gramophone-georg wrote:Thank you David, it seems you're on the right track, and I'm grateful. How does the hosting differ from the domain? If donations could support the domain renewal, do those donations also "automatically" support the hosting provider (is that even a thing?) Or are they 2 separate entities?
I apologize for my ignorance, and only wish to learn.
I don’t mind. Think of a domain name as buying a phone number and paying to have it listed. You could then opt to host it yourself (which I have done in the past with other sites), pay another service for hosting (which the TMF does with DreamHost), or some domain registrars also offer hosting services.
In this case, I had already paid DreamHost for 2020’s hosting service, but the domain name is under John’s GoDaddy account (to which I also have the password). Rather than wait for him to renew, since everyone was freaking out about the supposed instability of this site, donations went directly towards a 5-year renewal of the registration. It will expire next on 18 December, 2024.
gramophone-georg wrote: Also, I am truly sorry for what you and your friend are going through. Please accept my sincere wishes that all will be well. I lost a very close cousin on November 9th to Melanoma, and was the last person on God's green earth to have a conversation with him. He is only 3 years older than I am.
It's terrible to see someone close get sick, and I'm sorry I didn't say this earlier, but his death was (is?) still very difficult for me. Especially this time of year.
Thank you. I think that a lot of people have been understanding, and they make up for the occasional troll who seems to think that because John and I put this forum up, we owe it to them to continue to host and improve the site out of our pockets—forever.
If we keep the Patrons group, and no-one has given me a convincing argument to get rid of it, I wanted to thank
everyone who donated to the forum. There was no minimum cut off for it. I was thinking about doing something to recognize long-term members. And maybe something for other phonograph groups...
No doubt it will offend someone.
Over the last few days, my friend’s condition has improved greatly, but he is still in the hospital and has therapy ahead of him after they discharge him. Last night was the first time that he’d asked me to bring him pages from the book he is writing with a friend, so that he could work on them. Previously, he would not have had the energy.
But back to the site: as soon as DreamHost irons out the issues I currently have on two open tickets, the next step will be upgrading. I’m not looking forward to it; I will probably have to do it in multiple steps.
fran604g wrote:Back to the OP.
David, I'm still getting hangs when posting. The post does eventually complete though. White screened a couple of times last night.
Fran,
These issues are why I have two open tickets with DreamHost, which they are working to resolve. The size of the database (due to all of the content generated here) makes this slower and more difficult—as I have mentioned previously, the database powering this site is around 840 MB (bigger than a CD, which would be 700 MB). Currently, the next biggest site that whose database I have compared (a WordPress site with several years of content) is not even 40 MB.
Be assured that I am actively working to fix this place, while juggling everything else I need to get done.
Regards,
David