Frequency of Polling

Why Don't You Run This Hourly?

Many players would like to see hour-by-hour data of who has been online. While I would love to offer this, it really boils down to the following:

1. Cost of operation
2. Monitoring servers
3. Handling long-term storage of data
4. Public access to data and interest over time

I originally offered a live, public version of the project where others could access and interact with the data. It lasted a few months before people stopped donating and I had to pay out of pocket. In the final month, only one person other than myself actually checked it daily for statistics. I had to shut it down.

To be able to complete the work in an hour, four querying clients are needed. I have not tested the stability of the server code beyond two clients. This is because I couldn't get any trustworthy volunteers, who had sufficient compute resources, to offer up a machine for remote access that I could load the client on and run. One option is to use Amazon AWS, potentially T3a.nano instances for reduced cost, and attach an Elastic IP to it so I can use the Server API Key. 24/7 operation for four instances is roughly $17/month, not including fees for outbound network traffic. The time and effort required for troubleshooting is really a full-time job, and I donated a lot of my spare time towards getting the project operational.

If you wish to perform this on your own, please do! I encourage it and would be happy to assist in troubleshooting so that you can get your project up off the ground.