Did Anybody Else See That?
Gather around and have a seat everyone, for I have a story to tell.
There is a man in Texas who goes by the name Scott Kurtz. Scott is the creator of the webcomic Player vs. Player, and is considered by many, including myself, to be a giant in the webcomic community. I would estimate that there are less than a dozen or so giants currently roaming the Earth, and Scott is one of them.
Yesterday Scott was streaming on PVP-TV, critiquing webcomics in order to help guide those who are in, and who hope to one day be in, the glamorous world of comics on the web. When he asked for another webcomic to review, Paul, who you may recall is the artist behind Woody After Hours, was listening to the live stream, heard Scott’s cry for help and thought to himself, “Hmm, maybe I’ll pass him the link to WAH. What could possibly go wrong?” And then Paul did just that.
Scott proceeded to review our comic, live, in front of a global web audience. I regret to inform you that I missed 90% of what he said. I know there are some things he liked, and I know there are some things he suggested we update. Overall, however, his opinion of the little world that we have created thus far was more-or-less positive.
Now, if my story ended there, I’d consider that more than enough to call it a win. But stay seated cause there’s more. At the end of Scott’s WAH critique he took the extra step of :
(The tiny URL goes to WAH in case you’re wondering.)
So, now, we’re at a whole new level of holy moly! Scott, a webcomic giant, has just told his 18,000+ followers to visit our website.
So, within seconds, the itty-bitty little server our comic resides on stood up, raised his hand in the air to get everyone’s attention, and said in a low voice, “Uh, guys, I really can’t handle the responsibility, so I’m just going to lay down and take a long nap until this is over.” And then it did.
So, picture me, if you will, good looking of course, sitting at my desk, trying to comprehend the immense opportunity that Scott has just handed us, followed by the dread that is the fact that no one can access our comic. It’s really not that funny, but if you feel like chuckling I won’t blame you…too much.
Two hours, and a lot of work by people much calmer than I, later and we’re back up and running.
I’d like to thank the following people:
Paul for having the guts to alert Scott to our comic. I would not have had said guts.
Scott for twittering that people should check us out. We are sincerely honored. I hope someday he knows that, since I don’t have the guts to email him and tell him.
Jerry, the guy who got us on a bigger server and back up within two hours. He’s a hell of a guy. Seriously, a hell of a guy. Someone should buy him an expensive beer.
Paul, the creator of the WAH website, for helping Jerry out and virtually holding my hand during my freak-out.
And that, my friends, is my story.
– Ben
And I don’t even get a nod for giving you the hardware to host this on for free? :-/
First, Ben I think you have a new character for your strip. Sleepy the Server.
Secondly, Jeremy I think he just assumed you didn’t read the comic so he didn’t have to thank you and Sleepy.
Just wanted to say that I’m one of Scott’s twitter followers who helped crash the server — sorry ’bout that — and that I’m glad I persevered and came back later, because I’m enjoying the strip. Hope more of the PvP crowd stuck around as well.
@Jeremy–well *I* appreciate you–even if Ben doesn’t!
@Cap’n Neurotic–pleased you did persevere…hope we see you often!
WP Supercache to the rescue ?
We have WP-Cache installed and enabled. Are we talking about the same thing, or is there really a “super” version that we need to get our hands on? And if so, why wasn’t I alerted about this in my daily briefing with the President?
There is a difference between cache and super cache. Not sure it would have saved Sleepy. We’ll switch to super once everything with the hosting is worked out.
I feel your pain! When I was on FMyLife, my server crashed (not because of the traffic, but because of my spotty hosting service), and it was two hours of pure panic for me, calling the hosting service non-stop to get it back up and running.
Cool that you got a nod from Scott! Paul is a pretty great presence in the webcomic community.
@ D. Long–I think it was more about everyone going to the site the moment he twittered it (that and however many were in UStream)…I’m guessing that cause we didn’t have an issue with the FMyLife traffic. I think I said it took 3 minutes to make the server cry. I’m still very thankful Mr. Kurtz did that. AND thanks for the compliment 😀
Amazing guys! That’s is really very awesome. I hope you get a lot of traffic and people stick around and realize here is awesome writing and amazing art going on here.
Also, I’d be RTing the eff out of that tweet.
Grats!
That is a cool story. You guys are destined to hit it super-big anyway!
I’m not so sure it had anything to do with that tweet. My guess is it was a denial-of-service attack from terrorists angry about the fact that their followers are becoming more and more addicted to WAH. Just a theory.
Congrats on the nod from a web comic super star! That’s always good to hear.
That’s really nothing until you get my 20 followers coming by..haha j/k
congrats on taken Woody to new heights.