Great Western Coffee Shop

The Coffee Shop runs across a somewhat complex mix of infrastructure and software,  some of which is very old indeed.  And I have received notice that one of the element that we use is not only no longer supported, but is being switched off, at the end of August.

This is not a panic.  But this is significant work for me to do to keep us running, and cost into the future.

This has been raised and discussed by the moderator and admin team, and plans are in place, taking into account how technology has moved on to bring us, potentially, better.  I say "potentially" because there is a degree of research, learning and development as work goes on.

Most work will be done on mirrored / duplicated infrastructure, so members won't know what's going on for the most part.   However, there are one or two switchpoints which will need attention early in the work, and members may see a few glitches while I throw switches, with those glitches unfortunately being cached for a few hours.  So please be alerted to the possibility, and do not panic.   If you are seriously concerned at something, I can be reached away from the Coffee Shop via graham@sn12.net and I'm on Faceplant at https://www.facebook.com/graham.ellis.melksham/

Keep up the good ‘behind the scenes’ work, Graham.

We are all very grateful.  If the CoffeeShop was a GWR train it would well and truly need a heavy exam and mid-life refurb by now!

Thank you Graham (and shop officials) seems totally insufficient for the work you all do.
I'm sure it has been discussed before, but many would be happy to subscribe or donate as and when needed to bring this forum up to date software-wise, or even ahead of the curve.

As a somewhat glib comment, that would be a solution to a problem we don't have.

What is so wonderful here is the fantastic team of friends who volunteer and give of their time to keep this place up and running.    When I was doing IT training, I sometimes drew a pie chart.  The smallest wedge was the cost and time of initial development.   The next wedge up was the cost and time of the lifetime maintenance of the system. And the final - and by far largest - wedge was the data entry and maintenance through system life.   Our admins and moderator and members are handing that largest wedge and the "cost" is in time. The maintenance wedge is looked after by the admins and moderators and the way both of these wedges are handled is wonderful.

You - all - give your time, and you get paid in the enjoyment, companionship, feel-good factors, learning, seeing how well read you are and many other elements (well,  I do - I will let you speak for yourselves) and thank you for that.   It's my hobby these days, and I can afford a couple of quid a day - heck, I'm lashing out this week and next and spending nearly ten pounds a day with GWR (or is that with the DfT or treasury) and it can be put down, if you like, to hobby costs.