Dawnette is Coming Soon!

JennaGlatzer

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I didn't want to get into details about this before it was mostly in place, so we didn't get people all excited and then have them waiting forever to see the result. But because we had downtime again tonight, I wanted to say something reassuring.

The not-so-secret secret is this:
We've bought a new server.

It is our very own, meaning that we no longer need to have a hosting company. We're not at anyone's mercy. We own the machine. (Up to now, we rented a dedicated server.) And it's a lot better machine than the one we're on now. Faster, better capacity, etc.

And as you see from the title, her name is Dawnette.

Why?

'Cause Dawno made a significant contribution toward buying it. In fact, she offered to buy it outright for us. You ever have one of those speechless moments? Servers are darn expensive. (Charlie had been suggesting that we buy our own for a while, and I was too dense to realize you could buy it on credit... for a long time, I was assuming I was going to have to come up with thousands of dollars all at once, and AW never has that kind of money just lying around. But hooray for plastic!)

Thank you so much, Dawno.

It's at the facility where it's going to live now, and CC and Fahim are working on it; our friend Scott who helped save us after the Great AW Takedown '06 has already done the initial setup stuff.

So we've been putting off doing any big purges and merges until after we get over to the new server, which should be about 20 days from now. Once we're settled in, then we take the next step. Fahim has made a script that should allow us to get rid of threads that haven't been posted on in more than a year on a board-by-board basis, without losing the rep comments and post counts that are associated with them.

All in all, we're hoping hard that the new server will mean a much smoother experience here-- no more worries about down time, errors, double posts, etc. Keep your fingers crossed (well... maybe not for 20 whole days... you might get a cramp. How about just thinking good thoughts?).

Giant thanks to everyone who's helped us take this step: everyone who's donated or supported AW by taking a class, buying an ad, etc.; Charlie, Fahim, and Scott for the research and technical work; Medievalist for overseeing the process; OFG, Silver King, and Spooky for running the auctions; and-- have I mentioned Dawno? Group hug.

:e2grouphu
 

Bartholomew

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WELL!?

Is it a Baby Windows or a Baby Linux!?
 

dclary

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This is the dawnette of the age of absquarious
age of absquarious

Absquarious!

Absquarious!


Harmony and understanding
Peace and love and posts abounding
House of love and hate united
in a single common server much much more than we deserver


Absquarious....

Absquarious!
 
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I enjoyed the times when the server went down.

It gave me time to eat and go the bathroom.

Dawnette could end up being the end of me.

Starvation and toxic poisening.

(please no applause on that)

Oh well. That's a small price to pay for freedom I guess.
 

JennaGlatzer

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Bartholomew said:
WELL!?

Is it a Baby Windows or a Baby Linux!?

:tongue Actually... I don't know. My understanding pretty much stops at "bigger and faster." Our tech geniuses (genii) can answer that when they stop in this thread!
 

Unique

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Wow.
I love this place.

Dawno -:e2salute:
 

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Great news! I should have done it sooner but this is the perfect event to make a contribution to AW. Check's in the mail first thing Monday morning!
 

Unique

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robeiae said:
Ahhhh...and we're getting a new one? Cool.

Make a donation and they might let you pick out her T-shirt. :e2brows:
 

CBeasy

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This is the best news ever! I couldn't log in last night, and I almost cried. You guys don't want to see a grown man who's also the proprietor of an insect based religion cry, do you? I'm looking forward to the new server, and the new Hooters girl, with bated breath.
 

Deleted member 42

Guys we really really really owe Dawno, Chunky, Fahim and Scott Hawkins majorly; these folks have put in lots of time and effort, because they care about AW.

You don't want to know what the kind of tech support and programming Scott and Fahim are contributing would cost.

And I don't think I have to tell you how incredibly fantastic and all around wonderful Jenna is.
 

CACTUSWENDY

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:D Such wonderful news. To all that are making this possible...thank you.
AbsoluteWrite growing up...and you were there. This is something we can tell the grandkids about.
 

SpookyWriter

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Howdy folks. Great news Jenna. Dawno is owed a big thank you! Special thanks to all the people who've made AW a success. Now we can begin posting outlandish pictures again.
 

Unique

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Uh ... spooky
I really don't mind the links. Don't be lazy. Just >click< the link and all will be well....

We don't need to be buying a server the size of a small continent.
 

K1P1

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Wonderful, wonderful! Now to go out and give rep points galore to all the helpers.
 

SpookyWriter

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Unique said:
Uh ... spooky
I really don't mind the links. Don't be lazy. Just >click< the link and all will be well....

We don't need to be buying a server the size of a small continent.
Ah, but we need to stress test the server and host so we know our limitations. :D
 

Maryn

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Wow. I mean, wow. The generosity of people with their time, money, and expertise astounds me.

As usual.

<stop smart-alec tone>Thank you all, sincerely. Incredible people. I'm honored to know you.<resume smart-alec tone>

Maryn, stingy tightwad miser, comparatively speaking