However I word this, it's going to come across to some like I'm just trying to get my hands on more money, so I'll start by saying that this has nothing to do with personal gain; I have kept track of all the donations that have ever been given to Atheist Forums and every single cent will go towards the costs of running the forums.
Back in March, I posted a donation drive thread that outlined my plans for hosting these forums in the future. Basically, our current server lease has expired, and we can move on to a cheaper platform. The server we are currently running on is a VPS, which is a Virtual machine that runs alongside other virtual machines. It is relatively powerful, but not as powerful as a full dedicated server, which most large websites (and forums) run on.
I had planned to simply choose a cheaper VPS of similar spec to the current one, and so I came up with a figure that we could aim for based on the cost of that. However, I had not anticipated the generosity of the people here, nor had I anticipated the growth of the forum that we have seen in the last 2 months. Furthermore, it is clear that people want a lot of features implemented, and the recent attempt at having an AJAX based chatroom highlighted the lack of power this server has (i.e. two forum crashes simply from people chatting).
The original company I wanted to go with (flosoft.biz) have a good deal on a Dedicated server, which costs $53 a month to use. This is about double what the VPS plan costs. Since I know the owner of the company, he has agreed to waive the 20% VAT fee that the purchase would normally incur (based on German VAT), and there is also a deal that would scrap the $133 setup fee if we pay for 12 months in advance. Not only would this be a massive saving, but it would mean that for 12 months, I essentially have no worries about costs.
Obviously, I wouldn't ask for donations to match what is required ($312). I am prepared to pay $15 a month personally as I will be hosting some other sites (like my blog and personal website) on the server as well. That leaves us with $132 left to get.
That will get us through the next 12 months of hosting, and from there we can decide if we want to go bigger (assuming the forum has grown significantly), or if we want to stay on the server and raise the needed $38 a month to run it.
Of course, the ultimate decision is up to you. I'd personally feel more secure with a Dedicated, especially if we could get it with the deals offered. How we raise the money is up for discussion; if people are fine with donating more, fantastic. If we want to have a discussion about other possible methods of revenue (such as advertising) then please voice your support or objections.
So this is a discussion thread. Please discuss the topic at hand; I will endeavour to answer questions as much as I can. FYI, the stats for the dedicated are here: http://www.flosoft.biz/products/dedicated/eco/ - If you think you have found a better one for the same amount, or a cheaper one that roughly matches up, please tell us!
-Adrian
P.S. As with the last donation drive, the "weird" values used above are the result of converting from Euros to Dollars. The server costs €39.95 a month to run.
Back in March, I posted a donation drive thread that outlined my plans for hosting these forums in the future. Basically, our current server lease has expired, and we can move on to a cheaper platform. The server we are currently running on is a VPS, which is a Virtual machine that runs alongside other virtual machines. It is relatively powerful, but not as powerful as a full dedicated server, which most large websites (and forums) run on.
I had planned to simply choose a cheaper VPS of similar spec to the current one, and so I came up with a figure that we could aim for based on the cost of that. However, I had not anticipated the generosity of the people here, nor had I anticipated the growth of the forum that we have seen in the last 2 months. Furthermore, it is clear that people want a lot of features implemented, and the recent attempt at having an AJAX based chatroom highlighted the lack of power this server has (i.e. two forum crashes simply from people chatting).
The original company I wanted to go with (flosoft.biz) have a good deal on a Dedicated server, which costs $53 a month to use. This is about double what the VPS plan costs. Since I know the owner of the company, he has agreed to waive the 20% VAT fee that the purchase would normally incur (based on German VAT), and there is also a deal that would scrap the $133 setup fee if we pay for 12 months in advance. Not only would this be a massive saving, but it would mean that for 12 months, I essentially have no worries about costs.
Obviously, I wouldn't ask for donations to match what is required ($312). I am prepared to pay $15 a month personally as I will be hosting some other sites (like my blog and personal website) on the server as well. That leaves us with $132 left to get.
That will get us through the next 12 months of hosting, and from there we can decide if we want to go bigger (assuming the forum has grown significantly), or if we want to stay on the server and raise the needed $38 a month to run it.
Of course, the ultimate decision is up to you. I'd personally feel more secure with a Dedicated, especially if we could get it with the deals offered. How we raise the money is up for discussion; if people are fine with donating more, fantastic. If we want to have a discussion about other possible methods of revenue (such as advertising) then please voice your support or objections.
So this is a discussion thread. Please discuss the topic at hand; I will endeavour to answer questions as much as I can. FYI, the stats for the dedicated are here: http://www.flosoft.biz/products/dedicated/eco/ - If you think you have found a better one for the same amount, or a cheaper one that roughly matches up, please tell us!
-Adrian
P.S. As with the last donation drive, the "weird" values used above are the result of converting from Euros to Dollars. The server costs €39.95 a month to run.
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