Air Gun Home :: View topic - AirGunHome is changing webhosting providers...

AirGunEric · Site Admin

AirGunHome has been hosted since February of this year on a host service that was small, but seemingly reliable. Members who have been here since early on know that there have been a few bumps in this "reliability" on at least a couple of occasions- the worst being last June where this site, and all others being hosted by that service, went offline for nearly 72 hours straight.

At that time, I felt it appropriate to try and work with them to move forward- by keeping airgunhome.com hosted with them. Since then, that provider has integrated with another, cut off it's former contact system- and sent no official announcements of any of this to me. In the last few days I have left messages and emails for these guys that we need more resources due to Google overrunning the forum- all with no answer. Similar lacks of responses have occurred previously- but none as critical to the forum's uptime as this one is becoming. Google is overrunning the site and driving more and more links to us- which is great- but it absorbs bandwidth. More bandwidth is needed, and thus why I need(ed) to contact the hosting provider to get it raised (at increased cost) before AirGunHome uses up its quota and is cut off, outright- meaning no access to the forum for anyone until this would be resolved.

As such- airgunhome is changing service providers, tonight at 11:30pm EST- which will be about 30 minutes after I post this. The board will be shut down, reconfigured, and the nameservers changed to point to the new host service. Hopefully this will go without any hitches, and the site will be back online within a couple hours. If any delays do occur- I apologize in advance.

AirGunEric

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Well- we are on the new service right now- if anyone spots any error or "funnies" (other than the usual gang of smart-alecks)- please let me know right away to see what/where the problem is and how it can be resolved. I don't expect there to be any issues- but you never can tell sometimes...

BBGun Bob · Veteran Member

ERICK,
Thanks for doing everyone on this forum a favor and staying on top of things.With out a guy like you taking matters into your own hands we would all suffer.I do not know a thing about running a web site but it sounds as it is alot of work.

Again Thanks Bud YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Respectfully
BBGun Bob Wink

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Once a forum is set-up initially, it shouldn't be huge challenge to keep it running smoothly (but it's much like a car on slippery pavement- you can cruise along just fine- but the minute you want to change something- like stop, turn, speed up, slow down, etc. the problems begin)- but unfortunately the current climate of less-than-reliable hosting services that either don't work or don't care to service their accounts properly is mind-boggling.

Right now, airgunhome is being hosted on a fairly large service based in the US, they had gotten consistent good reviews from web operators and have, in the last few weeks since I opened an account, been fairly responsive in respect to service. I am hopeful this will work out in the short- and long-term. I think I shall keep a backup in my pocket just-in-case.

Mar · Veteran Member

Nice to see the site back online.

Am I suppose to still see the Google ads up top or are my eyes playing tricks on me?

AirGunEric · Site Admin

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The donation button being put up again is explained here:

http://www.airgunhome.com/agforum/viewtopic.php?t=814

If we can accumulate enough money to cover the hosting/registration/misc. costs for the site for a year, I'll get rid of the Google ads- but even though they don't currently generate alot of money -something- is better than nothing.

Mar · Veteran Member

I'm a bit naive about this ad button and how it works so I would like to ask how it works.

Does it generate money every time someone clicks on it?

Or...does it generate money only if someone buys something through what ever ad is showing at the time?

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

What it does Mar is help to keep the site going, as there are certain costs involved in running a site like this, and at the moment Eric is footing the bill, hopefully in the future outside sponsership may take up some of this.

So anybody who feel inclined to support the site press the button and make a donation with anything you can afford and with a bit of luck we can get rid of the adverts at the top of the page, and make the site more secure.

Al

AirGunEric · Site Admin

The ads on the pages don't pay anything for just being displayed (not like a newspaper ad, where just being put in the paper gets the newspaper paid)- the ones displayed here pay out when people click on them. They don't need to buy the product or service. They typically only pay a few pennies per "click" by each unique user on most ads- so it takes a long time to add up to anything.

There is another type of ad where payment would only be made if, like you suggested, someone bought the product being flogged through the ad. This, obviously, is alot less likely than someone clicking an ad just to see what it's about- but those sorts of ads also pay 100 times more (i.e. a few dollars if someone buys the product). For awhile I tried those ads on the site main page- but the products being sold were so completely irrelevant to airgunning I got rid of them (they had ads for house windows, dedicated network server hardware, I seem to recall something about a new drafting software company, etc. etc.).

I really can't say any more about it, other than if you see some sort of product in one of the ads on the site you are curious about- clicking on it will pay a few pennies to the forum and you will hopefully find what you are seeking.

Also- just so people understand- it's not like the forum costs thousands of dollars a year to have hosted- depending on the "traffic" maybe a few hundred over the course of the next year. The far greater "investment" is the time to keep it together and running smoothly.

Beyond that- everything seems to be fine on the new service with only a couple quirks which may only be specific to me and being on the road right now- I will run some tests once I get home to be sure we don't have anything to worry about in the near future in respect to access and reliability.