We’re Back For Now, and With Some Lessons Learned
Two days ago, I was pretty damned devastated. After a very, very frustrating long chat with a lackey at A2 Hosting, I was sure this site was done. My baby, my essence of being over the last five years. As I explained in detail at our sister site, TV For The Rest of Us, aka the only website I had left, we were cut off, because our site was taking too much precious CPU capacity. We weren’t given a chance to find out why, what was causing it, and how we could fix it. We were just dropped, and customer service wouldn’t even let us go back and retrieve our database. They cited a case that was closed over two months ago as their rationale, an issue I thought I had resolved with performance updates. After all, our server stopped crashing after I did all that. They certainly had never raised the issue since then.
To be honest, I didn’t have the heart after that. I just didn’t have anything left. Ever since site issues started happening early this year, half way through Supernatural’s season eight, the writing was on the wall. We were getting too big, and needed more capacity. After months of planning, testing and coding, I found us a new template, created a migration plan (techno speak for moving all our stuff from one major version to another), and the husband (my highly skilled and talented network engineer) found us the proper server to handle all this. We tested it out for weeks on our development site, and it worked great.
Anyone that has been hanging out with us during the summer knows that nothing went according to plan. Everything fell apart rather quickly. The migration (aka copying shit from one place to another) didn’t work well at all. Turns out we had a faulty program. You see, we converted from Joomla 1.5 to 2.5. We did this because Joomla (and our then hosting provider) was forcing our hand. Joomla 1.5 had been obsoleted and was a major security risk. However, even though Joomla applied all this pressure to their base, they didn’t provide a conversion program. Yes, we were all expected to code that shit ourselves! So, we got one free from a third party. It had bugs. Bugs that Joomla claimed no responsibility for because…wait for it…it was written by a third party.
We left our old provider, Bluehost, because even though we had a long relationship with them, the last year had grown impossible. There were multiple outages, our server was throwing 500 errors left and right (layman’s term for people couldn’t get on the site!), and any time I tried to contact customer service, getting to speak to a live body within a few days took a major act of…Chuck. They eventually told us they couldn’t help anymore. We needed a better server. They didn’t have that kind of server for us.
So, enter A2 Hosting. They came highly recommended, seemed like they had a good track record, and had a VPS server that looked like it would be able to handle our growing traffic. We loaded our new, and very flaky Joomla 2.5 site onto their server, and we pretty much had disasters from the word go. The server constantly crashed, running out of memory and resources very quickly. There was no indication as to what was causing it. A few suggestions were made, but those proved to be rather ineffective. The only solution really given to us was how to fix the database after it crashed, because it got corrupted every single time that happened.
A2 Hosting did at least have support that tried to work with us, for the most part. There were times where our panicked cries of “SITE DOWN!!” were ignored, which did result in me taking our case to Twitter to get attention (sadly, that ambush tactic does work). We went live in early June, and the problems of the site constantly crashing weren’t resolved until mid July, just in time for me to go to Comic Con. I had made some suggested changes, and they seemed to work.
However, things were far from okay. There was another party telling me that the site wasn’t adequate, and this was from the people that pay our bills. Google. I followed every suggestion they gave, and it only helped a little. Our site was way too slow for their liking, and that bumped our Google rating down. We weren’t high on search engines anymore. I tried running a littany of performance tests, but anyone in the tech field knows you can’t run a battery of performance tests on a live site. I didn’t learn much other than we were slow!
While all this was going on, I was still the primary writer of the site! With it being summer hellatus, the writing team tends to get really busy themselves and don’t submit articles frequently, so it often becomes a one woman show. Tah dah! Plus I’m the editor-in-chief too, so any submitted articles I had to prep and post. Plus, I kind of had this other site to run, aka TV For The Rest of Us. I had come back from Comic Con with a ton of great interviews from many shows, and most of that coverage was done on behalf of TV For The Rest of Us. I was very, very fortunate that Elle2 was active this summer with her work for Person of Interest, otherwise we would have had very little for TV For The Rest of Us other than Comic Con coverage.
So, that was my summer vacation! Madly hopping from one technical crisis after another, while trying to run a rather large site and another growing site mostly by myself. Despite all the efforts, we weren’t able to get to the bottom of why the site was running so slow. It would run fast at times, but others it would just drag. There were no logs, no indications, and my hours and hours of online research and hanging out at Joomla forums resulted in nothing productive.
To be honest, about a month ago, I wanted to quit. I was done. I had enough. Traffic on the site was dropping, my writers were MIA, my battle with stability wasn’t working, Google wasn’t happy with us and I was juggling everything in a sense alone. I started thinking, “Five years was a good run. This went on way longer than I ever thought.” All this thinking was complicated by the fact that I’ve been unemployed since May. I actually didn’t make it to the Friday part of New Jersey Con because I had to show up for my last day at work so I could get my final pay. I arrived there late feeling rather humiliated, newly unemployed, and distraught over an upgrade that was coming up for the site that was already sucking my will to live. If I had only known what I know now, I would have thrown in the towel back then.
So, I guess the issue that happened two nights ago was inevitable. The actions of A2 Hosting were not. As a long time technical professional, what they did was thuggery. They didn’t try to help, they just shut us down. They only gave us one option, upgrade to one of their expensive servers. Tech support wasn’t allowed to help us. This was in customer care’s hands, and I was only promised they may or may not contact me the next day. In the meantime, I couldn’t get my data. I couldn’t get my site back! Customer service was in a sense holding our site hostage until I contacted them and agreed to the upgrade. I sent message after message through their ticket area and they never responded back.
Yeah, we were done. I was done. I was sure of it. It was all gone in a flash. That was my sign, the final nail in the coffin so to speak.
Something happened though, and something I shouldn’t be surprised about at all, but I was. And I get all weepy thinking about it. From the second I tearfully announced we were currently out of business, the messages of support just came pouring in. Friends I haven’t heard from in a while took time to see if I was okay, and offered words of encouragement. The numerous messages from TV For The Rest of Us, Twitter, and Facebook were all telling me to fight on, and we all in a sense felt the same devastation and loss. I should have known, because this is a family. It’s not a fandom. It never has been, and never will be.
I think I finally recovered from the shock and got my resolve back the next day. All I wanted was my data back. I wanted my site and all that history. After A2 Hosting wouldn’t respond, I took to Twitter demanding my data. Several fans jumped in, and pretty soon we had an SPN Family ambush going. That finally did get a response, and within an hour the data was there, ready for us to download. It’s really sad that was the only way I could get their attention, but at the same time I’ve never been prouder too. When Supernatural fans organize, shit gets done! I know, this is something Misha Collins figured out a long time ago. He was right.
Once I got the data back, my hubby went to work. He fought with the download all day, but managed to come up with a creative solution to get the database transferred from A2 Hosting back over to Bluehost. You see, we never cancelled our Bluehost account because TV For The Rest of Us was still on there. I had planned a “migration” and upgrade for that site too in August. That was cancelled due to all the WFB problems. I didn’t want to ruin both sites! It’s still running on an outdated Joomla 1.5 platform but dammit, it’s stable! As much as I hate rewarding bad service, going back to Bluehost was the only way we’d get this site back up quickly.
I was stunned last night to find that not only did the hubby get all of the data transferred, but most of the site back too. I didn’t have to rebuild from scratch, which was our fear when all this happened. I finally had that chance too to run all those performance tests I couldn’t before. After a long day of work, I was able to get us running on a scaled back site.
I wish I could say this has led to a happy ending, but we’re far from there. We went back to our old server, which isn’t exactly ideal. It’s too slow. But, it runs! The performance issues were evident the second we went live. The site has many features turned off right now, and I can’t say when they’ll be back. This is going to be a slow learning process for all of us, but I’m determined to fight this and do it right. I know how much we mean to all of you, and you all mean a lot to us.
So, I ask for patience, which kind of sucks because I’ve been asking for that since January and we still are in a mess. I honestly didn’t think that when I had this brilliant idea to start a Supernatural fan site five years ago that it would all mushroom to this. Heck, I, like everyone else, didn’t even think the show would still be going this long! I’ve been playing administrator way too much and I haven’t been doing when I love the most, writing and socializing with all of you.
I’ll do what I can to get over this, but the main lesson learned is when times are tough, the SPN family will be there for you. Thank you all. I am truly blessed. Now I’ve got to get back to work.
With great love and deep appreciation for every one of you,
Alice
Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
Alice, I truly appreciate all your and your fabulous husband’s work making this such a great site. I wish there was a way I could help. If you can think of one I’m happy to help. And I hope you get a chance to slow down and enjoy what you created. And you’re right we are a family, so if there is a way to ease your load. let me know.
And I know I’m probably one of the clueless, but I never had any problems with the scaled back version. I even figured those 500 errors were just glitch that would pass. If there is a way to make it work that would give you more free time, I’m sure most of your readers would overlook a glitch or two sometimes. I’ll admit when they started happening a lot I just started typing comments in Word and pasting them-problem fixed-for me anyway. I know I’m probably WAY over-simplifying things and I’m clueless about tech stuff. I just want you to know if it comes down to a site with a few glitches but with a happier Alice or a hair-pulling, weekend eating site for Alice or, Heaven forbid, NO SITE. I’m happy to live with typing comments in word first. Sanity first, then you can deal with the rest.
But thank you again for all you’ve done. The site really has saved me several times.
Omg Alice, I was so happy to see this. I’m getting ready to move out of my house and live in a hotel for weeks, and I wont get to see the show for a while and I was devastated to see that the site was lost.
Thank you soooooooo much for working so hard and give your hubby a very special thank you for helping too.
It’s truly great news that you and your amazeballs husband have managed to get the site back up and running; not just for our sake but for yours. The time, effort, skill and love that all you guys have put into the site over the past few years is staggering, and it would have been a travesty to have had all that go to waste. It would be SPN equivalent of burning down the Boston Public Library or something like that! When the dust settles as regards to the show, this site and it’s writing will (hopefully) rightfully remain a mecca for SPN fans for a long, long time after that because the articles and discussion posted here that have ensued out of the show is timeless and any fan, new or otherwise, would only benefit from TWFB.
And don’t worry if things run slow or whatever. The best things come to those who wait!
So thanks to both you and Mr. Husband. You really are the gods of the online SPN universe!
Oh dear, all this tech stuff sounds so horrendously stressful.
I so very much appreciate all the work you do to run this site (I’d be completely lost without it) and so many many thanks to you and your husband for getting the site back up. I popped here this morning just to check and I was over the moon to see the site back. Thank you!!!!!
Thanks for all your, and your husband’s, hard work. It is hugely appreciated. And don’t worry about traffic. It’ll be back after the hiatus. Everywhere has been quiet over summer. It always is.
I’m so happy. Thank you thank you thank you Alice. I had nightmares about season 9 discussions. It was like losing a friend.
Enjoy Dallascon Alice and get some good skinner (gossip) for us. Looking forward to you comments
Perseverance thy name is Alice! (and Hubby!). Thank you so much for all your hard work! I was thrilled to see WFB up and running this AM. Slow? Glitchy? I’ll take it any way that it’s offered… what’s a little mess among family… 😆
Glad you’re back!
I have been around the IT block for years… Having experienced the Badness in all its glory, I have a couple of suggestions that I hope will help…
1. Just because you live in the US doesn’t mean you have to host the site in the US. You can probably find more reliable hosts outside of the US and with the exchange rate, find hosts that will be cheaper for you to run. It’s just data – shifting it somewhere else in the western hemisphere should be okay. Take a look at a company called Webdrive in NZ. They’ve been used for some major projects that I’ve worked on, and they’re reliable.
2. You could try Silverstripe CMS to develop the site. It’s open source – developed in NZ and the commercial version is running some big sites quite nicely. it’s gaining a lot of traction around the world. I haven’t met anyone of late who is using Joomla for the reasons you’ve already mentioned… It’s time to find a more stable (and friendlier) CMS! 🙂
There’s lots of options out there available all over the world and lots of people developing tools as alternatives to platforms in the US. Sometimes, it pays to get outside the box and go elsewhere… 🙂
Whoops – should probably include some URLs so you can do some reading… 🙂
http://www.silverstripe.org/
http://www.webdrive.co.nz/
i was so so upset yesterday when I tried to visit this beloved site. Thank you!!! Thank you for all you do and for your knowledge, determination and hope. And thank you for providing a wonderful, safe, wise and funny gathering place for us.
SO glad to see WFB running.
I’m sorry you’ve had such a hard time. It all sucks. I’ve had some battles over an email program at work and it’s been a trial on my nerves. Can’t imagine what you’ve been through.
There are a lot of us that truly love the site and appreciate everything you do.
I’m glad the site is back up and functioning again. Hopefully going forward things will become smoother and we’ll be able to enjoy the coming season. I’ll have my fingers crossed!
Thanks so much for all your dedication, hard work, and patience, Alice. It means a lot to so many of us to have this site as refuge for our SPN needs.
I spilled my happiness all over the hurty Dean thread but after reading this I have a better understanding of the hell you have been going through (even though I don’t understand the technical part). I am just so happy to see her up and running! There will be no taking the site for granted. Thanks to you and your husband for all of your hard work. Welcome back!!
Thank you Alice. I would certainly understand if you reached the breaking point on this site. Thank you also for relaying all your trials over it. It gives us a deeper appreciation of all you do.
As a new member I feel more like the 3rd cousin once removed but I am so happy to be a part of this family. I agree with E, what’s a little mess among family.
OMG Alice, kudos to you and your hubby for all the hard work you’ve done. I can’t imagine the hell you’ve been through, heck I can’t even figure out how to migrate my iTunes library from one PC to another! 😆 I’m a techno ignoramus. And really, I hadn’t noticed the site having that many problems, I would just leave it and go back and try again, and most times it would work just fine. I’m so glad WFB is back, I can’t start my day without seeing what’s happening here. When I first realized the site was gone, I almost had a coronary. 😮
Gob bless you Alice for all the hard work you have invested in this site. Yes, it’s your baby, but it has become so much more than that for the fans of your site, it has become a second home for a lot of us. Take heart and know that we are here for you. 🙄
Oh Alice, I’m so happy! So much work, history and love are in this site. It’s absence left a major hole in the internet. Hope all goes well as you untangle whatever issues you find. If I can help at all, let me know.
OMG Alice this is best news!!!! I just knew yesterday about the problems and possibility of losing this wonderful site, and I felt so devastated. But look at it now, you’re back. Thank you (and hubby, of course) so much. And congratulations!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
.Thank you Mr and Mrs Alice Jester.I have been checking day and night.You should see the smile on my face.( I am singing…congratulations and celebrations..la la la).
I will be patient and praying.
oh i can’t believe you’re back again yeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyy…..i desperately clicked on your site i didn’t have any hope but suddenly i was like “ohhhhhh look look they’re back”……so glad….keep going guys no matter what we support you 😆 😆 so haaaaaaappppppyyyyyy
This is such wonderful news Alice! I am so happy for you. When I saw the site back up I almost yelled YAHOOOOO! right in the middle of the office. And I’m really not supposed to even be on the Internet during work. But I had to check it out and see what was going on. It is so wonderful you caught a bit of a break. I’m not overly technologically savvy, so I can guarantee you I hardly noticed any problems to begin with. I just figured they were glitches in the Matrix and moved on. Whatever form the site takes from here, I’ll take it. I wish I could have been in on the Twitter ambush action. Such a thing never even crossed my mind. I can’t imagine how stressful this whole this has gotta be. Thank you, thank you a million times to you and hubby for all the hard work you’re doing.
So glad you are up and running. I’m also so sorry your summer was so stressful. I hope things settle down for now and work properly. Thank you so much for your work giving us this site. It is one of the best for Supernatural.
Alice,
I love this site. It’s like a friend I come and hang out with periodically. My heart goes out to you.
I’d love to think WFB will always be around but no matter what happens at least you got your database back and now we know it will never be completely gone. 🙂
I can’t speak for all but I do believe you have the entire SPN family’s support, as you should. All you’ve given this fandom, endless thanks and appreciation. And hope for a brighter WFB future.
Patience is the least we can do… We are so grateful to whatever webgods we have to thank for you being back up and running. Most of all we, SPN fans and your fans, are grateful that you didn’t give up on this. I know we only have a fraction of an idea of all the work you have put into this. Features aren’t important, family is, and our family is all together again now, thanks to your hard work.
I’m so happy to see the site back up and running! Thank you, for all of this–I hope your platform woes don’t last too much longer. If I were a Twitter person, I’d have been twittering madly at A2, too! Would it help if I clapped my hands for belief? (And in relief!)
WELCOME BACK ALICE!!!! I, like many fans on here, am not tech savvy and am in shock of what you and your awesome husband have gone through. Any “normal” person would have been overwhelmed by what you both went through. Sure, it’s not easy having to go through the family ambushing them on Twitter, but, in my opinion, they DESERVED what was coming to them!!!! I’m glad you got the site back, what’s a few zillion glitches compared to having the family back together? 🙂 Best of luck with the site in the future and look forward to seeing more in the years to come 🙂
” When I first realized the site was gone, I almost had a coronary. :eek:”
😆 Me too Sylvie.
I made it home, went to my laptop, clicked on my #1 favorite, not really expecting anything yet, AND LO AND BEHOLD THERE WAS WINFAMBUS!!! I actually jumped up and clicked my heels and yelled “There’s no place like home!”. Of course my family thinks I am nuts but it is worth it. Welcome back! I will take this website any way I can get it! =D
So glad to see the site back! Thank you so much for getting it going again, and the absolute least we can do is be patient! Your work on this site is such a gift to fandom. And I hope you get a little time to chill after all your hard work.
Alice, you have NO idea how happy I am that you found the strength to fight and get the site back! I just saw on FB that it was back and I yelled so loud! 🙂 all will be back to normal with time. I just can’t believe how much you went through this summer, and for that I’m sorry. Sending you lots of positive energy and thoughts!
Oh, and the SPN family is the one who’s been blessed by your hard work and love poured into the website. Thank you!
Alice, you have NO idea how happy I am that you found the strength to fight and get the site back! I just saw on FB that it was back and I yelled so loud! 🙂 all will be back to normal with time. I just can’t believe how much you went through this summer, and for that I’m sorry. Sending you lots of positive energy and thoughts! Oh, and the SPN family is the one who’s been blessed by your hard work and love poured into the website. Thank you!
WOOHOO back on track jack!! Every time I log on and WFB is there, my heart races a little. How were Crowley, Dean and Sam? I swear I laughed out loud when Crowley walked into the scene. Can’t wait can’t wait. My brain is hopping like a bunny on crack running on a duracel
Hi, Alice.
I’m so, so, SO glad to see the site back!!
I hope you will get everything working and all that tech stuff sorted out! I hope you will find a way to make it work without you running yourself to the ground with stress and an impossible workload!
Thank you and your amazing hubsters a thousand times, thank you!
YAY!
o/
Thanks for all your effort. I’m happy that you could continue
You’re BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAck ! Yes !
You’re the best Alice , you two with your Hubby.
Thank you so much for your pugnacity. 😀 I m so glad to read your texts again.
So glad you are back.
Alice, thank you! And thank your husband for me!
I literally cried real tears when the site exploded. It is such a big part of my life. We appreciate you so much. Never forget that. Your work on this site is very important to an awful lot of people!
Welcome back and remember – I am so grateful for all you do. Thank you.
Alice-
I am a faithful reader, although I don’t always comment. I look at your website several times a day. I can’t begin to understand the technical knowledge you need to know to maintain a website, but as a person who finds comfort and affirmation every time I read another article written by yourself or a member of your insightful staff about my favorite t.v. show, I am glad you were able to get the site back on-line. I appreciate your efforts. I love having a place to share my thoughts about the show, the characters, and commentary. Don’t ever think that your efforts at maintaining this site are in vain. Long life Supernatural and this site. Thank you for everything you do.
I just wanted to say that I was devastated when the site went down and didn’t know what to do because this is the only Supernatural site I read, but I am now ecstatic that the site is back up.
I just wanted to let you know that I am so appreciative of all the hard work you put into this site, and that I am eternally grateful to you and your husband for getting the site back up. Thank you so very much.
Alice: There aren’t adequate words to thank you enough for “battling on”. When I discovered the site had crashed, I was devastated. It felt like a physical blow.
I realize that I take this site – and you – for granted. It has become a home away from home for many of us. I am truly saddened to read how much your life has sucked of late. I think the fact that you – like our show – never give up despite overwhelming odds truly speaks to your sterling character.
“Carry on my wayward son. There’ll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest. Don’t you cry no more.”
Love to you, Alice.
Alice, I hope you know that the SPN family is behind you 100% and we don’t want to see this site go any more than you do. This is the only site I visit on a daily basis and contribute when I feel I have something worthwhile to say. I want to thank you for your due diligence in hanging in there to this wonderful site and please thank your hubby for me for being so supportive of this project as well. You see “family doesn’t end with blood”. 😆
we’ve got your back…no worries and all the faith in the world in you….. 😀
Hi Alice.
I haven’t been able to visit the site as often as I used to (damn you life!), and though I’d heard of some of the problems, I honestly didn’t know it was that bad, or that the site went down. I can imagine how devastated you might have been to lose it. I know I would’ve been and I’m just a visitor, commenter and once-upon-a-time lurker!
I’m glad though that things are sort-of back on track.
Thanks as always for your hard work! It’s much appreciated.
Hi Alice,
I was actually sitting in the hotel bar in Dallas with SweetonDean and friends Thursday night when I heard it confirmed that you were able to get the site back. Believe me, the relief and joy I felt then was just the beginning of a fantastic weekend.
What a way to start a con!
I’m so glad you’ve been able to restore this site. Other than being sorry for the hassles for you, I don’t care a tick if it’s slow, or whatever other “problems” you see – it has FAR more good aspects than bad. This is the only SPN site I go to, this is where I have made some great friends, and I never want to lose it.
The little show that COULD deserves its little site that CAN!
Cheers, and thanks to you and your husband for all your efforts!
“The little show that COULD deserves its little site that CAN!” Aww that’s nice St50.