Why did breammaster die???

[Ian Sewell]

Breammaster essentially died when it was offline for a numbers of days, nearly a week from memory. At the time we were having major issues with our host company and were in the process of moving hosts when it all went down, as a result we ended up crashing on the new hosts platform even though they assured us it was all fine and that they would be able to handle the traffic and the size of the site. We then had to go back to the old host and re set up the site. Shortly thereafter they also had an issue which caused the site to run as it should with lots of glitching and freezing etc, our quotas were also being gobbled up by what I later worked out was spam bots attacking our registration page, I also think there was an issue with whatever site or sites we were sharing our server with.

Our host company were of no help telling us that there were no issues, while clearly there were plenty. Eventually while searching for other options the site finally came good, I presume the host compant finally found the issue and resolved it.

The sponsors of the site are actually not so much sponsors of Breammaster but are in fact sponsors of the WA Bream Classic series of fishing comps, it was just another avenue to show our support and to thank them.

Site sponsors in the past rarely if ever paid their bills even though it was some of the cheapest sponsorship going. Many went broke without paying a cent while others still continue on, yet ignore invoices and statements (I will also note that many over the years were very prompt and always paid their bills). As such the site is paid for by the company that owns the site.

We paid for a new platform in the shape of V bulletin 5 however it sits there dormant as no one we know has the ability to transfer all of the website onto the new platform.

Before the devastating crash we had over 600 members a day logging in to see what was going on. Now we average about 150 members, Usually visitors are 5-10 times the number of members so it was a lot of traffic.

During the crash the old host also managed to lose some of the old posts from the very beginning.

I think in our time off line many members got sucked into the void that is social media and lost the free time to return.

Where to from here? Well time will tell I guess so in the meantime we still have some of the comp sponsors product left so we will be giving it all away.