clintthayer

Busy here... lots of "getting ready for the baby" activities around my house but not much biking. I am trying to lose weight during this slower racing season and it seems to be working... lost about 3 pounds last month.

Hope everyone is doing well.

-Clint
"soon to be dad"

DnvrFox

If it was a lost post, how do we know about it?

Hey, I am doing pretty good, mileage wise, IMHO!

Of course, no one beats Chris. He just eats those miles up!

notsofast

Ok you, no picking on the bad typist...LOL!

I'm having a good season and should turn 1,000 ( season total ) miles this week.

WOOHOO Let's hear it for summer.

DnvrFox

Good for you, I just hit 2,000 for the year! Hope to get 4,000 miles.

BeTheChange

I just joined the team. I meant to do it a while ago but I'm a procrastinator. What a great idea.

Chris L

Actually, Supcom's been running me pretty close in the latest challenge, and this when I'm riding in the good weather (i.e. winter). I might have to pull my finger out soon.

TXCiclista

Haha. I saw that Gary. About crapped my pants. My wife knows about our "wager" and laughed when I logged on and simply said "Oh no. He's ahead." Looks like you covered a lot of ground. I may be in trouble since I'm having my rear wheel rebuilt and this is the last week to finish our move. May not get a whole lot of time on the bike this week Gonna have to work EXTRA hard next week I guess Take care Gary and thanks for getting me going again

TXCiclista

GREAT idea on the TdF challenge Clint

clintthayer

Thanks, but it was Chris L. idea... I just put some things in motion. I think I'm having as much fun watching the challenge on activebody as I am watching the tour.

I really think someone needs to beat Chris...

Chris L

So do I. My miles were a little slack in June.

notsofast

July is almost up! Lets get in those final miles. I need another 20ish miles to top last years July total.
BTW Carl I rode 77 miles last night in an effort to gain some of that 99 miles you had up on me again It was tough to do on a workday too.

TXCiclista

Aw man I was just starting to get comfortable with my lead too

Great work though...

willic

Which area of England you moving to Sarah (bet its the South) I could do with a female companion on my cycle rides....

bertt

bertt

Is anyone else having a hard time getting into the ActiveBody site? I have tried for 2 days with no luck.

clintthayer

Hey Bertt,

Delete your cookies and try again.

Clint

bertt

Thanks Clint

DnvrFox

Instead of deleting all of my cookies, could you give me a clue about the name of the Activebody.org cookie?

Is is something simple like "Activebody.org?"

I can't get on either

PriO

Whoa I didnt know BF had a club. Im gonna join up right now

clintthayer

Hey everyone,

Seems my ISP (lunarpages.com) thought I was using too much server resources for the type of account I have and is in the process of moving it over to a different server. I will have more details soon but please understand that I'm doing my best to get the site back up as fast as possible.

During this process, if you see others having questions about the site, please point them to this thread as I will keep you all updated here.

Sorry for the problems and I hope to have you all back in ASAP,
Clint Thayer

Barren

What type of server were you hosting on? I have a win2k box on the net hosting a couple sites... I'm also in WI. I don't have perl or anything other than asp running on my server at the moment though.

clintthayer

The site uses PHP and mySQL to create the "magic" you all know and love. I very much thank you for the option to use your server but my first goal is to create a solution that is as stable as I can make it (so I don't have to do this all the time). Perhaps an activebody user is also the owner of a ISP and will donate the server and space???

As I see it, the site is reaching that critical mass where it can't "live" in an account that is in the range of $10 a month. The next level up at the current ISP is $39 a month and will give the users (and the site) a great deal more processing power, space, and bandwidth to grow into a site we all really want it to. The good news is the site is growing, the bad news is that means I'm having to pay more then I expected (at least I didn't expect it so soon). Will it remain free? Yes... without a doubt. But with the added cost there are going to have to be some small changes... here is what I will propose to users once the site goes live again, please read it over and give me your thoughts… Just like the site, I welcome your ideas, and insights…

The Idea...
Model the site like NPR (National Public Radio) where the site is partly funding by the users themselves, but still free to all.

The Details...
The site will now cost about $500 a year to run (up from about $100 a year). I will pledge the following to help keep the site up and running:
* $250 (an increase of $150 a year)
* Domain reg fees
* My time to upgrade, help users, and maintain the site

What can users do to help? Donate the remaining amount (~$250) each year. I foresee having two "pledge drives" a year where I beat the drum trying to raise the remaining amount. If users donate the full $250 in the first day, the donate button disappears from the site, only to return the next year to try and drum up funding. The power is in your hands.

What Will Happen if the Money is Not Raised?
Well... Sadly we will have some not so nice options... The site will start using banner ads (I'm not a fan of banner adds), go to a lower level of account and cap users (REALLY not a fan), or have to be shut down or go to a pay to play (I think you know how I feel about that).

So give me your thoughts... would you support the site if I meet you half way? Now is the time to speak your mind.

ajkloss42

I can certainly skip drinking one Singapore Sling a month to support activebody.org. That's at least $60 each year. I get the impression your current ISP yanked the plug surprising you and everyone else; if that's true (and I'm sure you already are) if I were you I'd not be including them in my long term plan.

clintthayer

Thanks for your support!

It was very much a surprise to this admin and have had about 3 phone conversations with them about the business rule. They mentioned that prior to a few months ago they would just suspend the account... now they off the account over to a temp server which gives admins the ability to get something up to alert users. In our case it took a little longer then expected to get things set up on a temp server.

On one hand I can see their side of it... they have one account that is taking more resources on a shared server and you want to keep the majority of users happy by keeping the server stable, but on the flip side I was not pleased with the "no warning" style of account management.

In the end I've enjoyed my contract and service with Lunarpages and would recommend them to others (as I have with friends and family in the past). Though I will alwasy give them warning about this type of situation in the future.

Finding a good ISP is tough work... I've used about 3 so far and really don't want to go on the market looking for another. If things stablize in the near future I don't see any reason to jump ship and cause yet another delay in service to the users.

Cheers,
Clint

Barren

Well, I would donate to the cause. I keep forgetting to upgrade my account here.. gotta do that as well..

I do have MS SQL running on my server. And a fair bit of bandwidth available, I host my blog and then the local sports car club pages right now.. basically a place for me to host all my pictures. And my blog is sql backended.

I host it at my brothers company in Milwaukee.. they are a software developer and do some hosting as well.. I'll shoot him an email and see what he thinks. Maybe he has a box that he will rent out for a cheap price. He's a cyclist too!