Closure of ChesSOS Site

Site Broken by Upgrade

On September 7th, 2023 the hosting provider used by this site performed an upgrade to the server. The site was moved to newer, more powerful hardware that uses faster NVMe drives (rather than older, traditional HDDs) for storage. The operating system also changed from Debian Buster to Ubuntu Jammy Jellyfish 22.04. This also required a change of IP address.

There was a problem in the configuration of the new IP address which caused the site to be inaccessible. I submitted a support ticket and the problem was resolved quickly. The site then became accessible, however there were still some problems which caused errors when accessing the database. This meant that the site would load if you were not logged in (as it does not access the database), but if you're logged in an error would occur.

After spending several days on the problem, I've been unable to identify the cause - except that I believe there is a compatability issue between the existing code and the libraries on the new server.

Decision to Close ChesSOS

ChesSOS first went live on January 5th 2006. It is a one-person operation and it has never been profitable. The costs of web hosting etc. are more than the income from subscriptions and donations. So I've considered it a hobby rather than a business. However, in recent years, I have had less time to spend working on the site as other things have occupied my time. I therefore decided some time ago that the best option would be to close the site, as I can no longer justify the money it costs to run it, and I am no longer able to devote the time to it that it deserves.

I had planned on closing the site in early 2024, to coincide with the 18th anniversary of the site first going live. However, I don't know how long it would take me to fix the current technical issues. So it seems pointless to put a lot of effort into fixing it, only to close the site a few months later. I have therefore decided to close the site immediately.

If you had a paid subscription I have cancelled your automatic payments via PayPal and I have refunded everyone's most recent payment. If you have any issues with receiving the refund you can contact me at chessoshelp@gmail.com.

My other sites

You can follow me on other sites and social media where I'm mainly doing astronomy. I have a couple of YouTube channels...
noswonky (Youtube)
The Wonky Astronomer (Youtube)

and a web site...
Hazelbrook Observatory

and other social media...
Hazelborook Observatory on Facebook
The Wonky Astronomer on Twitter/X

Thanks

Thank you to those who have played chess on this site over the years. Thanks to all who made donations, and those who bought subscriptions, which all helped keep the site running. I trust you will all be playing chess on some of the many great chess sites that are available now.

Thank you all.

Peter Nosworthy
chessoshelp@gmail.com.
September 12 2023