My hosting provider has a great promotion right now -- 25% off all VPS plans until July 31st. A VPS is a virtual private server, which is what this site runs on.
Unfortunately, the discount can only be applied to new servers. So over the next few days, I will be purchasing enough new VPS's to replace the ones I already have, and setting them up exactly the same. I hope to have this done by July 20th.
When everything is working on the new servers, I will point all of the DNS records to go to the new server. It can take a few days for this change to propagate, so for around 5 days I will keep the old servers active. This will allow you to keep accessing the site even if the change in IP address hasn't yet propagated to your ISP.
And it won't matter if you post a new thread or reply when you are connecting to the old server or the new server -- both will point to the same database server.
So if everything goes as planned, there will be zero downtime and you won't notice a thing.
I could save about 15% on my hosting bills if I replace one-for-one with the current servers (some I purchased using a recurring coupon code, others are full price), but instead I decided to upgrade -- about only $20 per month extra for faster servers with more memory and disk space, which will give this site and all my other sites a lot of room to grow.
I will keep you informed throughout the process. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know by replying to this post.
Thank you!
-Justin (Gen. Jersey)