An update from Todd:
http://www.mhvf.net/index.html
September 28, 2004 — Update: Gang, this has been a very difficult struggle. We still don't have a stable server, and I continue to troubleshoot to find a resolution to our multiple problems. If worse comes to worse, I may have to move us to a new server, or possibly to a completely different hosting company. I will make a decision over the next couple of days. Until our server is stable, I can't begin restoring our old data because all would be lost (again) if we crash or if the server needs to be wiped clean with a fresh system install.
If you've emailed me since this update page went up, it was wiped out when the server went down again, so please retransmit. (If you requested a physical address for forwarding a donation and I didn't respond, please email your request again.) Please use the email address
mhvfupdates@gmail.com, which I'll use as a gap address so I'm not unreachable as our server goes in and out of service as we troubleshoot or relocate the Web site. I'll also be crossposting these updates to an update blog I've started at
mhvf.blogspot.com in case readers would like up-to-date progress reports during server downtime.
For those who've made donations, I sincerely appreciate it. Rest assured that if the ultimate outcome of these server problems and data loss is that we go gently into that good night, you'll be refunded your contribution in full. Your continued patience (and faith) is appreciated! -- Todd
September 26, 2004 — Update: The extremely generous outpouring of contributions to help us tackle our server issues and fund our Web site for another year of operation has stunned me. We have further to go to reach our goal (I'll post a tally when I can find the time), but the rate of contributions over these past few days has been tremendously encouraging. Thank you so much for your help. It would be time-consuming to personally contact every contributor right now, but I sincerely thank everyone who's donated for your generous contributions and thoughtful notes of support. The wonderful people of this community continue to amaze me, and it's that type of spirit that gives me the resolve to restore the server and forum back to normal as soon as possible.
It's not been easy so far. I've spent much of the past three days going 'round and 'round with our hosting company about hard drive leasing fees and exorbitant "setup" fees they've charged us to leave our old drive slaved to our server for data recovery. We're being charged for the additional drive as if it were a hard drive add-on, even though we're only using it temporarily for data recovery. I was finally able to convince them yesterday morning to waive the setup fee that's typically assessed for hard drive additions, but it took a long time (and a lot of passing-the-buck navigation) until I was finally able to find a customer support person who could make that decision for us. The red tape and communication difficulties have been extremely frustrating.
While all this was happening, our server continued to have corruption problems, as I wasn't able to mount the slaved data drive to access it. The hosting company suspects faulty server RAM is causing this, so the RAM is scheduled to be replaced sometime today to ensure that the corruption doesn't recur. Assuming that works and I'm able to mount the recovery drive, I'll begin the process of recovering our data. At this point it's looking like midweek at the earliest before there's a realistic chance that things will be back to normal (assuming there's no difficulty in recovering the data), but I'll keep you posted as I have updates.
I've restored our affiliate links so readers can continue to support us during our downtime, which is crucial to the survival of our Web site.
Thanks for your patience and your support, and please feel free to email me with questions or concerns. -- Todd
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September 23, 2004
Howdy gang,
If you suspect that something horribly terrible has gone wrong with good ol' Mobius, I'm afraid you're exactly right.
We lost our server system a few days ago. It's fried. Kaput. Deader than dogmeat. Gone to the sweet hereafter. The good news is we've got a fresh new drive in place with a fresh new system install (daaaang, doesn't this baby run swift when there's no data to serve?), but the bad news is our previous data has yet to be recovered.
I think the chances are good that we'll be able to perform a full recovery from the old drive that cratered, but obviously that will take some time — at least into the weekend, probably longer. (And keep in mind I'm a working stiff just like you, and my job is insanely busy right now!) Given the incredible forum archive we held, I feel it's worth the trouble to try to recover every scrap of data possible, so I would sincerely appreciate your patience as I work hard to accomplish this.
This server crash came at a particularly bad time for us financially. Cash flow completely sucks right now; we were preparing to kick off our annual campaign to raise operating funds for the next year, and payments from many of our affiliates from past months are still in the pipeline. I literally have less than $100 in MHVF's coffers right now, and that won't come close to paying our server bill, which is due a week from today, not to mention the fees for replacing our drive, due at the same time.
If you were planning on contributing to our fundraising campaign this year, we could really use your donation early to help us get over this hump. Our suggested donation amount is $25 — the typical retail cost of one US DVD — but of course pledges of any amount would be gratefully accepted. We'll need a minumum of 10 to 15 dontations by Thursday the 30th to cover those two immediate invoices.
Our PayPal link is below, which accepts credit card and check contributions, but if you'd prefer to send a check or whatever through snail mail, please feel free to email me at
webmaster@mhvf.net for our address.
I'll also repost our affiliate links to Poker Industries, Amazon.com, etc. later tonight so you can continue to use them as we work on the recovery.
I really apologize for the downtime and inconvenience. I'm extremely frustrated that this happened, but hey, nothing's perfect, and mechanical things fail. It still really sucks. But I hope to have our data fully recovered and restored as soon as possible. I'll post updates here as I have them.
I deeply appreciate our loyal readers and supporters, and appreciate the special community Mobius has become with our 5+ years presence on the Web. There's no way Mobius is down for the count. We shall live!
Thank you,
Todd Harbour
(Exhausted) Founder & Webmaster
MHVF.NET
P.S. If there are any experienced server admin studs out there who'd like to offer their help, please email me!
Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:06 pm