During that time we have spent countless hours trying different solutions in order to get rid of the issues. Some have helped a little, some a bit more, some not at all. During this time we've also kept trying to analyze to see if there are any certain patterns that lead to the lag. The only one we've recently found is that extensive gold mining tends to bust the site. Why it is so, when in earlier days it was not a problem, we don't know.
The site is running partly on quite old technology. After trying pretty much everything else that we can, the only option left now is to do major upgrades on the behind the scenes software. In essence this means taking down and backing up the whole database, site code structure etc. then upgrading all the big and small components that churn out the site. This is not a small undertaking, and it will also most likely require recoding certain small parts of the site to make them compatible with all the major new stuff.
In order to have the upgrading process go as smoothly as possible with minimal risk of any data lost or leaving things unattended in a hurry, the site will go down for a maintenance break starting from July 10th. The site will most likely be down for 2-3 weeks. We expect to be back up and running by the start of August.
There are people who have reached out to us and asked if they can help with something. We appreciate that and love you peeps for wanting to stick with us and the site. At the moment we are set with resources to make the upgrades happen. However if we run into unexpected issues during the upgrades, we might put out a request for help with specific requirements.
Thank you all for the shreds of patience you still have with us! We now have the next steps planned and scheduled, and we are keeping our fingers, toes, paws, talons, tails, and what have you crossed, that by the beginning of August we will have a much better functioning site for you all!
![In love <3](./images/smilies/hearty.gif)