Dave

We've certainly used VPS services in the past, but shared resources like this usually don't interact well with the database, as this tends to be both I/O heavy and require a decent amount of memory for good performance. In addition there is a certain amount of maintenance that requires quite a bit of time to keep things ticking over, which is what I have mostly been doing in the background for some time now. The service that Cap'n mentions above is probably better suited to the future needs of the site, since it'll be maintained by the forum providers, and run on appropriate hardware to enable a responsive forum.

I tweaked a couple of the ad settings, not sure that would have done anything directly but if it fixed things that's good!

Seems like Google took matters into its own hands with the ads, so I'll see what I can do that reign that in.

Yep we have some new hardware to replace an ailing hard drive with solid state drives, which are much more database-friendly and should improve access speeds. The privacy/cookie change is to give the option to opt into personalised advertisements. This is a change pretty much all sites are making owing to new legislation inside the EU/UK/USA. Indeed we are trying a bunch of things to reduce the spam! Sorry to hear you're having issues! I'm also on Safari (macOS Ventura here, though). Might be worth you trying to clear your cache, since we have just updated the forum software.

The update was successful in that we were able to install some new hardware! (Which might result in a slightly snappier site.) I will need to do a bit more work this afternoon to get the forum software updated, which might have more impact in terms of the spam.

I hope you are well and having a good Easter! This is a quick note with two updates: GDPR and CPRA requirements now ask that we require consent for third-party cookies, which we do use to serve the advertisements that support the upkeep of the site. You will therefore be presented with a confirmation box if you live in the EU, UK or California so that we are compliant with this legislation. There will be some downtime for the site on Tuesday 11th April starting from around 9am UK time (presently GMT+1), and lasting for approximately 2-3 hours. This is to facilitate some much-needed software and hardware updates. Please do let me know if in this thread if you're having any issues with the cookie notifications or have any other queries.

I've added a new plugin to try to address the recent surge in spam - we'll see if that works!

Yep! However if you click on this, then you should see the breakdown to exact number on the left hand side.

Hi all, sorry for the lack of response. Unfortunately upgrades in software are necessary from time to time, in order to prevent against e.g. security vulnerabilities. Inevitably these come with some changes - some nice, some not so great. I've restored your rank under your username and the reputation count should now be found as it was before.

On the first point, I've added a small addition to the script to reload MathJax once content changes in-browser, so edits and quick replies should now show you the rendered math once they are submitted. Looks like they were removed from the toolbar, but I have re-added those for you now. If there are others that are desperately wanted then let me know and I can add those, too. On mobile, Mark Site as Read is available if you click on the three lines at the top-right corner of the toolbar. This also shows your profile information if you need to edit it. Not sure about the recent activity; can't see an obvious setting for that within the control panel, but perhaps this is just a bug and can be fixed in a later release.

Thanks for the notes @iNow, I’m sure other will find that useful!

Hello all -- I hope you are doing well in these odd times and keeping safe. This morning I've applied an update to our forum software, which obviously brings a few visual updates and changes in comparison to the older version. This was necessary to ensure we stay up to date with the latest security features and patches. However, from a functionality perspective, I believe this will mostly remain unchanged. Please do let us know in this thread if you have any issues with the site, and I'll continue to monitor the site for problems.

After a recent update to our forum software, typesetting equations on SFN has changed a little bit. Although we are still using LaTeX, for a variety of reasons, we've elected to shift over from our custom-written LaTeX generator to the excellent MathJax library, which will take your equations from post text and render them in your browser. Much as before, the idea is that in your post, you surround equations with special characters, and MathJax will convert the contained text into an equation for you. There's two types of equation that you can typeset: Inline math is displayed in the flow of a sentence, such as \( y= x^2 \). This example was produced by using the text \( y=x^2 \). Note that we do not support $ signs as most LaTeX users would be familiar with, since this occurs too frequently in text. Display math breaks up a paragraph and can be used for typesetting larger equations such as \[ y = \int f(x) dx. \] The text then picks up afterwards. This example was produced by using the text \[ y = \int f(x) dx \] , which we note is exactly what one would type in a usual LaTeX document. For reference, the old guide is still available and has a number of useful examples for those getting started. Finally, please note that for legacy posts, the old [math] [/math] tags will still continue to work and these will display equations as inline. However it's likely that older posts may look different to the way that they did before.

Hopefully this issue should now be resolved (or at least very much improved), but please make sure you report any suspected spam!

Also, you should note that the Gamma function is not defined for any negative integer (I believe there are poles at each one of those points).