Spiderforest is suspended

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 3:35 pm

I'll probably start keeping a CG mirror site up as well. But yeah, it's nothing bad or nasty. Just a little confusion over the service provider. I did speak with Ran (Spider FOrest webmaster) and without going into too many details...it's all their (service provider's) fault.

CW

Sam_Charette · Post by **Sam_Charette** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:51 pm

There are many places out there that you can keep a mirror on....

>.>

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:18 pm

Dresser?

Sam_Charette · Post by **Sam_Charette** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:20 pm

Among other things

Post by **Kisai** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:38 pm

christwriter wrote:I'll probably start keeping a CG mirror site up as well. But yeah, it's nothing bad or nasty. Just a little confusion over the service provider. I did speak with Ran (Spider FOrest webmaster) and without going into too many details...it's all their (service provider's) fault.

CW

This is why it's generally not a good idea to be hosted on a system that's already hosted on something. One good smack of slashdot, and that system can no longer pay it's bills, resulting in the primary host terminating and deleting the master account. That's what happened to DrunkDuck once.

CG owns it's own servers, so the only thing that would take them down is hardware failure. If the ISP decided to terminate the bandwidth contract, then CG would just popup at some other IP. None of this "this customer has exceeded their bandwidth/does not exist'.

As a side note, and don't take this the wrong way anyone, while you are free to advertise whatever alternate hosting system you want, actually asking people to switch is spamming, and I won't tolerate it.

There are enough comicgenesis knockoffs, keeping a mirror or three isn't harmful to anything but measuring your stats. Since it's not possible to compile the stats from three different systems, you'd need to instead use something like google analytics or just the regular extreme tracker, to get an accurate stats set.

I don't think most people care one way or the other who hosts what comic. Most people just use google to find what they were looking for.

Sam_Charette · Post by **Sam_Charette** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:46 pm

Kisai wrote:As a side note, and don't take this the wrong way anyone, while you are free to advertise whatever alternate hosting system you want, actually asking people to switch is spamming, and I won't tolerate it.

Who asked anyone anything of the sort? I don't recall reading anyone specifically asking them to host anywhere else, except for people saying that they hope that they come back to CG, of course. Even still, no one was asking them to leave SpiderForest.

Post by **Kisai** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:05 pm

Sam_Charette wrote:
Kisai wrote:As a side note, and don't take this the wrong way anyone, while you are free to advertise whatever alternate hosting system you want, actually asking people to switch is spamming, and I won't tolerate it.

Who asked anyone anything of the sort? I don't recall reading anyone specifically asking them to host anywhere else, except for people saying that they hope that they come back to CG, of course. Even still, no one was asking them to leave SpiderForest.

I just expect the same guidelines to be followed about switching to/from CG as any other service, that includes asking/begging for someone to switch services. This isn't a competition to see how many "good" comics will stay hosted on one site. The MCI/SPRINT/VERIZON/AT&T "switch" local/ld/internet campaigns is what I'm getting at. Where each competitor advertises the fact that so-and-so switched, so should you, blah blah blah.

The reality of the situation is that you can't make money hosting webcomics, particuarly popular ones, why anyone would run such a system out of their own pocket seems self-defeating. One way trip to the poor house. I've seen countless sites suddenly become popular and then start begging for donations only for their supposed fan base to be indifferent and the site shuting down due to lack of funds. Then the supposed fan base is like "what happened?" like where we are now, wondering why a site disappeared.

So far, to date, only about a few comics outside of keenspot have the collective fanbase that will support them, and that includes all external sales. Sites that run purely off ad revenue or begging/donations I equate with shareware/nagware/spyware-packaged software, where the author underestimates the intelligence of the people using it. People who continue to block ads on ad-supported sites are doing a disservice, people who don't donate on donate-to-support-this-site are doing a disservice, especially if they make use of it.

So going back to the original point, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Past a certain point, it's better to do your own hosting and forgo any middlemen, keeping a mirror on a different hosting provider in case of slashdotting/farking/something-awefuled/etc.

This also brings up one side point in the net neutrality debate, if ISP's start charging hosts for "priority" access to services, the need to have multiple hosting locations becomes a requirement to work around the brain-dead ISP's.

Sam_Charette · Post by **Sam_Charette** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:14 pm

Oh I totally agree, Kisai. In fact, I don't even like the idea of having domain names bought from the same provider as the one hosting the web pages, because if something happens and too much bandwidth is eaten, or your web space is cancelled for whatever reason, you can't even switch your domain name to another spot to tell people what's going on.

That's what happened with DD. No one really knew for a while, because the domain name was registered with the same people as those who were hosting the site.

Now, that said, web hosting has become exceptionally cheap as of late, cheap enough that if you find the right provider, a slashdot shouldn't kill your site. If you can afford your own server and a big enough pipe to do everything yourself, that's definitely the way to go. Otherwise, there are a lot of cheap and decent alternatives that shouldn't kill your pocketbook.

'Course, both self-hosting and hosting on a site like CG have their own advantages. On the first, you don't have to pay for someone else's success. On the latter, you get to have a more community feel and some cross-promotion possibilities.

In today's world, though, with the inexpensive nature of webspace, and how easy it is to set up a site on sites like CG, there's really little reason not to do both.

Ian Moulding · Post by **Ian Moulding** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:23 pm

warofwinds wrote:We're in the process of switching right now though, which is probably why this little problem sparked up.

Hope it's back up soon. I missed my Thursday fix...

Sam_Charette wrote:In today's world, though, with the inexpensive nature of webspace, and how easy it is to set up a site on sites like CG, there's really little reason not to do both.

Yeah, mirror accounts are pretty straightforward. Hopefully the Net Neutrality idiocy dies soon, but if not then Kisai's right about the need for multiple sites to break up bandwidth costs. At least until people figure out ways around the current bandwidth providers.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:31 pm

Ian: The old CG account is back up. I have about nine bazillion links to fix and things to upload, and it ate into my post-work comic time, but it's back now.

CW

Ian Moulding · Post by **Ian Moulding** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:42 pm

christwriter wrote:Ian: The old CG account is back up. I have about nine bazillion links to fix and things to upload, and it ate into my post-work comic time, but it's back now.

What makes you so sure that was my Thursday fix? I could have been talking about something else.

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:36 pm

I want my Juathuur fix

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH JUAR AND FAEVV? Gah. *dies*

But on another note, mirror sites are invaluable. I also have another on Drunk Duck, but just between you and me... (readers on CG are so much more...adult. I swear, half the people on the forums there are 12 years old. *sigh*) But I'm not complaining. There's some really great stuff there! Rules of Make-Believe and White Noise recently joined up there. Hopefully they'll both start updating again! CG will always be my first love though *sniff*

If I die, scatter my ashes on the network!

/melodrama.

I really need to start going to bed at a reasonable hour.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:05 pm

SF should be back up and running in the next day or two.

CW

Mon Ami · Post by **Mon Ami** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:05 pm

Cannot say I have ever heard of it either o-o:

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:06 am

christwriter wrote:SF should be back up and running in the next day or two.

CW

Goody

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:13 am

Speaking of which...

First thing I did today (HORAY FOR PART TIME JOB THREE DAY WEEKENDS...sorry. *ahem*) was get a bare-bones version of my site back up and running on SF. It'll be a little while before it's back to 100% but it's there and it lets people know that I'm not dead or giving up.

CW

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 9:23 am

*Whimper*

I was hit doubly over the weekend. First SF going down, and then my computer getting hacked. I still don't know the details of the latter, but seriously, I have so many legit programs running I don't know how it keeps happening. Yes, this is the THIRD time. It gets reformatted (a la roadrunner threat) on monday.

So, should anyone care to see the newest update:

http://warofwinds.comicgenesis.com/d/20060708.html

(funny thing is, this comic is impossible to reach on my mirror site because the "today" button directs to the front page, where I've placed the archive 'cause it's a mirror site...so, I'm getting smacked no matter which way I turn. C'est la vie.)

Biev · Post by **Biev** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:10 am

Um.. is it me, or is comicgenesis down at the moment as well? Obviously I don't mean the forum, but I can't access any of the comics hosted on there.

This must be a bad week for free hosts...

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:05 pm

Hey everyone, time for the good news update! SF is well on it's way back and running! It's been a hard few days, but here's a list of sites that I know of who are rebuilding after the great catastrophe of 7/06:

Talismen: Return of the Exile
Juathuur
Crimson Night
Valiant

And of course CW and myself, whose sites can be found in our sigs. It's good to be back I say! (even if only partially)

And Biev, everything seems to be working fine now on CG's end. Maybe it was just a fluke?

Biev · Post by **Biev** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:51 pm

It was down around 4 - 5am last night, but it was up and running again when I woke up. I guess no one was around to notice, so it doesn't matter.