a broken site
As many have you have noticed, the website here at megatokyo.com hasn’t been very stable. Last week we had a hard drive fail which took the entire site down for several days mainly because the server itself has been having issues that are more than just errors on a hard drive. Right now i am working with a VERY jury rigged system that frankly does not work very well. The individual who created and maintains this will be unavailable this week, so those who can help me with things are working with me to make it work until his return.
Basically, what you are supposed to see is a cached version of Megatokyo that is created on Makoto and copied over to Mishio for all of you to see. Getting that caching to work is hard enough, but the real problem is that the caching is producing an error which is not copying the files properly, leaving the entire archive of Megatokyo comics inaccessible.
In trying to post the comic this morning, things just seemed to get worse and worse. No matter what we tried or how long we waited, we were not able to get the cache to refresh. We decided to try moving the www back to Makoto and hoping she can handle the load. I’m really not sure what else can be done to make the comic availible at this point. If this fails, then i will look into more etreme measures, like hosting a bare bones version of Megatokyo somewhere else and redirecting things until this issue is fixed.
Obviously, this kind of thing is unacceptable, and i apologize to my readers for the delays this is causing. I will be taking steps in the next few weeks to see what can be done to eliminate these issues once and for all.
August 14th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Hey, do another four piece art auction and you’ve got another cool $10,000. That’d cover three new Quad Xeon XServes, right? Problem solved!
Nah, I’m just teasing, throwing money at the problem can help, but not always. Doesn’t it always figure that the worst happens when Ukyo’s on vacation? Bummer. Hope you get things worked out. Good luck!
August 14th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Hey dude, Its not your fault. we all have computer problems sometimes.I’m sure a lot of us are ok with it, as long as you get it up and running sometime soon.
August 14th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Hey man don’t worry its ok you just had a roof week and josh is right we all have computer problems sometimes
August 14th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
See, this is why when running a big site/company like megatokyo or penny-arcad they should let you have the server at your office…so when you have problems you don’t have to wait on anyone…thats kinda crapy I think. They should have that thing up like that, your paying for it! But its cool Fred, we all understand…things happen, its just part of the computer life. If anything, your forced to relax…hahaha… What? You deserve it!
August 14th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Oh, and if you are not able to fix it (but I just seen that the whole mt site was down now, so you must be doing something) then just take the rest of the week off…its not going to kill you lol and just work on getting the new mt version site up when the servers are fixed. I think we would ALL like to see that alot.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
fred - pls ignore if this is too much back seat driving, but i’ve wondered for a while why you don’t split the site up based on load?
I’m guessing that most of your traffic is to the current comic, with fewer requests for the archive.
Have you considered putting just the current comic on one machine, and then the archives/forums on another?
the php rewrite should be trivial, and a rewrite rule on the ‘current’ server to send traffic for old comics to the ‘archive’ server should take care of anyone’s old bookmarks/links, etc.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
I wont say more than this - i’ve been trying to get something similar to this done for over a year. I rely on others to maintain and program the site, most of whom work hard to keep things going. I am very frustrated with one element of this support network right now, and what you are seeing now is a result of this person not doing what i’ve been asking to be done for over a year.
I’m not big on dissing people in public, so that’s all i’ll say, and i am hopeful that the situation will soon be fixed once and for all.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
It’s good to know that you’re on top of it Fred!
August 14th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
This is what I like about having a webcomic that barely anyone reads… no one cares if my servers go down.
But I guess this is what happens when we name any machine after Makoto. The machine I have named after her seems to be troublesome all the time. I’ve had to completely reformat her at least 2 times in the past month.
August 14th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
How about one more supporting comment?
Don’t worry if you can’t get it back up in time, you’ve always done alot for the fans of MT, and I’m sure most of them will be patient. You do alot, so don’t overexert yourself. Goodluck with the errors!
August 14th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
yeah man, we will still be here when you get back. were fans, what else do we live for eh?
heres what i do, just nurse the dang thing back to health, pat its head and smack its bum for being naughty.
or maybe that was the method for the yetti outback. hmm,
good luck anyway,
August 14th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
I was feeling guilty that I snarfed every single megatokyo and stored it locally.
Now a certain quote by Linus Torvalds is running through my head:
“Real men don’t do backups, they just put their work on an FTP site and let the world mirror it. ” -Linus Torvalds
–
BMO
August 14th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
Actually, more readers need to be encouraged to snap their own copies of megatokyo archives rather than constantly haranguing the server for strips. It’d certainly reduce the load.
Sounds like Fred is in that transition from a “happy hobby to an actual business” limbo wherein volunteer pals have all the best intentions in the world but … but things can get tense because now its your income at stake.
Obviously I don’t know the details of your agreements with your friends of the dark arts, but I wish you luck and don’t overstress friendships if that is indeed pertinent to the situation.
People usually aren’t formal enough when defining business relationships with friends.
August 15th, 2006 at 7:30 am
I just wanted to say thanks for letting us know what’s going on
August 16th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Making impossible promises is something i myself enjoy doing but eh. I hope you get things figured out soon and i hope the technical difficlties you seem to be experiencing just go the hell away and die quietly cant wait for Megatokyo to be back. Anyway we understand dont wory about it and good luck when life is screwing you luck is all you have.