Not at Voat apparently.
The theories are all over the place, like a blind man throwing darts, and upon some reflection I can see why. I have not been very visible lately and Voat has had some down time recently that raised the Voat Uncertainty Index (VUI) past 52 week highs. With the recent Facebook F8 conference and their announced plans to fully control and rate publishers while limiting content visibility in the name of making news more “trustworthy” (via AI based technology), places like Voat are increasingly more sought after. I often forget how much Voat means to you all and how much trust you've put into @Atko and I over the years.
About the recent downtime
I finally have a few minutes to explain what happened. This will not be an exciting tale but here is how this all went down. Since the port we’ve lost a few management tools that have monitored Voat and notified us if it was being bad, so take this into consideration.
Every AM and PM I check the site manually, I’ve done this every day for nearly 4 years (where is my cookie?), but I didn’t do this for an entire week (perhaps a week and a half). I went completely dark, turned off all notifications on my phone and didn’t even touch a computer and it was everything that I thought it could be. I did this because my mother was in town and I haven’t spent much time with her over the last few years. I decided to 100% disconnect from the virtual world in order that I could be fully present with her. She is an incredible person and life is short.
But then… like a perfect storm, the voat webserver ran out of disk space on the primary drive. This is what caused the downtime. It’s almost laughable (because it’s not the first time something this junior (can I say noob) has happened here at the High-Tech Capital of Free Speech).
Thank God superman @Atko was in between fixing catastrophic world events to fly over and fix Voat. He used his x-ray vision and nerves of steel to lift away the huge weight of unneeded log files in order to allow the webserver to breathe again (I'll never be a writer). I’m so glad Europe has a superman too.
TL;DR: Problem happened and @Atko fixed it. Send him praise.
While the decision to go dark was a huge plus for my family life, it was a choice that has caused a lot of distrust, uncertainty, and concern within the Voat community.
About me
I have been fairly burnt out lately (code related) and a bit down about Voat in general (I will perhaps write a post about this later), which is why I am not very visible lately. I've recently started pursuing further education and have dedicated myself to reading more.
I have been lurking though (and watching everyone like Big Brother /s).
I’m sorry about how things appeared, about not communicating earlier, and about the concern it caused. I'll also apologize for being short with a few people that were good to Voat over the years - that isn't the kind of person I want to be.
https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806
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FreedomToast ago
People may respond negatively, but respect that the majority can fully understand the idea of being burnt out and needing a recharge. The edge of the base will attack you making a perception of an overall community voice, but they speak for their small niche. I'm more saddened that Voat can lead to your significant psychological depletion and a necessary vocational retreat.
Voat is great and you have an opportunity to build something novel, but don;t neglect your own values. Our modern western world strives work working constantly to produce, and that can be a result. If you prefer a reasonable work-life balance, don't let those social pressure weigh you down. They are not the lifestyle you wish, therefore they are wrong - regardless of what users of investors say. You should live for you. The user base will accept this bumps long the ride. Your genuineness is drastically more important than the server result.
I trust Voat more know that the servers fell apart knowing you were human, rather than some isolated PR statement. You took a small vacation, I full respect that. Fuck any negative rebukes you receive - they are selfish. You cannot be expected to burn yourself out and not allow a personal recharge. The people who chastise you otherwise have no concept of burning themselves out and are ignorant. Do not value their opinion as much as you feel obligated to.
You found a new problem and now you dealt with it. That is it. Anything beyond that has no concept of a job like yours.
I hope your break could be as relaxing as you hoped and if not I encourage you to take more time off. If you reject your sense of personal recovery you are accepting living a life of social slavery. The average person doesn't expect that of you, but there are people that will - do not let manipulate you..