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)

[dgw]

Some folks are asking what it would cost to fix. No offense to them, but I spent years estimating and doing software projects and the real answer is that you will know what it costs when the final bill is due.
Whatever guesstimate Andy came up with, besides really being a waste of his time, would probably be a quarter (or less) of the real cost and there are going to be lots of free hours in whatever solution is selected. All of us here can contribute some bucks, but it should be whatever you are comfortable giving, because whatever we all give is not going to be enough to cover all the cost and effort required.
So, when/if a collection method is set up, give some bucks to the effort.

Oh yeah, social media solution? Never been on one of those sites and don't plan to ever go there.