7/27/2011

Some updates

First, i would like to thank everyone who showed interest in taking over the idb database. I have 
not responded to anyone, was I am quite busy during the week. However, as I mentioned, we would be
giving priority to jellyneo/pinkpt if they showed interest in taking the database over. Jelly has
requested for the database, so if we were to give the database to anyone, it would be to them. Mike
has already proposed on having one of the site's staff to take over idb.

No decisions are made yet, but those are the most like paths that we will follow. So thanks again
to everyone else who showed interest. 

7/26/2011

OK. so what happened to IDB?

Simply: Our host went bankrupt 
and provided 0-day notice to it's customers. 

I had a secondary service that performs backups for idb, but sadly, I had it with
the same host. This would have worked had our host had any decency to give even a single
day of notice that they were going bankrupt.

The day before they went bankrupt, our host sent an email to everyone that they needed to
raise prices because their provider (a data-center) suddenly raised prices on them. It turns
out this was a lie, and our host has not paid their bills, because they had a horrible business
plan. Instead of using that time to allow for their customers to take their files and run, they lied
about needing to raise prices in a last ditch effort to save their butts.

Sadly, they didn't even have the time they thought they did, and their provider pulled the plug on
all their servers, taking iDB down with it, including our backup server.

In the last couple of weeks, another host was trying to buy the company that hosted us, and at some 
point, it seemed like it gonna go through. The other host sent the papers for our old host to sign.
2-weeks later, there has been no response from the old host, and it seems they've gone AWOL.

Our data is still possibly in the servers, but sadly, we cannot gain access to them that's just how
resellers work.

So what's the plan?

I have not played neopets for more than a decade. I've only kept idb up because for the most part, it
doesn't require much maintenance from me. It's mostly maintained by our ever-so-helpful IDB staff.

To restore idb this time would take a lot of work, and something I don't really have the motivation to do.
So with this, i'm sad to say, this is an end of the an era for IDB.

Is that really it?
Well, it seems like we do have a backup of our database (and possibly our application code). It's not very recent
(could be as old as Nov 2010, but I may have one that's more recent)

We don't want to waste all the information, so we would like to open it up to other neopets fansites. 
We are only opening up the items database (and possible challengers database), depending on how much work
i'd have to put in to package it up.

You will only get the database tables, not the application code. So you will have to implement the application
for displaying the data yourself. We're only going to provide the database to 1 or 2 fansites, qualifications are
at our discretion [we wish to leave the database in good hands]

To inquire about getting a backup of the database, please contact finalhit(at)gmail(dot)com. The database includes
a "credits" column referencing whoever gave us the information for those items. The only condition is that you must
maintain those credits, and display them wherever you display those information.

We already had another website steal our weapons database and refuse to give IDB credit (despite our generous 
Creative-Commons licensing). So whoever gets the database, we must insist that you give credit to the people who
made the database happen.

Closing
I just want to thank the IDB staff for keeping the site alive, and everyone who helped make the site happen. 

I apologize for not being more responsible with backups. I take some responsibility for this, but if you look
more into the events regarding our host, it's an incredible case of gross negligence, one after another.


PS
As friends of the site, we would like to offer  pinkpt.com and
JellyNeo.net first dibs on the database. So if you guys are interested, just let me know.

Also, Mike (idb admin) may still be doing a survey if anyone wants to take over the site, so it's possible idb could still be back.
Sorry for the wishy-washiness (apparently, this is a word) 
of the situation, but it's a bit of a confusing time for everyone.

Thanks,
finalhit