Server Status Update
As many of you know, our servers began to experience prolonged downtime near the beginning of November, for reasons which were initially unknown. Despite our best efforts (which ultimately resulted in at least temporary resolution of the problem), we were unable to work with our then-server host to resolve the issue. As far as we can tell, the ultimate issue was related to their systems, not ours – after authorizing payment to another (more expensive but reliable) host, we had no success replicating the problem. In fact, we’ve been unable to replicate the issue on any of three separate providers whose services we have retained over the past month.
Therefore, we have switched server providers – as many of you have noted, our first choice didn’t work out as planned, and so we’ve had to continue paying our (expensive) backup provider while we searched for another which met our cost requirements. Fortunately, we appear to have found one, and they seem to be stable, though we are still in the testing phase (they host the TLO servers you are now seeing; as I have mentioned before, gametracker and other such services are NOT properly reporting this). If we are able to continue with our current choice, we should not face any further service interruptions, and our monthly costs will remain around $15 a month.
However, these issues have been a serious drain on our financial resources; we’ve incurred a great deal of cost in order to keep the servers running while working to find the source of these problems. However, we’re hopeful that this will not continue; we ask that if you have any issues, you report them in the engineering forum, or contact me (Veritas) via whichever means you prefer (all that info is on my profile).
Financial Report
Our only donation this month was $33 from Grizz (thanks Grizz!)
Financial information at a glance:
- Our current balance is $161.57 ($169.05 – $19.95 December emergency server payment + $12.47 refund owed) USD
- Costs this month were $56.57 USD ($12.95 server + $25.62 emergency server + $15.00 new server payment + $3 webhosting )
- Our emergency host, at limited capacity, is $19.95 a month; at the capacity required to support two RPG-X servers, $29.95 a month
- Our old host was $12.95 a month for 2-3 servers; our new host is $15 a month for 3-4 servers (based on RAM requirements and bandwidth/storage)
- On our current host, we have enough funds for 10 months, or 4 months without going under $100
- On our emergency host, we have enough funds for 8 months on the limited plan (3 months above $100), or 5 months on the higher plan (2 months above $100)
Our hope is to limit costs to $18 a month ($15 server + $3 webhosting) beginning in January 2012; unfortunately, December costs will be higher by at least $19.95 owing to the needs to continue having an emergency backup server online.
Thanks again to all who have donated – we appreciate your support!
Server Activity & Status Report (STO + RPG-X)
Unfortunately, the recent issues with providers has made it very difficult for us to gauge server activity, or push updates to the servers. Therefore, we have no activity information for this month (though we believe activity has decreased, probably due to the lack of GameTracker and reliable servers).
On the SRP front, Star Trek: Apocalpyse is preparing for its second episode (technically episode one of season one, excluding its pilot) and Star Trek: Frontlines continues next week with season two, episode six! Star Trek: Dauntless will be going on hiatus for the next month, and will resume in mid-january.
On STO, division leader Central Plexus reports, “While the division has been mired by delays and cancellations these past few weeks due to unexpected (and unfortunate) circumstances, we still look forward with confidence. Confidence that we will step up our recruitment efforts considerably before F2P hits, as well as organizing some new and exciting events for the membership over the next few months.” To learn more, see the statement issued by division XO Eris here.
What’s Coming Up
The TLO newsletter is striding towards publication – more on that coming soon!
Meet the Staff is our next upcoming event – stay tuned for that as well!
The Technical division is looking for a development assistant to help out with various projects; skills ranging from Teamspeak administration to web development are needed! Click here to learn more.
The Council would like to remind members that civility and respect in public discussions are absolutely required on our boards; this includes discussions in the TLO shoutbox. In addition, we would like to remind members that discipline incidents are considered to be confidential, and that while members are permitted to discuss discipline incidents involving them, we recommend against public complaining in the shoutbox or on the boards – it will NOT change anything.
As always, the Council invites TLO members to view Council meeting logs and voting records posted in the Disclosure Database. Members interested can view them there at any time, and all users are encouraged to contact us with questions or concerns regarding any aspect of TLO.
Thanks for reading, and happy RPing!
Veritas & The Council
