OAImages News: Outage Part 2 and More
Posted in OAImages News by John E. Pannell on January 6th, 2007 at 4:13 am I wanted to take a few moments to update folks on what has been happening at OAImages this past week as well as some upcoming changes to this site. It has been a busy week for me, but not how I would have chosen to start this site’s 10th anniversary year!
On January 2, I woke up to find that my site was down. In fact many of the files on the server had gone missing. The images were unaffected and I was able to restore what I thought was the most significant damage from back up copies I keep on my computer here at home. Alas, counter information was lost but that’s more a matter of vanity than necessary data.
However, there was more damage that I was unaware of until Jeff Ansley brought it to my attention. It seems the directory on the server that contained all the inventory data members entered was deleted. It’s gone and is not recoverable. I feel badly about that because I understand how much time and effort collectors put in to having this data entered and what it means to folks. It’s probably no consolation, but my own inventory data was lost, too.
All indications are pointing to this being a hardware problem with my server. There is no evidence of any unauthorized access or any other sucessful attack upon the server. This means it is time to start considering a new or second server for the site, before I run into unrecoverable problems. Although I don’t plan to actively solicit help, I won’t be proud here: if anyone wishes to donate to the purchase of second server, I won’t refuse the kindness. Feel free to send donationst via PayPal to jpannell@triad.rr.com.
Over this weekend, I hope to add (or at least start to add) new scripts to the server to create backups of the user inventory data and other critical files and have those automatically sent to me. Currently I back up critical subscriber information in several places on the server. I also keep duplicate copies of all images and cgi and html code, but I hadn’t been backing up inventory data. I will start to do so soon, and keep a copy somewhere other than on the site’s server. I don’t want to be caught unprepared again!
Following this trend toward duplicating critical data, I am going to try to add inventory data to the pdf files members can already create. That way, members can create electronic copies of their collections’ inventories, by lodge, which will be automatically emailed to them.
I also want to try to create a method whereby members will be able to get or download the raw data file of their inventory data.
When I first started keeping the priceguide, a straight mean average price made sense. After four years, it no longer does for many items. A straight mean, or average, gives as equal a weight to an high (or low) prices for items from several years ago as it does to current sales prices. I will soon be implementing a weighted mean scheme whereby more recent sales data will get greater weight. In some cases past sales data from years ago will not be considered at all in the calculation of the current mean price. While some may find the math behind this harder to understand, it will be a more accurate reflection of current sales trends.
Surely this is not the timing I desired for an announcement like this, but the subscription price to the members area of OAImages.com will increase on February 1st.
The price of a one year membership will increase from $12 to $15. Discounts will be offered for 2 and 3 year memberships. I will also maintain a discount for members who renew their membership. Even at the higher price, this remains one of the greatest bargains in the hobby. Members now have access to nearly four years worth of data of real, free-market, patch sales prices.
I have been asked to be a recurring guest on Cloth Talk, a Scouting history / patch collecting podcast. I’ve been very reluctant to do this, primarily for reasons of vanity, but have finally relented. Stay tuned to both this blog and Cloth Talk.
You can subscribe to this blog. All you have to do is click on the “subscribe to this blog” link at the top of the page. After entering a valid email address, you will automatically be informed whenever a new post is added here.
Recently I created an account on Facebook. I am in the Greensboro, NC network under my own name. I’ve not used it much, yet. At present the entries from this blog are imported there. I will also add other posts, that probably aren’t all that relevant for this blog. If you’re a facebook user, feel free to “friend” me.
Stay tuned to this blog for further information and news about this site.
Happy Collecting,
John Pannell
Popularity: 3% [?]
Price increase?!?!? AUUUUGGHHH!!!
Dagnabbit! This is SCOUTING!!! I should be able to git this information for a $1 for a lifetime!!! This is worse then them dang PERFESHUNAL Scouters, who want to charge $5 a head for a Camporee, and then an extra $2 fer a PATCH!!! Why, back in MY day, a Camporee only cost $.50 for the whole weekend – and you came Friday for lunch, & stayed through Sunday dinner then, too! And you ate Ribeye steaks fer breakfast, T-Bones fer lunch, and a Porterhouse fer dinner – EACH day! And PATCHES?!?! Why, $2 paid fer the entire run of 5,000 for the whole camporee!!! And you still had a dollar left over, so’s the Council could order another 50,000 RWS fer the Scout Shop!!! Plus you still had ANOTHER dollar left over, so’s the entire PERFESHUNAL Staff (all 400 of ‘em) could gas up there cars!!! PLUS, you STILL had ANOTHER dollar left over, so the camp could buy a new tractor to mow the north 40,000 acres at camp with it…
‘Tis HIGHWAY robbery, I tells ‘ya! ‘Course, back in THEM days, we didn’t actually HAVE highways yet. We’d have to recruit us a Mohawk guide, to lead us along the deer paths through the forest, and you’d have to leave fer the camporee 6 mos. ahead of time, but the toll road was ONLY a nickel, and you got an all-day sucker & pound of jerky in change, and – where was I? Oh yeah – MATLOCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Bob “Grandpa Abe Simpson” McCanless, Order of the ANCIENT Red Jacket
Pittsburgh
p.s. – so how much more do I have to send you, to keep my REMAINING two years paid for?
You know there’s going to be someone out there who doesn’t understand sarcasm…
No – THOSE folks only read and whine at MY blog…
That was great!!!! It almost mede me forget the impending agony of re-listing my collection into the site…took me 3 weeks last time……
I was the messanger of the news and I am still in process of re=entering my data. I support any modest increase that helps protect my data. Good thing I opnly did the Western Region plus Kansas. I hate to think of the work involved for a nationwide inventory.
Oh well, back to hen-pecking my data into the system.
Jeff Ansley
skyloo442