AHS is temporarily unavailable

[LacusClyne]

Originally Posted by Calico

I think that would be a pretty silly thing to do. (The invitations part) Part of the appeal of this forum is the fact that it's big and has open membership so any fans can register. If we impose a password/invitation then I think we would lose a lot of potential members.

Some things have been done to the server so we'll hopefully see some changes soon.

so what is the possible reason that cause this problem? does anyone care to elaborate(is it really because there are too many members online?), and what solutions did the staff do to make it better.

i'm just curious, as i was quite upset when i can't access AHS. yesterday was very bad.....i can only get in for less then 15 mins.

oh, and like some members before me who had mention this, if you guys need more money to pay for bandwidth or whatever, we, the members are always wiling to donate a little. WE love this forum and we want to do something to help.
Afterall, economy is bad now and i don't really expect the staff to pay for everything.

[PrincessAyu]

I've been experiencing this problem for maybe some weeks now and I once before entered this thread and read that donations are not accepted. Why not? Usually staff on a forum is trying really hard to get members to donate and they don't, here I've seen a lot of people state they're willing to donate and help out and it won't be accepted. Why is that?

And if the staff is not going to accept help/donations from the members, then what actions are the staff currently taking to solve this problem? Cause this thread grows bigger and bigger and there's no news from the staff whatsoever.

[Corybobory]

All the questions you guys just raised I have answered in this thread before!! Go back and read them- it's all in there.

[PINKvanity]

RECAP from other pages:
(Important posts from Staff Members addressing the Issue)
~this is to help others who have the same questions that have already been answered.

Originally Posted by AHS Staff

This is the problem:The AHS server cannot handle the level of traffic we've been getting recently. The staff are looking at different options, but it is going to take some time before anything is resolved.

Originally Posted by Calico

Yeah, I think the main problem stems from the amount of people trying to access the server at once, not the amount of people we have registered. It's esp. bad at this time of year because there's usually a lot of Ayu-action going on, so people want to read/dl about it.

I know the admins are trying their best to get things fixed. We've currently closed posting game forums for now to help alleviate the stress on the servers. I'm not quite sure what else they're up to right now, but I'm sure something will get done...hopefully. =\

EDIT: I just found out that a good portion of the forums has been closed to guest viewing for NOW. This will also help alleviate stress on the server until we can fix it. I've already noticed a change. Hopefully though this won't have to be permanent.

Originally Posted by Corybobory

Raising money has been suggested by people in the past, but it's been discussed and the people paying for the site dont want to take donations (note: I'm not one of them!). This site is going to remain free and donation free, sorry. I know there are plenty of people willing to donate, and the people responsible for the costs know that. Ultimately it's up to them however.

Originally Posted by Corybobory

Like I said, it's really not up to me... I just wanted to say what I know so people in this thread kind of get a response. Maybe an anonymous system would be nice for the people who foot the bill. But again... it's their decision

How would you set up anonymous donations? How do you know their used wisely and not for buying pizza? How do you know their not from minors? It wouldn't be fair to take money from young kids... and if people donate, do they then feel like they have ownership to the site? It's a lot to think about.

Remember, the server problems are quite rare, and we only lose the site for maybe a day. We can all use a break from AHS now and again anyway

Originally Posted by Calico

I think that would be a pretty silly thing to do. (The invitations part) Part of the appeal of this forum is the fact that it's big and has open membership so any fans can register. If we impose a password/invitation then I think we would lose a lot of potential members.

Some things have been done to the server so we'll hopefully see some changes soon.

[emi♡]

^aye, you're great babe

you think up the most useful things. thanks ^^

[njanjayrp]

Well I guess the only thing that can be done is transfer the forums to a new faster server that will be able to handle more requests at once.

[PINKvanity]

Originally Posted by emiko

^aye, you're great babe

you think up the most useful things. thanks ^^

Aww thanks! I figured it would help some people out so they wouldn't have to read through everything.

[Picaflor 7/4]

it's not that hard to make this site faster and crash less.
a. delete about half of the inactive users (if there are any) [leechers, people who haven't logged in in a few months-half a year, people that rarely ever post, etc.]
b. delete about half the site's archives, [I'm sure no one is going to miss having 100+s of threads deleted that haven't been visited since 2002 and waste space at the back of the site. ]

[vampireknightzero]

Hey thanks for the summary, I understand it now.

[f1rz3n_0028]

Something must be done and everyone should take part in helping, I'm sure there's another way other than donating money...

Hope this will be fixed sometime soon!

[polka-dot-jewel]

I think most of us know that AHS has been down a lot because of the traffic that the site's been getting (as a result of Ayu doing the Dragonball theme, and Ayu's been so busy with her new album, single, etc).

I'll say yesterday was real bad, though. I couldn't access the site for more than 5 minutes at a time, and it took me about 15 minutes just to get my thread up =/ Today's been good, though; I haven't had the "temp. unavailable" message yet.

I understand why they won't accept donations, but in the next couple of months, I have a feeling AHS's downtime will increase even more (with NEXT LEVEL coming out at the end of next month, and then Dragonball being officially released around the world in March and April).

[lfe.]

Originally Posted by Corybobory

Like I said, it's really not up to me... I just wanted to say what I know so people in this thread kind of get a response. Maybe an anonymous system would be nice for the people who foot the bill. But again... it's their decision

How would you set up anonymous donations? How do you know their used wisely and not for buying pizza? How do you know their not from minors? It wouldn't be fair to take money from young kids... and if people donate, do they then feel like they have ownership to the site? It's a lot to think about.

Remember, the server problems are quite rare, and we only lose the site for maybe a day. We can all use a break from AHS now and again anyway

Perhaps you can try to pitch the idea of a Paypal donation system since you need a valid bank account or credit card, and you need to be atleast 18 to set one up under your name. Youths can still have a bank account under a parents name, but most parents don't trust their kids enough to set one up before their 18 anyway . You can try to set a maximum to donate or just make a set amount to donate, like $5 or $10. Donations can exceed website maintenance costs, but the number of people willing to donate is always sporadic so leftover money could roll over to the next month. Example, I could make a donation this month but doesn't necessarily mean I can always make a donation in the ensuing months.

As for how our money is used, I think we'd trust site admins enough to know our money isn't being spent elsewhere, that is the whole reason why we'd donate in the first place

As for site ownership, I don't think anyone would ever assume that... but in case they do, they should look up the definition of "donation"

[emi♡]

I don't know if donations of $5 and $10 are going to be enough to upgrade the server though...

and I think AHS is fine with munny atm...

Sometimes I get the feeling that donations are hard to accept because of the fact that they aren't a reliable source of income...I mean...upgrading the server won't be cheap...and who's to say that all the people willing to donate now will be here in the future to donate...in 6 months, or a year, or two years...people leave forums all the time...and i think part of the reason why AHS is such a successful forum, is because of the stability in the moderation and imo not the members (sadly)...who will be stuck paying the bill when the people willing to donate are gone? Does AHS then downgrade because its no longer affordable?

I really do wish that we could donate and that we could pay for a new server...I would love to see some old people come back who left because it was so annoying to be here with all the "database errors" and "temporarily unavailable" messages...but no matter how I look at it...there doesn't seem to be a safe way...

unless we want to flood AHS with advertisements

[ArchangelLegend]

We can all donate our time. ^_^ Like everyone can stop coming here to the point where there's only 2 active members. The less time you spend here, the more time for other people. So stop being here. ^_^

Or we can donate money to other members to stop coming here. If each person give me a 2 dollar monthly donation, I'd make sure I won't be here so that the server is more free for everyone else.

My ideas are retarded.

^ Your posts are hilarious.

It's not really that big of a deal anymore. It happens occasionally. Just come on ten minutes later and it's fine.

[lfe.]

Originally Posted by emiko

I don't know if donations of $5 and $10 are going to be enough to upgrade the server though...

Sometimes I get the feeling that donations are hard to accept because of the fact that they aren't a reliable source of income...I mean...upgrading the server won't be cheap...and who's to say that all the people willing to donate now will be here in the future to donate...in 6 months, or a year, or two years...people leave forums all the time...and i think part of the reason why AHS is such a successful forum, is because of the stability in the moderation and imo not the members (sadly)...who will be stuck paying the bill when the people willing to donate are gone? Does AHS then downgrade because its no longer affordable?

You make it sound like servers cost thousands of dollars .

The example is just a suggestion on how to regulate donations so there isn't an excess that the recipients will use for personal expenses like Corybobory said. All it does is give off the idea "you are welcome to donate but don't drop HUGE amounts of money to us". Its still a flawed idea anyway because theres no way you can prevent someone from making multiple donations

[emi♡]

lol not thousands, but enough to where it might be a hassle for one person...and remember, the staff has never, as long as I've been here, made any disclosures as to who exactly pays for ahs. I always assumed it was one person.

I wish someone would give a good estimate as to how much a new server would actually cost...

I was thinking about just doing it myself...if it was like under $50 a month I think I could manage it for a long time...even if I left.

Other people say it will cost upwards of $100, is that true?

okay so like apparently that's ridiculous...and the next tier up wouldn't even be a third of that...to which I'm...gonna go and talk to some people.

uh...forget all my past arguments lol

[lfe.]

Well the cost varies in different countries. A dedicated server with 1000 GB of bandwidth can cost around 70-100 USD monthly. Some places like the UK are apparently much more expensive.

[emi♡]

I forgot who our host people are...

isn't it like...common...house? something? lol

I wish I had more of an idea...I was under the impression that AHS' server isn't as great as some other forums...yet some other forums pay as little as $15 a month!

Who's to know? Maybe our site is soo expensive? So much traffic we see lately...I wish...I had something more concrete!

When I do...I will be off to determine some things...

[~X2RADialbomber~]

What if we delete some threads?

The excessive posting by some members must hurt the server too. (Why do we have stupid conversations about m(u) and Duty in that Next Level thread?! It perplexes me!)