theSteveCo
Founder
Well, we're growing fast and our little server is taking a pounding. We're currently doing about 25,000 pages / day. This is so incredibly exciting, considering we've only been around for 5 months. The people who frequent this site are fantastic and it just keeps bringing more and more great people on-board.
For most of us that means more friends, more socials (yes, we ARE working on the next one), more group-rides, more trackdays... yada yada yada.
For me it means that along with all the benefits the rest of you enjoy I have to start anticipating problems before they happen, not reacting to them when they catch me off-guard. Our server is doing as well as it can, considering what it is. It's starting to look like we need more, though. There are two ways to handle our needs: throw money at it (I'd love to, but there is none), or get creative about maximizing the existing resources. I have no choice but to opt for the latter.
Lately people have been running into problems uploading photos so I'm turning that off temporarily until I can find a solution to the problem. I'm sorry - those of you who've been around for a while can testify that this is not something I wish to do.
Another possiblity is actually yanking photos from older threads. I'd really really hate to do that, and if I did I will DEFINITELY link the pics back into the threads. The fact is that our database is so large now that I can't make comprehensive backups... they have to be done in bits and pieces now, which I get to spend the day tomorrow trying to script.
This will only slow the impending problem. I thought a solution existed to address the problem more expediantly but I was mistaken. It looks as though I'll be spending the weekend researching subtleties of Linux, Apache, PHP, and MySQL that will, hopefully, solve the problem for us.
The other solution, and one I prefer, quite frankly, is to build out our server and separate the processes onto multiple machines. This is the "mo money" route. If sticker sales continue to do as well as they have been this is also a viable option. Kudos to each and every one of you who have purchased stickers so far, it's greatly appreciated and I think you're getting something that is not only pretty damn good looking, but also symbolic of your support for this site.
So there are a number of levels from which I need to weigh our options. Please be patient with me, I'm giving it everything I can (and then some) so we'll be up and running just as before as soon as humanly possible. I have a billion other things I'd like to say but long announcements tend to get annoying.
Scattered Summary: No file uploads for a while (no more than a week, I'm hoping). I'm working on it. Growth is a good thing. You all rock! I never imagined we'd get so large and I'm loving every minute of it.
-Steve
(Hope I caught all the typos)
For most of us that means more friends, more socials (yes, we ARE working on the next one), more group-rides, more trackdays... yada yada yada.
For me it means that along with all the benefits the rest of you enjoy I have to start anticipating problems before they happen, not reacting to them when they catch me off-guard. Our server is doing as well as it can, considering what it is. It's starting to look like we need more, though. There are two ways to handle our needs: throw money at it (I'd love to, but there is none), or get creative about maximizing the existing resources. I have no choice but to opt for the latter.
Lately people have been running into problems uploading photos so I'm turning that off temporarily until I can find a solution to the problem. I'm sorry - those of you who've been around for a while can testify that this is not something I wish to do.
Another possiblity is actually yanking photos from older threads. I'd really really hate to do that, and if I did I will DEFINITELY link the pics back into the threads. The fact is that our database is so large now that I can't make comprehensive backups... they have to be done in bits and pieces now, which I get to spend the day tomorrow trying to script.
This will only slow the impending problem. I thought a solution existed to address the problem more expediantly but I was mistaken. It looks as though I'll be spending the weekend researching subtleties of Linux, Apache, PHP, and MySQL that will, hopefully, solve the problem for us.
The other solution, and one I prefer, quite frankly, is to build out our server and separate the processes onto multiple machines. This is the "mo money" route. If sticker sales continue to do as well as they have been this is also a viable option. Kudos to each and every one of you who have purchased stickers so far, it's greatly appreciated and I think you're getting something that is not only pretty damn good looking, but also symbolic of your support for this site.
So there are a number of levels from which I need to weigh our options. Please be patient with me, I'm giving it everything I can (and then some) so we'll be up and running just as before as soon as humanly possible. I have a billion other things I'd like to say but long announcements tend to get annoying.
Scattered Summary: No file uploads for a while (no more than a week, I'm hoping). I'm working on it. Growth is a good thing. You all rock! I never imagined we'd get so large and I'm loving every minute of it.
-Steve
(Hope I caught all the typos)
Really, we all understand. This was inevitable. (How bad did I butcher that word?) I'd be down for kicking in a couple bux a month when I can. Kinda like a non-manditory membership fee. Anyone else? You know, $5 bux this month. $7 next month. month after that might be tight so no donation. Month after that you have extra so you give $10. Just whatever you can afford.
