FlightSimTube to close, moving to new site

I’ve made the decision to close down FlightSimTube.

There are a number of reasons and I won’t bore you with all the details. Suffice to say, we will be closing the site on the 14th April, 2009.

However, all is not lost! We’re encouraging all users of FlightSimTube to move over to the new Flight Simulator Network. The new site has fantastic video and screenshot handling, as well as forums, user blogs, live chat and more.

I hope to see you there

Where have the videos gone?

Good question. I’ve checked a few other BoostCast sites and most aren’t showing any video, although a few are.

I’ve emailed BoostCast to see what’s going on and will report back when I hear from them.

Update: 20:10 20/07/08: I suspect BoostCast are using Amazon S3 to store video. Amazon S3 is currently down, which would explain the lack of video. Hopefully it’ll be back pretty quick.

Update: 00:30 21/07/08: All is well again. I suspect they were subject to the Amazon S3 outage.

New video player

You may have noticed that the video player has been updated. I like the new style and features.

There are more updates coming shortly, including the ability for me to message all members with status updates, news etc.

It looks like BoostCast are getting their act together now, which is encouraging news

FlightSimTube hosts changing domain name

The company that hosts FlightSimTube – StartYourTube – have changed their name to BoostCast. They’ll be switching over name severs shortly and hopefully there won’t be any interruption to the service.

It looks like they’re adding some neat new features – more details to follow soon.

FlightSimTube itself will remain the same, so no need to update your bookmarks.

All systems normal

I’m pleased to advise that everything seems stable now. Uploads are being processed quickly and all seems well

Uploads being processed

StartYourTube have again started processing uploaded videos. As usual, no explanation has been given as to why they haven’t processed any for the past 48 hours.

Unfortunately, they have messed up the conversion of the past 6 videos. I’ve contacted the authors asking them if they could re-upload them.

My apologies to everyone who has been affected.

Site back up

The site is back up and now pointing to the correct location.

Uploaded videos are still in the queue. I’ll get them approved as soon as they’re released from the queue.

DNS issues

flightsimtube.com (along with every other startyourtube site) appears to be redirecting to the main startyoutube.com site.

Again, I’m hoping this is temporary and that this is an indication that they’re tyring to fix the site.

Media currently being held in queue

All video currently being uploaded is being held in a queue at the moment. I’m hoping that this is a deliberate action on the part of StartYourTube whilst they sort out all the other problems.

I’ll get the recently uploaded videos approved as soon as it allows me to do so.

FlightSimTube current status

Hi folks,

I’ve created this blog with the intention of providing the current status of FlightSimTube and supplying any news relating to the site.

The reason for doing so is primarily due to the current situation with the company that hosts the site. Just for a little background info, FlightSimTube was created using the software provided by StartYourTube. Recently, they have been experiencing a number of problems, but things have taken a real nose dive over the past 24 hours:

• More than 5 hours of downtime
• A number of members have been deleted
• A number of media items have been deleted
• Videos now being uploaded are being replaced – it looks like someone has hacked their site.

Unfortunately, as StartYourTube are hosting the site, there’s little I can do other than sit back and keep my fingers crossed.

I’m pretty upset with the way StartYourTube have handled the situation. When I say “handled”, what I really mean is that they’re simply ignoring any correspondence sent to them and don’t bother to let people know what the problems are and what they’re doing to fix them.

So, for now, I’m unable to approve any newly uploaded videos. As soon as that situation changes, I’ll post here again with the details.

I hope it’s only teething problems and that they’ll overcome them. FlightSimTube has been pretty popular over the 4 short weeks it’s been in existence and I’d like to see it continue in that fashion.

I’ve created a forum if you want to know what’s happening in more detail. If anyone notices anything else odd about the site, please let me know either here or on the forum.