- Posted
- Dec 4th 2009
- Mood
So, what's up FA??
Looks like the site should be returning Monday night...though that could mean it actually being accessible via the domain sometime after Wednesday, since DNS updates can take up to 48 hours. (Though it is usually done within 24.)
Now while that is good news to all of us addicted to FA... (Which luckily, my addicition has been qualled by creating another site like FA) I still have to reiterate that this downtime could have been avoided by using redundant servers. (Of course FA won't since they want to be able to access the servers whenever they want--as in, walk up to the machine that has all that art on it.)
My site does use redundant servers and I only have to update it once, in a single control Panel. Thanks to our hosting company. So TNSC will remain online, active, and STABLE for anyone who wants to check out an alternate site. Sure, we run things a little differently, but everyone has their own style of getting things done. Some just work better than others. (FA is good on traffic, just not on stability.)
So if you wanna check out an alternative site, have a backup site for when FA does go down (more on this below), or are tired of FA's instabilities, feel free to join us on TNSC at http://tnsc.ath.cx
Now I had a good laugh when one of FA's staff posted (and I quote):
"I sincerely apologize for the outage, the inconvenience and frustration this has caused. This is not how we want FA to be known, and we've been striving to improve everything, and we'll be doing just that in the coming months."
"This is not how we want FA to be known.." ??
Sorry guys. I'm a loyal FA user of over 5 YEARS.
Every year that I've been a user, FA has had at least ONE major outage...knocking the site offline for at least 3-5 days.
I remember the year that FA crashed for over 2 months, and when it returned...the site was like brand new.
No art was saved, no accounts were saved...we all had to START OVER!!
Like the big outage (which would count as outage #2 this year) was last August, and thats when the FA staff asked for thousands of dollars in donations.
Where did all the money go?? Considering I could find all the hardware they specified for under $5,000 (they asked for at least $10k)
Several users and artists at that time decided FA was no longer worth the "hassle" and just vanished off the face of the planet.
Back then, TNSC was still very young and still getting estabolished as a new "Open for all" community site. I was a little shy to speak up about it.
This time, I have to agree that these issues will eventually cost a lot more than just "a few" users.
Hell there have been staffing issues on FA because so many differing points of view.
So, why is FA go great??
It's the domain.
www.furaffinity.net -- It just screams furry community. It's why furries seem to flock to this wonderful, yet extremely unstable website.
FA's unstability has been noted on Wikifur and Wikipedia, and has even led to furries creating "competing" sites (which generally fail before launch, or are even less stable than FA)
TNSC is a true to the core site. Since we don't only target furries, but _everyone_ theres no exclusions, noones left out, and thanks to our new host, we are more stable.
But, seriously, it's a little too late to say you don't want your website to be known to be unstable. Because anyone who's been a faithful user (like me), and keeps coming back, (not because you are "better", but because its where we can find more furries like us, and find great artwork) would quickly realize how unstable the site is.
An average of one major outage a year, with a track record of smaller outages almost every week. It's a reputation you don't even have to work to get, but a reputation you cannot ever get rid of once its known.
So shit, we may be using webspace we don't even have to pay for (and we don't pay for it) that uses datacenters around the world (with copies of our site in all of them, just in case) that we don't pay for. You can see why TNSC runs everything a little differently, we did it using the FREE route. That means we never NEED donations from our users. Yet, we are still able to offer ALL the SAME services that FA does. We also had no problems finding places that will host adult stuff that won't charge us a dime. So, it may not be the prettiest of setups (the ads, big whoop...stup AdBlock and they are gone too), but it WORKS, and it's more stable!! (Thought the website itself actually looks really good, considering the ads. Once we use up the one server, we can move onto another one with less ads, or even a private one with no ads!!)
Sure, when FA returns..I will be back there as well. Because FA is a good site to find furry art. And really awsome furry peeps!!
But I will rely more on the fact that TNSC will always have my stuff. So when FA goes down again, I won't be out in the dark.
But I digress...and the FA staff may wanna slap me, but however unstable FA is:
It is a site I will continue to keep an eye on, only because even with the unstability, they are good at getting new furries online and showing off.
That alone will keep me checking them out, even if I don't trust the site to remain stable and online.
The track record alone is enough for me not to.
So FA, we will see you on Monday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or whenever you get back online)
And good luck with the new colo.
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On another note:
Ask Drako is taking his End of Season break for the holidays. While TNSC Radio will be playing holiday music.
Ask Drako will be back January 2.
Go ahead and keep asking him questions at http://askdrako.dnsalias.org
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TNSC Art Contest
This month's theme is:
Halos - Submit anything with characters with Halos. (Angels included.)
Submission Deadline: January 1, 2010
Voting Deadline: January 10, 2010
You can still vote on Last Month's Entries until December 10th, then we will announce a winner.
There is one entry from last month on FA, and if FA cannot get back online by the 10th, the entry will be automatically disqualified.
(Sorry, can't access an entry on a site that seems to "not exist" at this time.)
You can submit and vote at http://tnsc.ath.cx
