Site Outage

[Gary]

Update: everything appears to be ok. Report any problems in the bugs Forum.

The site will be down for a (hopefully) short period sometime this weekend for updates. Our web host notified me that our database files exceed their limits (1.2gig vs. 750 meg) for the host plan we use. They want us to move to a dedicated server (at a much higher hosting fee) so I am working on getting the dB size below their limits

The attachment table is 565 meg alone and that size exceeds the maximum for doing dB back-ups using normal methods. So I'm looking for an alternative way to back them up before I move all the post attachments over to a file system. There could be transfer issues given the size of those files.

I'll give an estimated time for the downtime as things get closer.

[wrangler]

What kind of money are we talking about Gary? Is it exceedingly high, or might it be worth considering, since it is foreseeable that the site will continue to increase in size with each post or picture uploaded. Am sure if we had to, we could raise the funds needed to keep the site going great.
Brett

[namba209 (R.I.P.)]

I'll go along with what Brett said, if more funds are needed to keep the site as user friendly as it is now, I can increase my quarterly donation to you for a start. Possibly others can do the same. For me it's a really small price for the expertise and camaraderie we have here. Maybe it is time for the more artistic folks on the site to generate some items that can be sold to help fund the dedicated server. Whatcha think.

[Gary]

Everything is backed up. The forum will be shutdown for a brief period shortly.

[Gary]

Back on line. Everything appears to be ok.

[maglinjosvinn]

*blinks* the site went down? lol. never noticed.