03 Oct 23: One server was relocated, the server currently doesn't have a public IP address since in the meantime it is running on starlink. I wrote some additional tunnel code running separately to handle this. When the server is engaged the connection is 5600+ days uniform (since around 24 July 2008). In the unlikely case I disengaged the server because of some problem the retention is 1200-3800 days depending on newsgroup. If you experience any issue please let me know.
29 Nov 23: Because of encrypted and obfuscated posts flood mass posted by a few nzb indexing websites using usenet servers as private storage for their members to download the posts - the situation with the content is pretty chaotic since their purpose is to post in such a way, so users must use their website exclusively, when the website disappears - the encrypted posts just eat usenet providers' hard disk space uselessly. If you can't find something specific please let me know at alexbirj at gmail dot com what exactly you can't find for me to check how it is possible to retain the posts. Non-obfuscated posts shouldn't be affected at all, let me know if you notice anything missing.
29 Nov 23: The search protocol had to be upgraded to extend 3 byte (16M+) limit on the server side for number of sets per instance, so at least the version 5.8.3 is needed to access it, otherwise should be no any difference.
I get the message that the service is being backed up. Are there problems with the search service?
I have not been able to access it since yesterday and the last post that indicates is down was dated last week.
if you see any problem with search like it is restarting a server and there is no message about database backup on the main forum page (it is quite rare) - report it immediately on forum.
i have search service monitoring but it has some tolerance to avoid false alarms since sometimes it might be dns problems or lost connectivity.
as to restarting though in the future i will catch this specific condition so i'll be aware of restarts right away. normally server doesn't restart by itself at all, only in the case of power failure or e.g. exhausting RAM to allocate database data/index space (at least i wrote down a note to add it).