Dear friends,
If you tried accessing MFO at mid-afternoon on Friday, 23 February, you would have encounter an "account suspended" note. I discovered this thanks to the quick action of three or four board members who reached out by email and phone. (Thanks, guys!)
The short version: your account was not suspended, MFO's was. We're at the start of a big upgrade / update to our server and software. Our software is grievously out-of-date (if you call about it, the folks on the phone seem confused and say things like, "well, maybe Old Bill would be able to help. He's been here forever but he's only coming in three days a week now") and our server does rely on a hand crank to get it started in the morning. (Me, likewise.)
We've put off the upgrades because they're expensive and risk crashing the site. Having found a reliable programmer, we decided that we couldn't wait any longer and authorized our site host to create a second server and to move a copy of the entire content of MFO onto it. The idea is that our programmer can then work on that second, offline version of the site until he's worked out all of the bugs in the software. He and Chip then flip a switch labeled "redirect traffic" and there's near-seamless transition to a safer, more stable home.
Our host promised that creating the duplicate version of the site on the second server would have absolutely no impact on the "live" site. You wouldn't even know we were doing it.
Sadly, one piece of software - MySQL 5, I believe - is old enough that just attempting to move a copy of it set off an alarm. Crashed MFO. And triggered the "account suspended."
Apologies for that. We had a nice conversation with them about what "no impact on the live site" means. We will try to offer clear and timely notice if and when the upgrade requires going offline. In the past, that has been early on a Saturday or Sunday morning after about seven days' notice.
As ever, David
Comments
A labor of love!
(Your faith in seamless software upgrades is touching, but misplaced.)
URGENT Note to Self: As soon as the missus wakes up today, get her to try to delete the GoFundMe page I started yesterday for legal action against this site!
Member/visitor folks; don't forget the donate link is just to the left edge of this page.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/