digitalBYOND gaming and hosting

That's right! As of 14:30 CET, both digitalbyond.net and digitalbyond2.net were taken offline. I suspect the contents of those two servers will be wiped within the next day or two and recycled to provided services to another customer.

digitalBYOND hosting was probably the longest-running (3+ years), and likely one of the more successful hosting services available to the BYOND community. I've learned a lot, and hopefully will keep that knowledge with me if I ever decide to provide these services again.

My thanks go out to those who contributed to it's untimely death, and for shafting me with about a 400 Euro ($620 USD / 315 GBP) bill which I am unable to pay off at this time. You are truly losers beyond compare.

Friends and colleagues thought it would not be good to post the blacklist at this time, as I have more important things to worry about. But the odds are good that I will change my mind in a few days and post it anyway, so that others may join my in making it known to the community that those slackers listed are not to be trusted.

if you have an account at digitalbyond.net or digitalbyond2.net, you need to make a backup now, just in case hosting does not resume before the April 20th deadline.

I will try to make a complete backup, but that requires changing over account permissions so that i can SFTP the data to my local 700 GB storage drive. I hope to start that on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

As per the digitalBYOND Terms-of-Service, it is your responsibility to make backups, not me. I am only doing it because I might be able to resume hosting at a later date, and it could be easier to restore from my backup when I do get back online.

**READ CAREFULLY** If you do NOT make your own backups and later come crying to me about it - tough. It is not my job to keep your data.

BUT, if you cannot make a backup due to bandwidth restrictions or lack of storage space, I will try to save your data. You can even get it on CD/DVD if you pay for postage.

Hopefully I can keep digitalBYOND going with the current provider. In the event that I cannot continue and must start a new contract elsewhere, existing accounts will be re-activated and get their offline time credited for free to their new accounts.

Watch this blog for further announcements!

Oh, and please comment to this post if you have successfully made a backup or would like me to backup your data for you. If you need help getting your data, drop me a line at digitalbyond@gmail.com and I will try to help out.

Good Luck!

Ok, here's the deal: there is currently several outstanding bills related to the hosting services.


Invoice #78139 - 74.00 Euros (December server bill) *paid*
Invoice #79543 - 74.00 Euros (January server bill) *paid*
Invoice #81577 - 74.00 Euros (February server bill)
Invoice #83017 - 12.50 Euros (late fees)
Invoice #83244 - 74.00 Euros (March server bill)
Invoice #84719 - 57.53 Euros (late fees) *paid*
Invoice #84954 - 66.27 Euros (April server bill)

The invoices stricken-through have been paid out of my pocket, or via donations.

If the remaining invoices are *not* paid by April 20, 2008 the contract for both servers will be canceled and the servers wiped. I am told they can turn on the access again so that I can make a full backup - but on April 20th, they go off permanently.

Last chance folks! Contact me via digitalbyond@gmail.com if you intend to pay up old accounts or donate.

Money has been sent to the hosting provider, Manitu. This weekend I'll scribble an email to them asking to unlock the servers, or atleast tell me if anything is missing, payment-wise. With any luck, we are back online sometime during the week of April 7th.

Heartfelt thanks go out to Thorsten Rental of Pedalkraft and owner of the sexy, yet disfunctional Brise velomobile, for his major contribution. And he's not even a BYONDer! I'm just working on a new version of his website and an inventory system.

Thanks also go out to splattergnome, Lufika, and Harry Wagstaff, for their prompt payments.

I'm still posting the slacker list, but will wait until the servers get back online until putting it out for public consumption.

Stay tuned!

Still offline, *BUT* a local benefactor that I've done some website work for will help to pay off the bills so that we can get up-n-running as fast as possible (he uses some of my website space for his own company site). His plan is to send the money this week.

This does *not* save everyone's bacon, though. Unpaid accounts will still be locked down. Like Santa, I have a list and I'm checking it twice. I have not decided how to distribute the slacker list yet. Probably post a link here for people to visit. It will hopefully be connected to a new accounting system online so that people can see who the slackers are (but no other info available).

Down side is that because of the long Easter Weekend (Danes and Germans typically are off work from Thursday onwards, coming back on Tuesday), we may not see hosting resume until later next week.

See you after the holidays! I'm off the the Danish west coast to the famous town of Ribe for a change of scenery and to do some swimming and spa-lounging.