We Are Moving The AW Server
Monday Night the 8th of January AW Will Be Turned OFF at 10PM Seattle WA, US Time.
We plan to turn AW back ON on Sunday January 14th, before Noon Seattle Time.
Please Don't Keep Checking to See If We're Back
We love you guys too, but every time you refresh you're slowing things down. So don't. Thankyouverymuchfrommeandallthehamsters.
The amazing Scott Hawkins (shawkins) is doing the heavy lifting of the moving the database. You should all take the time to read his book The Library At Mount Char.
Be patient. Work on your WIP. Read Scott's book (it's really good!).
WE WILL ANNOUNCE THAT WE ARE BACK WHEN WE'RE BACK
The server IP address is changing. It will take a few hours, perhaps as much as a day, for the new IP address to percolate.
Contact Points
AW IRC Chat
AW's amazing chat mods and the regs frequently gather at the IRC Chat. There's general discussion about writing, and opportunities to cheer each on while you write.
See Zanzjan's instructions on how to join AW Chat (hosted elsewhere so bookmark them NOW so you can use them later).
Twitter:
Lisa | AW Admin
MacAllister | El Jefe
AW Peeps on Twitter
Facebook
FB Page
AW Facebook Group
This is just been created; I'm still figuring it out. I'm asking people to tell me their AW Username when they sign up, so I can avoid trolls.
Y'all can post there once you join.
Email List
I've set up a small one-way only announcement list as a Google Group.
Absolute Write Announcements.
Click Apply for membership to subscribe.
It's helpful if you include your AW Username.
If you want to receive the news via email, you need to set it to send all email. Only admins and mods can send or post.
Because People Have Asked
* I'm as sure as I can be that we won't lose anything, though it may take some tinkering to make things look familiar.
We have backups.
We're temporarily paying for two servers. Yes, it's an extra cost, but it's also safer.
If you want to help with defraying costs of the move, an easy way is to subscribe via PayPal. ([email protected]). It doesn't matter how much or how little you send; as a Kind Benefactor, you'll not only help your fellow community members, you'll have access to benefits like a larger PM box and avatar.
* I've been asked why we're moving, and why now?
Several reasons:
Backup Your Data
Save the following, just in case. I've never lost user data with an upgrade, but I prefer to be extra double cautious.
Login
Make sure you know your login; Username and Password.
Write them down or use a Password managing app.
Email Address
Save your Sig
Save Your Avatar
Save Your Profile Image
Download Your Private Messages
Click Notifications
On the left under My Messages click Inbox
Scroll down almost to the bottom.
On the far left is a heading that says Download All Private Messages As:
You have a choice of three formats: XML | CSV | Text
I generally just download all three. I'm like that.
Save Rep Comments
There really isn't an official way to save Rep comments. This is a kludge, and it only works for the most recent comments.
Method 1:
Method 2:
Monday Night the 8th of January AW Will Be Turned OFF at 10PM Seattle WA, US Time.
We plan to turn AW back ON on Sunday January 14th, before Noon Seattle Time.
Please Don't Keep Checking to See If We're Back
We love you guys too, but every time you refresh you're slowing things down. So don't. Thankyouverymuchfrommeandallthehamsters.
The amazing Scott Hawkins (shawkins) is doing the heavy lifting of the moving the database. You should all take the time to read his book The Library At Mount Char.
Be patient. Work on your WIP. Read Scott's book (it's really good!).
WE WILL ANNOUNCE THAT WE ARE BACK WHEN WE'RE BACK
The server IP address is changing. It will take a few hours, perhaps as much as a day, for the new IP address to percolate.
Contact Points
AW IRC Chat
AW's amazing chat mods and the regs frequently gather at the IRC Chat. There's general discussion about writing, and opportunities to cheer each on while you write.
See Zanzjan's instructions on how to join AW Chat (hosted elsewhere so bookmark them NOW so you can use them later).
Twitter:
Lisa | AW Admin
MacAllister | El Jefe
AW Peeps on Twitter
FB Page
AW Facebook Group
This is just been created; I'm still figuring it out. I'm asking people to tell me their AW Username when they sign up, so I can avoid trolls.
Y'all can post there once you join.
Email List
I've set up a small one-way only announcement list as a Google Group.
Absolute Write Announcements.
Click Apply for membership to subscribe.
It's helpful if you include your AW Username.
If you want to receive the news via email, you need to set it to send all email. Only admins and mods can send or post.
Because People Have Asked
* I'm as sure as I can be that we won't lose anything, though it may take some tinkering to make things look familiar.
We have backups.
We're temporarily paying for two servers. Yes, it's an extra cost, but it's also safer.
If you want to help with defraying costs of the move, an easy way is to subscribe via PayPal. ([email protected]). It doesn't matter how much or how little you send; as a Kind Benefactor, you'll not only help your fellow community members, you'll have access to benefits like a larger PM box and avatar.
* I've been asked why we're moving, and why now?
Several reasons:
- Google has changed their requirements to have sites listed in search results so that only sites with https, that is sites with a certain kind of security protocol, will be listed, and sites without https will be flagged as insecure. We've been trying to schedule this for months, but it requires matching three very busy people's schedules, and some are East coast and some are West coast U.S. and all of us work.
- The database that underlies AW is huge. It's just under 12 Gigabytes. That's the space for:
- 278,977 Threads
- 9,756,426 Posts
- from 69,514 Members.
- Our ISP isn't going to support the OS on our current server much longer; we need to upgrade to a later version. We're taking the opportunity to move to a faster virtual box, with more RAM, at the same time. I'm hoping (but can't guarantee) that we'll have even fewer outages that are not weather related.
- We're going to try to rebuild the post indexes so old posts are easier to find; this is iffy, but we're going to try.
Backup Your Data
Save the following, just in case. I've never lost user data with an upgrade, but I prefer to be extra double cautious.
Login
Make sure you know your login; Username and Password.
Write them down or use a Password managing app.
Email Address
- Make sure that you are checking the email for the email address in your Profile.
- Click Settings
- Scroll down to My Account on the left
- Click Edit Email and Password to verify that you're using a current, active email address.
- See FAQ: Changing the Email Address Associated with your AW Account
Save your Sig
- Click Settings
- Scroll down to My Settings on the left
- Click Edit Signature
- Copy your sig somewhere safe; you could email it to yourself. Copy it exactly; including the BB codes
Save Your Avatar
- Click Settings
- Scroll down to My Settings on the left
- Click Edit Avatar
- Right Click (Windows) or Control-Click (macOS) your Avatar and Save As ... to download your avatar to your local hard drive.
Save Your Profile Image
- Click Settings
- Scroll down to My Settings on the left
- Click Edit Profile Picture
- Right-click the image (Control-click on macOS) and Save As... to download the picture to your local hard drive.
Download Your Private Messages
Click Notifications
On the left under My Messages click Inbox
Scroll down almost to the bottom.
On the far left is a heading that says Download All Private Messages As:
You have a choice of three formats: XML | CSV | Text
- XML = readable in a Web browser
- CSV = Comma delimited file; intended to import into a spreadsheet
- Text = plain text
I generally just download all three. I'm like that.
Save Rep Comments
There really isn't an official way to save Rep comments. This is a kludge, and it only works for the most recent comments.
Method 1:
- Click Settings
- Right click or Control-click (macOS) in the Rep comments area and choose Save As... from the pop-up menu.
Method 2:
- Click Settings
- From the File menu of your Web browser, choose Save Page As...
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Here's to no headaches....
