bound2burst.net

8th March 2013: I have received no news from Dreamhost regarding the re-activation of Files Forever. Part of the auto message I receive is:

"There was a hardware failure on your hosting server and we are moving it over to a new server now. We're in the process of copying data over to the new machine and are serving all data from our backup server to the new hardware. During this process, the data on the backup server will be mounted directly over NFS to allow all services to remain online for the duration of the restoration."

However, this statement is contradicted by information I received from a member of staff at Dreamhost on 3rd March:

"I've actually received an update from the developer working on the issue that the re-import will need to wait until the service itself is back up. I apologize for the delay. I will make sure to update you as soon as I have another update on its progress."

As you can see, there is nothing concrete here. I am going to assume that it will be some time before we see Files Forever restored. I may be wrong, I hope I am, but that is the impression I have.

I am a natural pessimist in these situations.

I looked on the main Dreamhost site the other day, and there was no mention of FF at all, not even a broken link. The FF page that I have always seen actually says FF Beta and has done for years.

That leads me to think that either they have finally superseded the Beta version with a full blown operational one, and are implementing that at the moment, or they have ditched the Beta version because it was not financially viable.

Now, had the changeover been done within 24 or 48 hours, I might have believed my first option, but it has been two weeks now - which makes me lean towards the second one, and FF has gone - maybe forever.

If you remember Fotopic was like this when it was taken down, with rumours that it was being moved to a different server, whilst all the time the owners had no intention of bringing it back.

Of course, I may be wrong, but I would have thought transfer to a new server would be a quick operation because the new server would have been operating in the background alongside the old one. Sorry to be a doom merchant, but the omens are not looking good.

I know what you mean, but I don't see them shutting it down completely if they had it working again? Its not been down for two weeks, only since 1st march, it was up again for a very short period with new files not being corrupt before they took it down, if it was working, albeit without any of the old files, why completely destroy it? That said the beta logo always confused me, hasn't it been around now for almost 6 years? That's one long beta. Dave do you know anything about the 'beta' tag? There seems to be very little information on FF aside from the fact that its only available to dreamhost customers. Not even a customer forum for it anymore :S

With a server upgrade I suppose 48 hours would be normal, but if they truly are trying to transfer the backups over, given the amount of files they could have it could well take a week. That plus setting up a reliable backup to make to sure that this doesn't happen again....
I didn't expect it to come up yet, why put up a new system after the previous disaster on a Friday given that anything could go wrong over the weekend when fewer people are around. Next week I think will be the decider, if it's completely down this time next week, with no news still, then it might be time to start worrying, lets just see if they have any more news on Monday >.<

They seem to have gone over to their version of cloud storage - see here:-

http://dreamhost.com/cloud/dreamobjects/

Whether FF is going to be incorporated in this, it does not say, but I wonder if it is a convenient way to sort out FF storage accounts that were not being used, and put in place a more active charging system?

Yes, I agree that someone came in and gave some kind of explanation.

But, if you read exactly what he said, it was just full of wishy-washy comments which basically said very little apart from they are doing everything they can.

But then travel companies always say they are very sorry for any inconvenience caused, when your holiday is messed up by delays and cancellations. However, how many people turn to each other and say "oh that's ok then, look they are all really sorry - no need to get angry"?

Not many, I guess.

Sorry for the cynicism, it comes from decades of experience.

I'm afraid I really don't have any news. I don't know what Dreamhost are doing but it all seems a little suspect to say the least. Switching servers is indeed a fast job, and we know Files Forever itself is operational, it's merely the files that are missing. So far they have not imported any of the files I have uploaded, and no one has volunteered any information on progress. While I will keep working at it, I am not going to hold my breath - I'd go bankrupt doing that.

As you may have noticed, i have been focusing my efforts on Clips4Sale. Glad to say it is paying off because sales have increased fairly dramatically. My thanks to those who have bitten the bullet with regard to C4S. For the time being, it seems the only viable option. At least it is their main line of business so we know C4S won't just disappear over night.

I have looked into several other companies for selling videos, including CCBill. CCBill makes a lot of positive noises (superlatives abound in fact), but when you read carefully they take up to 35% of a sale. I also note that they levy a fee on behalf of Visa which amounts to $750 initially and then $500 per year for the privilege of selling downloadable material. All things considered, I would not be any better off there than I am with Clips4Sale, and I would have the enormous hassle of installing my library on their system.

There was another suggested (can't bring the name to mind off-hand) but it has no contact information and no terms and conditions of use. It looked a tad shady.

Dave.

My surmise about Files Forever is that their overly ambitious approach may have come home to bite them. The promise that files will be available forever is a new definition of infinity, infinite storage, that is. It was an unrealistic promise to begin with. Their response is suggestive of naïveté about what it takes to produce a dependable file sales and storage service.

It is also possible their service has been hacked into. They may have had little or no safeguards against that. But these are all just guesses. Too bad.