alert
As you may know, this site is currently running on a pay-by-the-minute plan directly into Jeff Bezos' bank account. Since it looks like people want to stick around for more than a couple weeks, I've got us a regular old yearly hosting account instead, and will be making the big switch tomorrow (ish, depending on when you're reading this). Here are some details:
1) Most important: I'll be taking a database backup at 11:59pm GMT on May 24th, and will attempt to transfer everything on this site as of that time over to our new place. I'll probably lock the board at that time to prevent a bunch of lost-post tragedies, but regardless here is my disclaimer that anything posted after that time will probably end up in the abyss.
2) The domain (lotrfanaticsplaza.com) won't change, just a bunch of stuff under the hood, so you'll know it worked once the site is unlocked and you can log in and post and cool stuff like that.
3) If all goes well the site files & data should only take a couple hours to move over, but it might take a while longer to get the domain pointing to the right place and security certificates set up and all that. I'll update the Discord (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=52) if things get super delayed (beyond, say, half a day).
4) If it doesn't work for whatever reason, I'll abort and we'll keep going with the current setup until I actually learn how to run a website or until somebody else who does takes over.
5) If somehow neither of those work and I blow up the database and break my computer then I will be very very very very sorry. I'm pretty sure that won't happen though. But I would say that, wouldn't I?
6) If it does work, then we'll see how things go on the new host. The old plaza had a massive database and ran on a much heavier duty server plan than what we're gonna have - if performance really sucks let me know about it, and I can bump us up to a better plan.
7) Speaking of which - once we get in a steady state where things are working and I know the actual costs, then it'll probably be time to talk about fundraising for this venture, as several of you have kindly offered -- but don't sweat it just yet.
Thanks all and I hope you've been having a good time so far on this ridiculous thing we have somehow collectively created
. If you ever need my cash to keep the lights on, I'm ready to support if we ever get to fundraising.
