April 2026 update
Published on April 8, 2026 by Patrick Dersjant
Hi there,
and welcome to the latest Mended Drum update. What happened in the last three months?
Update to version 4.5.7
We've updated the Drum to the (at the time) latest version 4.5.7, and also took the opportunity to migrate to a newer VPS at Hetzner. You may have noticed the IP-address change, but your computer may also just have hidden that for you. The delight of being on the current version lasted all of two days, when the minor 4.5.8 bugfix was released...
Images not loading
We still on occasion run into the issue of images not loading. For some unknown reason, at certain times our server takes too many frog pills and loses itself somewhere in L-Space. In other words, lost name resolving. Giving it a pat on the back (restarting the service) solves this but it is a manual thing. We thought moving the server to a new VPS would solve this, but it didn't. We did gain some extra information on possible causes so continue our quest in getting rid of, as we call it in the ops appgroup, iconoclasm.
Terrybot
At the beginning of April we got a request from the veritable terrybot to join the Drum. If you haven't heard of it yet, it posts a daily quote taken from the Pratchett Quote File over at L-Space. After some consideration we found it to be a fit, so welcome @terrybot!
Finances
Financially, the Drum had a quiet quarter. I'm really appreciative of all your continuing donations, which makes it so much easier to run the Drum!
That said, prices hiked with 20% or so in April due to the AI-craze. I've streamlined the setup a bit so we shouldn't go up in costs too much, but I'm expecting further price rises later this year. Thanks to your generosity the Drum won't feel it immediately, but donations to charities may take longer to accumulate.
Thank you again all for your continuing contributions!
This quarters financials:
Income
and welcome to the latest Mended Drum update. What happened in the last three months?
Update to version 4.5.7
We've updated the Drum to the (at the time) latest version 4.5.7, and also took the opportunity to migrate to a newer VPS at Hetzner. You may have noticed the IP-address change, but your computer may also just have hidden that for you. The delight of being on the current version lasted all of two days, when the minor 4.5.8 bugfix was released...
Images not loading
We still on occasion run into the issue of images not loading. For some unknown reason, at certain times our server takes too many frog pills and loses itself somewhere in L-Space. In other words, lost name resolving. Giving it a pat on the back (restarting the service) solves this but it is a manual thing. We thought moving the server to a new VPS would solve this, but it didn't. We did gain some extra information on possible causes so continue our quest in getting rid of, as we call it in the ops appgroup, iconoclasm.
Terrybot
At the beginning of April we got a request from the veritable terrybot to join the Drum. If you haven't heard of it yet, it posts a daily quote taken from the Pratchett Quote File over at L-Space. After some consideration we found it to be a fit, so welcome @terrybot!
Finances
Financially, the Drum had a quiet quarter. I'm really appreciative of all your continuing donations, which makes it so much easier to run the Drum!
That said, prices hiked with 20% or so in April due to the AI-craze. I've streamlined the setup a bit so we shouldn't go up in costs too much, but I'm expecting further price rises later this year. Thanks to your generosity the Drum won't feel it immediately, but donations to charities may take longer to accumulate.
Thank you again all for your continuing contributions!
This quarters financials:
Income
Donations € 292.20
Expenses
Hosting costs € 120.78
Payment costs € 55.47
Donations € 0.00
Total expenses € 176.25
Total buffer: € 584.87 (14 months of hosting costs)
Expenses
Hosting costs € 120.78
Payment costs € 55.47
Donations € 0.00
Total expenses € 176.25
Total buffer: € 584.87 (14 months of hosting costs)