https://gravatar.com/
It’s owned by WordPress, and allows you to use the same avatar across multiple WordPress sites. Make sure you use the same email address that you used for your Curbside Classic account.
What an improvement, good job guys!
I’d take a another shot at sending $10 a month for ad free if that actually happened. Last time you got the $10 a month, and I still got the ads.
I’m sorry and surprised to hear that, as you’re the first to have that issue. You do need to be logged in order for the ad-free version to be accessed.
If you subscribe again and you have any issues, do let me know right away at: curbsideclassic@gmail.com
I can confirm that Paul (and team) is responsive at this email address, my login wasn’t removing the ads, either, and that’s been fixed, so I’m mostly replying to try out the Gravatar.
Addiction is a powerful thing. When I checked this morning as always, I saw the update screen. Oh no! Where’s my CC? I want my CC back!
Now it’s back. Relief!
The upgrade appeared to have supercharged the add content. This site is absolutely ruined by the ridiculous and largely unnecessary quantity of adverts every paragraph. It is sad to watch it decline
Great job!! to all who helped make the update happen! It really loads much faster all around, and little tweaks such as expanding the size of on-screen elements really improves readability (while making me realize that I have geezer eyes).
Yay! I had been noticing really slow page loading, and am looking forward to this. Please add my salute to the tech wizards that made it happen!
My user name changed but have never touched my profile page since very long ago. Need to get it back to tbm3fan but have no clue how since the profile page looks unchanged. This post took 36 seconds to load so that seems the same although moving back and forth between stories is faster.
Should be back to tbm3fan now.
Working over here – looks good.
But, key question, are you putting a V8 into your truck?
You’re kidding, right?
Seems to be working fine with the upgrade, which is kinda unique amongst a number of sites I visit regularly.
Don’t mean to be the lone voice, but I am having an issue with the new upgrade. I’m an ‘ad reader’, and I strongly suspect that the issue does not occur for subscription readers…so I will just pass the facts on – no need to respond.
In a nutshell…on my Samsung tablet, on the full story detail page, if a pop-up video ad appears in the right section (almost always displayed in the lower quadrant )…the story text is compressed into 1 far-left column – making reading rather challenging, with endless down-scrolling…
Just from a visual standpoint the upgrade is outstanding. I’m looking forward to further enjoying the upgrade.
It’s been a few days now…but, unfortunately, this particular issue is unchanged.
More unfortunately, it is impacting my interaction the site, which I greatly enjoy.
I have noticed it has been reported by others; is there any possibility that this might be correctable?
We have replicated the problem and have a suspicion of the cause — we’re still trying to figure out what can be done about it.
It seems to work well on the desktop (this text I am typing is displaying in red as I type this? I wonder if it will appear black when posted) and the larger font is hugely appreciated however on my phone it is laggy and only the first pic of the first post loads. The other posts all have an empty space where the picture would be.
I do use the desktop version on my phone (iPhone) as I prefer it, but I can’t see the toggle to switch to the mobile version to see if that’s better, it used to be near the bottom (>)
Thank You
Jim: Not sure why the comment text is red – I’ll have to fix that.
There is no separate “mobile” and “desktop” site anymore. The site is now fully responsive and the same for all visitors.
Thank you for the update, it is working fine in Firefox both on my desktop and my Android phone. The larger text size on the phone is very much appreciated!
Edit: checking the edit function, seems to be good.
That’s the first look I’ve had of a Coyote out in the open: Jeez that thing is enormous! Why not an LS? 🙂
Quick feedback – the output from the Search function is great. Can this be extended to the Archives links?
Spending less time on CC at the moment due to life get in the way, so was very surprised by seeing the upgrade before I found this post! Really does seem to be performing a lot better, and smoother.
Thanks a lot for the hard work, team CC