Hey everyone.
I'm just going to offer a general explanation here. I also don't really know what I'm talking about because I majored in Philosophy, not Information Technology, but I'll do my best to explain what's occurring, which I hope gives you some reassurance.
Firstly, I had absolutely no idea we were going to lose data from today and yesterday etc. No one did. I didn't even realise anything had happened until I checked the forums and saw this thread had been posted, which made me take a better look at the dates on the 'posts unread' page. What I've been told is... Earlier today I drove HSC traffic to the ATAR Calc through Facebook. HSC students get their "study scores" today, and they get their ATARs tomorrow, so obviously they go to ATAR Calculators to anticipate what they'll get. I made a post on Facebook directing them to the ATAR Calc, and 3,000 people clicked it (the HSC is nearly double the VCE). To put this in perspective, the record of people on the site is 1,300 - VCE results day 2013. Apparently this screwed the site and could have caused the posts disappearing, so there's a minor explanation in that regard.
Secondly, I'll try to explain the perceived - and somewhat actual - instability of the site. So... A while ago (as in, many months back), when everyone got the "Database connection error", the site was obviously very bad, and there were posts lost at that point in time. Then, on December 14th this year, the "Database connection error" happened again, and today, the 16th of December, we lost the posts from the past few days. Between these two times, the site has been stable and running well, so please don't believe that there's been constant issues we've been ignoring. There have been issues, both many months ago, and then now, but
we have not been ignoring them. Secondly 2.0: I'll explain the technical aspect of what's been going on. Basically, since the site's inception, the site was hosted on a great server in Arizona. Many months ago (when the site went down for a week), that server had a hardware malfunction. Being in America, it was difficult for us to fix it quickly, which is why the site was down. In case something like this happened again, we decided to change servers, and moved to a server based in Australia. From memory, this was around the time we made the new website, and I did mention that there'd been a hardware malfunction and we'd moved. Then we got the first "database error" issue, so we moved servers. We got a really big one that should have handled far more traffic than AN has ever seen. The problem got fixed, the site was faster, and everyone could post again and whatever else. So we thought we were sweet.
Last Friday, we went to a bigger server in anticipation for the biggest 'ATAR Day' ever. So we were feeling pretty good about ourselves and having a good old laugh about how in-the-clear we were until the site got absolutely fucked up. Then we were all feeling pretty stupid because... how could this have happened when we're on the biggest server we've been on?
So we call a bunch of specialists, a bunch of developers who are experts in x, y, and z, and each of them has a different thing to say. They say we've got a different issue and offer a different solution. What we've been able to ascertain is that
it isn't actually a server issue even though the website says it is. It's a website issue.
Thirdly: What do you mean, it's a website issue?Well, the website is in three parts.
1. Simple Machines Forums (SMF).
2. WordPress.
3. Custom code (that's what's behind the Notes section and other parts of the site).
Essentially, what we've been able to ascertain is that whilst these three things are functioning well on a day-to-day basis, when there's a huge influx of traffic, these three things start to disagree with one another and go "grumble grumble grumble", and then gives you all a Database Error and tells you its a server problem even though it's not. Again, this is what I've been told. I'm an Arts degree holder...
Fourthly: What's the deal? Is it fixable? What are you doing?Yeah, it's fixable. We're moving to Amazon servers, which host Netflix, and they will host our database on one machine and host the website on another machine. Apparently this will fix things forever and ever. If it doesn't, we'll just rebuild the whole damn site. It's our utmost priority that this site be stable and serve its users well. Back when I was the "Lauren" of the English boards and would mark essays all day, I'd spend a good hour marking essays, and whenever I had a browser/Internet issue and lost all of my work, it literally broke my heart. I know very well how much you guys contribute to the site, and I know how ridiculous it is to have those contributions lost. I also know we've failed thousands of students who need to ask questions about their future in the past few days and that honestly just makes me personally upset, because the only reason I'm here is because I think Year 12 and university are such fundamental years and not enough help is available.
We're moving to the new server at some point this week, which means that the site will be down for an hour or so, hopefully between about 6am and 7am.For the sake of transparency, I've raised this as a serious issue on the moderator boards (I did a couple of days ago, but got no responses from admins/owners/whoever-runs-this-show). I think AN has lost its way in recent times, and it's a real shame for nearly two days of content to go missing without warning or apology in a time when people are asking potentially future-defining or career-defining questions. As someone who has been here for a few years now, the site has handled traffic well in the past, it's handled record numbers in the recent past, this is new and this is poor form. As I said on the mod board, this is really enough to make me leave this place, and I wouldn't blame others for doing the same.
I gave quite a similar response to Pi's post in the moderator boards but I'll say a few things here.
Regarding what I've coloured in blue, I really hope AN hasn't lost its way. It's my job to make sure AN is an awesome place. I think our two major achievements this year have been the new website and the free VCE lectures, which has hopefully saved some of you hundreds of dollars. We're going to launch these lectures in NSW as well, which I'm incredibly excited for. I try my best to make sure AN is as good a community as ever but it could be my best isn't good enough.
If it isn't, I blatantly welcome feedback. We sent an email to 15,000 of you a few days ago with a survey link in it asking for feedback on the site and its operations. Very few people have filled it out. If you have feedback, please fill out the survey. The last survey we did - everyone said the site was not nice to use, so we completely redesigned it. I very, very much value your feedback, and will make changes according to it.
The survey is here. Regarding the bits in the red... That was explained earlier in the post.
Um, I don't know who is running the site these days, but this is beyond ridiculous. But maybe it's more important to think about a new logo instead. Urgh.
Also, we did change the logo. It took 5 seconds and we planned to do it a month ago. It's probably cost twenty bucks and twenty minutes of thought, whereas the issues with the website are all-consuming and clearly the most important thing for us to think about. Although, I appreciate the sentiment made in that quote.
At the end of the day, I can only say that I'm immeasurably sorry that this has happened. I'm sorry you've lost your posts, I'm sorry the site's been unstable, and I'm sorry so many people couldn't access the site when they needed it most.
Please, if you have any questions, please feel free to post them below and I'll give the most comprehensive answer I can.
Yep. Has happened before, and the things is I have such a rubbish memory I never know whose PM'd me so I can't apologise or let them know that I haven't chosen to forget them or anything - AN's just swallowed my reply. Quite frustrating because there's a lot of English PM's, and Lit ones too and now idk what to do because I can't remember anyone's username, or what they asked or what I responded with. When it was exam time I understood with the new website overhaul and stuff, for a couple of PMs to go missing; but I thought now the worst of the strain on our servers would be gone?? Having said that I have the utmost faith in our community to fix this 
Please let us know if we can help!! AN's provided us with a lot, we'd love to pitch back in if you need more people(I say this despite possessing very little practical skills, but legitimately if there's anything I can do!!)
This is what I love about AN.
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