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I don't understand this thing about shutting everything down. I have a VPS that costs me £1.20 per month, so at the very base level if it is a service that nobo

I don't understand this thing about shutting everything down. I have a VPS that costs me £1.20 per month, so at the very base level if it is a service that nobody is using, then its maintenance cost can be extraordinarily small. And if people are using it, and you have a significant cost because of that, then that's a clear indication that it's too early to shut it down. Seriously, internet server bandwidth is cheap these days, especially compared to when these services were first put in place. The only logical reason I can think of to shut these services down is to try to drive people towards new kit.

b112 3y ago
It's the security aspect. Nothing runs on an island, so there's the entire OS layer, libraries, and everything else. These require regular security upgrades, as vulnerabilities are discovered. Eventually, things are deprecated. Python, php and so on, have versions that are end of life. And so, you have to upgrade to an entire new stack. Often that requires upgrade to frameworks, and therefore code. And beyond that, there's uptime monitoring. Security alerts. Logs to be read. Bandwidth and bare metal costs are trivial, compared to labour to keep such things operational. I wouldn't be surprised if one of two things happened. Some piece is now obsolete, and that requires a large amount of work to upgrade. Maybe a partial code rewrite. Or someone key left. And training isn't seen as worth the effort, when #1 is close on the horizon.
- smaudet 3y ago
  Usually the "security" operates on a similar principle, it's not actually any more secure. Upgrades are (usually) complete poison.
exitb 3y ago
I believe it’s actually quite expensive to keep a service in a working condition. You can’t just leave a system connected to the internet running for years with no oversight. But ultimately, your last sentence points out the most important reason - the companies want gamers to spend time and money on new games.

b112 3y ago

It's the security aspect. Nothing runs on an island, so there's the entire OS layer, libraries, and everything else. These require regular security upgrades, as vulnerabilities are discovered. Eventually, things are deprecated. Python, php and so on, have versions that are end of life. And so, you have to upgrade to an entire new stack. Often that requires upgrade to frameworks, and therefore code. And beyond that, there's uptime monitoring. Security alerts. Logs to be read. Bandwidth and bare metal costs are trivial, compared to labour to keep such things operational. I wouldn't be surprised if one of two things happened. Some piece is now obsolete, and that requires a large amount of work to upgrade. Maybe a partial code rewrite. Or someone key left. And training isn't seen as worth the effort, when #1 is close on the horizon.

smaudet 3y ago
Usually the "security" operates on a similar principle, it's not actually any more secure. Upgrades are (usually) complete poison.

exitb 3y ago

I believe it’s actually quite expensive to keep a service in a working condition. You can’t just leave a system connected to the internet running for years with no oversight. But ultimately, your last sentence points out the most important reason - the companies want gamers to spend time and money on new games.