Save Pente.org - Fundraiser
Posted:
Dec 23, 2011, 12:51 PM
Hello everyone,
Hopefully the recent increase in numbers at pente.org has reminded people of what a great site this is. With enough people here, it becomes a fun place to be and easy to find someone to play against. I hope everyone has been enjoying their pente.org visits over the past month.
Unfortunately the site will not be taken over by a new manager just yet, and the cost of running it is apparently $100 per month on the current server.
From what I understand, Dweebo will have to move the site to a slower server unless money can be found to keep it where it is. This will not pay for any support or improvements to the site such as bug fixes and so on, but it will keep it running happily at the good speed we currently enjoy.
Many people in here have spent hundreds of hours playing pente at this site, and met new people made friends and benefited from the database, and quite a few of these people have not even donated the minimum $5. When you think about it, what form of entertainment or passtime costs less? Where can you get such a quality experience for free where the supplier of the site makes no profit at all? I think we have had a very good run here at dweebo's expense. Perhaps its time we paid our dues.
I propose we create a Save Pente.org fund. This would be a virtual fund. Pledges of donations to Dweebo would be made in this thread by individuals and then that amount donated to the cause via the 'make a donation' option which puts it straight into Dweebo's account.
I want to keep a tally of the amount raised so as to determine if we have covered the cost of running the server each year. (For those who do not want to advertise their donation amount in the forums, please make it a private pledge to my messagebox so I can still keep track.)
We need to raise $1200 each year to keep things going.
I do not have a full-time job right now - hopefully I will soon, but I am prepared to donate $50 to kick things off.
I don't care if people can only donate $5 but every little bit counts.
Please record your donations in this thread, or privately to my message box. We need to move fast before Dweebo moves the site. I will message dweebo to let him know what is happening, but we must make out donations soon.
Posts:
23
Registered:
Aug 31, 2005
From:
Iowa City, IA
Age:
52
Re: Save Pente.org - Fundraiser
Posted:
Dec 23, 2011, 4:03 PM
Alison, you can put me down for $20 now - probably more later (perhaps monthly). I think a lot of us didn't realize how expensive this great site is to maintain. Thanks for getting this going. -Aleph_1
Posts:
1,032
Registered:
Dec 16, 2001
From:
Powell, OH
Age:
37 Home page
Re: Save Pente.org - Fundraiser
Posted:
Dec 23, 2011, 8:14 PM
I appreciate the offer to help pay for the server costs! It's probably closer to $1000/year after ads, they really do not bring in much anymore.
Even if we raise the full amount I still want to find a new owner for the site. I simply do not have the time or desire to keep the site going any longer.
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re: Save Pente.org - Fundraiser
Posted:
Dec 25, 2011, 12:56 AM
Hey Dweebo! I'm glad to see you still checking in with us on the forums here and there.
I wonder if you could be more specific about what you expect the impact of moving the site to a cheaper server might be to the members? For example, perhaps you are currently overpaying for the current server and might be able to find a somewhat lateral move at a fraction of the cost. Or, perhaps a significantly cheaper server option would indeed be "slower" as you've hinted -- but how so and by how much? Maybe this wouldn't really matter to the members? The main functions that I could see speed being an issue might be for certain Database queries, and not necessarily for the real time games.
I think perhaps more important than the "speed" of the server might be the reliability of the server staying up and getting attended to right away if it goes down (and for the pente.org site to come back up asap). If you were to find a solution that is stable and usually stays up and has decent support and yet is somewhat slower, but at a fraction of the cost, I think that most members would be understanding of such a move. It's probably a better long term solution than trying to raise the money through donations every year.
I wonder if you've thought of a short list of functions within the site that you currently have to control manually that you might be able to automate so that the site could continue to run without any more of your input. Little things like -- do you currently have to manually turn on Donor privilages and assign Tournament prizes (such as crowns) and so on that you might be able to automate? Also, what currently happens if the site goes down or crashes? Do you have to manually bring it back up? Is there any way to automate that in case you are not available?
There is also just one technical issue that is still causing a lot of problems -- the 20 minute timeout issue that has been brought up before. I wish this were something that you could track down and fix with just a few minutes of work, but I have a feeling it would take some time and so I can understand if you never get to it since you are trying to retire from maintaining this site.
I think that we just all hope that the site could remain in a state where it will remain stable and function somewhat normally without your input until such time that a new owner emerges.
