MediaWiki talk:Community Portal

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This is the place for discussion of topics that affect the entire wiki. Some topics that would ordinarily be here have merited their own pages:

The move away from Wikia:

Our policy on having ads in the wiki:

The Bookworm database-crash:

Archives

So what now?

I brought this general line of questioning up over at the Allspark too, but that was really only because TFWiki.net was down at the time. Basically, in the wake of the Bookworm disaster, I'd like to know three things:

  1. How did this happen? All I know is that Bookworm updated the MediaWiki software, which caused... something... to happen to our data. The wiki was, what? Deleted? Corrupted? I don't know. But apparently this required a reversion to a backup, and the only available one was from June 2008. Why did that one even exist? Why not September? And, honestly, the "routine backups" made after September had all failed, with no one ever noticing? How did that happen?
  2. Has the backup process been fixed? This is pretty much the most important question of the moment. Every bit of our herculean recovery effort could vanish again if the June backup is still the only one on the server.
  3. Where are we going from here? Walky has said that he's looking for a new host, and he has asked for advice. I haven't seen much advice appear (maybe people have been communicating with him in private?), but if anyone has any suggestions, please air them. I wouldn't even know where to start, so I'm of little help.

- Jackpot 18:03, 23 March 2009 (EDT)

Bookworm has explained to me what he thinks happened to the backups, but I couldn't begin to regurgitate that information. This stuff is not English for me. (Some would say English is not English for me.) It involves complicated server moves and DNS stuff, I think, and the bottom line is none of the backups were confirmed to have resulted in working backups; they were merely scheduled to be made, automatic-like, and resulted in, from what I understand, data being thrown into the ether, never sticking to anything. WHOOPS --ItsWalky 01:23, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
All right, so does he have it working NOW? - Jackpot 02:02, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
Scout, according to a post on the Allspark, has been doing database downloads every afternoon. I don't know about Bookworm. If I asked him, he'd probably say yes, but he would have said yes before, too! --ItsWalky 09:46, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
Is there any way we can be sure we're getting ANY service out of Bookworm?--Apcog 10:00, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
I really have no concept of what to look for in a host. While I've managed to find decent hosting for my own site in the past, it's a static, relatively low-traffic site, nothing like here. A quick search reveals that there are plenty of hosts offering unlimited space and bandwidth for about $5/month, which sure seems like something we could afford. But I have no intuitive sense of how to identify a quality host for our kind of needs. Like, are these $5 guys the first level of low-grade vendors who have Google-statted their way up the search results, and you have to dig deeper to find the more heavy-duty kind of host we'd need? Are the recommended hosts on that page just there 'cause they paid for it? Or is $5 just the going rate for quality hosting these days? How do we distinguish a reseller from an actual host? How much software and setup support do we need?
I mean, I guess I'd expect a serious host not to have cheap tarts on their front page, but anybody can make a serious, grey-toned, business-like web page... even guys who provide crappy service. -- Repowers 18:36, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
They may say they offer unlimited space or bandwidth, but I'm betting that there's a clause in the T&C which limits it to "for some meanings of unlimited". The big Doctor Who fiction archive site I help run got bumped from the cheaper account it was on to a more expensive one because it was using too many "resources" (the software it runs on is not the most efficient), though it was using less than the maximum bandwidth/disk space. --abates 19:26, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
That's exactly the kind of thing I'm wary of with these cheap places. The front-line search result hosts really don't seem like they're marketing to processor-intensive clients like ourselves. -- Repowers 20:06, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
What is out price limit, anyway? I mean, the account which the aforemented fanfiction site is on is extremely reliable, you get access to everything up to and including rebooting the server if you want. However drawback is that it costs $40 a month. Now it could be we could share costs by having several sites hosted on the same server (I'd have to check with the web host about that), but I don't know what our price range is. --abates 21:34, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

My input:

I used ePerfect as my first webhost. I found them to be reliable and easy to administer, but we would have to negotiate our own package with them, as their standard plans are obviously way too small. (I do know a fellow who did such a negotiation for his website, so I know it was possible at least in the past, however I am not privy to what his costs ended up being.) I also have no idea how their tech support is, as I never had to talk with them for any reason.

My current webhost is Dreamhost. For $10/month you get gobs of space, bandwidth, and options (and full control over your space), and they also have private virtual server options. They also will host one domain name for free if you have webspace with them. I find their tech support people have been quick on the response the few times I've needed to talk to them.

However, they have had some hardware goofs in the past, and I've never had personal experience with how they'd handle a no doubt high-bandwidth, high-CPU-usage site like this one. They are, however, very quick and open with any and all issues they have: Dreamhost Status Blog

So, there you have it, the only two webhosts I'm personally familiar with, and I admit I can't 100% recommend either, but they might be worth looking into. (And I shamelessly request that if you do end up with Dreamhost, you use my referrer code while signing up. :3 ) --Jeysie 18:59, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

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