Saturday night on VATSIM means......

[B777ER 2,484]

The bloody server is down and can't get any info from Servinfo or Wazzup. :-fume :-newburn :-bang I wish this would get fixed!!

[B777ER 2,484]

Sunday at 2230Z and there STILL down. Ridiculous.

[Guest American 390]

Please don't complain .. this service is comming to you FREE. You think its easy trying to maintain servers that over 150+ pilots are connected 24/7. Let the staff fix the problem and when they do , It'll be back up. Untill then don't complain about something your getting for free.

[B777ER 2,484]

Free? Yes you are correct it is free and I appreciate that. But maybe the powers that be should go in a new direction. As more and more users are signing up at VATSIM as more people get a computer etc.., maybe they should go to a subscription based service? Then they could afford to get a better system which would not crash every weekend. 2 years ago when not as many people were here, I am sure it worked fine but now? having the system crash almost every weekend "is ridiculous". I believe the time is right for a fee based system so users can get a bit more reliablity.

[Guest]

You are getting ahead of yourself. Many users use this system for the mere fact that it is free. If it was not, i would not have been an avid Controller on Vatsim for 5 years. Many people that use this network are youth that have parents that will refuse to pay a fee for them to play what they would consider a game, but what we consider more of a hobby.Charging a fee will drastically reduce usage of the system because most will simply refuse to pay or wont have the means to pay for it. That might solve some server problems, but then who are you going to control, or whos gonna be your atc when you want to fly?Charging a small fee of like a 1 dollar might not be bad, however, Vatsim has joined the ranks of what we all consider freeware. The software used on this system is copyrighted by the original creators to be used for free. Charging for use of these programs on a network is probably a breach of the copyright...And where do you find the server crashing almost EVERY weekend? The server is pretty good for me aside from the occasional lag attack. Not much i could complain about since it is... FREE.Just my 2 cents...Chris Lezama

[Guest]

If I can yell at little league umpires and coaches, then why can't I yell at VATSIM? Bet it is the same people.Why not change the terms of agreement/usage to include removal of usage if you post a remark that is detrimental to the health of the organization. Have a three member panel with ultimate authority?Regards,Bob http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d0cf472751e5a9a.gif

[B777ER 2,484]

Bob,Check outside your door and see what nationality of flag is flying. Hopefully that will remind you of how ridiculous your post is."Why not change the terms of agreement/usage to include removal of usage if you post a remark that is detrimental to the health of the organization. Have a three member panel with ultimate authority?"How is this:Why not change the terms of agreement/usage to include removal of usage if you post a remark that is detrimental to the health of the U.S. constitution?

[Guest]

Not even close to the same thing. Yep, go yell at the empire for a while.Discussion ended on this end. You have the last word and a nice day.Regards,Bob..http://www.mtco.com/~rsam/Bobbie2.gif

[Guest]

The server he's referring to is separate from the Vatsim network servers. It is a single server that tracks and transmits the "who is online" information used by Whazzup, ServInfo, and the two Vatsim "Who Is Online" network stats pages. When that server goes down, there is no way of knowing what ATC is staffed, where.A saying I frequently see on the newsgroups is, "If you staff it, they will come". But how can they come, if they cannot hear? And how will they hear without a preacher (ServInfo or Whazzup)? And how will there be preaching, if no network info is sent?The goal of staffing an ATC position is to get to work some traffic. The goal of flying online with Vatsim is to get to receive online ATC. The organization exists *solely* to facilitate these two complementary goals. Without ServInfo or equivalent, some people will fly their usual flights, some will fly where they *think* ATC will be, some will check the newsgroups and go to any events they can find, but still, some ATC positions will have little or no traffic because nobody knows they're there!According to my informal (unwritten) notes, the WhoIs (for lack of a better name) server has, over the last six weeks, been down on four of the six weekends, starting Friday between 2330Z and (Saturday) 0100Z, and lasting variable lengths of time, ending noted on only one of those four as coming on Saturday afternoon. At the moment (0215Z Saturday 7/22/02), I note it is up. That's good! However, that's unusual for Friday night over the last month and a half plus, and that's NOT good.Yes, the services are free. Thanks to everybody at Vatsim for that! But availability is not the best. For the last two months, I've had to use the UK server, as being most reliable. US1 won't let me log on, and US2 kicks me every five minutes. I'd pay a reasonable fee, considering that this is a hobby, for a higher level of service. Say, $10 annually. If half of the 30K+ membership flaked out over such a piddlin' fee, why, there'd still be $150,000 to buy some reliable service.Even though, in terms of money spent to join and access, it IS a free service, still, everybody involved has made some kind of investment, at some greater or lesser cost to themselves, whether in time or money or equipment, or even all three. These people will go away, if they cannot have the quality experience for which they made the investment and came online. If the beautiful cathedral stands empty, all the sacrifice that went to build it was wasted, lost. Current, always working information about who is online, and where, is very important to the successful operation of our network and must become more of a priority than it has been, heretofore. "If you staff it, but they can't see you, and nobody comes, then to what purpose have you built it?" --BeachComer Stephen "Beach" Comer Real World Pile-it Commercial ASMEL, Instrument Airplane 4500 TT, 2500 BE20 & BE10