Outage at improved-initiative.com
Added 2023-01-28 07:09:20 +0000 UTCHello Patrons,
I wanted to give you a heads up that we're experiencing an outage at the official website address improved-initiative.com. This happened because I mistakenly let the domain lapse. Amateur mistake! My sincere apology if this affects your game.
In the meantime, you can access the app at https://improved-initiative.herokuapp.com/ and you can log in with Patreon in order to access your Account Sync data there. Unfortunately if you have data that was only in local storage it's stuck until I can get the official domain back up.
I'm hoping to have the problem solved this weekend, but it may need to wait until business hours next week. Thanks for your patience!
Update 1/31
Good news and bad news. TL;DR I'll likely be able to recover the domain, but it may take up to another week. In the meantime please continue to use the backup URL:
https://improved-initiative.herokuapp.com/
Here's a rundown of what's happened so far, if you're curious.
On January 16th, I received a Renewal Notice from Azure letting me know that my domain was up for renewal. I get this email every year before the domain auto-renews, which has never required action on my part.
On January 26th, I received an Expiration Notice informing me that my domain expired on the 22nd. This was a surprise, and it's likely because a payment instrument failed, but I didn't get any notification about that.
I immediately logged into Azure to try to correct the problem. The domain no longer appeared in my account, but it was also listed as unavailable for purchase.
After this I engaged Azure customer support. They got back to me today to let me know that they have to "hard delete" the domain, and I can repurchase it once that process is complete.
Root Cause Analysis: How do we prevent this from happening again?
1. After I have recovered the domain, I'll switch domain registrars to a company with a better grace period.
2. When I receive a domain renewal notice, I'll verify that the payment instruments are up to date. This is a manual step so it's not an ideal remediation, but it's a best effort.
Again, I'm really sorry if this has affected your game. It's nice to see how many folks have come to rely on my software at their table, but it's certainly a double-edged sword!
Take care!
Comments
I never was able to recover the domain, I might try again after a year once the squatter's registration is up. The official url going forward is https://improvedinitiative.app/
Evan Bailey
2023-10-03 03:47:35 +0000 UTCI’m curious what happened to the .com?
David Norris
2023-10-03 01:15:19 +0000 UTCSuper excited that you made the app available for us!! Very nice problem solving for the time being!! Thanks Much!
The Golden Hammer
2023-02-04 18:33:10 +0000 UTCThe settings for the plugin lets you change the domain it uses. Change it to the backup URL and it seems to work just fine.
Eivind Husby
2023-02-04 12:05:46 +0000 UTCIs there any update? The Chrome plugin is not working that well without the original domain :)
Glenn Horn
2023-02-04 07:13:40 +0000 UTCYeah, there's a workaround with the hosts file. I'll probably post a little tutorial soon, feel free to share any details you like on the subreddit.
Evan Bailey
2023-02-03 16:49:50 +0000 UTCServices fail and sites go down, but because you had the foresight & talent to provide a data backup you could move when needed, lots of personalised work is saved. Yet one more reason I'm glad to be a patron - Thanks Evan :)
Tersival
2023-02-03 16:45:36 +0000 UTCI literally shutter at the thought of running combat without this site. The workaround is a lifesaver for now. Best of luck getting it up and running again!
Ian H.
2023-02-02 19:15:01 +0000 UTCHey Evan! I've just recently (within the last couple weeks) became a Patron and managed to dodge this bullet :) thanks for your hard work! I've noticed free users on the subreddit who are out of the loop so I've shared some details there. One thing I planned on looking into tonight is how they could use their existing local storage on the backup endpoint to restore their data that way. Doing so semi-circumvents a Patreon feature so let me know if I'm overstepping in doing so!
Michael Cole
2023-02-01 18:39:30 +0000 UTCCould you use donations to extend the registration to 10 years? What is the extra cost for that?
Oldmadmage
2023-02-01 17:28:33 +0000 UTCAll of my patreon subscriptions were cancelled last month because I forgot to update my billing when my credit card expired. I appreciate your effort to keep everything up and running, the site makes running combat so much easier!
Nathan Adams
2023-02-01 00:00:31 +0000 UTCThanks for the update! This has made DMing so much easier and not having it for a bit only reminded me about how much I love the tool! Also...the sync worked gloriously!
Josh Petro
2023-01-31 22:50:11 +0000 UTCLol oops. Yeah that's a rookie mistake but you got a workaround up quickly so can't complain. You certainly won't be making that mistake again, eh? Haha
ErdTirdMans
2023-01-31 22:11:45 +0000 UTCInteresting. I've heard of this happening before but I've never been able to reproduce it. Did you ever import hand-edited JSON data by chance?
Evan Bailey
2023-01-31 22:10:01 +0000 UTCThanks for the reply! I don't see why I wouldn't have been logged in. when I go to the account section it says 4 local 42 synced, but I can't see all 42. It's not big problem anyway, I have a backup I can use and I'll just update the missing one, thanks again!
Sean Cusic
2023-01-31 19:56:01 +0000 UTCIt's possible that you weren't logged in for Account Sync when you created the missing characters. Sorry about the inconvenience!
Evan Bailey
2023-01-31 19:51:05 +0000 UTCIt happens don't worry about it! My only issue is that when I load onto the new link it works fine and I can log in no problems, however many of my created characters are missing, any idea why? I have some but not all
Sean Cusic
2023-01-31 19:50:09 +0000 UTCkeep up the great work!! the back up worked just fine!! hopefully it gets resolved soon!
everett
2023-01-31 16:32:19 +0000 UTCIt's cool buddy, it happens. Keep up the great work, you got me scared for a second there.
Albion
2023-01-31 10:08:22 +0000 UTCGlad you're still here! Was really worried when the site didn't load! I use improved initiative for my in-person every week! Backup sync worked perfectly on the new site.
TheSheDM
2023-01-31 01:22:05 +0000 UTCYes it will
Evan Bailey
2023-01-30 22:13:10 +0000 UTCQuestion: If I create creatures or make changes to my data in the Backup domain, will it synch up with the normal domain once it's back up?
Gene Armstrong
2023-01-30 22:02:38 +0000 UTCOh thank God!!! I was afraid you'd just up and quit it. Not being accusatory, btw.... I've had that happen with vendors before. Lost a crap load of intellectual property once when a code repository "shit off the lights" without warning.
Christopher Smith
2023-01-30 03:42:34 +0000 UTCI use improved initiative for a complete home brew I made (star wars) and I spent a few hours making original NPC bosses for my players.. I was worried I'd lose all of that but I didn't. I'm very grateful. This is the first patreon I ever supported and it has paid off.
Mike Clark
2023-01-30 01:09:26 +0000 UTCAll good Evan, thanks for having a workaround. The backup sync worked.
ChrisDuran
2023-01-29 14:39:21 +0000 UTCI just want to say BLESS you for that account sync for we the Patrons; that's saving my butt today!!
widgetoc
2023-01-28 14:34:30 +0000 UTCThat's a pretty big oopsie, I was almost worried you were hacked when I opened the site a few hours ago. Are you taking steps to prevent this from happening again?
M M
2023-01-28 08:27:34 +0000 UTC
