

HN, please help... My host just screwed me over - TimothyBurgess

I put 8 months of hard work (70+ hrs/week on average) into my app (my first startup) and just so happen to officially release it today... which had to be coincidentally the absolute WORST time to release it.<p>Without telling me, my host decided to perform a file system check (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fsck) and so now my server is offline for a few hours.<p>An hour or two ago I began telling dozens of high priority potential clients to check it out... each of which could bring in thousands of dollars per month.  About 30 minutes ago I noticed the site was offline... and I'm pretty sure quite a few have tried to look at it since then.  None have responded.  And I'm afraid they've all gotten a bad first impression, and may never bother to check it out again.<p>I've sent them all messages informing them of the server maintenance and that it should be back up soon.  I'm planning on sending them all another message when it's back up.<p>This is absolutely infuriating.  It feels like 8 months of work just went down the drain because my dumbass host didn't telling me they were going to perform some maintenance.<p>What can I do to make sure I don't lose these clients?
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Udo
First of all, get a new server. It takes only a few minutes with most hosting
providers. DNS updates will be a while to re-map but maybe your "old" provider
can help you with a temporary redirection. Get this up and running as fast a
possible, even if you use a temporary domain name. Go, do it. Now.

Then, the post game analysis. Server apocalypses happen. There is a deeper
lesson here.

On the technical side, there are some things you can do to prevent this kind
of failure. Running fsck for hours on a live server is really inexcusable both
from a technical as well as a service point of view. Most small hosting
providers simply rent some rack space, put in their standard Dell server unit
and call it a day. This way lies madness, total data loss and possibly the
early seeds of an anxiety disorder. I'd suggest you look into inherently
redundant hosting offers (like MediaTemple's grid service) or some high-
availability virtual hosting (like Amazon EC2).

But the core of the issue is unrelated to this technical stuff. Telling
everyone at once was a mistake. There is a reason why most projects start out
gradually, starting with a beta phase when everyone still has a lot of
compassion for bugs and crashes. It's tempting to send invites to all possible
contacts once you're finished, but it really has no upside because you're
introducing a single point of failure. I'm not even talking about having only
one server and no backup. In this case, the blitzkrieg launch date itself was
that single point of failure. Even if the server hadn't crashed and burned,
your app is very likely to still have bugs and kinks to work out. Bringing
potential clients in one by one would have given you the opportunity to
collect valuable feedback so you can show a more refined version to people who
come in later.

When it comes to handling this issue from the CR side: don't send out
apologies for the outage. Instead, check back with high-potential contacts in
a few days and ask "did you have a chance to look at my new project?" and when
they reply they couldn't access the server, invite them to try again and
concede there were some outages but the problem is fixed now. My guess is,
you'll be surprised how few people were actually affected and noticed that the
server was gone.

In my opinion, it's unlikely that your bad luck actually ruined anything. Most
people don't look at random invites in their mail right away. If they're
really interested in the product and/or know you personally, they'll check
back again later even if your site is offline at first. Interested people will
still look at your stuff. Chances are, those candidates for your first mass
invite will not even turn out to be your most valuable clients. Nothing is
lost.

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pzxc
Get another host immediately, put your app on it, use a subdomain or even a
new domain if necessary (temporarily), send all your potential clients an
explanation that your host did not tell you your server would be down but
you've busted your butt to get it up on an alternate host, and give them the
new link.

Then as soon as humanly possible, transfer your original domain to the new
host and never use the host that screwed you ever again.

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brk
Holy crap, I've never heard of such a thing. What kind of server plan are you
on?..

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JeffBajayo
Ask your host to send them all an email explaining the issue and apologizing
for it.

~~~
sokoloff
IMO, do not do this. To me (opinion), this seems like asking your mom to write
you a note excusing something for school.

You're a big boy (or girl); take responsibility for the issue, because even
though the most proximate cause of the outage wasn't within your control, the
choice of host and choice of architecture are under your control.

If you tell the clients that there was a rare downtime event, that you are
working with your technical team to understand and prevent a recurrence, they
are less likely to think that's what they should expect if they host with you.

As a potential client, I'd rather hear that you take responsibility for ANY
issue that happens to my site; passing blame to a third party ISP to make
yourself look better today actually makes you look a little weasely IMO.

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zachfier
You should check out Lightcrest, they provide high-availabilty hosting
infrastructure - Amazon EC2 and Rackspace are incredibly expensive when you
take into consideration steady-state load.

------
us
Who is the host?

~~~
bo_Olean
the lesson is more important here -> choose your host wisely.

~~~
us
1\. I don't have a problem with my host and while I get the lesson part, why
would that change anything in terms of me knowing who the host is.

2\. I'm still curious regardless of what the point is, who's the host?

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tgrass
Stay positive. Two years from now your launch story will be gold: you'll have
proven you can endure a challenge.

The app looks great. It's got great utility. Hang in there, just a minor
glitch today.

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rhizome
You tell them that your ISP is having unexpected system problems that took
your site offline and that it will be back as soon as they fix it.

There's no need to be melodramatic about losing thousands of dollars per
month; you haven't lost your work so nothing is "down the drain." No ISP runs
fsck for no reason, in the middle of the day, without warning, nor as a matter
of routine maintenance.

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mapster
Good lesson. I will be sure to have a backup hosting plan.

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tastybites
Do you have an e-mail address? I think we can help you out - I run a managed
hosting company and would like to offer you some help as a member of the HN
community.

