As many of you have noticed, the IRC services have started working abnormally as of recently. For some reason, all the databases it uses to keep track of registered nicknames, channels, vhosts, etc. were reset. There are backups of all the information however.
This has been the last straw with Anope (the IRC services package we have been using since we first set up our own server) as far as I am concerned. It has had a history of not working properly (such as not voicing users who were on the auto voice list). Now, it won't automatically give any modes at all (which basically makes it useless except for keeping people from using your nickname).
For this reason I am deciding to switch to a new package. The new services package should work almost the exact same as the old one (there will still be Nick / Chan / Oper / MemoServ etc. however there will not be a HostServ, BotServ, or GameServ). Hopefully it will be much more reliable than the old one. I will attempt to migrate the backup databases from the old services to the new one (though I can't guarantee how well it's gonna work).
Anyway, this post is mainly to inform you that some upgrades are going to be done in the near future (to both services and the server itself) which will require some server restarts. You may notice disconnects / etc when the server is restarted. Anytime the server needs to be restarted, one of us will try to notify everyone with a global notice.
Thanks for your cooperation and we apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.
