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)

[TC 914-8]

I think preserving what we have in a separate database might be worthwhile. I think we are a group of very techy people from all levels of technology, we all love to fix things
I had a metal shop teacher (45 years ago) that said “you aren’t building nothing unless you have a plan”. I know Andy, along with other members of this group, know the best path of least resistance. If we build a plan, put a cost to it, time and money, see what it takes to move forward.
Not sure how urgent this is, but we’d all be more than glad to pitch in dollars, time, expertise to make something happen before we crash and burn, not an option.

I’m in to help if needed, minimal IT skills, some $$$, plenty of half-ass ideas. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sawzall-smiley.gif)