Why did you need to switch over?
While I can clean out old shares from the core database, the webserver still requires a full history of shares for active servers. This copy of the shares had grown to be 400 GB, and disk space doesn't grow forever. I figured it prudent to start over while we had the opportunity.
What is the buffer? The SMPPS buffer?
Yes, that buffer.
Now that we've switched to Ra, did that happen because people moved to 'generous' and was the buffer donated?
The buffer was exhausted. Due to timing, I ended up with 0.20 BTC leftover. I don't consider this amount worth the time trying to figure out how to split it up.