Good News and Bad News about Solarchat forum

[solarchat]

NATCA has allowed us free use and unlimited space for our fantastic forum for several years now.

I have been retired from the air traffic control biz for almost 3 years now and due to the hundreds of thousands of fake accounts, constant spam attacks, relentless bombardment of international malicious traffic and the immense workload on their IT staff to keep the forum running, we have been asked to remove solarchat from their servers. I thank them for their years of support.

I have contracted with a popular commercial hosting company, the one I already have my 16 other domain names on, to host the forum. This will involve us backing up the gigantic database and attachments folder, re-uploading them to the new server and changing all references in the code to point to the new database. I foresee loses which I will try to control. I am also having to hire a professional to do this work for us and to rewrite the code in the config files.

Having just lost our largest financial sponsor and trying to find a way to pay off the over $6000 of debt that I was left with after the break, this move couldn't have come at a worse time financially. I will have to finance this again with personal money in order to keep the forum going.

I will advise everyone a day or two ahead of time when the forum will be switched over and whatever posts are made during the switchover will probably be lost. You will be given a lot of warning. Standby for some difficulty but as usual, I assure you that I will do whatever it takes to keep this forum up and running.

The good news is that we will have full access to the server and I will not have to rely on anyone else to go look for problems.

[Derek Klepp]

Thanks for the heads up .And thanks for all your work I just wish our exchange rates were a bit more compatible .

[rxdeath]

wow. when it rains it pours.

here's my thoughts:

i think about what we would lose if this website wasn't here, and what it's worth to me and society. in that light, it's obvious what it's time to do.

i think about 1% of what i've spent on solar equipment is $-wise, then i feel disgusted i haven't done more. expect a little $bump coming your way.

thank you for making this your life, and i hope things are less difficult for you soon. they say bad things happen in 3's, i hope the last one is that you stub your toe or something much less difficult/time consuming than the first two....

[Carbon60]

A little something on it's way, Stephen.

Stu.

[Montana]

oh dear! Stephen you know we are all sad about this but we will support you through this. If you need any help just shout
Alexandra

[pedro]

Thanks for the breaking news. We will support you through this move

[Marcello]

Thanks Stephen, you are facing a very big effort of time and $ for the forum

[Valery]

We all support your efforts, Stephen.


Valery

[Valtori]

Stephen,

We support your efforts through this issue.

Val

[eroel]

Stephen:
Expect some support from all of us, and thanks for sharing this superb worldwide forum,
A big hug,
Eric.

[[whrudey]]

Hi Stephen;

We must not lose this Forum. A modest cheque will be on its way soon.

Many thanks,

Bill

[Bojan]

That's sad to hear. Luckily we have a great community here to keep this up and running. Donation coming up as well.

[solarchat]

Than you VERY much Clancy Cochran, Paul Stewart and Stuart Green for your very generous contributions to CBSAP!

http://www.solarastronomy.org has a paypal link.


If everyone could just think about making a good donation this year during the fundraiser raffle in Sept I think everything will be OK.

I don't mean to beg for money but you are all my friends and I wanted to keep you informed.

I have some other things in the works and this program will not be shut down.

[mike h]

Hi Stephen

I am a former controller myself and I know when they make a decision like this, it is end of conversation.

When It comes to supporting Solar Chat I am in. Thanks to you for keeping it going.

Mike H

[solarchat]

Thank you Lou Chiappetta, Jose Manteca and Randall Benton for your generous donation to CBSAP!