Vital You Read This - Urgent!

[BossTamsin (imported)]

As a few of you may know, there is some unpleasantness going on over at BME/IAM, the kind and generous people who provide our hosting. This unpleasantness has the potential to spill over and affect the Archive in some nasty ways.

While there is no indication that the site could be at risk, there does exist a chance that the server, site, and contents are at temporary risk, and may potentially be pulled at any time with no warning.

I am making very regular backups of the site, so almost nothing should be lost, however there may be some downtime involved, especially if the site has to change hosts. We are working to secure alternate arrangements, in the event the worst comes to pass, and as soon as possible will be posting an emergency information/contact page address. Once that is running I urge everyone to bookmark it and pass the URL on to any other Archive members you have contact with so that should the EA go down we can get status updates and the like out to as many people as possible.

[jemagirl (imported)]

Thank you IE,

I don't go over to BME very often so it would have come as an unpleasant surprise. It is good to know that you are looking for alternate hosting just in case.

I was wondering if you have the capability vBulletin system to automatically email registered user or at least be able to PM the members. Many of our members only go to certain sections of the site, and I worry they may miss out on the warning.

Thank you and of the Ops for all the hard work you to keep this site going. It is much appreciated.

Huggggs,

Jema

[bobbie (imported)]

It is good that we are getting some type of warning. I am sure Shannon our friend and host of BME/IAM and our own EA is doing all that he can to keep everything as it has been for years. I know the unthinkable is going on with the sites.

Further know that this is most stressful for our own IEunuch. His frequent backups will pay off big time if the server is lost in the problems. All of our best wishes are with him as we go through this mess.

Thanks in advance IE for what you have done and will be doing in the coming days.

[Christina (imported)]

Thanks IE,

Since I don't hang out on BME, this is the first I've heard of it. I know you haven't seen me contribute much lately in the way of posting, but many of you already know the reasons for that. Nevertheless you can count on me to do whatever I can to help out.

[sheep79 (imported)]

thanks for the heads up IE I heard a few rumors on the chat but like Tina I don't go to BME so was very surprised. I hope all works out and like Bobbie said thanks for all the work. Dave the sheep

[Eunuchist (imported)]

As a few of you may know, there is some unpleasantness going on over at BME/IAM, the kind and generous people who provide our hosting. This unpleasantness has the potential to spill over and affect the Archive in some nasty ways.

What, exactly, is going on at the BME?

[emasculateme (imported)]

do you have an email list to contact people who will want to know about a site change or move?

[JesusA]

do you have an email list to contact people who will want to know about a site change or move?

There is no general email address list. Some of us have addresses for a few others with whom we communicate. If anyone wants to be certain to receive a notification of any new access site, you can send me an email at my new archive-related account

[email protected]

This is a single-purpose address that I created today. I will send out any information only as BCC so that no one will get to see any of the other addresses. Only I will know to whom I am sending information.

I do not plan to keep this address after the current crisis is past, so I'm not worried about attracting to it.

[tjstill (imported)]

What, exactly, is going on at the BME?

I have had a quick look at BME and can detect nothing amiss on the surface so I guess you need to be a member or in the know as part of the admin. Are there no more details that anyone in the know feels comfortable to pass on as others have asked.

[BossTamsin (imported)]

What, exactly, is going on at the BME?

I don't want to go into too much gory detail, as I know very little other than what's been made public at this point, and all such reports are highly subjective and/or inflammatory.

As well, I am absolutely not taking sides on anything going on there. My sole concern is the welfare of this site.

There appears to be a lot of turmoil regarding how BME/IAM is run. One party is even saying there is a hostile takeover in progress, while the other parties deny any such thing is happening. As of right now BME is up and running, but IAM has a notice that it will be down indefinitely. In addition, at some point in the last two-three days, ownership of the 'eunuch.org' domain name was changed to Rachel Larratt.

That is about all I know of what is going on, at least as it relates to our site. Pretty much anything else is speculation, hearsay, and rumour. At this point that does not help the situation at all, and so that is all I will say on the matter.

Regardless of what is going on, or what the outcome will mean for us, the EA will continue on. For now the best thing we can do is work on contingency plans and make sure we are prepared for the worst, while we stay calm and hope for the best. While I don't expect to see it here, I hope we can all refrain from taking sides, and publicly bashing any of the principals involved in this situation.

[genderless (imported)]

Thanks for the heads-up IE. Maybe being seperate from the BME site wouldn't be a bad thing?

[kristoff]

Thanks for the heads-up IE. Maybe being seperate from the BME site wouldn't be a bad thing?

Without a host to carry our traffic, we would probably have to become a pay site. Our traffic is VERY heavy.

[Daughter (imported)]

That's no lie! Unfortunately, it is something we should all be considering. Servers, bandwidth, incredibly expensive!! For a site like ours we're talking (I'm assuming) thousands of dollars per month to keep it up and running. Not exactly pocket change for any one of us. Maybe some ads on the front few pages wouldn't be a bad idea??

My thanks go out to everyone who's had a hand in keeping the site running all this time. I have nothing but great respect for all of you.

[Slammr (imported)]

Without a host to carry our traffic, we would probably have to become a pay site. Our traffic is VERY heavy.

My webhost provides 3600GB of bandwidth per month and 360GB of disk space. Given most of EA's data transfer is text, I doubt they would exceed that. Costs me less than $7.00/month and I'm running 3 websites with three different domains for that price. Most of my data transfer is pictures and movies and I'm using about 30-40GB a day, less than 1000GB a month.

[Losethem (imported)]

Gee, sounds like someone is having a relationship issue and at least one of the parties involved doesn't care who they take down with their own pettiness. *ugh*

I hope if that is the case that the individual would realize they are disrupting more than just the single person they are upset with.

[Riverwind (imported)]

thanks for the heads up IE I heard a few rumors on the chat but like Tina I don't go to BME so was very surprised. I hope all works out and like Bobbie said thanks for all the work. Dave the sheep

I don't go to BME anymore either, I guess a life time membership is about 7 years, after they canx my life time membership a couple years ago I just haven't been back.

River

[tugon (imported)]

Thanks IE for the heads up. Anything I can do to help, just ask.

[Bagoas (imported)]

I can't think of anything that I can do to help, but I do want to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to those who work so hard to keep the Eunuch Archive working. Please be assured that your is not a thankless task.

[sapient (imported)]

I have to say the same - I don't know what I could do to help, but if there was anything I would do it...

I give my thanks to all of those involved in running this site.

[Slammr (imported)]

Thanks for the heads-up IE. Maybe being seperate from the BME site wouldn't be a bad thing?

The problem with that is that the administrators would almost certainly lose control of the eunuch.org domain name and would have to start the site with a different domain name. People going to eunuch.org would end up some place that had nothing to do with the archive. When I switched servers, I lost control of my domain name, slammerstories.com (http://www.slammerstories.com/)

and as you can see by clicking on that link it takes you to a place that redirects you to other sites. There's money to be made in the sale of domain name, especially when one receives as many hits as eunuch.org does. When I tried to purchase another domain name that the original owner had lost control of, the new owner wanted $25,000 for it, and that site didn't have the traffic that eunuch.org has.

[genderless (imported)]

I suppose it depends on who really owns the domain name eunuch.org

Is it BME or us?

$7 a month for hosting as Slammr suggested sounds doable to me, but then again what do I know. LOL

[Slammr (imported)]

I suppose it depends on who really owns the domain name eunuch.org

Is it BME or us?

$7 a month for hosting as Slammr suggested sounds doable to me, but then again what do I know. LOL

Not that I haven't had problems with my server. A forum like this has to connect to a database; and I've had databases corrupted and was fortunate that I had backups. Yesterday, they decided to switch my sites to a different storage device, and although it didn't make any difference for the regular website and the picture gallery I have, it took my forum off line, because the scripts were suddenly pointing to the wrong storage location. I had to manually change the scripts to redirect the forum to the proper storage location.

I've found that, while a regular website like my slammerstories.net site is no problem, running a forum is a pain in the ass. You have a constant battle with forum software, databases, and sometimes with members. I definitely had a better understanding now of what the administrators -- especially IEunuch -- go through.

[blondboy (imported)]

I hope that this doesn't become a pay site for there are many people out there who need to hear the information on this site. It is an incredible resource that I am sure has saved many people's lives by giving them information, a place to explore, and access to experts so that they avoided doing something life-threatening. Where else would people find out about doctors and facilities who perform these operations safely? Where else would they be advised by peers and people who have been through similar things to wait, to try chemical castration, etc? I believe that if the archive wasn't available, the world would be reading about many more unfortunate accidents of people trying to remove their genitals. Also, how many people would have taken a step that they might have regretted forever if it wasn't for the accessability of this archive? I hope that things calm down at BME. If they made it necessary to have this site be a paid site (since no one here has the funds nor should have to fund it) they would be doing a great harm. Hopefully that will not come to pass.

[surf_toad (imported)]

There are pay sites and there are PAY sites. there are sites that are 'for profit' and those that take say 7 bucks a year so they can provide a service. it is all relative. Also, it can be set up so most of the site remains free. a subscription to the stories section would do. that is where most of the bandwidth is used. the forum and chat is minimal. also, many sites i frequent are sorta free, in that memberships allow for use of minimal (forums and posts) use as a free member and different paid subscriptions allow you to do more.

Still other sites charge you to view pictures (which we have never had the bandwidth to allow here) and have unlimited downloads to the stories on their site. Those sites have things they can offer writers which theoretically would recruit more authors to this site (I have several here and will continue to write for free, just to have a place to post my stories).

We can have what we most surely have now without making ourselves bleed.

[padawna (imported)]

I've been a member of BME off and on for the last few years. They definitely provided the info, pics, etc which helped me decide what body piercings I'd go for. And the entertainment of the things Id call fantasy... wow, some of it is very hot, bizarre and stuff Id never dream about doing.

Its a shame they are having difficulties now, I hope they iron out their issues so they, IAM and Eunuch can continue on.