leeds Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 FridgeFreezer comment about forum funds on the LRM got me thinking that maybe I should find some coppers which are hidden in the fluff at the bottom of my pockets. How are the forum funds doing in general terms? i.e is it dire needs with server provider about to pull the plug due to last months unpaid bill or is there enough money in the kitty for next 3 - 6 months? I am not interested in MOGs wine gum fetish on expenses or that Whites90 has been sniffing the forums communal EP90. So could someone give us a broad brush picture on the forum funding situation, please? Regards Brendan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
errol209 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 FridgeFreezer comment about forum funds on the LRM got me thinking that maybe I should find some coppers which are hidden in the fluff at the bottom of my pockets.How are the forum funds doing in general terms? i.e is it dire needs with server provider about to pull the plug due to last months unpaid bill or is there enough money in the kitty for next 3 - 6 months? I am not interested in MOGs wine gum fetish on expenses or that Whites90 has been sniffing the forums communal EP90. So could someone give us a broad brush picture on the forum funding situation, please? Regards Brendan Simpler than that. Everybody in for 50p please, or equivalent in local beer vouchers (If I'm member 8,000 ...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 It's available to read here all the time... http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=29419 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Have a look in the video section for the running figures, it has been there for a while now no secret society here and for the record again NO money is spent on anything except running this place. and or good causes like the Cave rescue L/R, that was stolen when we made a contribution after a collection for that cause. Just in case any member thinks we are spending money on postage/calls etc WE are NOT, have never and will Never..... the moderators/admins all pay/support the site just like the other contributors normally far in excess. A public service announcement by the TREASURER Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I'm in the IT business and looking at those hosting figures it seems rather high to me... Personally i think it would be worth looking at other hosting options to get the costs down a bit. I currently have my own machine colocated with Rapidswitch in maidenhead which is costing me around £45 a month, for 1U of rack space, 0.5A of power and 3TB of bandwidth a month. The company i work for also rents a box from a company called OVH, which costs around £60 a month, with them providing the hardware (Core2Duo 2.6, 4gb of RAM and 2x750gb disks) and unmetered bandwidth all in for this monthly fee. Both options are perfectly viable, and will save you quite a bit of cash i would expect. The colo option would require you to purchase your own machine, which means higher upfront costs, and the OVH deals are pretty hot all round making it probably the better option. If you want more guts, something like the "EG AMD" package which gives you a Quad Core Opteron with 8gb of RAM is a pretty awesome deal, when you consider it would likely cost around 60-70quid to colocate such a machine. I realise moving a forum to a new host isnt a trivial task, but halving your monthly outgoings certainly seems worthwhile IMO. Anyways thats my 2p! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 The fee paid is for more than just hosting, it also means that most of the admin work is done too. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Meh, you dont pay for a mechanic to fix you landrover do ya? Saving £100+ a month in exchange for a little admin work now and then seems well worth it to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Thanks Chris It also gives us 24hr support, The forum uses a lot of bandwidth so we have our own dedicated server. we looked into alternates but surprisingly. Cheaper for the level of service isn't that easy to find. I have looked at UK suppliers but the ££ is to high. We often go around this circle the Admins/moderators all have jobs/their own lives to live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 We often go around this circlethe Admins/moderators all have jobs/their own lives to live. Didnt mean to dig up a touchy topic. You say the UK providers are too £££ but the company i mention is a quarter of the price for what seems like a more powerful machine comprared with what IPS are currently providing you. The only difference is that with IPS your getting a nice giftwrapped service, whereas with a proper dedicated machine there would be some admin/maintenance work required. The only other issue might be that IPS will want money to licence their forum software, which i presume is included in the current package. Still it would work out cheaper, as the licence fees appear to be around $150 for 6 months. I understand that people have their own lives etc, but i also feel that a little admin work to save that much cash is WELL worth it. Comparing the example OVH machine above with the current package would save something like £2000 a year, which is certainly not a trivial amount of cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 whereas with a proper dedicated machine there would be some admin/maintenance work required. Honestly, 'some admin/maintenance work' would be quite a significant undertaking for anyone on a site with this many visits a day, and I personally feel that if a skilled IT guru from the admin team was to step up to the challenge it would only be fair to pay him for the work involved -this I am sure would add up to a fair old chunk more than the additional hosting costs of a fully adminned/backup/24/7 support system that we have in place. 'Buy right, buy it once' is a phrase often used on here, and in my humble opinion as an IT consultant/Web developer that deals with sites of this size and bigger on a daily basis, the 'fit and forget' nature of the current hosting plan is a huge advantage, and not advantage to be overlooked by any means. Besides, the cash is there, the forum is well supported, so why not relieve some of the workload from the already hard working Admin/Mod team for an equivalent of a few pence per member? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 #Not a touchy subject at all but the issue has been looked at a few times when I spend time looking into what we get and what we need, what we have is where we end up. if you can point me to the same level of service/package for a better price, we'll look at it as would be expected by the members. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 As Tony said it has been well thrashed through before and this is where we ended up. The admins don't have the time to run around after all the nitty gritty upgrades and it would be unreasonable to expect them to. There is also the issue of being dependent on one or two knowledgeable people, what happens if they leave/get hit by a falling cathedral, what happens if the whole thing goes tits up when somebody is on holiday etc etc. Anybody who wants to bung a few coppers in the tin is always welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8 Freak Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Tony forgot to mention that part of the Admin the provider performs is all the Board software updates as they are released. If it goes wrong, they correct it etc. so it's not just hosting and server maintenance / backups, it's also board provision and maintenance, problem solving and updates all thrown in. It's hard to compare that to just hosting and bandwidth. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyoldgit Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 There may well be one or two weeds appearing on this very well worn path so maybe it's not a bad thing we tread them down again ...although I doubt it will come as any surprise to find we still arrive at the same destination I think 'employing' one or two knowledgeable members has the real potential cause no end of problems and strains - let alone work so that idea would receive a no vote from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Ye i guess i can see the point. At work we're paid to manage the system, so it makes sense to do it all ourselves rather than contracting it out, and i like having the control over the innards! I'm also lucky in that i can tinker/update/maintain with my own machines in my spare time while at work without too much trouble. I sometimes forget that not everyone has that privilege! At least this board actually works, i've had similar discussion on another board i frequent (not landrover related) and the server they're currently using is massively overpriced and hugely underpowered for running the board. Been prodding at them since october last year with constant downtime/errors/timeouts and they've only just started a move to a new server today! Same things as your pointing out here though, theres only 2 guys that know enough to facilitate the move and they're both pretty busy to actually do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 If it's not broken, don't fix it [woodenspoon] However, what's this forum could do with is a general discussion section [/woodenspoon] :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 No there are plenty of gossip shops available elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyoldgit Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 If it's not broken, don't fix it[woodenspoon] However, what's this forum could do with is a general discussion section [/woodenspoon] :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: A quick Google found something suitable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeds Posted June 18, 2009 Author Share Posted June 18, 2009 Well I would say congratulations to the admin/mods/treasurer for having the guts and common sense to publish the actual figures in the forum pot. Well I have grubbed around the cubby box and footwell of the 110, let some moths escape from the wallet when I found it. Come across a 100,000 dong, some ringits, the odd few lei and some krona. These are now winging their way down to the respected treasurer and I am sure this contribution will help satisfy the mods wine gum fetish and Ep90 sniffing habits for a few more days. Regards Brendan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 On the hosting subject I'd say the grass is always greener, owning your own server is cheaper until it catches fire at 3AM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mad_pete Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I agree with fridge. You get what you pay for and easier life and piece of mind go a long way. obviously this is sacrilege but depending on what it is yes I do pay a mechanic to fix my land rover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mad_pete Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I felt a bit cheeky posting here saying spend money when I realised haven't actually donated to the fine cause myself. I've donated now and I feel much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ101 Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 If it's not broken, don't fix it[woodenspoon] However, what's this forum could do with is a general discussion section [/woodenspoon] :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Seconded B) May inject some much needed lubrication into the works Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Money is a much better lubricant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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