First off I'm sorry for everyone who's going through this. I've had a host split on me and lost everything and it was one of the worst experiences of my life.

As a way to help out and offer relief for those who's sites are gone we are considering opening up our service early for ONE DOLLAR a month for three months until you can get through the wedding season and make a decision on what you'd like to do for your website.

Showit Sites is still in beta but sites can be made very quickly and we use Amazon S3 for our hosting so we have everything stored and backed up in two places on separate sides of the country so you know that even if a natural disaster happened your data and your business will be safe with us.

Post up here or email me directly if you're needing to get your site up asap.

All the best,
DJ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Opensourcep...ur-website.html

Did their server crashed?

that's what I'm wondering.
We have a lot of people who use BD's hosting to run their BD site as well as EZPS, and we haven't heard from anyone lately about their servers being down.
I know they'd never put any news about it on their blog (unless it's slamming someone for posting negative stuff about them on a forum), but I didn't see anything there... ?? anyone???

huh? what's going on? nothing wrong with mine?

It is weird to read this because I was baffled yesterday when I would type in my web address it was some other photographer's site. It did this for several hours. I had to get off to a wedding so I didn't have time to deal with it. Figuring blu domain is almost impossible to get a hold of and even harder on the weekend I was going to wait until today. Today my site was back up like it normally is. I thought this was some weird hoax or that I was insane and I am somewhat relieved I am not the only one. I like blu domain, but I have been looking for another company as their service is not always the best. I would welcome any info on your sites.
Thanks,
Jen

Mine's okay too...but I wouldn't mind the three month special

~rc

Mine is fine

Mine looks good too. Hopefully not too many people lost their sites! I haven't heard anything about this.

From what I've read on other forums apparently they were trying to free up space on one of their servers and lost a lot of sites in the move - like, completely lost them. They're offering them a new site with whatever addon features they'd like in order to make up for the mess.

well at least they are owning up to it. i had a feeling it was someting like this though. no need to panic!

Email that was posted elsewhere:

I am very sorry to be the bearer of bad news but we hope to turn this into something that will ultimately be positive for you.

One of our server administrators was trying to make room on the server by moving files from one partition to another and inadvertently deleted your database. We have tried to retrieve these files to no avail as of yet. We are still doing our best to salvage the files but we want to ensure that you are not put out any longer..

We would like to extend an offer to set up any site of you choice in any price range with all add ion features to compensate you for the loss of you valuable Data and we will work around the clock to ensure your files are configured right away. We will also post up an under construction page for you so that it does not appear that your site is down. If you had a slideshow add on we will also be able to set that up for you. we realize this does not help retrieve the lost data but it will allow a fresh new start. Our templates have come a long way since the site you had previously.

We have done all we can in this situation and cannot express our remorse sufficiently. I will be calling as soon as possible to explain this in greater detail but if you have a template choice in mind I will be glad to get it configured for you right away. Also send us any information you would like to include in the construction page.

We are so very sorry for the inconvenience,

Harald


*I* would worry if I hosted with them. Fortunately I don't. I did back up my wedding site text though - since my backend is still on their server.

I hope they're implementing a BACKUP system... what a thought.

Wow.

what they don't backup are they new to the world of servers and HD?

You'd think that after this incident a year ago they would have implemented some.

Hey mommy,

DJ is .....hahaha....you sly lil fox. I like my blu just fine....but you know I want to see what happens with showit sites. If anyone is good at stirring the pot and forcing everyone around them to "step up or step out" its you DJ. I can respect that because I am the same way. I really do not like apathy. At least this way, everyone knows where you stand on Blu and Big Folio. You got a set a (whats the spanish word for balls) on you! Hopefully, with all this wind and fury you got brewing up, Showit will rock the web world and everyone will see that this aint marketing....its Showit Sites. Lol. Stole that from HBO...couldn't resist.

P.S. Not all that much into astrology but I was reading my horoscope on the village voice website (great NYC paper...its free) and yours was really interesting. Check it out HERE

I had a problem with BD when my hosting companies server crashed and they could not restore my site. BD told me sorry that happened but you don't host with us. You bought the site from us and we delivered it then you lost it, so sorry. I had to purchase it again and did set it up on their server so they would guarantee it in case of a crash. They are not very good to deal with (impossible I mean) when it comes to problems so it sounds like they screwed up big time ad at leaast are owning up to it. These people should be glad it was BD's fault and not some other server because BD doesn't care about your problems when it's on someone elses server.

HA HA...

Leave it to a New Yawker to tell it how it is!!!! Sometimes I just love the East Coast...

I like your style Parris.

Mine's still working too! phew~!

How is it possible that BLU didn't have backups???

Fortunately mine was deleted but I did have an issue a few days ago where the server had crashed and messed up the code for my photocart. I started getting calls from clients asking what happened to their photos.

At any rate, this is my last straw for hosting. I need to move it out of there. Any suggestions on hosting companies?

Mine is still up.

Haha Parris you crack me up!

As for David Jay, you are my hero / idol.

From what I understand, and I could be wrong, there are 2 servers involved in a BD site:
The hosting server and the DB (database) server.

The photographer has to choose a host and put his/her website there, and BD will install the template. They sell hosting, but you don't HAVE to host with them.

The template gets data, though, from a BD database server where the data & code are stored. BD used to install a mySQL database per photographer, but they centralized all the databases into their own a few years ago when someone stole their code (and they really did get ripped off that time, not just an accusation and a lame threat of 9696NFL lawyer action).

So my question is: Was this a DB server, or a hosting server? I'm guessing a hosting server because a LOT more people would be affected if it were a DB server.

For their hosting, do they promise backups or anything like that? Most hosts have a huge list of features, including regular backups. It's clear they DIDN'T have a backup, but did they TELL people they would? If they did, someone needs to find themselves a lawyer.

EDIT:
I just found out that it's a DB "server" that had the problems.
I put quotes around it because I'm not all that sure that they run what we would call "servers" (evidenced by their email debacle last year)

There are people down who DO NOT host with Blu (they have symptoms like a splash page that just loads forever), and there are people who lost everything (their carts, their slideshows, everything).

It's a database server, people are down who don't host through blu. You get to their loading screen and it just sits there forever.

They apparently didn't lose the entire server - just certain clients were lost when they moved the files to a different partition. (wtf partitions database servers? is this a common new practice?)

is it common practice to run your entire company's email system on a single workstation with no backup?

it may just be their common practice to run their "database" on a workstation with a normal plain-old harddrive. I'm starting to think that maybe they didn't (or don't) have an actual database server and that it's just running off a workstatioin (with no backup) like their email did.
...just thinkin'...

I also thought that they resold hosting thru somewhere. Lots of hosts have resellers' accounts where you can "sell hosting", but you're really just reselling. That's what I thought Blu did for hosting. If that's what they're doing for hosting, then those people do probably have a legitimate host on the backside, so if there ever was a problem or dataloss, there would probably be a backup somewhere.

Since this wasn't a hosting server that had problems, it looks like it was an internal BD computer (since the "tech" had access to drive partitions), and that's just .... what's the word.... typical.

I just read the post bludomain did on DJ's blog:

http://opensourcephoto.blogspot.com/2008/0...ur-website.html

Unbelievable....

Thanks DJ!

I saw their phone number and got super excited. I called the number and it's the wrong number. I've been emailing them for couples days now trying to get a refund on a site i ordered couple weeks ago which I've never received. Feel like I got scammed.

I agree!

There is no worst animal than the one that is licking its wounds.

Bludomain post on DJ's blog demonstrate that they are more concern about their company than the unfortunate 40. To say that 40 is minimal to cover their stupidity of not having back up and to attack DJ's to cover their incompetence is unbelievable.

I wonder how long would they let a negative post in their blog?

You would think that a company with "over 10,000" (their words not mine) website would have a contingency plan for error like this. The problem is not the error... that can happen to anyone... the problem is not having a backup plan in place that would have protected their clients against errors. And what makes it worst is that it has happen before! That demonstrated lack of professionalism and it is unbelievable. And worst... to try to shift blame and to minimize the situation by saying it was "minimal"!

DJ... I congratulate you for your offer to provide a solution and to speak out and give people options.

The fact that your offer is open ended demonstrate that you were not trying to benefit from the spoils and contradict Bludomain accusations. After all, if they are that good, I would think those forty users won't have problem going back... but at least they now have a choice while they wait for bludomain to make good their promises.

DJ, we stand behind you.

That is pretty crazy! I think it is great that DJ even thought to offer people who lost their site a solution while they figured things out. So props to that!

Bolas, Parris. Bolas.

I guess that's why they call it blu?

(Sorry...too much Elton John to ignore...)

Showing your age pops.

or "cojones"

or "huevos."

~rc

Haven't you all figured it out? DJ is a genius! he's trying to get your attention!!!!!!!!!!

or peanuts

I thought huevos meant eggs??? Cojones looks seems way more macho. lol. Eggs are for Blu Domain and those other scallywags, El DJ tiene Cojones grandes...muy grande ahahaha. My spanish is like whoa!

scallywags!! HAHAAHA!

Spanish like whoa!! BWAHA!

...spanish like whoa... woohoo, too funny.

I spoke out on the blog in support of DJ, got a somewhat harsh response from blu (very surprising), and now my site is down. I've emailed my host to check it out but I was wondering if I don't host with blu, is it still possible for me to be affected by them?

**BLUDOMAIN DID NOTHING - IT WAS MY SERVER**

Doesn't seem surprising to me....

Even if you don't host w/blu, from what I've seen, your site could still be affected, as the problem was with their database. But if your site was up this morning, then down later today, that's suspicious, as the problem occurred previously & no new "mishaps" were reported today.

There are instances (w/evidence) of Blu taking retalitory strikes at its customers for online comments, so you may want to look further into your site uptime logs.

You have to be kidding me.

not kidding.

So Barefoot Memories, are you saying that it's possible for blu to have gotten rid of everything on my server through their database?

**BLUDOMAIN DID NOTHING - IT WAS MY SERVER**

It would be possible if you ever gave them your FTP access info & didn't change it since. That would be an easy way in.

I'm not saying they did anything. I'm saying it's possible for someone with malicious tendencies to pull off such an attack pretty easily.

You need to get logs from your host and find out when you site went down & how.
Is all the stuff on your server gone???

No matter how it happened, it will be a good thing to find out how it happened.

I don't understand it all, but I think that it's my server - NOT bludomain. I really hope it's just a coincidence. I'll be sure to update as I don't want anyone thinking blu did something if they didn't.

Bobby

Oh, and the last to access was about 4pm PST, according to statcounter. I can't access anything other than that (not even my cpanel).

**BLUDOMAIN DID NOTHING - IT WAS MY SERVER**

Yea it seems like your whole box is down so probably a server issue.