Spacer X Stories: Website Updates

While perusing the image galleries for "6 Times" images, I have come across an issue.

I do like the new image galleries, very nice art.

I have not been able to open the thumbnail links of chapters 70 through 73 galleries, the images of chapters 69 and 74 through 77 seem to access perfectly.

I thought that you would add that to the list of things to investigate

Thanks,

Mick

There have been issues with the servers that we were on. The ending result although they were solving the issues, email was down for quite a few websites that I admin. When they reboot, because of the size of the server it takes almost 14 hours to do a FSCK (file system check) of the system. Normally we don't have that many issues and because of that they moved us to a different server.

During the move they encountered some issues in the database. After 2-3 attempts of trying to move the data they had to shut down the account. That was what the suspension message everyone was seeing. They shut down the account which shuts down access to all scripts, databases, etc. This lets them move it and find issues easier.

When there are issues or you can't visit the website. Remember the best place for status updates is Spacer X's blog located here:
http://storiesonline.../ablog/Spacer_X

I was told that people were worried it was because of something else. Just to alleviate concerns, just because something is suspended it does not mean bills aren't paid, something happened. It is just the easy way to temporarily disable access, sort of like shutting off the power to a house.

There is some confusion on why a simple or different message that says "Sorry we're still here, come back later" or something couldn't be put up. Without getting too technical, I'll try to explain it in simple terms. For those who don't care and just happy it is back up, no need to continue reading:


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Websites are like houses. IP/Domains are like the address to the house and of course the Internet is the big super highway. When you visit a website like www.joesmoe.com you are actually visiting an IP like 34.236.23.129, however a DNS (domain name server) translates that IP into www.joesmoe.com so you know what the address is.

When someone moves servers or they move their domain to another company your IP will change. You need to poulate all the Domain Name Servers with the new IP and associate it with your domain, this process takes 24-48 hours. You can't just flip a switch and boom the internet now knows how to get to your new website or server.

Think of a website like a house. In order to move the house, ensure that nothing is going to go wrong they have to shut off the power. That is the equivalent to what "suspend an account" does. You can't just leave the power on in one room, the room that has a sign that says "Sorry database issues". Otherwise you could risk electrocution, damaging other things during the move. You can't just put a sign on the street in front of the house either. The internet is like a highway but you can't stop before you are at the door to a house, the highway takes you directly to the house. Putting up sign up doesn't do any good unless you redirect traffic to it. That is what DNS (domain name servers) do. In order to do that, it requires 24-48 hours to populate every DNS server across the net. So 24-48 hours you'll finally see the sign that says "Sorry database issues". By then the issue is usually fixed, which means to redirect the highway back to the house it will take another 24-48 hours.
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Why do I see Error Messages like: 401 Error or 203, etc then?

Those places still have the power on. That means they either have a broken window, door or something is not set up. The website still has power though. In those situations you can create custom error messages and put up an error sign because the house is still there with power. The above situation though there isn't a real easy way to do that.

Has anyone been experiencing a problem logging on using the Mirror Link. For the last week I've been trying to check updates thru it and to no avail. Finally came in thru clubetchi. DaveB209

Let's talk about copyright issues and drawing the wrong attention to the website.

There are a couple issues that will need to be dealt with sooner or later. Spacer uses a lot of copyright images to create his stories. However for most cases there is sufficient enough modifications to them that they could be considered "fair-use" in their applications. On top of that since we aren't a member site charging admission, we aren't doing it as a profit and taking money away from the copyright holders. In most cases smaller websites like this don't tend to draw attention and since they aren't hurting business for other sites, they tend to get overlooked.

I've been looking for a new server to host 6Times mainly because my server has changed policies. They do not allow adult content on their servers. Most of it not known mainly because to view a lot of it requires signing up to the forums. There are usually no public links, although they have been cropping up more and more unfortunately. I found a site but there are some complications with a few other domains that I need to take care of and the content of this website.

Let me explain a couple things about URL links and images. When you upload a picture, file to a website it essentially becomes a part of that website. In most cases small uploads are ok, the more you add the more bandwidth and space gets used up.

Recently there has been a lot of linking and posting of images using [ img ] tags. In most cases that is usually fine for various things. However copyright laws tend to be a touchy subject for some people. For adult content a lot of pictures are member photo's that get distributed or someone may link from another website. When you link an image like that, their server can basically trace it back to where it is being viewed at. If they notice a larger bandwidth increase, they tend to look at their logs and would for example see Image A being used at http://www.spacerswebsite.com.

One method of security is websites tend to move images a frequently, rename them or after awhile move them to a more secure place and shut down the link. That usually results in broken images.

Another method though if they notice it a lot and the website or company feels that you are taking viewers or business away from them... they will shut down websites by sending a "Cease and Desist" type of action to the server. Most server companies to avoid issues will immediately shut down the site.

Now this tends to happens a lot to Blogs. Mostly because most Blog websites aren't exactly what I would call constructive websites. A lot of them don't offer anything new other than a person's opinions and then they relink or regurgitate other images, videos from other websites. In some cases that can bring the main website business but there is a fine line.

There are ways to circumvent this however.

1) Be aware of where the image came from. If you are posting a link/image from a members only website chances are you will get their attention.

2) Website lock-down. That comes in a couple formats:

• No copyright images or videos are allowed. Uploading from members isn't allowed.
  
• There are no public viewing of anything. This would let people upload images, not link though, however in order to read stories, view pictures they would have to register and log into the forums.

These are just some things to think about. And some things Spacer and crew is going to have to discuss to figure out what direction they will need to go.

Is there anyone that has any experience with FreeBSD, Apache, mySQL, etc? I'm having some issues that I need some help with for the website.

Thank you.

I'm happy to announce that Part 77 of Six Times a Day has been posted. Here's the link:

http://six.clubetchi.../6times/part-77

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you'll share your thoughts on it at the forums. Here's a thread where you can leave your thoughts:

http://six.clubetchi...art-77-reviews/