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Hello everyone...
MOCpages is back online as of this afternoon (01-Aug 2005). I feel terrible
about the horrendous downtime. I’m sorry I haven’t replied to anyone’s messages
asking what was going on -- I literally have been out of the country (and
without much computer access) for over 3 months.
What happened
MOCpages is hosted at a shared facility in Boston, MA. Although I pay a lot for
a “high volume” service, the facility automatically shuts down MOCpages if it
uses too much CPU or makes intensive use of the database.
I left the country in mid-April, and put someone in charge of MOCpages in my
absense to maintain everything. But only a few weeks later, our data center
shut down the entire MOCpages database because of high traffic. ... they
refused to turn it back on until I changed the way MOCpages interacted with the
database. It was something that only I could fix, and not something I could do
from an internet cafe in Africa, for example. :( I was aware that everything
was down, but powerless to restore it.
Now that I’m back, I’ve been able to “put a band-aid” in place (as of today)
that has gotten MOCpages back up and running.
The good news is that nothing was destroyed or lost; everyone’s pages are still
100% in-tact, passwords are the same, etc.
For now
For now, MOCpages will be a little slower than usual. I may have to shut down
the review/rating/favorites back-end again if our facility continues to complain
about the load it places on their server. I will be keeping my eyes out.
Fixes for the future
MOCpages has grown so popular in the past year (getting over a quarter million
hits every DAY) that I can no longer rely on shared web hosting as a solution.
Even now, the shared hosting plan costs me over $125 a month -- and we creep up
to our performance caps every minute of the day.
1) MOCpages needs a dedicated server. I have already begun pricing and
estimates at a new facility and for a new server, but it will require at least
$500 up front, which I’m not sure I can afford to spend out-of-pocket. I was
considering having a fund-raiser, much like Peeron’s successful $2000 drive late
last year. What is everyone’s thoughts on this?
2) The MOCpages database needs to be optimized for high-traffic. I’d like to
ask for help from the general community for this... are there any database folks
out there that wouldn’t mind helping me out a bit? Perhaps just some advice
would be in order.
Thanks,
Sean
- - -
MOCpages Administrator
sean@mocpages.com
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Message has 7 Replies:
 | | Re: MOCpages is back online
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| (...) Sniped (...) I can't help with programing, but I think a fund raiser is a good idea. I'll keep an eye out for an anouncement with paypal address. Mat (19 years ago, 1-Aug-05, to lugnet.publish, FTX)
| | | Re: MOCpages is back online
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| (...) Sean is northstar a option? Many AFOL sites are hosted there(bricklink and many many more)..As for a fundraiser it sounds good to me..your site has been a fav. of mine for a long while.On the lighter side I was at my bricklink about me" (...) (19 years ago, 1-Aug-05, to lugnet.publish, FTX)
| | | Re: MOCpages is back online
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| Hey Sean, Welcome back and also congratulations on your recent marriage. It's great that MOCpages will be back up and running. As Mat said, I can't help with programming but I'm sure that many AFOLs like myself would be happy to chip in some money (...) (19 years ago, 1-Aug-05, to lugnet.publish, FTX)
| | | Re: MOCpages is back online
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| (...) Thanks for the update, and for getting things squared away again. (...) I find the review / rating feature to be the best thing about mocpages, please make it a last ditch cut. Is it possible to cut out accounts that have not been accessed (...) (19 years ago, 2-Aug-05, to lugnet.publish, FTX)
| | | Re: MOCpages is back online
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| Hello! Nice to hear that Mocpages made it back online. Thanks for all your efforts! (...) While I can't help you with any technical problems and just might donate something when it comes to fundraising I have a little request: Maybe it wasn't too (...) (19 years ago, 3-Aug-05, to lugnet.publish, FTX)
| | | Re: MOCpages is back online
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| Great to see that it is back on-line. When I bought a digital camera in May I looked forward to putting some of my MOCs on MOCpages, since it is very easy to add a little info on the MOC. One of the nice things is also the quick feedback from other (...) (19 years ago, 4-Aug-05, to lugnet.publish, FTX)
| | | Re: MOCpages is back online
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| (...) Mr. Kenney, Welcome back! MOCpages is without a doubt the best place on the net for reviewing MOCs and posting and reading commentary on the same. The format and flexibility of the site are unlike anything else I have encountered. I urge you (...) (19 years ago, 5-Aug-05, to lugnet.publish, FTX)
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