For us IT dummies, what will be the advantages of dedicated hosting? I donated because I am confident it will be great, but can someone explain in a brief "elevator summary" what the improvements will be?

@Crazy

Right now, we share the server we rent with other websites. If they get a lot of traffic, *we* slow down. As the name suggests, dedicated hosting will have a server dedicated to us, so that other people's use doesn't affect us.

OK, the 20,000ft 'overly simplified' version:

First, understand that we 'share' the current server with other online apps (I don't know which we do share with, but there are some). We also share a server where the db is held. So when one of those 'other' apps falls over, it causes us trouble... or when one of those apps are really busy during peak dip time, the systems 'argue' over who gets the bandwidth. The result? 500 errors. Slow response times. In general: things that everyone comes to the forum to bitch about.

A dedicated server means we are on a box all by our lonesome. So all those slowness issues and 500 errors should become a thing of the past. And the game should be uber more responsive as well.

The 40000 ft version:
Minimal to no 500 errors.
I'm trolling a bit.

The 60000 ft version: oh god no air it's cold shit shit shit

I am definitely trolling.

My how the term 'trolling' is not what it used to be. You aren't trolling, you are simply going off topic. 'trolling' is purposely saying things to piss off people and start a giant flamewar.

The 100000 foot ver... <*gasp*><*thump*>

I am dead from asphyxiation and orbiting the Earth alternating between extremely roasted from no ozone layer protecting me against the Sun and extremely frozen from being in the Earth's shadow. I can't be trolling.

@FK

You sound a little angry. Maybe he was trolling after all.

@FK - Now *you're* are trolling. Trolling is whatever the troll wants it to be. nananananana!

Hahahaha! My plan all along, FK!

@Draugnar: if you were at 100000 feet, you'd be in a... *sunglasses on* decaying orbit.

How come I don't get any credit for trolling in the first place? Damn it. I deserve some praise or condemnation or something.
The 92,500,000 miles from the earth version:
I'm swimming in the sun, baby, but don't worry. I have metaphasic shielding on and life's good. +1 to any who knows the reference.

Depends on the amount of thrust being applied. For stable orbit without any thrust, minimum is 220 miles or roughly 1.2 million feet, but if enough thrust is applied to overcome the friction of the atmosphere and therebye maintain orbital momentum, you could theoretically orbit at 6 miles (just over 30,000 feet). Any ariplane that could circumnavigate the globe continously is orbiting it. They key is that the ozone layer is around 19-25 miles above the earth (100,000 to 130,000 feet) so my body is alternating between frozen and roasting on an open spit.

Captain, we're approaching a sunspace anomaly...

Is it considered "orbiting" if it's applying a force other than gravity?

And how does a dead body apply thrust enough to increase its speed to jumbo jet cruising speed and keep it there, pray tell?

ST: TNG - Descent. Geordi altered the ships shields to allow the Ent-D to enter the corona of a star and lure a Borg ship into it, thereby destroying it.

I was an idiot and decided to take an unpressurized rocket to 100,000 feet (ala Dr. Strangelove). The rocket is dragging my body on it's orbit until it's thrust runs out. Then my decaying body orbit will truly start to decay.

You dummy...

No, I'm a corpse. If I were a dummy, I might be OK (other than melting and freezing and melting and freezing and...)

But you should have seen me! Waving my Microsoft C# ballcap and hollerin' 'Y-E-E-E-E-H-A-A-W-W!!!' as I blasted off. It was like Major Kong only going up, not coming down!

And the UV. Don't forget the UV.

Even satellites that have been in a "stable" orbit eventually fall out of the sky. @TBroadley - Re: Orbit without some external momentum replenishment... Space isn't a total vacuum. There are still small bits of dust and hydrogen particles that eventually have an effect on the orbiting object's momentum, thereby requiring a means of renewing the depleted momentum or becoming a decaying orbit.

@Draugnar: indeed. I fail to see how it is pertinent, considering I didn't bring that up, but indeed.

Sorry, that was Abgemacht. My bad...