SMF Wars. Chapter IV - A New Hope.

Post by **drmoss_ca** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:12 am

Gentlemen,
Some of you may not know that the owner of this site is a chap called Vince, as he rarely visits SMF these days. A rare and elusive bird is Vince, and somewhat difficult to observe in the wild. Now you will all be only too painfully aware of the problems we are having with our hosting service. The server crashes and reboots daily, corrupting our database and leading to the debug errors that Dominic then has to correct. We desperately need a new host, but the problem has been that only the owner can consent to this.

After lurking on AIM for days I finally caught Vince online and discovered SMF mails have been filtered into a rarely consulted box. He has promised to look into it and discuss it with Dominic. The mods and admins are agreed that we must move host, and will be willing to fund it while Vince retains ownership. In future, we would have to look at how we would continue to pay the hosting fees for a decent server - we could for example easily fund it by asking for a voluntary $1 donation from willing members. I hope this is what happens. It might be that Vince returns to his slumbers and nothing gets done, in which case we might as well all go home.

In other news, Tony Espo (The Goldfather) has resigned as a mod, citing his rare attendance here these days. Our thanks to him for an admirable career as a member and a mod. No doubt he will continue to drop in now and then and remind exactly who is the Don and who is the soldier. I shall have to blow the dust off your CVs and start looking for a replacement...

Chris

m3m0ryleak · Post by **m3m0ryleak** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:03 am

Chris,

Thanks for the update. I for one would be more than willing to "ante up" some clams for a new (i.e., reliable) host/server.

Tony

Lou · Post by **Lou** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:14 am

I too would be willing to make a contribution and help in any other way I can.

ateace · Post by **ateace** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:51 am

Count me in for a contribution.

TRBeck · Post by **TRBeck** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:44 am

While I would be willing to contribute, I fear a better server and board upgrade will spell trouble for me. I can get to this forum at work right now since the school district filter doesn't recognize it as a discussion forum (unlike every other shaving forum in existence). I could still participate from home, of course, but I rather like that this thing is so non-threatening to the all-seeing eye of the Internet filter...either way, I feel certain the community will soldier on in some format or another.

Thanks for the update, Chris.

Regards,

Aztecface · Post by **Aztecface** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:58 am

No problem. It would be a pleasure to assist in any way I can.

scaryshoes · Post by **scaryshoes** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:07 am

a-cut-above · Post by **a-cut-above** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:27 am

I would be willing to put some money in the pot. I wish I could donate some computer skills but "computer" and "skill" are not two words I often use in the same sentence.

Whistler · Post by **Whistler** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:35 am

Chris, in another chapter in my life I have been involved in an online community for some 12 years now and like you we faced the same problems as here, what we found best for us was a donation button linked to a paypal account that filtered the donations to the forum expense. We found it best to post the actual cost for a one year service, this way those who felt a larger donation was appropriate could do so, when the community can see what the cost is for the service, a $5 or $10 donation is much more understandable.

We also contacted our vendors, asking for donations to the cause, we did not only ask for cash but gave the option for donations of goods, which we raffle off for small donations, something along the lines of say a one dollar donation gets you one chance in the drawing, this has been a very good way for us to raise money for our forums. In return we provided advertising space for those vendors who donated.

Like you we were very hesitant doing this, with respects to special considerations to products and vendors willing to donate, but in the end the small advertising space we provided for exchange for their donation did not affect the community at all.

Once we reached a certain dollar amount from donations, we would purchase products from vendors with the excess cash, and have raffles for the community, sort of giving a little back.

There are draw backs to this system, most notable, someone needs to handle the money, and put in the time to arrange donations from vendors and be willing to accept shipments holding onto products and shipping them out when raffles are help.

In the end, we have been able to fund our forums, along with other servers that are needed for the community, something for you guys to toss around, I know the cost of feature rich forums and it is not cheap, I would not want to be in your position because I know what the conversations you and the other admins are going through now.

Post by **drmoss_ca** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:53 am

Thank all you kind gentlemen for your offers of support (and the vendor who offered a generous donation by PM), but I'm not worrying about the money at this point. If a new host will bring reliability to our installation of phpBB, I see no reason to change it for the rather expensive vBulletin used, for example, at SRP. A decent hosting service will only cost $100-200 per year as far as I can see, so small donations from interested members should easily cover it. Vince would have to agree to allow others to share the costs that he alone has borne up to this point.
The main issue at present is either to have Vince consent to a move, or to make the forum more reliable where it is.

Chris

gil3591 · Post by **gil3591** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:53 am

maybe this will provide a format that lets us review products similar to B&B $\:D/$

Ecosse · Post by **Ecosse** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:06 am

I don't know Gil, is that a good thing? I don't post on B&B anymore but I will, for a quick check, look at the reviews. But here on SMF, there is a type of charm that forces you to do a search for a particular product and read the various threads. Much like going to a library and dusting off some old books.

Whistler · Post by **Whistler** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:12 am

Chris, we thought the same, but found only the active members willing to donate, where it came to the same 30 or so members donating. Not the larger number we anticipated, it's not an easy decision to make, and while I do not understand the more intricate subtleties of your situation, I can only offer general experiences. Either way, I would be more than happy to make a donation.

gil3591 · Post by **gil3591** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:13 am

Ecosse wrote:I don't know Gil, is that a good thing? I don't post on B&B anymore but I will, for a quick check, look at the reviews. But here on SMF, there is a type of charm that forces you to do a search for a particular product and read the various threads. Much like going to a library and dusting off some old books.

i don't find it charming

like you, i only go to B&B for a quick review but find the reviewers not up to the quality level of members in this forum. so, i think if our members had a review format it would be awesome!

divotmax · Post by **divotmax** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:20 pm

It seems the site owner may be as unstable and unreliable as the hosting site.

L. Martino · Post by **L. Martino** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:39 pm

Hiya,

How about a quick and easy one time way to raise a little cash. I for one would be willing to pay money for one of them there nifty custom titles under my name that some forums offer.

Yeah, maybe something short and yet humble would be good. Hmmm, how about "Voted smartest member at SMF.....that includes Gordon" sound? I believe I'd pay $1 or maybe even $1.50 for having that above and below my avatar.

Glad to help out,

Martin

Post by **drmoss_ca** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:46 pm

Be careful what you ask for. That'll be a dollar...

Chris

Whistler · Post by **Whistler** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:48 pm

L. Martino · Post by **L. Martino** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:52 pm

drmoss_ca wrote:Be careful what you ask for. That'll be a dollar...

Chris :D

Hi Chris,

Well, that's more than I expected, and certainly worth the cash.

Start running a tab for me, will you buddy? I may have some other requests......

Thanks,

Martin

gil3591 · Post by **gil3591** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 1:05 pm

L. Martino wrote:Hiya,

How about a quick and easy one time way to raise a little cash. I for one would be willing to pay money for one of them there nifty custom titles under my name that some forums offer.

Yeah, maybe something short and yet humble would be good. Hmmm, how about "Voted smartest member at SMF.....that includes Gordon" sound? I believe I'd pay $1 or maybe even $1.50 for having that above and below my avatar.

Glad to help out,

Martin

i want to be "lord of the nic"