ATTENTION: What happened to the site

First, I'd like to apologize for the site being down for the past 12+ hours. Second, I'd like to apologize for the loss of data, which was beyond my control (unfortunately).

Here's what happened...
Over the past week, the site has had many problems communicating with the database server (the computer where the forum posts and membership information is kept). This was causing occasional errors that were often seen by users of the site.  The database server C3VR uses is "shared" with other sites.  That means the computer where the database is stored is also being used by other websites at the same time.  I had a suspicion that the other sites were causing the errors on C3VR's site.

So I called my website hosting company to see what could be done about it.  I asked if C3VR's database could be moved to a different computer. They agreed to move it.  I was told it would take 1-2 hours.  So around 9pm last night, we brought the site down to do the move of the database.  Well, it took over 3 hours and once it came back up, it was discovered that they had lost some data in the process.  After talking with them again this morning, they said there was an error when then backed up the database as of 9pm last night and therefore could not rebuild the database on the new computer with current data.  They had to go back to the last backup.

This is were the next problem is.  The data they restored is from 8pm AZT Monday 12/4.  That means that anything that happened on here between 8pm Monday and 6pm AZT Tuesday is lost.  If you posted a thread or reply to a thread during that time period, it will have to be reposted by you if you can remember what you wrote and on which threads you wrote it.  If people signed up during that time, that too was lost.  If people upgraded or renewed their membership during that time, that was lost. If you wrote or replied to a Private Message, that was lost.  If you voted in the C3 show, that was lost.  Pretty much anything that you actively participated in was lost.

I am extremely unhappy about this as I'd expect most of you to be.  This was not something that I had control over.  If I had control over it, it would not have happened this way. I am sorry for the downtime and I'm sorry for the loss of data.  I am looking into having a database server that is all our own and I'd be in full control of.  It will be expensive, so I have to look at all my options.
 
On the upside, if this move does what I expect it will, we should no longer see the errors that have been occurring over the past week.

I thank you for your understanding and support.

Please let me know if you have any questions.