Disturbing email received today at 7:59AM, indicating possible trouble on the horizon...
Quote:
Hello, this is an automated e-mail. I've detected a potential problem on this server. You may want to look into it. Details of the problem are below.
The server load average is currently above the threshold of 5.00. The current load average is 14.19 17.13 11.04.
You are receiving this message due to the system health detector configuration.
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The server load averages in the quote above are the 1 minute average (14.19), 5 minute average (17.13) and 15 minute average (11.04).
A server load average of 1 generally means the server is running at 100% capacity, per server core. The server GC is hosted on has 4 CPU cores, so 4.0 would be the 100% capacity load average. Staying below 70% capacity is ideal, which would be a max server load average of 2.8. Going over 20.0 (5.0 per cpu core) starts setting off serious alarms and might indicate impending doom for the server (depending on what's causing the issue).
As seen in the email, 17.13 was the 5 minute average. The peak server load may have been much higher than the average. This is pretty bad.
Today's issue + the issue this thread was started about does have me concerned. I've been through this several times before, 3 times resulted in major server crashes (twice about 10 years ago and once around 4 or 5 years ago). Twice it cost me a crazy amount of work with very little sleep over a period of days. Once it was the same + nearly $2k in direct expenses to recover from the crash. Believe me, I don't look forward at all to getting that phone call at 3:00AM again.
Speaking of server crashes, they sometimes come unexpectedly so it might be good for whoever is on Twitter to follow GreekChat on that site:
http://twitter.com/#!/GreekChat In the event of a major server crash, I'll use that account to post updates & to announce when GC is back online.
Dealing with this stuff takes time & money. I can make the time available, but money is definitely an issue. One of the reasons I don't work all that much further developing GC anymore is simply because I need to constantly chase the bucks in order to get the bills paid. Times are tough and I know that it's this way for many of us.
3 million people were served by GreekChat in the last 12 months alone. I'm sure GreekChat has enough members & lurkers wanting GC to thrive that the support will be there when it's needed the most.
So, with all that in mind, I am going to:
1. Try to sort out the site finances by making premium paid subscriptions available on GreekChat for those among us who choose to support GC in that way. Free access will remain available just as it is. Paid site memberships will simply be an alternative option for those who would like to help financially support the GreekChat community. I'll do whatever I can to make premium accounts as valuable as possible, including whatever extra account functionality that I can provide. The price I have in mind is approx 10 cents per day, $39.95 per year. I'll also guarantee a 100% refund within 60 days (PayPal's refund time limit) for anyone who gets buyer's / GC supporter's remorse. More details coming soon.
2. Server rebuild is on the way with much higher capacity hardware. I already have all but 1 part of the server hardware that I'd like for this rebuild. I purchased all the parts for a server rebuild a while back, but decided not to spend so much time doing all the required legwork since things were going reasonably well with GC's current rented server. The time saved enabled me to focus on other work, but upgrading/rebuilding the server really shouldn't wait too much longer.
3. Depending on the level of support received in #1, I might be able to cut back on other work and start spending a lot more time working on GreekChat again. A very serious time commitment from me would come if support from the community membership is there. As I mentioned in #1 above, I would do whatever I can to make paid memberships as valuable as possible and would offer a 60 day 100% money back satisfaction guarantee. That last part sounds like a good sales pitch... I just want premium GC members to be happy with their choice of helping to support the site and would want to give a refund to anyone who isn't satisfied.
On the topic of advertising sales, it's easier said than done. It also might be that I enjoy developing community websites so much more than wheeling & dealing trying to sell ad space to other companies every day. I still work on it all the time, though. Advertising sales is a necessary component, but it's also difficult making enough ad sales to replace the need to ask for members to become paid supporting members. I mention this because we've discussed the topic before on GC some time ago.
Ad networks often put low quality ads on GC with no option to pre-approve only good quality or better ads. I maintain contact with 70 or so companies, but it's really tough getting even a very small fraction of them to buy ads on GC each month. I really appreciate GreekChat's advertisers, though, and it would be good for anyone who is interested to check out their offers (ads are usually up at the top of pages or on the left side). GreekYearbook has probably been GreekChat's most consistent long-term site advertiser/sponsor over the past few years and they really deserve the extra mention.
During discussions in the past it's been mentioned that I should look for a major site sponsor. I'm still looking.
Figured I would mention, though, if anyone knows of a company that wants to become a superstar to GreekChat's audience of 3 million visitors each year, please have them
contact GC.
Back to the main point of this message. It's apparent that GreekChat needs upgraded server hardware again, which means I need your support if you are able and willing to help. Please just think about it at this point and in a few days or so when I setup premium GC memberships I would hope that you have decided to become a GC supporting member.
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