For all those interested the new site should be up very soon. I’m hoping this weekend though there is still a bit to do so that’s more of a hope date then a firm date.

If you want a sneak peek at what the new site looks like then enjoy:

As you can see, the general look is the same but what you’ll be able to do on the site is going to be a lot better.

EDIT: Didn’t quite get it all done this weekend but should only be another day or so until we’re good to go with the new site. For now enjoy another sneak peak of what I spent some of today working on:

Yes, you’re reading that page right. People will be able to go to that page and click ‘Promote Me!’ to move up the ranks automatically. No more needing to wait for someone to be online to do it. Also, remember when I said VIP subscriptions will eventually be automatic (i.e. People pay and they’re promoted in game straight away)? That’s set up on the new site too. Turns out “eventually” meant “instantly”. :p

Just wanted to give everyone an update and a bit more info on where things are at regarding the change over to vBulletin.

The vBulletin license I bought for the site was a second hand one so rather than the usual ‘Buy -> Pay -> Here’s the license’ happening almost instantly it was a more drawn out process (a full week from buying the license from the person selling it to vBulletin actually transferring it to me). On the plus side it was half the price of a new license. The license was finally transferred to me this morning so things can finally start moving.

Setting it up won’t be an over night thing, it’ll take some time for me to get everything sorted but I’ll work on getting it online as soon as I can.

So the big question you may (or may not) be asking is why change?

vBulletin is much more community oriented than WordPress. WordPress is basically designed for just news/blogging. vBulletin started out as forum software and has since developed into a more complete package for news and other content as well as forums. Since vBulletin is designed for people to register we won’t have issues like we’ve had in the past where WordPress would delete accounts.

There are some features, such as the subscription feature in vBulletin, that I believe I will be able to link with the minecraft server a lot easier so that (eventually) VIP promotions will be automatic rather than needing an admin online to promote people.

Basically I honestly feel that vBulletin will be better for the site & server and more importantly the people using the site & server i.e. you.

If you have any suggestions for things you want to see on the site/forum or whatever just let us know and we’ll see what we can do.

Just doing a small back-end update. The server will be back up in 5 minutes.

EDIT: Ok, better make that 10 minutes :p

EDIT #2: And we’re back

As it is now Christmas in Australia I can accurately say:

Merry Christmas to all our players!

Hope you have a great holiday period.

For you fans of classic Doctor Who 9 previously missing (and thought lost) have been found. All staring the second doctor (Troughton). The serial ‘Enemy of the World’ is now complete and ‘Web of Fear’ is now only missing 1 episode. The episodes are available on iTunes. For the full details visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24467337

A good day for fans. Only 97 missing episodes left to find

So I’m sure you all know about the many hours downtime we had today. Unfortunately the fibre cables (both the primary and backup) connecting our host (and other hosts) to the rest of the world got cut (by AT&T).

Things are coming back up now but expect some connectivity issues for a little while.

If you’re wondering how the new server is performing check out the above picture (also, the ticks per second is a perfect 20). This is the server with 4 people logged in and playing. You may also be interested to know that the server stats still don’t max out now even when there’s 15 people online and playing. While I don’t have a picture of the old server imagine CPU and RAM Usage at 100% pretty much all day every day with just 1 person on (sometimes even no people on). Improvement? I think so.

Thank you again to everybody who has ever contributed to the server costs because if it weren’t for all of you this server wouldn’t be here.

If you’re seeing this it should mean the move is complete. To connect to the server use the address: thatsnotacreeper.com

The map will be re-rendered so give it some time. It’ll get there. Any problems let us know.

PS. there may be a few restarts and some offline time while settings are finalised

Update: Live map is now rendering at max speed (was slowed for the old server), rendering will not pause when the server gets a few players online (was also to save resources), all three worlds are now being rendered in Hi-Res, and yes, the citizens plugin for the Tardis emergency program will be installed later -mark

If you’ve been watching the sticky post at the top of the page you’ll notice the new server has been in the setup/testing stage for a couple of days now. We are on schedule to move servers tomorrow (in about 24 hours from now). There will be some downtime. Probably a few hours. I’ll make the downtime as short as possible but unfortunately there has to be some. When I start the move I’ll take the server offline and it won’t come back up until it’s on the new host. You will be able to continue building until the server goes down. I won’t be moving the world data/builds over until after the server goes down so you can keep playing right until the last minute.

Depending on how you currently connect to the minecraft server you may need to change some things.

1) If you’re connecting using ‘minecraft.thatsnotacreeper.com’ or ‘thatsnotacreeper.com’ you won’t need to do anything. When the new server is online and all the changes have made their way around the world those names will point to the new server.

2) If you’re connecting using the I.P. address (199.204.23.53), ‘minecraft.pokebay.com’ or ‘minecraft.therwp.com’ you will need to change the server address to connect. Changing to either ‘minecraft.thatsnotacreeper.com’ or ‘thatsnotacreeper.com’ will mean you always get the correct address for the server.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment here or ask mark in game (if he doesn’t know the answer he’ll contact me). I probably won’t be in game until after the swap as I’m still preparing everything for tomorrow.

Initial tests of the server suggests there’ll be a big improvement in performance (as expected but good to have it confirmed).

Hey Everyone,

I figured I’d keep you all up to date on the happenings of the Server. As most of you are probably aware we’ve been having some issues lately. Part of the problem is our server host so Mark and I have decided we’re going to move to a new host. We figured since we’re going to move we’ll look at upgrading as well. We’ve identified a new host which will provide a much better machine than the VPS we’re currently on. I’ve added a run down of the expected timeline of things (note the use of the word ‘expected’).

Expected Timeline

Today: Order new server – Done (July 20th 13:00)

Tuesday: Have new server provisioned (the company only provisions new servers during the work week hence the delay).  – Done (July 24th 00:35)

Wednesday/Thursday (maybe Friday): Initial setup, configuring, testing etc. – Done (July 26th 20:55)

Next Weekend: Move the minecraft server to the new server. – DONE!!!

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