Re: The link to the WinBoard Forum goes to an error page.

[mattuc]

Dear Tim Mann and H.G. Muller,

Thanks to both of you for your efforts to come up with a quick solution to this matter.

It would be quite a loss if the WinBoard Forum never comes back.  It appears that the Wayback Machine only has spotty coverage of the WinBoard Forum.  I'll have to spend some more time there to try and get a better idea of what is still available there.

Older versions of WinBoard can still be quite useful, especially in certain special cases.  Specifically, the version for blind players is a very important version.  That version is WinBoard 4.5.2 for Jaws.  We have many blind players on FICS, and I think this version of WinBoard is quite popular among them.

The WinBoard Forum page that mentions WinBoard 4.5.2 for Jaws is available on the Wayback Machine here:
"https://web.archive.org/web/20221007163152/http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=51528&start=1".

The URL to directly download WinBoard 4.5 for Jaws from the Wayback Machine is:
"https://web.archive.org/web/20221007163152/http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-4.5.2-JAWS.exe".

This download URL is a Wayback Machine capture of the download URL on H.G. Muller's own website.  That download URL still works on H.G. Muller's website.  This is the download URL:
"http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-4.5.2-JAWS.exe".

It might be nice to mention this very useful older version and its download URL, on the new downloads page for WinBoard.

Many of the other older versions of WinBoard are still available on the gnu.org FTP archive.  That archive is here:
"https://ftp.gnu.org/old-gnu/xboard/winboard/".

This archived WinBoard index page has links for WinBoard from ver. 4.0.0, up through ver. 4.2.7b.  The Wayback Machine has complete coverage of this WinBoard archive, and the corresponding XBoard archive.

I'll have to do some digging on the Wayback Machine, to see if any of the intermediate versions of WinBoard are still available there.  Even if they are not urgently needed, it's still nice to know what's still available.

Thanks again to you both for the work you've done in dealing with this issue.

Sincerely,
mattuc
FICS Head Admin

On Sat, Dec 30, 2023 at 4:30 PM Tim Mann <tim@tim-mann.org> wrote:

Done. HGM, I hope the results look okay.

On Sat, Dec 30, 2023 at 2:56 PM Tim Mann <tim@tim-mann.org> wrote:

Thanks! I must have the ability to update the link and text on https://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/, but I don't remember how offhand. I'll see what I can do.

On Fri, Dec 29, 2023 at 4:16 AM h.g.muller via XBoard and WinBoard bugs <bug-xboard@gnu.org> wrote:

OK, I have set up a page at http://hgm.nubati.net/downloads.html where WinBoard 4.8.0 and WinBoard-AA can be downloaded.

mattuc schreef op 27-12-2023 11:06:

Hi,

On the GNU web page for XBoard, the link to the WinBoard Forum goes to an error page.  Here is the error that is displayed:
---------------------------------------------------
General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

User eq80053 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections [1203]

An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists.
---------------------------------------------------

Trying to go to the base URL for the WinBoard Forum ("http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/") yields the same error.

WinBoard is still very popular on FICS.  It would be helpful if the WinBoard Forum could be reinstated.  Thanks much.

Sincerely,
mattuc
Head Administrator, The Free Internet Chess Server
HeadAdmin@freechess.org