After residing on a series of dedicated servers since 2000, Filmtracks has migrated to a
cloud-based server that is at least 20% slower than the most recent (2010) dedicated server.
This downgrade was necessary due to the site's financial insolvency. The move could save
Filmtracks $150 or more per month in costs, depending on outgoing bandwidth (traffic)
levels.
The configuration of this server has been more challenging than prior builds for Filmtracks,
in part because of the different server behaviors and properties of cloud-based hosting and
the extremely bare build of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 available to this particular cloud. If
you discover a feature of the site that is not behaving properly, please report the bug so
that I can squash it promptly. A few minor issues (Amazon pricing on the reviews, the counter
on the Scoreboard, etc.) have already been fixed.
Hopefully, this lesser hosting solution will be a temporary measure and within a few years
Filmtracks can move up to the dedicated resources (namely, faster processors) that have always
kept the site extremely responsive and easy to maintain over the past 13 years. In the
meantime, this was the only option other than the closure of the site.
While donations to Filmtracks will likely no longer be necessary to fund the site's basic
costs, they are always appreciated, and I plan to put all future donated money towards
continued development of the site.
-- Christian Clemmensen, Filmtracks owner and editor
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