Ryan, a couple questions from a relatively net-ignorant one:

> Is it specifically HT that is eating up resources, or a combination of all your websites? Is there one site that might be drawing more resources, causing access issues for all the others?

> Are we using up too much with the (incredible) photos posted in the photo threads? I noticed that, after the past couple days of "server errors," there's a whole slew of new photos up. If so, can we find a more efficient way to post those?

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"Jaws 3 was where the series really jumped the Fonz."

HawaiiThreads is absolutely, positively the main resource hog on my VPS. Any message board would be, but since I'm stubborn about certain things (for example, leaving all archives available and searchable back to the very beginning), HawaiiThreads is harder than most on its hardware.

Are photos a big part of it? Not really. Though during the mess yesterday, I went ahead and changed how images are stored. Previously, attachments, avatars, and other images uploaded to HawaiiThreads were kept inside the database, right alongside posts. This made it easier to backup and have everything in one place if I needed it. But, it required more resources. So, these images (and some other elements) are now simply sitting as regular files on the webserver.

Looking back at the logs from yesterday, it seems like something bigger was going on than just a lot of sudden and random interest in my websites. It could have been an over-aggressive search engine web crawler (see above note about archives), some kind of automated attack, or just a random process that leaked, grew, and seized everything up. Because the system looks pretty normal, but with giant mountain spikes throughout the day on Thursday.

What can you do to help? Offers of donations are nice, but apart from a straight advertising or sponsorship deal, I'd rather not go down that path. Just be patient, and send friendly notes of concern if you think I might not be aware of an outage. I understand being disappointed -- I am, too! -- but for the most part if the server is busy or dead, I'm doing what I can to fix it and will have things back as soon as I can. I'm not torturing y'all on purpose, I promise.

Ryan, did you really, I mean...REALLY...get UNfriendly notes of concern? Really? If so, sounds like someone (or two or three) needs to get a life. With all of the interesting reading available on the web it boggles my mind that someone (or two or three) would become upset when an online forum gets glitchy for part of one day. It's also a perfect time to clean the toilet, the oven and the windows!

Thanks for the clear answers, mon, and I hope my inquiries weren't considered to be unfriendly ones.

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"Jaws 3 was where the series really jumped the Fonz."

A bit of back up for you from across the puddles Ryan. You do a great job and are much appreciated. Because of the hours you are all behind me, I tend to get on here when you are all in bed. In a way, it's not a bad thing 'cause I have a chance to read everything at my leisure.
Well done Ryan and keep up the great work.

The current inabilities to access is obviously wounding this forum. Not much input at all. Hope something fixable is quickly introduced.

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If you're in, or coming to Oahu, this should interest you - www.hwnsge.5u.com
Support the troops, with whatever you got - www.usatogether.org

I don't know how many times I can say I'm doing the best I can to keep things going. Every time this site, or my server, has issues, I chase down a dozen dials and knobs to figure out what's happening and how to get it working again. Today, it was a bot, a web crawler that was so aggressive in slurping down the pages of my personal website (which has collected about 10 years of my life in words and pictuers) that it was essentially a denial-of-service attack. I blocked the IP, and things are getting back to normal.

If you find the unreliability of HawaiiThreads.com to be too much to remain an active participate, I understand, and I'm sorry to see you go. For everyone else, thanks, again, for your patience.

Sorry to disappoint, but I'll stick around.

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If you're in, or coming to Oahu, this should interest you - www.hwnsge.5u.com
Support the troops, with whatever you got - www.usatogether.org

PZ - once again, thank you for all the time you spend taking care of HT when you could be spending it with your family. I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates the privilege of being able to participate here - with all the good, the bad & the ugly things that sometimes happen. Keep up the good work for us and you have my total support in whatever actions you need to take to keep things running smooth!

Keep on Truckin'..........................

Yeah, I noticed that it was unavailable for a chunk of time today, but I finally figured out that my contacting you wouldn't help - that when it gets that bad, you're already working on it.

See? I can be trained.

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"Jaws 3 was where the series really jumped the Fonz."

IIRC, every time any one of us gets the error message that indicates HT's server is down, Ryan receives an email. Poor Ryan!

HT offers a FREE website for us, without ads popping up all over the screen. We really have no right to complain when the service has occasional problems. I might be disappointed when I cannot connect to HT, but for sure I'm not "mad" at the HT admin. I'm actually very appreciative of all the work that goes into keeping HT up and running. So, here is my "thanks"!!

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Eh, Russell you get pen?

Yes, I agree - thanks and appreciation for the work involved!

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Quote:

Speak to the heart and the man becomes instantly virtuous. Emerson

If anyone feels that way, Ryan, the rest of us will be glad to see them go.
HT is not THAT unreliable, and most of us understand: "It ain't YOUR fault!"
I wish I had a business I could advertize, to help the financial end....
I understand that personal contributions have a political 'twist,' an most would be no help anyway, but....

There's lots of us that can make 'anonymous contributions' or something.
Make sure we have your mailing address....

We wouldn't trade you for.... anyone!

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And my thanks, as well!

As some of the others have mentioned, perhaps you could implement a vehicle for us to make voluntary contributions to support HT... perhaps using PayPal or something similar?

If not, Kaonohi's suggestion of "anonymous contributions" could work:
*contributions in small, unmarked bills can be sent to P.O. Box #...*

My own contribution would be quite modest, but hey... the Obama model certainly shows that grass roots support can grow into something substantial!

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To be, or musubi... What was da question?

I don't mind voluntarily contributing to other sites that I use, for their upkeep. And when I get so much enjoyment from this Ohana, and the Admin works so hard to keep on top of things, shoots, .... a no-brainer...

Set a Paypal up for the contributions, as long as our Uncle Sam can stay out of it, eh? I'm on board. If it's anonymous, then no one feels pressured. This site, and our Admin, is awesome and worth it.

Your generosity is humbling and greatly appreciated. If you want to buy an ad on the site, we can talk. Outright donations are just too fuzzy and potentially complicated to track, and frankly, if you wanted to donate, I'd name a dozen great local charities I'd rather see that money go toward!

Really, though, a giant pile of money wouldn't have fixed what went wrong earlier this week, as one example. Whether intentionally or by accident, there are some server loads that no one besides Google or Microsoft can easily bear. If someone wants to shut this forum down, or simultaneously try to index 15,000 pages of text and photos at once, we're toast.

To get to the level of service reliability to withstand all but a nuclear attack would be beyond almost any online community's fundraising ability. And as I noted, as I've tweaked and adjusted, the machine that hosts HawaiiThreads.com and my other sites is usually allocated three times what it normally sees on an average day. 95 percent of the time, it should be humming along beautifully.

We won't ever hit "five nines," but I'd settle for 99% uptime. We'll get there, I promise.

Woo-hoo! Back in business --- Ryan musta made the bots leggo again!

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"Jaws 3 was where the series really jumped the Fonz."

Another week, another aggressive bot. This one from Russia! Blocking IPs, please stand by.

All I want to say Ryan is you have got the patience of a Saint and you are well appreciated for the work you do for us.

Thanks!

Skynet must be working overtime ...

Gorbachev, Tear down this blocking wall!

Just wanted to share my appreciation for the effort put forth of our friend Ryan.
Thanks Buddy!

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Life is either an adventure... or you're not doing it right!!!