**IMPORTANT** Changing Servers

[thereuare]

We are in the process of changing hosts and servers (actually move will take place in about 1 hour... if we're lucky).

We're making this change on account of our growth and for increased stability. This move should result in <hopefully> no errors that some received such as "Fatal Memory Error...." and the "Page Can Not Be Displayed Error" that occured at the top of ever hour when the old server needed to be reset.

We're assuming that we'll get support from our existing host which would result in little or no downtime for the board.

The next few hours will be somewhat trying for me but hopefully we'll get thru it and it will be better for all of us in the long run.

I will replace the "IMPORTANT" on the top of the page with some sort of "WELCOME TO THE NEW SERVER" message so that you know if you have been re-directed or not.

We will back-up the board's database right before we move, but please bear with us and realize that if you post a new message or reply in the next few hours we may lose it so you may have to type it again (if it's long and/or important save it to a word document and copy/paste it once the new server is running)

I'm excited about this and hopefully all will go smoothly.

It's all an attempt to make this the Better Bidding board!

[thereuare]

Welcome to our new servers!

If you're reading this message you have successfully made it to the new servers!

Please once again feel free to register, post, and utilize all of the board's features. We lost about 10 posts in the move so please feel free to re-post them if you no longer see a post you made earlier.

I think avitars should automatically come thru in the next 2-3 days so no sense in uploading them again just yet.

Thank you for everyone's patience and understanding during the last few hours and i look forward to a more robust board going forward... fewer error page, better uptime, and quicker page loads. If you notice any problems in the next few days please feel free to PM me.

Thanks again and Better Biddng to all.

[bturner13]

Congrats for doing a great job and offering a super service!! :)

[jwulf]

Congrats on the smooth transition!

This leads to the question, who pays for the server and if any forms of donations are planned / accepted. I think that the revenues generated from the ads are not high enough to cover all the costs.

[thereuare]

Well hopefully it appeared to be smooth on your end but behind the scenes it was a bit more difficult than expected. It could have been much worse and i am thankful to our new host who helped us thru the process. Still a few things to take care of but overall i'm quite happy as i have already noticed an increase in speed and stability and that was the intended goal.

I appreciate you thinking about the board's cost and expenses because it's a subject that many people don't consider (Afterall, the internet is free, right? :) ) Personally i'm not a fan of community chests, donation links, tip jars, etc as they rub me the wrong way and don't really foster a sense of community. I don't like them on websites that i visit so i don't include them here! This is also why there is not a bunch of advertisements scattered throughout the board, nor are there pop-up or pop-under ads... i don't like them when i surf so i don't want to subject our users to them either.

We're more than interested in listening to ideas anyone has on ways to increase the boards revenue (thru PM/email), but in the meantime we'll just hope that users continue to (or start to :) ) use the preferred links on the board to make their purchases when their travel plans allow.

[thereuare]

I think we're caught up and now up to speed on everything!

Only (minor) casualty i can see is that avatars (the pictures under some usernames) are missing. Well they're not really missing because the images are on the servers, but the information of which image to associate with each user is missing.

If you chose ot use an avatar please re-load it by going to MY CONTROLS and selecting "EDIT AVATAR SETTINGS" on the lower left side. If you no longer have the image you used please PM me and i will email it to you if you describe the picture you used.