When things go well, no one ever thinks that it could all go wrong...
2021 had just ended, with the team on Discord, we were discussing how this year we had obtained more subscribers and views than the previous year. There were talks of new features being added, improvements being made and how they can impact the site in 2022.
Everything was going smoothly, and we did not suspect that the unexpected was just around the corner. The first days of January the site began to have problems. The server appeared unreachable, and the site is inaccessible. We start the "standard maneuvers" and after a couple of postponements, everything was back to working.
Two days pass and the site is down again. No changes had recently been applied to Indiexpo, which made it difficult to understand what was going wrong. However, this made us understand that the problem was at the server level and not at the code level.
The "standard maneuvers" didn't help this time, so we were lucky enough to have the site programmer come to the rescue. He finds a strange connection between the site and the server. He doesn't quite understand what's going on, but he finds a way to recalibrate some settings and the site is back up and running.
But after a day the site is down again, and the error seems even more serious.
Chat started to think that the site is closing. We received emails and reports of users who were unable to access the site for days. Talks on social media had everyone guessing to what was happening on the website.
We contacted the service that sold us the server. They reassured us by saying that the problem does not depend on them, and that they do not detect problems, but the site is still down. This time it cannot stay up for a few minutes without crashing, and the programmer no longer knows how to address the faults. This was seemingly impossible.
The service staff who sold us the server propose a hardware replacement. Components that should improve the performance will be presented and replaced.
We accepted and waited anxiously.
Then the news...
We are contacted again, and we are told that during the replacement of the various components, the hard drive with all the games and data appeared to be damaged.
We immediately check the backup, and we realize that it is not up to date at all and the material that we could lose would be substantial. So understandably, it resulted in the closure of the site.
The programmer explains that if the hard drive still turns, maybe we will be able to recover some files. If it does not turn, we should go to a specialized centre to try to recover the data. However, the latter option would be very expensive, risky, and extremely difficult.
It was agreed that the work would be carried out in two attempts.
The first attempt is made.
It fails...
This 12-year long work could all end. The beginning of 2022 can mark the end of a site that is now part of our daily life.
We begin to contact a specialized centre (with exorbitant costs) and we begin to think if we should start over (impossible) or change the site entirely. We were totally disoriented and helpless.
The second attempt begins.
Success! All games and data are recovered!
The site is put back online, the backup restored and enhanced.
indiexpo still lives!
Thanks guys for being close and supporting us!
We are back to stay!
Let's do it!
