JULY 2021 - Newsletter

[Mopar1973Man]

Well I got to say I'm sorry for being slow about updating the website. I've been extremely busy. 

 

STYLE / SKIN

I'm not working on rebuilding a light weight skin to keep the web site fast and responsive. This means no heavy graphics any longer. I'm going to work on style with just colors and highlights. The old style with the side bar I will no longer be using. The reason why is at least 80% of the traffic here is off a mobile phone. I'm going to base the style on keeping the mobile users optimized. 

 

SECURITY UPDATE

Next thing is no longer will there be a username login function you'll have to use your email address. Why? Because usernames are public knowledge and just one hacker would need to find out what your password is. Commonly people create weak passwords that are easy to break. This why we use a password filter that requires it to be STRONG. This forces the member to use letters, numbers and at least a symbol. This makes every ones account secure and protected. 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Mopar1973Man

[JAG1]

JMHO, we don't need badges if that saves some too! They kinda silly........ I will retract that comment if you feel like beating me up! 

 

Some topics our members might feel are worth posting about:

 

            The Drought, its Ramifications and preparations

 

             Current Policies in America

 

             Getting ready for any turn of Events on the Horizon.

 

             Strategies for saving/ increasing net worth

 

Thanks so much to those that are helpful to others, if you feel like sharing useful knowledge or information please feel free.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by JAG1

[01cummins4ever]

Thank you @Mopar1973Man and the others that keep this site rolling , 

 

as for badges 

 

 

 

[Mopar1973Man]

Haven't gotten that far yet the badges came with the software and I've not dug in that much as of yet. You have no idea there is pages and pages of configurations and settings. I can keep flipping pages of setting and most likely miss that page. 

 

Badges are now turned off. Rather complex system of rules for giving badges and ranks. But now its all turned off.

Edited July 5, 2021 by Mopar1973Man

[IBMobile]

3 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Badges are now turned off.

That's to bad.@dripleywas looking forward to earning his.

 

[JAG1]

Them stupid Badges calling W-T a 'greenhorn'. Yeah, we are done with those things 

Edited July 5, 2021 by JAG1

[Mopar1973Man]

I could of recounted everything and made it right but what the hay... 

[dripley]

3 hours ago, IBMobile said:

That's to bad.@dripleywas looking forward to earning his.

 

The Angry Chickenator level. Some tool throwing will be involved.

[JAG1]

Here is a bit of news... I am seeing the temps at around 5 in the morning drop a couple degrees from the morning before, each day (48 degrees this morning). We are loosing daylight hours now since june 21st. This month alone we loose a total of almost a full hour.

 

I'm glad for this as we cannot take another scorching heat. 116 degrees was too much, you can see the burned tips on trees to the forest around me. So little rain I'm running sprinklers almost 24/7. Amazing how they perk up so well with some water. Can't hurt since fire season is here.

On 7/5/2021 at 9:14 AM, Mopar1973Man said:

I could of recounted everything and made it right but what the hay... 

Keep it simple Im glad badges are gone  

 

Don't forget your prayers everyone... I don't know about you but, to me things are getting weird these days.

Edited July 9, 2021 by JAG1

[Mopar1973Man]

Ok. I think I got the Google PageSpeed Module working this time. Basically Google would like to attempt to rewriting all the page information removing extra white space, combine style scripts together so its one long file instead of calling 13 different files which takes time to access 13 different files on the server. Then attempt to comnvert pictures from old school like GIF, JPG, and PNG file types to WebP which is a better compression compared to the old school formats. It's been a huge batte to make the website faster enough to get even 1% of the pages with a good score.

 

[Mopar1973Man]

 

Sorry it stole the photo again. I was attempting to convert the PNG photo to WebP format and then left it hang without a final photo completed. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebP

[Mopar1973Man]

Appears after tweaking the PageSpeed Module a bit I finally got the photos to continue rendering. Also notice a good step up on the Google side with timing and amount of Mobile Pages that meet all the requirements. Jump to 9.3% of good URLs and hoping for growth in this number. 

[Mopar1973Man]

I notice the image problem came back for some of the photos like some of them don't want to convert to WebP format. Then with a bit of digging found out if there is any clickable link associated with photo the module could optimize the photo without making a mess of the clickable link. So it hang and not renders any photos at all. I've turned off the image optimization function. As for what I've got done so far you can see we got a healthy jump in good URLs now.  

 

Friday, July 9th 2021...

 

Now today. Tuesday July 13th 2021...

 

Why is this important? Found out ready about Google's new specs that more pages with a bad timing will be also derated for search engine scores. Same holds true for good URLs. All the good URL's are boosted in the search engine because of faster times. Google want all people to enjoy a good experience with good inforamtion and fast page speeds. 

 

Here is the competition...

 

Then M73M...

 

[Doubletrouble]

 I'm guessing the last 2 images are grade cards of sorts from Google? Looks like we have good grades. I don't know much of anything on that end I admit. All I can say is GREAT JOB MIKE!

 Like most of us here, I appreciate  your time and efforts making this site better. It's a great site with a courteous membership. Lots of good people on here and good accurate information. 

 I thank you Mike and all of the members for making it what it is!

[Mopar1973Man]

It's a third party testing site. Basically all web pages need to completely load in under 2 seconds. Then the layout can't shift more than 0.1 score. Server has to respond in under 300ms. Im pretty close to making the grade. Hard part is holding that grade. Local test here using cache of the browser typically pages could done in just a bit over 1 second.

 

So I don't only build hotrod trucks also build hotrod servers. 8 processors, 8GB of RAM, then 160 GB hard drive. Now remember I'm in Idaho but my server is in another state. So I got to all the server work remotely. Linux on Linux is super easy being they just naturally talk to each other. Crazier yet since I've got Android phone (Linux) I can do most work on my phone anywhere in the world.

Edited July 13, 2021 by Mopar1973Man

[Mopar1973Man]

Here we go so far it has settle down at about 89.5% (26.4k impressions) of all page are GOOD for mobile devices and meet or exceed Google requirements on a page. Being 80% of the traffic here is done on a mobile phone or mobile device. This is really good this means all the family members here are getting snappy pages when they are surfing the site looking for information on their trucks. I can't say anything about all the corporate ran sites they mostly setup and never look back again. 

 

I've got about 119 pages that do NOT meet Google requirements for Mobile Devices. Then as of this morning the desktop side changed on me. 3,103 pages are GOOD and meets Googles Desktop requirement leaving about 141 pages that do NOT meet the Desktop requirement. 

 

 

More or less it's like drag racing everyone is trying to get to below a 10 second quarter mile. I'm trying to create a server that is quick enough to paint a 2 second page every-time no matter what page you pick. There is some old pages with large photos that are pulling the server down or the response time. Good example is the heavy photos in the store display.

 

 

This shows my efforts of adding the Google PageSpeed module to the server worked out rather well now that its configured correctly and majority of the pages are now classified as GOOD experience for all people that visit Mopar1973Man.Com. Can't say much for other websites but I'm trying to keep everything top notch speed wise. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Another upgrade is coming. The PHP module on the site has a upgrade from 7.4 to 8.0 now. It will take a bit of time for me to sort through and make sure all the needed modules are there for the web site. 

 

Most all forum run on PHP scripts. 

https://www.php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php

 

I know its above everyone's heads but... Here is whats new.

https://php.watch/versions/8.0

 

Basically I'm just keeping up with the software upgrades across the server. Each upgrade has given a small performance upgrades for the server.

[JAG1]

I only hope it's not part of a conspiracy. I don't want to be tracked and put into an internment camp because I converted to Redneck. When I saw what the Rats were doing I became total contrarian.

[Mopar1973Man]

43 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

I only hope it's not part of a conspiracy. I don't want to be tracked and put into an internment camp because I converted to Redneck. When I saw what the Rats were doing I became total contrarian.

Nope. 

 

Well after a bit of tweaking I got the PHP 8.0 fired up on the server and retired the old version of 7.4. I was working on the conversion and did trip a few server errors I'm sorry for the down time this morning. 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Mopar1973Man

[Mopar1973Man]

Still getting bugs with the PHP 8.0 I'm glad I didn't drop the PHP 7.4 I have tuned already. I'd love to make that upgrade but randomly it not painting the page or creating an error I've got to hunt down. 

 

I found a good article for installing Redis Caching system. I got it installed and running with the Invision Power Board (Forum Software).

 

 

What it does is cache both the web page content and MySQL database info that is common so user are not calling the server directly. Just dipping into the cache and pulling the needed info which is much faster. I got this all setup yesterday and then got up this morning and did a random test so how things were working. We now have 93.6% of good URLs on Mobile devices! This means the server responds as fast or FASTER as below for 93% of all the URL's on Mopar1973Man.Com for mobile users! This means good FAST pages! Just like good fast cars they don't have plush seats and carpet. Kind of like the skin on the site basic colors and no big graphics. Graphics and pictures cost speed!

 

Here is the page test I ran and the results... There is no cheating these test at all. You must build the hotrod server to make the grade!

 

Everything is a green light. Majority of the page is rendered in 0.846 seconds! Completed page in 2.4 seconds. Redis gave that little bit of help to pull me just that 0.1 or 0.2 seconds faster! This is testing the desktop side not mobile side which is already good being only 90 pages mobile don't make a passing grade. 

 

More pages that keep that A score the more Google now picks up those pages and given booster score for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Now Google will look at time score and keyword average on f a page and then give it a place on the searches. Being I know for a fact there is no corporate website doing what I'm doing and working for my placement.  Being they all setup and just let it run. No updating the server, softwares, nothing. They are only worried about ad revenue. I'm more worried about experience and information quality. 

 

Check it out see were the search takes you...

 

Google Search:  241dhd transfer case diagram - https://www.google.com/search?q=241dhd+transfer+case+diagram

 

Google Search: 24 valve cummins fuel pump wiring diagram - https://www.google.com/search?q=24+valve+cummins+fuel+pump+wiring+diagram

 

Google Search: 6.7 harmonic balancer on 5.9 cummins - https://www.google.com/search?q=6.7+harmonic+balancer+on+5.9+cummins

 

As you can see I'm #1 position in these three searches... I'm ahead of all other forums, vendors, websites and everyone! There is a reason I'm working so hard to gain the leader spot! As you can see I've taken the lead on searches and now got to grow this number one spot and continue to lead out on the search queries. 

 

Just a tidbit I checked all my search queries and out of 1,000 different queries only 4 queries will not land on the first page of Google. That is 990 plus URLs that land on the first page. Then there is over 400 different queries that are between 1 and 1.9 score. Just gotta add more to 1 to 1.9 score.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Mopar1973Man