... the SWG poised to tumble into the Great Internet Rubbish Bin and disappear without a sound.
Seriously, this afternoon delivered the biggest SWG-related fright I've had since the site went live some years ago. Even more than the time that I deleted all of the challenges by accident (and Rhapsody--may the muses smile upon her!--had to restore them for me). Murphy likes to mess with my life, which is neither unique to me nor news to anyone here. I came home from work this afternoon, sat with Bobby for a few minutes, and then checked my email for the first time because of my rather odd day at work (the subject of another post). The first subject heading to grab my attention:
WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT EXPIRED for: SILMARILLIONWRITERSGUILD.ORG
Eek, much?? :^S
Back in September, I got an email that the SWG account would expire in one month. I had the option to renew it then or wait for it to auto-renew in October. Bobby and I talked about it, and we decided that since we were getting ready to travel overseas, it would be wiser to wait until October.
So in the flurry of trip preparations and schoolwork and keeping caught up at work, I gladly forgot about it and trusted it to "auto-renew."
What I had forgotten was that the domain was registered two years ago, and the credit card that was used has since expired, so when the auto-renew was attempted, it failed, and the site was shut down.
I was sent an email informing me that the host had done me the favor of keeping our data ... for 24 hours. Then it would be gone.
Normally, this would not be so much of a problem. I was sent the email at 5 am; I usually sneak a look at the website by 10 am at the latest and could have taken care of it before most of our American members, at least, would even know the site was down. Of course, Murphy being what he is, yesterday was the day that I had been asked to help with scenarios at work, so while I normally could have been renewing the site, I was waving an assault rifle at my coworker and calling him obscenities. The scenarios ran all day, so by the time I got the email (as well as numerous emails from SWG members and one email from a manager at our host, who had apparently been trying to frantically call me all day to find out what was wrong) the SWG had only twelve hours left before annihilation!
Perhaps it seems melodramatic to look back on that with a touch of terror, but this is a site that I and countless others have put hours of work into over the course of the last three years, so even the thought of the site going into the Great Internet Rubbish Bin sends my heart racing.
The good news is that I renewed the site immediately upon getting the message, and we were up and running again in minutes. A close call ... too close!
The other good news is that, even if the site had gone kaput, I keep all of the files carefully backed up and Rhapsody, who has been acting as webmaster on the archive for some months now, does wonderfully for backing up the database, so we could have restored the site to its original splendor ... but neither of us really has the time right now for that kind of effort.
In all, it was a lesson learned in not trusting auto-renew when the fate of my biggest web project is at stake!
Seriously, this afternoon delivered the biggest SWG-related fright I've had since the site went live some years ago. Even more than the time that I deleted all of the challenges by accident (and Rhapsody--may the muses smile upon her!--had to restore them for me). Murphy likes to mess with my life, which is neither unique to me nor news to anyone here. I came home from work this afternoon, sat with Bobby for a few minutes, and then checked my email for the first time because of my rather odd day at work (the subject of another post). The first subject heading to grab my attention:
WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT EXPIRED for: SILMARILLIONWRITERSGUILD.ORG
Eek, much?? :^S
Back in September, I got an email that the SWG account would expire in one month. I had the option to renew it then or wait for it to auto-renew in October. Bobby and I talked about it, and we decided that since we were getting ready to travel overseas, it would be wiser to wait until October.
So in the flurry of trip preparations and schoolwork and keeping caught up at work, I gladly forgot about it and trusted it to "auto-renew."
What I had forgotten was that the domain was registered two years ago, and the credit card that was used has since expired, so when the auto-renew was attempted, it failed, and the site was shut down.
I was sent an email informing me that the host had done me the favor of keeping our data ... for 24 hours. Then it would be gone.
Normally, this would not be so much of a problem. I was sent the email at 5 am; I usually sneak a look at the website by 10 am at the latest and could have taken care of it before most of our American members, at least, would even know the site was down. Of course, Murphy being what he is, yesterday was the day that I had been asked to help with scenarios at work, so while I normally could have been renewing the site, I was waving an assault rifle at my coworker and calling him obscenities. The scenarios ran all day, so by the time I got the email (as well as numerous emails from SWG members and one email from a manager at our host, who had apparently been trying to frantically call me all day to find out what was wrong) the SWG had only twelve hours left before annihilation!
Perhaps it seems melodramatic to look back on that with a touch of terror, but this is a site that I and countless others have put hours of work into over the course of the last three years, so even the thought of the site going into the Great Internet Rubbish Bin sends my heart racing.
The good news is that I renewed the site immediately upon getting the message, and we were up and running again in minutes. A close call ... too close!
The other good news is that, even if the site had gone kaput, I keep all of the files carefully backed up and Rhapsody, who has been acting as webmaster on the archive for some months now, does wonderfully for backing up the database, so we could have restored the site to its original splendor ... but neither of us really has the time right now for that kind of effort.
In all, it was a lesson learned in not trusting auto-renew when the fate of my biggest web project is at stake!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 02:31 pm (UTC)Too scary for words. As you know, it’s not just your baby, but a lot of us who consider it our "home." (No pressure!)
When I heard what happened, it reminded me a bit of a personal experience I had years ago. Was in Europe for a month (with husband, baby Laura, and little Avari). We arrived home from the San Francisco airport, after a grueling couple of connecting flights at 4:00 a.m. to a dark house and the smell of garbage. We had a house sitter for three of weeks we were gone, but as planned they had left a week prior to our return. Apparently, our check paying our electric bill (which was already late when I mailed it, not due to any lack of funds, but my own lackadaisical slovenly habits) had been lost in the mail. A large refrigerator and freezer stuffed to the gills, as I was cooking two large meals and packing lunches for each of us every day at the time, was filled with rotting food. We had to sleep in a stinking, freezing house the remainder of that night. And I had to take a couple of days off work to sort it all out.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 03:00 pm (UTC)I had a similar "auto-payment" debacle with the EZPass people. Same situation: a credit card expired and a new one was sent, and I didn't think to update the expiration date on my EZPass account. So when my account went to renew, it didn't.
Only, unlike BlueHost and LiveJournal (who both have seen fit to notify me when payment bounces), EZPass didn't say a thing about it. So I kept driving through tolls without paying and found myself saddled with a couple of $20 toll evasion fines. Ouch. I had to fight tooth and nail to get them to waive the fees for their own oversight! (In fact, I remember ranting to a nasty customer service representative on the phone and pointing out that even LiveJournal lets their customers know when payment fails so that they may go about it using other means! Evoking fannish life to solve RL problems is always fun! :^P)
I know that the SWG is home to a lot of people. It's hardly just "my baby" anymore: It was my idea a few years ago, but the direction has been guided by the members, and I'm not even fully responsible for important matters (like webmastering!) anymore. After the panic passed about yesterday's incident, I did feel kind of heartened that so many people noticed so quickly that the site was down. It would have been much worse to have the site go away and, a week later, maybe get an inquiry: "Wasn't there a website here once upon a time?" :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 03:04 pm (UTC)Believe me, there was no danger of that. I even got an email from a stranger telling me she had tried to access "Maitimo and Findekano," because someone had given her a link, and it wasn't opening. And I already knew by that point anyway.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 03:26 pm (UTC)Was it fun at least? The obscenities, I mean. And much though I hate guns, I think some coworkers/bosses/relatives deserve to have an assault rifle waved at them sometime. It's a good chance to play makebelieve and then go back to being a nice well-behaved girl.
A friend of mine had to leave his car at a police block where he had been randomly stopped (first time ever, Murphy fully operative) because his insurance was due and the policeman did not believe him that it had auto-renewed. Actually it hadn't and he had been driving uninsured for a few days!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 02:41 pm (UTC)I loathe guns as well. Swords are so much more badass. ;) And guns--and most modern weapons--allow violence without aggression, which is a scary thing, imho.
Your poor friend! That is definitely Murphy at work! Murphy seems to be pretty busy; I wonder if that guy even sleeps! ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 06:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 02:44 pm (UTC)The good news about SWG is that, between Rhapsody and me, we are truly OCD about backups! ;) I learned that lesson when LotRFanFic lost six months of data (including my account with them!) after a problem with their database.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 05:32 pm (UTC)Thank you for all that you do to keep SWG up and running.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-07 01:49 am (UTC)On hacking ... HASA went offline for about a week as well because of a hacker, shortly after the SoA incident (but not related). Before that, I had been tinkering with the notion of learning more PHP/MySQL to write my own little programs ... well, after that, I gave up that idea. I don't know about SoA, but Anglachel who runs HASA is a professional programmer, and if she let a security hole slip past, I can imagine what some half-assed web developer like me could bring down on our heads! ;)
That's a shame about your dad's experience. I absolutely cannot complain about Bluehost (SWG's host) in terms of customer service. They're great at keeping me up to date on what I need to do and when and always quick to solve problems. I know that's not true of a lot of hosts out there. :^/
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 08:44 pm (UTC)Perhaps it seems melodramatic to look back on that with a touch of terror, but this is a site that I and countless others have put hours of work into over the course of the last three years, so even the thought of the site going into the Great Internet Rubbish Bin sends my heart racing.
I really can imagine that, it feels a bit like our baby and you spent so much hours of labour of love on it while we just keep on making it even more better! You know I really am impressed by Blue Host and wanting you to contact you so much, the past week I have been driven mad by our isp who I'd love to see such a level of customer service and I know for sure that the current host of my site (Dreamhost) would never ever take that extra step. *big hug*
Oh and I'd love to have seen you in those scenario's hehehe.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 02:51 pm (UTC)I have been immensely impressed with BlueHost through two years now of having them as our host. They're always relatively quick to deal with problems and really do offer an astonishing array of features for rock-bottom prices. This last incident has really solidified for me that I hope to be their customer for some time yet, so long as they keep doing what they're doing.
They're a huge host too--probably not as big as Dreamhost but definitely one of the larger--so their level of service impresses me even more.
Of course, we are good customers: Aside from the SWG domain, I have four other domains registered with them and two active sites aside from SWG! I can see why the alarm bells went off when our account expired.
I just wrote about the scenarios in my journal. It was silly and fun, though my knees are sore from being "arrested" so many times! :^D
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 08:31 pm (UTC)Of course, we are good customers: Aside from the SWG domain, I have four other domains registered with them and two active sites aside from SWG!
I am so sad to say that such a thing will not matter for Dreamhost, we had most of our stuff there, but after one bad experience after another, we started to move our sites to other hosts, Scribes of Eriador is the only one left there I think. Our site will be offline for a few days because we are just settling in (but our planning looks good), but I should get it up soon (we have a combination of e-fiction with wordpress), like in two hours or so (when that day comes).
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-07 01:44 am (UTC)That's a shame about Dreamhost. Over here, anyway, that is a hallmark of big companies: Once they reach a certain size, they simply stop caring. I suppose they know, at that point, that they can continue to do business because of the name alone. I mean, Dreamhost is the first host that web newbies usually hear about. It's familiar, if nothing else.
I really need to email Bluehost to thank them for their attention to the matter and to assure them that, as long as their customer service stays on par with what I have come to expect from them, then they can count on my continued support as a customer, even if I can get better rates elsewhere. (And, really, I feel like I'm stealing our webspace as it is! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-04 01:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 02:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 03:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 03:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-04 12:00 pm (UTC)But I'm *so* glad the worst could be avoided. And what do we learn from this tale? Always have a backup ready:) At least then the content won't be lost, even if you still have all the hassle.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-05 02:53 pm (UTC)I'm glad disaster could be averted. We would have lost very little because we had recent backups of everything, but Rhapsody's moving house and I'm swamped with schoolwork, so neither of us really has the time to restore the site, especially for so silly a reason as an incorrect expiration date!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-07 01:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-07 01:21 am (UTC)