Details on Upcoming Site Downtime

I mentioned last week that we would be switching servers to better keep up with site traffic. I am going to begin that transition tomorrow afternoon (Friday Sept. 29th). I'm not sure of the exact time that the site will be taken down, it may be as early as 6PM or as late as midnight.

The site switch is going to require us moving to a new VPS host, and is going to require a DNS switch. Likewise the old site will have to be taken down and moved over to the new site, so the site will be unavailable for a period of time during which I move over the data and the DNS propagates. In other words, the site will be down Friday evening for a few hours.

The new site should provide us with a lot of room to grow, and should get rid of the 'CPU Quota' errors that currently occur whenever the site has 50+ people hitting the site concurrently. Likewise this switch should prevent the site from going down during periods in which our traffic greatly increases (like it did on the 5th anniversary). The switch to the new site may be somewhat bumpy, but I have done what I can to ensure that the downtime is as minimal as possible. I would really appreciate it if everyone could be patient with us during the transition this weekend.

Once the new site is up and running I will be getting back to some of the other pressing issues on the site, specifically the need for user based content moderation and promotion.

On a side note, we are going to be running a new bunch of ads once the site is back up. If you have any suggestions for what sites to run ads on, or what the focus of the ads should be feel free to post them.

dz, if you post the new

dz, if you post the new site's IP address, some of us will be able to get in before our own ISPs get the DNS change

"you are correct sir! wra

"you are correct sir! wra wra wra.." - Ed McMahon

Once i get everything moved over I'll update the old site with a link to the IP, but there will be some downtime in the middle when i have to backup/download the database and upload/restore it..

thanks for the suggestion, i have actually been working on the site via the IP for the last week or two, so that will work out fine..

actually now that you point

actually now that you point that out i'll just put up a redirect page that reroutes users to the new site.. thanks again for the suggestion!

DNS TTL value

Another thing that can be helpful is to reduce your domain's TTL values (last number in the DNS SOA record, labeled "Minimum", unless you use per-record TTLs) well in advance of the change... this will prevent other ISPs' DNS servers from caching the stale data for so long following the subsequent IP change. The default is often many hours, up to a full day... maybe change that to 300 seconds / 5 minutes.

would you mind emailing me

would you mind emailing me directly? just click on 'contact us' and 'dz' up in the top left.

thanks!

Johnny Was...

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"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this."

Bring back Shout Box and Blog reply box

pretty please

what are you referring to by

what are you referring to by 'blog reply box'?

the shout box was removed because of the overhead.. i suppose it would work fine on the new site, but i dont know where the best place to put it would be.. we want the site listing to be as close to the top as we can..

shout box!

I want it too! Also it would be really good if there was a way for site users to contact one another. By the way you rule, dz. Thanks a million for the best site on the internet.

ill look into bringing the

ill look into bringing the shout box back..

as for users contacting users.. i think that is facilitated through email, but i will take a gander into it..

thanks for the compliment, they are very much appreciated.

Re: Users contacting users

Am I missing how to display my email, ideally to registered users only?

Berger interview is available...

i seen the 911blogger site

i seen the 911blogger site different 3 styles over time and this site is better technically to organise the blogs but the left had side of the site is black and red and makes it so hard to read , hard on my eyes. which my opinion makes it a mess. i end up ignoring it. the grey background is so much easier to read. why cant you keep it like that.

the only thing on the left

the only thing on the left hand panel that should be in red is the breaking new section.. perhaps you can send us in a screenshot of how the site looks on your end? also, what browser are you using?

as for going back to the old layout, if you login you can choose the old theme if that is what you prefer.

im using latest firefox

im using latest firefox everything works fine. blue/red on a black bg is not friendly to the eyes when you want to seek knowledge. thats why i like the grey its so easy on the eyes it easier to focus on the content. i didnt know i could change if i login. congratulations on the organisation and layout. its just the black bg i disagree with for users. i am actually a web designer. i notice theres so many professional templates that work out the box with pleasant color schemes. i dont think im being too critical. the grey background is a winner like you had before ain times past. regards

I disagree with that,

I disagree with that, personally I like the new look the best, very cool.

Dz, and ad on C&L dude, it's

Dz, an ad on C&L dude, it's time to show those B-Stards what’s up lol!

that would be almost poetic.

that would be almost poetic. especially if the ad was explicit about 9/11 being an inside job. i bet C&L would refuse to take it.

LOL Can you imagine it dude,

LOL Can you imagine it dude, I think even a subtle one would be like poetry, and you never know it might even make them reconsider their fascistic mainstream appeasing policy.... I won’t hold my breath for that though, scumbags.

we would definately have to

we would definately have to go the passive route of advertising something like 9/11 mysteries or 9/11 press for truth.. even then they might deny it..

which brings up the bigger issue, is it right to provide income to those who supress 9/11 skeptics, or is that exactly who we should advertise with so that we can break through their typical refusal to allow discussion of the subject?

that's a negative..

is it right to provide income to those who supress 9/11 skeptics?

i don't think so. one of my favorite expressions is 'vote with your dollars'. if someone is supressing a POV while 'supporting' it via ads, then don't 'em any cash. vote with your dollars.

well, that is one of the

well, that is one of the reasons why brad blog will always get our ads first from now on.. they are the only big blog out there with the guts to cover the stuff..

rawstory could definately do better, but at least they do cover things from time to time..

i think i lean more towards your opinion to be honest.. but, there is something to be said if we could run an ad on daily kos for example.. they get blacked out from the info, and we have to find alternate routes in, and ads are one way..

honestly, if i was in your

honestly, if i was in your position, i wouldnt be able to stomach giving money to C&L based on my past experience there. if you can get the same bang for your buck somewhere else that at least doesnt censor ALL 9/11 comments i would do that. FYI, CNN is covering the new Zawahiri tape right now. should be a load of crap.