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Tue 4 Mar, 2003 11:44 am
We are going to move to a dedicated server in the next few days, perhaps over the weekend. The move (which entails a massive file transfer) will take a few days and the site will be completely down, including Support email.
We will do our level best to get the site back up and running as fast as possible, and we thank you in advance for your patience in this matter.
A new host will mean a better site, with more room for photos and avatars. After this outage we will be on a dedicated server, which is a computer dedicated to just this site and it will enable us to do many cool things that we are not currently able to do (due to space/bandwidth constraints) such as add photo albums etc. A dedicated server can support 1000s of times the current activity level and we should be all set for the next few years. It will have the same url as it has now, so you won't need to change your Favorites.
Many thanks to those who bought through our affiliate links. The revenue is not much but it will help pay for these unexpected setup and tranfer fees.
Please note that it is likely that you will see banner ads in the future, this is to ensure the longevity of the site because until there are ads that help pay the costs this site will rely entirely on Craven's employment, a situation that is far too precarious for his taste. His intention is to secure the future of this site and with affiliations and banner advertising he hopes to do so.
Thank you again for your patience. Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions.
A short note on how the move will go:
1) I already bought the server.
2) I am already securing it and readying it for use.
3) I will start tranfering site files soon.
4) I will test the uploaded files to make sure they work and that the myriad settings are correct.
5) I will close the forum (this means no posting for a while) and download the database (all the posts etc).
6) I will transfer the database to the new server. This is the tedious part that consists of about 90% of my work.
During this move the domain will be modified to point to our new server. This is a process that can take a day or two to propagate through the internet.
As soon as I decide what day and night I can afford to use to make this move (I don't know yet due to work related commitments) I'll post it here and the schedule for the move will then be more clearly defined.