Stating the Obvious...

MrEff · Post by **MrEff** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 3:25 pm

Well it seems sites hosted on CG are down now.... which with the massive backlog that was building up I'm not surprised it happened...

But unlike the rest of you schleps my fans are actually ecstatic that there's no comic today... you see they in fact hate me and threaten my very life (not to mention the life of my cat) everytime I put up a new comic...

So in fact CG has saved my life today!

-MrEff-

Whiterabbit · Post by **Whiterabbit** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 3:59 pm

Wow, things are pretty bad right now... My update from Friday still hasn't gone through...

::sigh::

And the stat chart is a result of the server problem too? THANK GOD! For days, I was biting my nails, thinking that my readership had dropped to a third of the previous month's! That's quite a load off of my mind.

As a free service, I have to say that CG has done very well by me so far, and hopefully this server issue will be resolved with all due haste. I'll just close with:

Well done Tech!

Down with management!

^_^

Amtekoth · Post by **Amtekoth** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 5:31 pm

montyandwoolley wrote:To be fair, comic genesis isnt normally down - and since we pay nothing for this, we can't really complain about the occasional outage! They are working as hard as they can to get everything back to normal!

Over the last few weeks, it hasn't been 'occasional', it's been frequent. The higher-ups have tied Kisai's hands, so SHE may be doing all she can, but THEY are not. We end up losing readership that we have spent time and money (ads on other sites cost real money and they are pointing to a default page) building.

And those big obnoxious ads above our comics generate quite a bit of money for the CG owners. Those are pro ads being served, not other webcomics. Those companies pay a LOT to have them there. If YOU or I paid for a domain name and hosting and then got one of those ads on our site, it would pay a LOT more than the monthly hosting fees.

Kojika · Post by **Kojika** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 5:50 pm

Oh...I totally scared myself there for a second! I'm soo glad I finally know what's going on, if only a little! I didn't even realize there was a problem wih CG until earlier today. Two days ago the site hosting my shoutbox went MIA, and I had a fan inform me of that (she goes on just to play in that, I swear!) so I fianlly got that problem resolved and went to go redo the site. Once I got it uploaded though...suddenly, I couldn't access the site anymore O.o I thought it might have bene just me (thought that with the shoutbox problem, too. I have a 56k dial-up modem and a kinda-outdated MAC...so, it doesn't surprsed meh when things don't work...). But, that same fan just told me she couldn't access the site either O.o

so, then it came to going to CG's main site, that also isn't loading on my computer (is it down, too? or is my computer just that much a piece of crap!)...fortuatnely, I had the forums saved in favorites!

Anywyas...I've been really happy with CG so far..but, I wish it had been easier to find out what's going on...

good luck on getting everything fixed~! this site is too good to fall so easily X3

MrEff · Post by **MrEff** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 7:37 pm

Amtekoth wrote:
montyandwoolley wrote:To be fair, comic genesis isnt normally down - and since we pay nothing for this, we can't really complain about the occasional outage! They are working as hard as they can to get everything back to normal!
Over the last few weeks, it hasn't been 'occasional', it's been frequent. The higher-ups have tied Kisai's hands, so SHE may be doing all she can, but THEY are not. We end up losing readership that we have spent time and money (ads on other sites cost real money and they are pointing to a default page) building.

And those big obnoxious ads above our comics generate quite a bit of money for the CG owners. Those are pro ads being served, not other webcomics. Those companies pay a LOT to have them there. If YOU or I paid for a domain name and hosting and then got one of those ads on our site, it would pay a LOT more than the monthly hosting fees.

Amen...

-MrEff-

Kels · Post by **Kels** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 7:48 pm

There's the thing about those big ugly ads that Amtekoth mentions. If this sort of thing keeps up, it's only going to hurt CG's owners as the advertisers start to notice their hits plummeting. Why would they want to keep paying for ads on a site that doesn't get them anything? We're getting hurt now, CG itself will soon be taking a hit in the credibility if this keeps up, and the owners will end up costing themselves money. That's not good for anyone, I think.

Guardsman · Post by **Guardsman** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:13 pm

Kel has a very strong point there, this situation hurts everybody not just us authors who do this mostly as a hobby. I don’t speak for every one when I say that though, don’t hold that “generalization” ageist me. I do it as a hobby, but also as a skill building project to develop my own skills.

Regardless, getting back to the point, I very sincerely hope this gets resolved shortly as I have another update scheduled for Tuesday. If I miss two in a row my readership, sparse as they are, will decided to stop coming which would be a shame. All of my hope lies with who ever is in charge of the situation, may luck be with you in resolving these dire events!

/emo off

Ronald_MacK · Post by **Ronald_MacK** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:34 pm

Ha, serves me right. I don't update for over a week and the one night I stay up late and get the comic done... I can't update. Oh well, I'll do it in the afternoon if I can.

I'm behind you CG programming corps, I know you folks are trying your best.

Paoken · Post by **Paoken** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:21 am

Hey...I can log into the FTP thing...but the site is still down...is this a good sign?

Anyhow. Thought I would throw my hat into the ring of borked users. Please get everything up again...I just found and fixed a major problem with my site.

I would love you...forever...perhaps

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:59 am

Amtekoth wrote:Over the last few weeks, it hasn't been 'occasional', it's been frequent. The higher-ups have tied Kisai's hands, so SHE may be doing all she can, but THEY are not. We end up losing readership that we have spent time and money (ads on other sites cost real money and they are pointing to a default page) building.

And those big obnoxious ads above our comics generate quite a bit of money for the CG owners. Those are pro ads being served, not other webcomics. Those companies pay a LOT to have them there. If YOU or I paid for a domain name and hosting and then got one of those ads on our site, it would pay a LOT more than the monthly hosting fees.

*Nods*

They provide us a free service, great. In return, we provide them a free service. It's a mutually beneficial relationship.

So long as the servers work and most folks keep updating their comics, it's all good. But without the servers working, no one benefits.

Moonshadow · Post by **Moonshadow** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:24 am

I'm really quite disappointed in this series of outages, too, since they started up right around the same time I started a heavier promotion of my comic this year... I can't see if my promo work has given me any results, and I've probably barely brought anyone new in with all the outages.

I'm NOT blaming anyone on this, really... I'm sticking around, but I'm gonna be another one of those building a mirror to use until things are fixed. (Though, when it starts purring again, I'll probably forget that mirror exists. :) )

Tarts · Post by **Tarts** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:46 am

Wow. Just when I uploaded my first comic in two weeks.

Oh well. I'll just sit here like a good boy and wait for CG to wake up.

Montyandwoolley · Post by **Montyandwoolley** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:05 am

having said that lol, every time it comes back up it goes straight back down! - And having launched my new comic now, its getting very hard to keep any readers

i started off well, but ive had like one view this month now. - Slowly losing my will to stay here

Drowemos · Post by **Drowemos** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:13 am

Well here is an idea. If the people in charge aren't going to listen to us perhaps they will listen to their advertizers. Adspace on Comic Genesis comes from Burst Media:

http://www.burstmedia.com/about/index.asp?page=contact

Try writing them a letter. Perhaps if the main adverizers on Comic Genesis ask "what is going on?" then those severs we have been talking about will materialize out of the either.

Tarts · Post by **Tarts** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:13 am

montyandwoolley wrote:having said that lol, every time it comes back up it goes straight back down! - And having launched my new comic now, its getting very hard to keep any readers i started off well, but ive had like one view this month now. - Slowly losing my will to stay here

Breathe, man, breathe! CG's gonna stop being broke'd sooner or later. Relax.

Sphix · Post by **Sphix** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:56 am

Tarts wrote:
montyandwoolley wrote:having said that lol, every time it comes back up it goes straight back down! - And having launched my new comic now, its getting very hard to keep any readers i started off well, but ive had like one view this month now. - Slowly losing my will to stay here
Breathe, man, breathe! CG's gonna stop being broke'd sooner or later. Relax.

Breathing is overrated. FURY IS AWESOME.

Amtekoth · Post by **Amtekoth** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:08 am

Perhaps the several thousand creators around here could write to:

Keenspot@keenspot.com

and request some help.

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:35 am

drowemos wrote:Well here is an idea. If the people in charge aren't going to listen to us perhaps they will listen to their advertizers. Adspace on Comic Genesis comes from Burst Media:

http://www.burstmedia.com/about/index.asp?page=contact

Try writing them a letter. Perhaps if the main adverizers on Comic Genesis ask "what is going on?" then those severs we have been talking about will materialize out of the either.

In all likelihood, the amount of money CG gets from ads is determined at least partially by clickthrough--which means that the sites being down is already hurting them financially without anyone bugging the advertisers personally.

Of course, if they're getting less money, that means less money for servers, and further pissiness from the advertisers isn't going to help matters any. (Presumably they *want* money, and so are going to do whatever it takes to get everything running properly again so that they can keep getting clickthroughs.)

I doubt it's that they're not listening to us so much as that they have ideas of what to do and how to fix this, and they're just not bothering to share them with us. Of course they want to fix it, since a broken system isn't going to benefit them. But it's largely a matter of how and when and how much.

Amtekoth wrote: Perhaps the several thousand creators around here could write to:

Keenspot@keenspot.com

and request some help.

Other than deluging someone with mail, how would that help?

"Comicgenesis seems to be down."

"Yes, it is."

"How do I make it work?"

"You can't, only we can, and we're trying to fix it. Now excuse me while I go repeat this conversation with 1,000 other people, instead of actually working on the server problem."

That doesn't seem like it'd get us very far, though maybe I'm completely missing something obvious? Yes, it'd let them know that people are concerned, but I would kind of assume that they already know that...

Montyandwoolley · Post by **Montyandwoolley** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:40 am

Sphix wrote:
Tarts wrote:
montyandwoolley wrote:having said that lol, every time it comes back up it goes straight back down! - And having launched my new comic now, its getting very hard to keep any readers i started off well, but ive had like one view this month now. - Slowly losing my will to stay here
Breathe, man, breathe! CG's gonna stop being broke'd sooner or later. Relax.
Breathing is overrated. FURY IS AWESOME.

*stomps on some buildings godzilla style!* RAWR!!

Post by **STrRedWolf** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:41 am

Folks, just hold on. Kisai and I are working on the servers, trying to get it back up. At worse, I'll get back on tonight to get the server stablized again at the expense of the webstats, which I'll try to keep archived.