It's been a while since our last chat. We faced a downtime starting April 1st, 2022, and have faced challenges getting back online. A major obstacle was Amazon's end-of-life announcement for some instances we used to host Codex. Ideally, we should've migrated everything before the shutdown. Unfortunately, and true to form, we missed the deadline amidst our hectic schedules. I assure you, I've been consistently nudging @Hydrogen to help, but it proved more work than any of us could manage.
So, what's the situation now? Well... Welcome to my basement! Yes, if you're reading this, it's hosted on a server rack right here.
Spoiler
Fun fact: I've named the server "Ambrosia" - that's intentional, not a typo. Probably one of the few times that word gets used correctly on this site.
We are ditching the reliability and feature-rich environment of Amazon's web hosting platform. Instead, we're relying on my ability to pay power bills, not trip over extension cables, and the blazing fast speeds that Starlink satellite internet provides in rural Canada. Now, I know the obvious question here is going to be, "Why?" lol. I took this route for a couple of reasons. The biggest of which is that we can stop paying for Amazon's services, which have been bleeding our dear @Hydrogen for months, if not years. We stopped being profitable and began to slowly eat away into any profits we did make. This hosting solution is just going to add a few bucks to my power bill, and that's about it. I already had these server blades handy.
Our next challenge was getting Codex compatible with Ubuntu 20.04. Surprisingly, we've been running on outdated tech: PHP5.3 (EOL in August 2014), lighttpd 1.4.41 (from 2016), and scripts in Python 2.7.10 (EOL in early 2020). We are old. To feel time's passage even more, see how old the kids of long-time members like @Strategist have become! (Apologies, Mike, but not really.)
Now, here's our plan:
- Reactivate the programs! I'm not just addressing issues with Abrosia or Neopets logins; I need the entire backend operational. Expect this to span a few weeks.
- Upgrades are crucial. Given our old tech stack, while I've set up some safeguards, true internet security demands up-to-date systems: new OS, current PHP, updated forum software, and so on. It's ambitious, but it's a necessity.
Now, I have a request: I need your help and patience.
Alright, that should be everything for now. This message is probably longer than it needs to be, but it is what it is. We will likely need some additional help around here. We've been gone for so long that it feels quite daunting. Some of us are still around on Discord; just see the link in the header and come on over. We're happy to chat with y'all.
Take care!
Cody - Neocodex Hosting Provider / Admin
PS. Yes, I did use ChatGPT to go over this post... I suck at this shit...
Now when I get really lonely, I can just go in the server room and sleep beside the server rack.
