What Happened To SSV?

[DonR]

Everything works fine on my end. A big attaboy and thanks to Travis.

One suggestion, if you download and use a free pattern from the site you could donate a little to the village.

Don R

[Denny Knappen]

1 hour ago, DonR said:

Everything works fine on my end. A big attaboy and thanks to Travis.

One suggestion, if you download and use a free pattern from the site you could donate a little to the village.

Don R

Thank you Travis for the site.  I had a little trouble (forgot my password) but everything is fine.  I like Don's suggestion.

[Travis]

I want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart who used the PayPal Donate button in the sidebar of the forum to throw a few bucks my way.  That means a lot.  It really helps me offset the costs of running SSV.  It makes me feel good to know that people love this community as much as I do.  Thank you again.  You guys are awesome!

[lawson56]

Travis,Thanks for setting us all straight.I am getting use to the new SSV. It looks Great.Your doing a Fantastic job.Thank you.

[amazingkevin]

On 4/19/2017 at 11:53 PM, Travis said:

Howdy All.

So SSV looks a bit different lately.  Things aren't where they used to be, other things I can't just find.  What's going on!?  Well, let me explain for those who haven't been keeping up with the different threads scattered around SSV.  I thought I'd pull it all together in one spot, so you all know what's going on.

Last week, my hosting company sent me an email saying that SSV is taking too much server resources and they are limiting our server load.  They basically told me that I have to optimize the website so it requires less resources.  If I'm unable to comply, I'll have to upgrade my server, move my website somewhere else, or they will lock down the site.  While SSV seems like a small community, we have over 250,000 posts, 10,500 images, 6,500 members.  There usually is anywhere between 40-120 people on SSV simultaneously.  So we do use a lot of computing power.

The thought of a dedicated server is certainly appealing, however, it's tremendously expensive.  I can barely afford to keep SSV running on it's own.  And moving to a new server would take the costs of running SSV from a few hundred dollars a year, to a few thousand dollars a year.  And while SSV Supporter Badges help me offset the costs, it comes no where close to paying for a dedicated server.  Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of a large publishing company to flip the bill for us.  

So my next best move is to do my best to optimize the website the best I can.  I've cleaned up the databases and updated our PHP.  Our software is a few years out of date and inefficient.  So I had to update the forum software too.  As you can imagine, when you upgrade software, they introduce new features, remove old features, update the look and fix performance issues.  During this move, it re-arranged certain things, but I'm getting them back to their right place.  The forums are in place and work the same way as before.  They have a slightly different look, but nothing too dramatic.  The Gallery and Pattern Library is also in place.  I have some more tweeking to do to that, but it's completely functional and seems to work well.  Blogs and Chat Room are still there and work the same way.  The Articles section is still intact, however the new software treats them differently.  So I have to figure out how to organize and update them before I make them public again.  The old pages are still there, but I have to fix them to work with the new software.  After that, it's mostly cosmetic.  I have a huge list of things I'm working on.  Some have higher priority than others, but I'm getting to them as fast as I can...I promise.

This move came very sudden and I had to act quickly or risk losing SSV forever.  I drained my scroll saw fund to save the Village (I was a only couple weeks out from getting the new Jet scroll saw).  But it is worth it if we keep the lights on.  I poured my heart and soul into this community over the last 8 years.  I do not want to see it go away.  Rest assured that I will do everything I can to make SSV a great place to be.  

I've already received a number of angry emails and even one rage quit.  While I understand that things have changed, I didn't do it out of spite.  I did it to save SSV and the wonderful community we have built.  I'm just a regular guy.  I go to work every day, take care of my family, and I enjoy making sawdust in my garage whenever I can sneak away.  I'm not an expert IT guy.  Just someone who knows enough about computers to be dangerous.  I'm doing the best I can as fast as I can.  If you need to post or send me an email, take a moment to realize there is a regular person on the other side of that email doing everything he can to make it right.

I'm happy to answer any of your questions here.  Please be nice to me.  I've had a rough week.  

Minute by minute this is coming together very nice ,well done my good and faithful servant,lol

[Rockytime]

I like the NEW look! Great job!

[penquin]

Travis, have no idea what it takes to keep something like this going.  Just reading about what you are doing and handling makes me really appreciate all the work you do.  I am not a computer person but I can help cover some of the out of pocket expensive. Let me know how I can send you some funds to help offset your out of pocket. It is a small price to help keep this fun group going.  Thank you for all the work your do to keep us together.

jim mc guire

canyon country ca

[heppnerguy]

This is the most used site for me.  I make sure to donate every year because it is important to me to have contact with everyone here in The Village. I too have met several people, personally and cherish the friends I feel I have known for years. As soon as I get back home and moved to Arizona, I will take care of a donation to help out here

 

 

Dick

heppnerguy

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by heppnerguy

[Jim Finn]

I do not care if the site looks different.  I understand the need for a change.  What is troubling is I see no way to learn about the changes except by trial and error.  That is what I am trying but because I am over the age of nine, I loose patience with it.  I am still in wonder  why programmers cannot see things the way I do.  Guess i am too old.....Or they are too young.

Edited April 28, 2017 by Jim Finn