What happened to Pocketphile ?

[hogs]

Joseph, Arin, what happened to Pocketphile ?
No way to get connected for few days now. Hope nothing serious ?

[LaStigmata]

4AMFiday, where are you? What happened to Pocketphile? Where did I put my socks?

[arinvolvo]

Joe was talking about a complete code overhaul of the site...

I think that may be what he is doing.

[LaStigmata]

Thanks Arin.

[jims]

Wow, it's been a couple weeks already.....in radio jargon "that's a lot of dead air!"

Arinvolva, is there still a plan to bring it back? :confused:

[arinvolvo]

I have no clue...I will however try to get in touch with 4AMFriday and see if there is a date.

[LaStigmata]

He told me it would be back up Thurs. this week.

[arinvolvo]

There you go folks...thursday it is...and if 4AM incorporated all of the things he was planning on doing, it is going to be awesome.

[4AMFriday]

Just thought I would drop by to give you guys a heads-up. First of all, Pocketphile.com went down because of a billing issue. Second, yes, there is a new much more advanced and refined version of Pocketphile.com in the works, but there is no way it will be ready to go live by Thursday (Sorry Arin) thanks to a large project my job (Nissan, dem filthy b@stards) put me on a few weeks ago.

What does this mean? The Pocketphile.com that will be available on thursday will be no different from the one that was up before. In any case, you will be able to browse and upload skins just as you always have, just without the extra features and eye candy that the new design will bring at a later date.

[Vidge]

Glad to hear the site's coming back up, even without the eye candy.

[jiserrab]

Originally posted by 4AMFriday

What does this mean? The Pocketphile.com that will be available on thursday will be no different from the one that was up before. In any case, you will be able to browse and upload skins just as you always have, just without the extra features and eye candy that the new design will bring at a later date.

What happened?:confused: I was browsing at work one day then went home to D/L some stuff I saw but it was down.....:(

[cbulock]

Originally posted by 4AMFriday
First of all, Pocketphile.com went down because of a billing issue.

[4AMFriday]

Sorry people. I got home yesterday and fell into a nap like a brick. I did not wake up in time to get the site back online. Well here is the really bad news!

I just got off the phone with my host. I called to solve the billing issue, as it usually only takes a few minutes. I was on hold for over 10 minutes when the lady got back on the phone and told me because the site was off-line for 14 days, the DNS entry was removed.

Ok, well that sucks. Not a big deal though. Just put it back, and we'll have to wait another day or two for the DNS entry to get around the web.

No, it of course could not possibly be that easy. It gets worse. She then proceeds to tell me that the site was deleted from their servers. Totally! It's gone, and they said the backup was deleted as well! This only after 14 days of being offline!

Well, I frankly do not know what I want to do right now. But, as you should have probably figured out by now, the skin library gone along with the rest of everything.

Anyone up for a massive DOS attack? Sorry, I have to joke about this or I am going to put my head through the monitor right now. The really funny thing is they asked if I would like to open a new account... That's the kind of retarted question that would get your tongue chopped off in most 3rd world countries.

[intrepidsilence]

Who was your host? I used to have an account with Dreamhost before I got too busy to manage a site, and they were fantastic for the price. Let us know so we can avoid the evil...

[jims]

Wow, that's harsh.

I can't imagine any data retention policy that has a 14 day limit whereby your back-ups are deleted without notification? This must be a real mickey mouse organization.

What about their cold storage back-ups? They must have a monthly or quarterly rotation of a full back that would at least get you up and running from a certain point in time the past couple months and not have to start from scratch?

[arinvolvo]

Well, there goes the legacy of the Show Me Some skin contest. Oh well...it was good while it lasted.

[4AMFriday]

The name of the host is Burlee (www.burlee.com). They are one of the very few webhosts available that offer unlimited storage and bandwidth which is something that is very important when hosting a site like Pocketphile. The nice thing is that they do not charge an arm and a leg for their unlimited usage accounts.

I have 2 other business accounts with this host that I am going to backup and cancel ASAP. I have never heard of a host removing a DNS entry as well as the site from their servers for 14 days of downtime. Hell, I was never even given a notice to tell me this was going to happen, and can find nothing on their site that mentions this.

Besides, they are a bunch of confused individuals anyhow. One lady told me the site had been down since January 9, where as another tells me it was down since January 14. One lady says 21 days and the site goes bye bye, the other says 14 days. They have not the slightest clue what they are talking about.

I spent sometime this morning running around looking for another host that would be able to support the bandwidth needs of Pocketphile without breaking the bank, and this is very difficult. I did however find one that just might do the trick. It isn't unlimited, but the storage and bandwidth limits are very high (1 Gig storage, 60 gigs bandwidth).

The host also offers free instant setup (which is sort of pointless considering the backup of Pocketphile was deleted, and I would have nothing to put up there right away).

I do have the means of hosting the site myself if I wanted as my office has a T1 connection, and already hosts two websites on two rather powerfull servers. I am also best friends with the administrator which always comes in handy. However, I would want the site on its own rig, and I simply do not have the budget to go out and buy or build another machine at this time.

You can write to support@burlee.com with any comments you wish them to hear (preferably evil and sinister). They didn't seem to care much that they destroyed all of my work. It was more like "We're sorry, kinda, would you like to open a new account?" Dem b@stards!

[spradlinb]

My deepest condolences for the lost data and hard work...

moment of silence

I had the same happen to LaunchPlug.com over a year ago when the server hard drive suffered a massive failure here on campus. I had an older backup of the files, so that I didn't lose too much, but I know how frustrating it feels :mad:

We're behind you in whatever you end up doing with the site as well.

Cheers.

[4AMFriday]

Originally posted by jims
Wow, that's harsh.

I can't imagine any data retention policy that has a 14 day limit whereby your back-ups are deleted without notification? This must be a real mickey mouse organization.

What about their cold storage back-ups? They must have a monthly or quarterly rotation of a full back that would at least get you up and running from a certain point in time the past couple months and not have to start from scratch?

Tell me about it. I mentioned all of this to both of the reps on the phone. "No, sorry. I checked and we have no backups of the site anywhere..." I tell you now that if I do get Pocketphile.com back online through another host, I will make an exception to my "No Banner Ads Policy" by placing a 24/7 anti-Burlee banner ad on the top of the site. LOL

[4AMFriday]

Originally posted by spradlinb
My deepest condolences for the lost data and hard work...

moment of silence

I had the same happen to LaunchPlug.com over a year ago when the server hard drive suffered a massive failure here on campus. I had an older backup of the files, so that I didn't lose too much, but I know how frustrating it feels :mad:

We're behind you in whatever you end up doing with the site as well.

Cheers.

Thanks Sprad. However, it's not so much frustrating as it is just annoying. I was in the mist of doing a complete backend re-coding of the site anyhow, and planning on giving it a brand new look while I was at it.

I feel bad for all of those people who took the time and effort to upload their works only to have them lost because of this. I am sure that these works exist in other places, and I gather people would not mind uploading them once more if they had to. But I am just annoyed with this Hosting company.

I am still trying to figure out if I even want to do this all over again. I mean, I want to, but you know. Ugh.. I want their heads on a tiki torch.

[Vidge]

It's really a shame that Pocketphile is no more:( . I really hope you find the time to start a new site, but I fully understand if you don't.

[4AMFriday]

Originally posted by Vidge
It's really a shame that Pocketphile is no more:( . I really hope you find the time to start a new site, but I fully understand if you don't.

Already signed up with a new host. I put up a notice at the link below. The address is just the IP value for Pocketphile.com as the DNS may take a few days to get around the web.

Pocketphile.com (http://64.62.138.109)

I fully intend to get Pocketphile.com back up and running, it just may take some time. I hope people won't mind upload all of their older skins again.

[jims]

Awesome.....let us cliesource folks know how we can help.

[OcellNuri]

I'm going to make sure and hit the old host with a nasty (yet polite) e-mail when I get home. I'd hope at least a few other people do the same so we can get the message across. This site had a following and I want Burlee to fully understand how unperfessional their move was.

[clieconverted]

Glad to hear your getting Pocketphile back up. It was gone before I had a chance to see it. Since I just moved over to Clie and now have a need for your highly prized site. It sucks when a company is willing to take your money, but not willing to protect your property under any terms especially when they are in the hosting business. Makes one wonder what they do for their other "prize customers"

Lets see some action.

[Salty10is]

I threatened their lives.

[jims]

Now that may be a bit more than what is really necessary! :p

[Salty10is]

I set fire to their houses.

[JS]

4AM, sorry to hear the bad news, your site was great, hope to see it again. Thanks.

Make sure we all add www.burlee.com to our personal Sh!t List.

[4AMFriday]

Oh believe me when I say they are number one on my **** list right now. And, even though I now have a new host ( a little more expensive, but it should do) I still have a big beef to pick with them. It's not over yet.

my new host supports PHP, a language I am not familiar with as compared to VBScript. I was thinking about maybe using the popular PHP-PostNuke engine to get the site up and running sooner rather then having to script everything out myself.

What does everyone think about that?

[Salty10is]

Yeah man, sounds awesome, the sooner the better. You can always improve on it as we go. How soon do you think? Not to rush you. I just miss it man!!!

[gvtexas]

Originally posted by JS
Make sure we all add www.burlee.com to our personal Sh!t List.

Sorry to hear about your experiences! But before the lynching mob jumps on the horses and rides out of town...

I was on Burlee for over two years and they were splendid, no problems, and they actually jumped through a few hoops. I left and went to a combination of hostingmatters and venturesonline, but mainly because Burlee was too pricey and didn't have enough features for the bucks.

Point is that ALL hosts can turn to crap now and then, and it's *usually* an isoloted occurence. Some hosts, like my former readyhosting.com, persisted on making this a consistent occurence, but that's another whine for another list...

You that you can pick any host out there and you'll probably find examples of the "web-host-from-hell."

I'm not trying to defend Burlee, just wanted to toss in some logic to this issue. 4AMFriday didn't mention (or if so, I missed it), whether their nuke policy after 14 days was in his original agreement. If it was, kinda hard to toast them on that...but they certainly deserve toasting on the way they handled it....

Gary

[4AMFriday]

Well the funny thing is that after speaking to three people at Burlee about this issue, I have come to the conclusion that a good amount of the people that work there don't even know their own "Nuke" policy.

One person told me 14 days, another told me 21 days, and the last told me 30 days, and that she did not know why the site was deleted, but that there was obviously nothing she could do about it but start a new account and give me "1 Free Month."

I personally didn't think they were all too pricey at all, expecially for the "unlimited" plans. However, I agree with you on the "Lack of features" point you made.

I am still trying to figure out what exactly to do on my new host. Unlike Burlee, where Pocketphile was on a Windows based server, I am now on an Apache. I primarily write all my code in VB Script, and the Apache ASP module (emulator of sorts) is no where as robust as the real thing.

I am giving some serius though into using the PHP based PHPBB with various mods and hacks to power Pocketphile this time around. I only wish I was as proficient with PHP as I am with VB.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by 4AMFriday
I am giving some serius though into using the PHP based PHPBB with various mods and hacks to power Pocketphile this time around. I only wish I was as proficient with PHP as I am with VB.

I've set up a couple of phpBB boards, and it's a pretty good system...but a bit nightmarish to add mods and keep track of what version of what is in your code...plus when they release a new phpBB version, it can wonk your other modified script files.

I was going to look *hard* at the Invision board next time I have a reason to put up a php board...Alex over at turcic.com uses them and likes them over phpBB...thinks they're easier to customize. If you use the phpBB base template (subsilver) you're okay...but the mods generally only address that specific template, and if you want a custom color look, then it's even more work. Apparently the Invision is easier to colorize in this regards (or so I've heard).

Gary

[gvtexas]

Sorry...that last post was by me (gvtexas)...didn't notice i wasn't logged in!

Was going to edit and add the statement that the phpBB community is big so there's a lot of user support for phpBB...haven't seen whether the same exists over at Invision.

Gary (signed in this time... :eek: )

[4AMFriday]

Damn! I just can not catch a freakin break can I. It now seems as if the new host I signed up with is driving me up the wall.

The host uses only UNIX Apache webservers. However, before I signed up, I had asked a rep if there was anyway for their servers to support my VB-Script ASP scripting. They said yes it would, through the use of a module called Apache-ASP.

Well, as it turns out, Apache ASP only supports PERL scripting within ASP pages giving the developer access to VB objects. I don't write PERL or PHP. And, even with this module installed, the server will not support VB.

So, I either leave this host (after only 2 days, go figure) and find yet another, or I go buy a library of books on how to write PHP code, in which case I don't see Pocketphile going functional anytime soon.

[JC2K]

Originally posted by 4AMFriday
Damn! I just can not catch a freakin break can I. It now seems as if the new host I signed up with is driving me up the wall.

The host uses only UNIX Apache webservers. However, before I signed up, I had asked a rep if there was anyway for their servers to support my VB-Script ASP scripting. They said yes it would, through the use of a module called Apache-ASP.

Well, as it turns out, Apache ASP only supports PERL scripting within ASP pages giving the developer access to VB objects. I don't write PERL or PHP. And, even with this module installed, the server will not support VB.

So, I either leave this host (after only 2 days, go figure) and find yet another, or I go buy a library of books on how to write PHP code, in which case I don't see Pocketphile going functional anytime soon.
4AM,

I'm not sure if you've looked into this, but there was a previous product called Chili!ASP which allowed ASP to run on UNIX. The product seems to have shifted, but may still do the trick if your host supports it. I've never used it as all my ASP pages are hosted on IIS servers. It might be worth looking into for you ...

http://www.chilisoft.com/

Sorry to hear about the bad luck and hope that you catch a break soon.

[4AMFriday]

Thanks for the tip buddy. However, I did mention this software to them a few hours ago. But they are not too crazy over it at all, and don't want to give it a try.

I may end up going back to Burlee, as much as pains me too.

[JC2K]

Originally posted by 4AMFriday
Thanks for the tip buddy. However, I did mention this software to them a few hours ago. But they are not too crazy over it at all, and don't want to give it a try.

I may end up going back to Burlee, as much as pains me too.
Sorry to hear it. It was worth a shot though :(

No experience running ASP on Unix, so I don't have any other ideas for you. I also know nothing of php and/or perl.

/me wishes I could help more as I really enjoyed pocketphile.com.

:(

[4AMFriday]

Well the ASP on UNIX is going to fly. The only product that seems to be capable of parsing VB Script on UNIX is ChilleSoft which is just too expensive for the server to install just for a few customers.

I went out and sent over $150 on books for learning PHP. So, I am going to try and re-write the engine in PHP. This aught to be interesting.