Site outage on 3/7/24

[JohnCh]

Posting this in the General forum to ensure it is seen.  Our account at the UK hoster appears to have fallen through the cracks for an important notification given a change made to our hosting plan.  Long story short, rather than receive sufficient notice that our account was part of a bulk migration to new servers with associated downtime, I received notification just 45 minutes before the migration started and the site went down.  That notification offered no details on what time the outage would start or end.  To complicate matters, that server move required another undocumented change to a database configuration file that wasn't identified by their support until a few minutes ago when they come back online for the day.  

 

Unfortunately, there will be a second server move with downtime in the near future, but this time it will be scheduled, and I will be able to give everyone at least a few days' notice.  

 

-John

[IamScotticus]

This is a good example of why I gladly support the forum.  It takes money and work to keep it going.

 

[Vovchandr]

After running a forum I know how much of a thankless job it really is and how much goes on the back end between time and expenses. Also glad to be a paid member.

Least I can do.

 

I'm forever in debt to Croc and the community at large for letting me use his garage space when my 7 broke at NJMP and I needed to house it until I could come back with a trailer. 

[Croc]

29 minutes ago, Vovchandr said:

I'm forever in debt to Croc and the community at large for letting me use his garage space when my 7 broke at NJMP and I needed to house it until I could come back with a trailer. 

 

I gladly did it as the alternative was just unacceptable.  Driving 5-6 hours north on I-95/I-87 through rush hour New York metro with no clutch and a sequential gearbox was as scary a driving proposition there can possibly be.  I will happily let any seven stay in my garage any time. 

 

We have to look out for each other.  Thats what a club is about. 

 

 

 

Edited to add - John does accept donations of quality craft beers.  He has a well developed and refined palate that comes from consuming the good stuff.  His Great Pyrenees also like bacon treats as I discovered when I visited once and was promptly mugged. 

[JohnCh]

@IamScotticus and @Vovchandr, thanks for the support.  It is important we at least maintain our current paid membership levels to cover our costs.  Like everything else, they have increased over the past few years.  Invision's bi-annual software renewals are up, and we had to upgrade to a more expensive hosting plan last month due to our storage requirements.  The benefit of the latter is we will soon move to a more robust server which will increase system performance.  Although I'm fine volunteering my time to perform the work, I'd prefer not to also come out of pocket to keep the forum going.  Afterall, I have a garage full of dependents to maintain.  

[CarlB]

This forum is very important to me. Membership is a small price to pay for all the benefits. Thank you JohnCh & Croc 

[IamScotticus]

I would have a fund-o-meter sticky on the top to show the finance status.  If it ever falls to a negative the lights go out.

[JohnCh]

If we ever get to a stage where we need to raise a specific amount to keep the site going, I will consider that.  For now, I was just pointing out that the current paid memberships are important and to thank those who contribute.  If you don't feel you get $20/year of value from the site, then you shouldn't become a paid member.  If you do, then please consider it.  BTW the $20 fee is unchanged from 2006 despite a cumulative inflation rate of 53% over that period.  I'm not suggesting raising it, just pointing out the value. 

[panamericano]

Good value.  I gladly pay $20 and appreciate the reminder I got around the first of the year.  You do "Good Work" as the Buddha would say.

[IamScotticus]

Just think what would happen if the forum name became up for grabs 

[wdb]

Domain name squatters. *spit* I snagged my family name many years ago and "squat" on it just so this can't happen.

[IamScotticus]

Missed opportunities, right?

If only I had snagged Ford.com, etc, when they were all available.

[MV8]

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/282860-commerce-approves-domain-name-transition/

[JohnCh]

Now that we're a few days past the outage, I’m relocating this discussion to the appropriate forum. Additionally, the second server migration I mentioned earlier is no longer necessary. While coordinating with the support team to schedule it for later this month, they discovered the engineering team had proactively performed the migration when the site was offline last Thursday.  It was one of those "as long as we're in there" moments we've each experienced while maintaining our cars.  If you’ve noticed improved site speed since the outage ended, it’s not just your imagination.