Welcome back everyone. If any of you tried to visit us late
last week, you may have noticed something funny. The site didn’t exist for a
few days. Thanks to a server glitch, we were down on Wednesday afternoon, all
day Thursday, all day Friday, and Saturday morning (with a few flickers on
Saturday evening and Sunday evening).
This was not the result of anything I had done wrong. The
blame rests with my host server. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how
the internet operates, a website is just a collection of files contained in a
folder or a set of folders. These files are written in a code that your web
browser translates and displays. In order for web browsers to access these
files, the folders have to be kept on a computer that is turned on and
connected 24 hours a day. These computers are called servers. It’s too
expensive and inefficient for each website owner to own and operate their own
server, so we rent space on a server that is owned by a hosting company.
So last week, my server crashed and needed to be rebuilt and
reloaded. There is never a good time for something like this to happen, but
last week was especially lousy for a couple of reasons:
1.) I’ve recently started buying advertising. Now, new readers
who have only just found Lepus Studios from my new ads are going to wonder if
my site is unreliable.
2.) I’ve recently started selling advertising. I had to
suspend all the ads I was selling until the matter was resolved. As a result,
I’ve sort of had to start over with my sponsors. My web ads are not commanding
the prices they used to. Last week, I was earning 3 to 5 cents per ad each day.
Now I’m back to 0 to 2 cents. It’s a sad day when you need to work your way
back up to 5 cents.
3.) I was invited to draw another guest comic for the
SuperFogeys. (This time, it’s for their fifth anniversary celebration. Twelve
different artists are each drawing a wacky chapter summary. Here’s my
contribution: http://superfogeys.webcomicsonline.com/2011/09/26/chapter-3-the-techno-shuffle-recap-by-marjorie-rishel/)
When people read guest comics that they like, they often want to visit the
guest artist’s site. If my site isn’t working, I could miss my chance to draw
in new readers. Luckily, the site repairs were finished on time for my part of
the event, but it was a close shave.
4.) Did anyone read the latest Urban Underbrush? That week’s
comic brought us to a fairly important point in the story where I spelled out
some fairly important character information. (I got to draw people making out).
I would rather people not have missed that.
I’m not too angry at my hosts over the server crash. I
understand that accidents like this are unavoidable (Murphy’s law and all
that). I am a little annoyed by the way they handled it. They did not notify
any of their customers about the crash and have yet to make an effort to
compensate us for the time we lost (time that we paid for.) My server contract
runs out in March. Unless these guys do something to really impress me in the
next five months, I’m backing my bags and heading for greener pastures and
bluer waters
-Marj
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