Hi,
As you probably all noticed, since now about a month the site is very slow at some times.
One of the reason is the number of bots crawling the site, as there are many more of these than real humans.
But it is not the only reason, it is most likely a combination of factors.
Another may be the age of the server.
Also maybe some software issue, after the 7 upgrades done on the OS in the last years. A clean install may help, I hope.
It is also probable that the amount of data reached a critical mass, the disk seems to have issues to follow (old classic HDD).

In the next days/week I'll move the site to a new server with SSD, but due to limited space on these I'll keep the comment pictures on the old server for a short time (luckily I used "pics.imcdb.org" rather than the main domain for these, so I can easily have them on a separate server).

After moving the main site, I'll move the comment pictures to a new smaller separate server, for that the speed is less an issue.

The admins have a hard time validating all the new contributions when the site is slow (often in the evening CET-time, which matches the middle of the day for American timezones). So in the meantime, it could help them if there are less contributions to process, less urgent contributions can maybe wait a little.

The new server is being installed, I already configured a part of it and I will continue in the next days.

Good luck

Thanks.
The new server is in Canada like the old one.
The new one is in Beauharnois, that's the first time I heard of that town
(I assume the old one is there too, I just have the datacentre name, which is similar)

The web server + PHP work, tomorrow and/or Friday I'll try to do the database, certificates and e-mail.
Maybe somewhere next week it will already be ready, the only thing still unknown is the time it will take to transfer the few vehicle images

Hopefully, the new server will give it a good upgrade

I hope so.
It is nearly ready, I just have one big task: copy more than a million pictures
I don't have to do them one by one but it will task some time, and I have to find a reliable way to do that in several steps (as it is not doable in one go)

How long do I have to wait for the site will be moved to a new server?

It will be done this week, only a few days to wait

Currently the site is even slower in the day, it is normal: I am copying the pictures to the new server, so it makes traffic on the old one.

Pictures finished copying, I'll soon lock the old site, re-sync the pictures, copy the database, and then we can test the new server for real.

Starting the actual move to the new server.
Syncing last pictures updated to the new site, then I'll backup and copy the database.

I forgot to change the TTL of the domain yesterday, so after the copy it can take up to 24h to see the new server instead of the old one, depending on your DNS cache

Database ready
One last-minute bug fixed (no matter how much you test, you always find something)
Main pictures updated
Now updating last thumbnails of main pictures

I switched the DNS to the new server, so when your cache is updated (or your ISP's cache), you should arrive on the new server.

The message at the top indicates if you are on the old or new server:
"If you see this message it means you still see the old site"
"if you see this message, it means that you are already on the new server"

Please report here anything unusual that you notice.

Has anyone reached the new site yet? I reset my cache and I am still directed to the old one.

I’m getting the new server message from a first look, site seems much, much faster, especially compared to last days.

It is usually limited by the cache of the DNS server to which you connect (most of the time the one provided by your ISP), so unfortunately not much you can do except waiting, or forcing the address in your machine's host file, but that's not recommended if you don't know how to do it
You can always try both of https://imcdb.org and https://www.imcdb.org as one may be in the cache since longer than the other.
Quickly after the change a lot of bots were already browsing the site.

I'll unlock the site for changes, as all seems to work. In the worse case I still have the backup of the database.

Are you sure it's done?

Yes, why?

I've got the "new server" message without doing anything - this seamless wizardry is truly impressive.