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Service Announcement

Chris

Chris

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Gang,

We have unfortunately outgrown our server once again.

Some of you may have noticed that from time to time, mostly during last summer, that you may have received a database or server error message. This would typically occur when the site was at peak periods of activity, that being when our server was getting the largest amount of requests from users and visitors.

Basically what causes this error, is when the number of requests being sent to the server are so numerous, that the server simply cannot keep up with them. So some of the requests resulted in a "too many requests or connections error". Whenever there is a error of this type, I am sent an email from the server. And I can tell you that on some days I was getting a lot of these emails during peak periods of activity.

To give you some perspective on how the site's traffic has grown over the last five years. We now use in one day, approximately the same server resources that we use to use in a complete month about four years ago at the end of our first year.

This past year, our visits, hits and bandwidth was approximately double the amount, month over month as compared to last year at this time. And it keeps increasing. Given this growth, I have serious doubts as to whether we would make it through next summers peak periods of activity without some pretty serious service interruptions.

Therefore, over the next week or so, I will be performing some server upgrades to the site. The site will be moved to a very powerful server which should keep us running through next summer's peak periods fairly smoothly, I hope.

What is more or less involved in what I have to do, is that the entire site has to be transferred and moved over to the new server. The server that the site will be moved to, will be the same one that Endless Boating currently resides on. The only two sites that will be running on the new server will be Endless Boating and Checkmate Forums.

As part of the move, our domain name has to be re-pointed to the new server's IP address. And this process can sometimes take a few days to propagate throughout the entire internet. Which means, once the domain is repointed at the new server, some people may be able to access the site on the new server fairly quickly, while for some other members it may take longer, as in a few days.

You can therefore expect sometime during the next week or so, that the site may be down for a few days. And once it reopens it will be running on the new server. :)


-Chris
 
fiftyp said:
Other than the few paying members, and I'm guessing the sponsors who advertise here, how do you fund this site?
Click to expand...
Well funding is via...

Revenue we receive from the supporting member program...

Revenue we receive from our supporting vendors and site sponsers...

And a bit of money we receive from the banners ads that you see which are mostly on a pay per click basis...

Shortfalls I fund out of pocket.
 
175checkmate said:
Wow, we have come along ways in 5 years.
Click to expand...
Yep.

I never imagined five years ago we'd be approaching 5,000 members and 100K in posts five years later. :eyecrazy:

Do you know on our old board, they had a limit of 75,000 posts stored?

So if we had stayed with them, we would have had to delete 15,000 posts by now.

Our server issues at this point really aren't related to server space or bandwidth usage as they were previously.

The problem is now more related to too many requests being made of the server simultaneously at peak times. The server only allows so many requests and when the requests are more then the limit then the request essentially gets ignored.

On our new server, the limit will be much higher.

The new server will also allow us to tweak other settings as well. As an example, on the new server supporting members will be able to upload more attachments in one posting, instead of having to break them up into multiple posts.
 
It still just blows my mind. I remember way back at the start someone asked. " how many people do you think will join" I think the answer was, we can shoot for 500 but we will have to see. That's funny stuff.
 
I came back from a week on the road with no Checkmate Forum, and bang, I'm locked out. :sick: . That really sucked, but I'm glad things are moving up on here.


I wish I would have been here closer to the begining. So much has changed for everyone in the last few years. Its crazy.


I remember how I found this site, I didn't even have a computer at home at the time. I had to go across the street to Grama's house to use her computer. I stumbled on to JW's Factory Tour article on Scream and Fly. And that lead me back to here after a few more Google searches.
 
Gang,

We're all moved now.

I actually finished up the move late last night.

It might still take a day or two for all the different points on the internet to recognize our new server IP address and point visitors to this new server instead of the old one.

So if another member is reporting to you that the board is still closed, they are most likely still ending up being pointed to the old server where an old copy of the board still resides, and it is closed.

However, that should all clear up shortly.

If you encounter any problems here on the new forums, you might want to try erasing your temp files as an old cookie might be the culpret.

I know I had to erase my cookies to straighten a few things out.

If anything else is out of sorts, post up the details in the board feedback forum.

Also....I am still working on getting the gallery back up, so if you get an error when trying to access it, that's a known issue that I'm working on.

-Chris
 
Im working on moving my sites to a new server shortly too. I found one that gives me more room to grow,support, and options.
 
Great job Chris, and I know all about the need for upgrades. That's great though - any upgrade cycle signifies site growth, and although the upgrades can sometimes be painful, it's worth it. You've done a fantastic job!

And for those that do not know, running a site like this costs a lot of money. Let's all support it!

Chris, how can I check my Supporting Member status? I just want to make sure I'm up to date. :)

Thanks again!
Greg
 
Scream And Fly said:
Great job Chris, and I know all about the need for upgrades. That's great though - any upgrade cycle signifies site growth, and although the upgrades can sometimes be painful, it's worth it. You've done a fantastic job!

And for those that do not know, running a site like this costs a lot of money. Let's all support it!

Chris, how can I check my Supporting Member status? I just want to make sure I'm up to date. :)

Thanks again!
Greg
Click to expand...
Thanks Greg.

We have, and will always look up to you and the job you've done on Scream - which is still also home for many of us - so needless to say your kind words hold extra special meaning.

And we also appreciate all the help and advice you've given us over the years.

Hopefully, we'll be good to go for next summer, server wise. I've still got a few things to iron out, but all should be good in a week or so.

Things weren't horrible last summer, just a little stressed at peak times. But I was worried that if traffic continued to grow at the pace that it has been, that we might have ended up having to upgrade (out of necessity) right in the middle of the peak season of next summer.

So I more or less made the decision last summer to tackle the the upgrade at this time of the year, since it's traditionally one of the slowest months of the year traffic wise. December is actually a bit slower still, but I didn't want to risk extended down time during the holiday season when help wasn't readily available. Plus, it's kind of a neat time of the year on the forums, as it's mostly just all us diehards hanging out.

Thanks for asking about your supporter's status. I appreciate that.

You're good to go until next February. :)

-Chris
 
im just a redneck

so i dont understand all this mess. had me trying to join endless boating, which ive already been a member of since i was born. im so stupid with this computer, but ive learned how to shut it down and put the cap on the bottle prior to insanity. maybe cause i got a boatride other day.
 
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