PSA: Pinside is Down

Cary Hardy·video·1m 45s·analyzed·Apr 5, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.012

TL;DR

Pinside.com offline due to data center fire; servers being checked for water damage.

Summary

Cary Hardy reports that Pinside.com is currently offline due to a fire at the data center hosting its servers. Robin, who runs Pinside, confirmed that sprinklers were activated, servers need individual water damage checks, and reconfiguring a complete working server would take at least two days. Robin is deciding between purchasing a new server or waiting out the outage, with hopes to restore service by the next day.

Key Claims

A fire occurred at the data center where Pinside servers are located
high confidence · Direct statement from Robin (Pinside operator) relayed through Jeff Patterson of This Week in Pinball
Sprinklers were activated at the data center during the fire
high confidence · Robin's statement about the incident
Servers need to be checked individually for water damage
high confidence · Robin's assessment of recovery process
Reconfiguring a complete working server would take at least two days
high confidence · Robin's estimate of recovery timeline
Pinside has backups of its data
high confidence · Robin's clarification that data is backed up
Pinside hosting bills are paid and the outage is not due to DDoS or site shutdown
high confidence · Robin's statement addressing potential misconceptions

Notable Quotes

“There was a fire in the data center where Pinside servers are located. Sprinklers were involved. It's a mess.”
Robin (Pinside operator, relayed by Cary Hardy)@ 0:36 — Core explanation of the outage cause
“Pinside has backups, but reconfiguring a complete working server would take me at least two days.”
Robin (Pinside operator, relayed by Cary Hardy)@ 0:51 — Clarifies recovery timeline and constraints
“I'm constantly hesitating between purchasing or reconfiguring a new server elsewhere, or waiting this outage out.”
Robin (Pinside operator, relayed by Cary Hardy)@ 0:58 — Shows uncertainty about recovery strategy
“We did pay our hosting bills. We are not being DDoSed, and I have not decided to call it quits after my third Twippy.”
Robin (Pinside operator, relayed by Cary Hardy)@ 1:17 — Addresses misconceptions and affirms commitment to site recovery
“I hope we can be back online tomorrow. Fingers crossed.”
Robin (Pinside operator, relayed by Cary Hardy)@ 1:26 — Optimistic recovery timeline estimate

Entities

Pinsideorganization Robinperson Cary Hardyperson Jeff Pattersonperson This Week in Pinballorganization

Signals

?
business_signal: Major pinball community infrastructure (Pinside forum/marketplace) offline due to physical data center disaster; operational continuity and recovery timeline uncertain
high · Fire and water damage to servers hosting Pinside; recovery estimates 1-2 days minimum but complicated by need for individual server checks
?
community_signal: Transparent communication from Pinside operator to community through media channels (Facebook, This Week in Pinball) explaining incident and clarifying misconceptions
high · Robin's direct statement addressing concerns about hosting bills, DDoS, or site shutdown; explicit message about commitment to recovery

Topics

Infrastructure and service outagesprimaryCommunity communication and transparencyprimaryPinside operations and recoveryprimaryData backup and disaster recoverysecondary

Sentiment

negative(-0.7)— The incident itself is serious and disruptive to the community, but tone is measured and factual. Robin's statement shows frustration but also determination to recover. Cary's presentation is matter-of-fact and helpful rather than alarmist.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.005

So if you're like me, you tried getting on pinside.com today and you saw this. Now at the time I thought nothing of it. I was like, okay, maybe I've just got a bad connection to that server at this particular time, or maybe the website is down for a mere glitch or something like that. And I went about my day. Evidently, no, it's a little more serious than that. Real quick video here, guys. Just wanted to give you an update on what's going on with Pinside Jeff Patterson from This Week in Pinball reached out to Robin that runs Pinside, and this is what Robin had to say about the issue. There was a fire in the data center where Pinside servers are located. Sprinklers were involved. It's a mess. Servers are slowly being brought back up, but need to be checked individually for water damage, etc. I also heard repairs are ongoing at the facility. Pennside has backups, but reconfiguring a complete working server would take me at least two days. So I'm constantly hesitating between purchasing or reconfiguring a new server elsewhere, or waiting this outage out. It's incredibly frustrating to have this in your head, and needless to say, it has been slowly eating me up all day. Anyways, feel free to bring word out that this is going on. We did pay our hosting bills. We are not being DDoSed, and I have not decided to call it quits after my third Twippy. To be continued, I hope we can be back online tomorrow. Fingers crossed. So there you go. I'm just doing my part right here by getting the word out to those of you that may not have Facebook or have seen this on Facebook. There you go. There is the reasons behind it. Hopefully, we'll see Pinside back up soon. Until next time, guys, peace out.