As many people will probably have some questions about the new server, I figured I'd again post a mini-FAQ answering your questions. Before I do that, however, let me just extend great thanks to everyone who donated for the server move. Without your support, this move would not have been possible.

1. Whoa! That was a bit sudden! Couldn't you have announced the switch beforehand?

I thought of doing that, but over the past year we already announced the switch a few times and then had something popping up that prevented us from completing the move, so I thought it would be better to not promise anything beforehand. Also, I didn't really want to attract too much attention to the fact the server move was going on, in order to not give people who wanted to take advantage of that any ideas.

2. The server ate some of my posts during the move!

No, it didn't. What probably happened is that your post was left on the old server. I transfered all BBS files from the old server at approximately 9:30pm GMT (4:30 EST), and everything was installed around 11:00pm GMT (6pm EST). Shortly thereafter I changed the BBS front page on the old server to point to the new server - unfortunately, all posts made during that time were left on the old server. In retrospect, it would probably have been better to simply close the BBS during that time, but I was originally thinking the transfer process would take a bit less time.

3. Why don't the little "new post" triangles work anymore?

Actually, they should be working now again. The reason they weren't working for some of you over the past 24 hours was that your ISP's DNS server had already been updated, and so you were already visiting the site directly via the domain name. But at the same time, the BBS was still configured to also make the BBS work for those who were visiting the site via the unwieldy IP address, and thus the new post-triangles were only working for those people. I've now reset the settings, so everyone should be able to see the triangles again.

This also means the BBS should be able to remember your password again. However, this doesn't mean you should simply trust the BBS to store your password in a cookie - you should always be able to remember what your own password is.

4. So the donations thing went well, then?

It went reasonably well. As I expected, the total amount donated won't cover all the expenses involved, but it did of course help a great deal, and I am immensely grateful to everyone who donated - it is great to see so many people care about the site.

If you would still like to donate to the site, please read the original announcement about that.

5. Weren't you going to move to new board software as well?

Yes, we were, and still are. But we figured it would be best to first move to the new server, see if everything was working with that, and then start worrying about the new software. I expect us to upgrade to UBBThreads this week.

6. What's going to happen to the old server now?

It's going to be switched off in less than a day, I think. I'm currently transfering the final files from it, and then will say it an emotional goodbye before logging out for the last time. Sniff.

7. I have more to say about the server move!

Please post your comments and questions in this thread in Questions, Suggestions & Feedback.

[This message has been edited by Christian (edited March 24, 2002).]