Over the past day you may have noticed that the site was down for a little bit. This was unfortunately longer than we had expected, but was due to our upgrade to a new server!:celebrate The upgrade we did a few months ago to the new software was the first step (and it was a big one) in improving our member's experience. This success of this software change is evident in the increased usage of the sites. The additional activity on the sites plus all the great new features meant that there was more work for the computer server that runs the sites. There were occasional times that the sites felt a bit slow and I knew we needed to upgrade our server on which they run. So, yesterday we began the process of moving all the sites to a new server! This entails a LOT of work, but most of it was done behind the scenes. Imagine trying to move 5+ families and all their stuff from one house to another in 24 hours! All the hundreds of thousands of pictures and millions of topics, posts, PM's, etc. have all been transferred without any loss at all! When evaluating our options, we decided to go with a more "green" solution. The company we use for our servers has only high-performance, low-voltage servers, reducing energy requirements and carbon emissions. They also recycle 100 percent of all recyclable hardware components and meets or exceeds environmental requirements for the disposal of all non-recyclable, hazardous components. Most importantly, they contribute to reforestation projects at levels exceeding the overall draw of our server infrastructure by at least 10 percent. This solution is a bit more expensive, but we felt it was the best choice. Also, 100% of all the electricity I use in my office is generated by solar! We hope that this new faster & green server will prove an even faster & better experience for all our site visitors.
