So, FW has been on the same server for three quarters of a decade now. There were plans to move to a new server, but some technical and managerial details have obstructed that progress.
The short version is that neither host wants to communicate with the other, regardless what I do, so transferring data across is a nightmare. I'd have to wait until I had godly upload speeds to accomplish that in a period where the data wouldn't become completely irrelevant and need to be uploaded.
And as I'm sure we're all aware, the site sometimes struggles along. It's no secret that the cause is the chat. It's a heavy, clunky piece of technology, but it does us good and it integrates into the site, giving us all a little more security and control over who we talk to. And before anyone suggests it, I don't like IRC. I want something that integrates into the site.
The cause of these short outages is simply the server running out of RAM. At the moment, it only has 1GB of RAM. That's all that the site runs on. During the quiet days, it coasts along fine, but when we have 20, 30 people in the chat, even idle ones, the memory usage goes right up.
So, we have a decision that can go one of three ways.
- We stay where we are now and just deal with it until server move happens. This may be months away, or even longer depending on what goes down with the new host. I have limited experience with moving Linux servers, so the process will take even longer with that in mind.
- We increase the server power. This is the one which would increase the RAM and CPU allocations for the server. I believe that this would alleviate the problems that the chat causes and allow for expansion of new users, which is currently in the works (with about fifty other things).
- We find new chat software. I've looked far and wide, and because my specifications are pretty strict, I haven't found much. AJAX, X7 (Yiffy.net used to use this way back in the day. Very barebones), and Flashchat. The chat software has to be customisable, integrates into the forum's user database, and is easy to use for users.
The first point is the easiest, but it's the one that's going to give us the most problems.
The second point is the most realistic. It'll give us the resources we need to keep going, and stop the chat from dragging the site down. The issue is that it will increase the site's running costs from USD $50/mo to USD $90/mo.
As for changing the chat, well, Flashchat is right out. It's even heavier than AJAX and when more than 10 people get in there, it slows right down. Not to mention mobile cannot run it at all.
x7 is kind of eh. After having used AJAX on a great number of sites, I'm fairly certain that a lot of people would be turned off by its features. As I said, it's pretty barebones. It is, however, very lightweight.
So I've put it to a poll. Rain and I will discuss it at length when we're able, but since the site is maintained by user donations, I figure it might be best to see where people stand on the matter. Put up with it, or help upgrade the server for however long it takes to sort things out with the new host.
I would probably say that the second option would be best, especially if it's more realistic and easier overall. Even if I've not been around to see the outages too often, it could become serious since the chat and site has been much busier in recent months than it used to. If the running costs go up, the past has shown that people are more than willing to pledge their part too (I certainly will).
okay im not known for good idears but i got a very left field idea. back in the day i use to go on a chat program called "The Palace" it was one of the first avatar based chat programs. they started it in 1994 and its now freeware. we all have a picture of our characters and you could use those pictures as your avatar in the chat. these chat rooms have very low resolution pictures so it wouldnt be hard to host.
I'll link the stuff here. what yall think?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Palace_(computer_program) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Palace_(computer_program))
http://thepalace.com/index.html (http://thepalace.com/index.html)
The server has been successfully upgraded. I'll update the donation amounts to reflect this change.