Mike
Well-Known Member
This Friday, 16 August, this site will be going offline at an indeterminate time and for an indeterminate time. So f you arrive here for one of your daily visits and the site is not available, do not panic. We will be back as quickly as possible. And when we get back, things will be better than ever before.
Most people are not aware, but I actually own and operate several (too many?
) Web sites. Over the years, I have used a lot of hosting companies. Some I have moved away from, and some are still hosting sites for me. I have found the company that handles the hosting for this site to be the premier host in the industry, so I have been working on a way to get all of my sites running under the same roof. And Friday is the day it is all going to happen.
This site is going to be moving to a brand-new server. We originally considered doing a quickie transfer, but the version of the operating system we use is getting a little long in the tooth. So we are going to start afresh, on a new machine with a current version of CentOS. But we are not going to stop there. Because the new machine will not be using platter-style hard drives, but will have solid state drives, instead.
This kind of move means we will end up with new IP addresses, which also means I will be changing nameservers. And once the nameservers are changed with the domain registrar, it will take some time for the entire Web to 'see' the new nameservers. The process is much faster than it used to be, but if you are out on a remote branch of the Web, it can still take between 10 and 24 hours. I was testing some changes last weekend, and was seeing changes in the span of 1 to 2 hours. I wish I could say it would be that fast for everyone, but that isn't the way things work. If it takes you a longer period of time to see things, that is down to the company you are hosting with, which is something entirely out of my control, OK?
People, these solid state drives are costly. The new server is going to end up costing an additional $44/month. I'm going to eat that. I will not be raising the monthly donation quota. But I am also going to be even more reliant upon the donations we receive each month. So, please, do not let me down on this one. I've already been covering the deficits between the monthly donations and the actual monthly expenses, and now, I am adding another $44/month to that. So I want to encourage each one of you to try to help ensure we get the bills paid, each and every month. The donation procedure is really quick and painless. Although donations are all processed via PayPal, you do not have to have a PayPal account to donate to the forums. As much as I dislike the fact, this place is just like everything else in life. It runs on money. Please don't leave it to the same, small group of people who donate every month. 'Nuff said?
I had hoped this was going to be a little cheaper venture than it has turned out to be. To be completely honest, I was ready to abandon the whole idea, but I also want to take this site to the next level. Yeah, I could strip off all the add-ons and move this place onto a freebie hosting site, using marginal forum software, same as the wannabe sites. But that is not part of my vision for this site. Since Day One, back in October 2006, this site has always been about being better and offering more to our users. We do more than just talk the talk, around here. We always have and that is not going to stop. No sense in lowering our standards at this late date, is there? We have always gone the extra mile to be the best, and that tradition is going to continue.
So, be prepared for some downtime, on Friday. I wish I could pinpoint exact times for you, but I just can't. All I can say is that we are going to be busting our backsides to get things situated as quickly as humanly possible. Bear with me, in the knowledge that when the site comes back up, we will be running even smoother and faster than ever before.
Most people are not aware, but I actually own and operate several (too many?
) Web sites. Over the years, I have used a lot of hosting companies. Some I have moved away from, and some are still hosting sites for me. I have found the company that handles the hosting for this site to be the premier host in the industry, so I have been working on a way to get all of my sites running under the same roof. And Friday is the day it is all going to happen.This site is going to be moving to a brand-new server. We originally considered doing a quickie transfer, but the version of the operating system we use is getting a little long in the tooth. So we are going to start afresh, on a new machine with a current version of CentOS. But we are not going to stop there. Because the new machine will not be using platter-style hard drives, but will have solid state drives, instead.
This kind of move means we will end up with new IP addresses, which also means I will be changing nameservers. And once the nameservers are changed with the domain registrar, it will take some time for the entire Web to 'see' the new nameservers. The process is much faster than it used to be, but if you are out on a remote branch of the Web, it can still take between 10 and 24 hours. I was testing some changes last weekend, and was seeing changes in the span of 1 to 2 hours. I wish I could say it would be that fast for everyone, but that isn't the way things work. If it takes you a longer period of time to see things, that is down to the company you are hosting with, which is something entirely out of my control, OK?
People, these solid state drives are costly. The new server is going to end up costing an additional $44/month. I'm going to eat that. I will not be raising the monthly donation quota. But I am also going to be even more reliant upon the donations we receive each month. So, please, do not let me down on this one. I've already been covering the deficits between the monthly donations and the actual monthly expenses, and now, I am adding another $44/month to that. So I want to encourage each one of you to try to help ensure we get the bills paid, each and every month. The donation procedure is really quick and painless. Although donations are all processed via PayPal, you do not have to have a PayPal account to donate to the forums. As much as I dislike the fact, this place is just like everything else in life. It runs on money. Please don't leave it to the same, small group of people who donate every month. 'Nuff said?
I had hoped this was going to be a little cheaper venture than it has turned out to be. To be completely honest, I was ready to abandon the whole idea, but I also want to take this site to the next level. Yeah, I could strip off all the add-ons and move this place onto a freebie hosting site, using marginal forum software, same as the wannabe sites. But that is not part of my vision for this site. Since Day One, back in October 2006, this site has always been about being better and offering more to our users. We do more than just talk the talk, around here. We always have and that is not going to stop. No sense in lowering our standards at this late date, is there? We have always gone the extra mile to be the best, and that tradition is going to continue.
So, be prepared for some downtime, on Friday. I wish I could pinpoint exact times for you, but I just can't. All I can say is that we are going to be busting our backsides to get things situated as quickly as humanly possible. Bear with me, in the knowledge that when the site comes back up, we will be running even smoother and faster than ever before.
