I've got good news and I've got bad news.
Let's get the bad news out of the way first.
We're not finished moving. And that means the forum will once again have to be closed to new posts for a brief time. But this move should not present any of the problems we had during the last move. It should only take a few hours for the DNS propagation to take place and we should be right back in business.
Now, for the good news.
Due to circumstances out of my control, we're leaving Downtown Host behind. They've snarled up over $200 of my money in what was supposed to be a simple upgrade to a new hosting account. They were paid last Friday afternoon and promised all the log-in details for the new account within 24 hours of payment. It's been well over six days, I've heard nothing more from them and they are ignoring my repeated requests for action. So, it's time to get on down the line. Who knows if I will ever see the money I paid them again. I'm not holding my breath, to be honest.
The server loads have always been wonderful on the Downtown Host servers, which lets the forum load pages much faster. And I didn't want to sacrifice that benefit. So I've dug a bit deeper and paid the cash to get the site hosted on a Virtual Private Server, also known as a VPS. This way, we will be using guaranteed site resources, which means forum pages are going to load even faster yet.
I'm not going to be shy about this new hosting. It's expensive. Over three times more money than we were paying. Every time I say I'm not spending any more money on these forums, something comes up to make me out a liar. As it stands right now, I'm over $550 out of pocket, just in hosting expenses alone, over the last week. With little hope of ever getting a refund from Downtown Host.
The simple fact is I'm gambling on this forum, big style. We've been growing and the site seems to be a helpful resource for everyone. If we can continue to grow, then we're certainly prepared for it. Believe me, nobody wants to see the site grow more than I do.
For those of you that haven't noticed, there is now a Forum Donations module on the portal page. Donations will be used for forum expenses only - hosting, forum license renewals, domain renewals, add-ons, etc.
I know, I know, money is tight and we're all faced with increasing expenses. But if you can see your way clear to paying back a bit to the forum, we'll be able to ensure that we're going to be able to keep growing. Because this time, when I say I'm not spending any more money on the forum, that is the truth. I simply cannot afford to spend any more. There were a couple of add-ons we were looking to purchase, but the budget has dried up. And unlike the government, we can't run on a deficit.
If you can afford to help us with a donation, then you have my thanks. If you cannot afford to help us, you have my understanding.
Prepare yourselves for the forum being closed to new posts, at some point in the next 12-48 hours. I'll do my best to give everyone as much advanced warning as I can, prior to closing things down.
Let's get the bad news out of the way first.
We're not finished moving. And that means the forum will once again have to be closed to new posts for a brief time. But this move should not present any of the problems we had during the last move. It should only take a few hours for the DNS propagation to take place and we should be right back in business.
Now, for the good news.
Due to circumstances out of my control, we're leaving Downtown Host behind. They've snarled up over $200 of my money in what was supposed to be a simple upgrade to a new hosting account. They were paid last Friday afternoon and promised all the log-in details for the new account within 24 hours of payment. It's been well over six days, I've heard nothing more from them and they are ignoring my repeated requests for action. So, it's time to get on down the line. Who knows if I will ever see the money I paid them again. I'm not holding my breath, to be honest.
The server loads have always been wonderful on the Downtown Host servers, which lets the forum load pages much faster. And I didn't want to sacrifice that benefit. So I've dug a bit deeper and paid the cash to get the site hosted on a Virtual Private Server, also known as a VPS. This way, we will be using guaranteed site resources, which means forum pages are going to load even faster yet.
I'm not going to be shy about this new hosting. It's expensive. Over three times more money than we were paying. Every time I say I'm not spending any more money on these forums, something comes up to make me out a liar. As it stands right now, I'm over $550 out of pocket, just in hosting expenses alone, over the last week. With little hope of ever getting a refund from Downtown Host.
The simple fact is I'm gambling on this forum, big style. We've been growing and the site seems to be a helpful resource for everyone. If we can continue to grow, then we're certainly prepared for it. Believe me, nobody wants to see the site grow more than I do.
For those of you that haven't noticed, there is now a Forum Donations module on the portal page. Donations will be used for forum expenses only - hosting, forum license renewals, domain renewals, add-ons, etc.
I know, I know, money is tight and we're all faced with increasing expenses. But if you can see your way clear to paying back a bit to the forum, we'll be able to ensure that we're going to be able to keep growing. Because this time, when I say I'm not spending any more money on the forum, that is the truth. I simply cannot afford to spend any more. There were a couple of add-ons we were looking to purchase, but the budget has dried up. And unlike the government, we can't run on a deficit.
If you can afford to help us with a donation, then you have my thanks. If you cannot afford to help us, you have my understanding.
Prepare yourselves for the forum being closed to new posts, at some point in the next 12-48 hours. I'll do my best to give everyone as much advanced warning as I can, prior to closing things down.
ray:
