914world is showing its age Options

[SirAndy]

914world is showing its age (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

The recent outage was not due to some cyber attack or malicious plotting from the darkest depths of the interwebs.

It was simply due to the forum software being overwhelmed by the amount of data stored here combined with the amount of traffic we're receiving.

Fact is, the software we're running on is more than 20 years old, written at a time when the internet was a much different place.
It was never meant to run for this long or handle the amount of data we have accumulated.


So what are our options?

- Keep going until everything crashes and burns into a pile.

- Start over fresh with a new server with new forum software. We'd be losing everything we have.

- Try to fix some of the issues by re-writing parts of the software, reworking the database and changing the way uploaded images are stored. Maybe even update the server itself while we're in there.


While the last choice seems the obvious one, the problem is that i do have a day-job that needs my attention and my time is limited.
It would also mean i'd probably have to shut down the site for a longer period of time, maybe a week or two, and maybe more than once.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[Gary]

I've been with 914-world since it's migration from 914-the-previous-bb. Much of the value comes from the cumulative contributions from experts, enthusiasts and hobbyists that have posted here over the past couple decades. The culture of supporting this crazy hobby would be diminished I think if we let it burn or started from scratch.

FWIW, I vote for Andy's option 3 and would be fine with some down-time in the transition. Sounds like some software-type members are willing to help, but that may not be actually feasible - Andy's call. If there's a financial need, I'm willing to contribute.

G