solutions

[loki]

Hi, tis moy, the artist formerly known as elfspice

I think we need to form a core administative team, large enough that it can withstand a bit of attrition, maybe 8 ppl or so?

First thing, of course is to try and track down the chief and get him back on board.

Second thing: we need to find out from andy (the kind donor of this current hosting and bbs etc) how much it will cost to have him run the site, and then work out what kind of scale of fund raising is required to achieve this. I'm pretty sure that we should be able to find enough money from members to ensure that the site can stay up and keep all the features that we need it to have. Getting pictures back is a big thing. Hopefully we will be able to get a hold of eddy again, find out just how much space the old site takes up, and its rate of traffic etc. Andy has his hosting and traffic bought in bulk so the cost shouldn't be much more than about us$2000-4000 a year to keep it afloat, and if we could get 1% of users to donate us$10 each per year that would most likely cover most of it.

hippies and freaks are notorious for having bad attitudes towards money, but we gotta get real here, internet traffic and server space and processing time costs money, and per user its really not much.

Perhaps the solution is to create value-adds for users who subscribe, like maybe various subscription rates for different levels of picture uploads per user, things like that...

oh and a couple of other things for security: there is an anonymous routing system http://tor.eff.org (the onion router) which allows 'hidden services', which means users with TOR clients can access the site entirely without accessing the DNS system. Secondly, the site should be entirely on https:// in my opinion, because all browsers support this and it reduces the options for bad people to spy on things like private messages etc. Also, i am a little concerned about the version of PHP running this bbs, and if the new reincarnation of the site is running on php, there is some serious security issues which were recently discovered and have now been fixed so very important that it gets upgraded and patched etc.

Having a mirror backup located on another server which periodically backs up the server's database and files etc and can quickly kick into action and run in case of this server going down temporarily would be a good idea too. Creating a backup DNS redirection system that can transparently re-route traffic to the backup site would be easy to do. In fact, there is no reason why the whole site cannot be distributed somewhat, using load balancing so that there is always two servers dividing the load of the script and web serving, and a primary database with a secondary backup which periodically mirrors the primary so that the site never EVER goes down again.

Also, it would be nice to have the chatroom more tightly integrated with the bbs. I personally don't like the idea of using a java client, and there was a cgi client running for a while, it would be good to give options.

And the radio station could do with a proper home too, also tightly integrated with the bbs, we need a scheduling application and a forum dedicated to the radio station


my 2c

I have now got decent internet access so i can most likely assist with technical type stuff, i'm not really that big a contributor to the bbs but i would love to help facilitate the smooth running of the operation on the technical side if i can.

[typonaut]

:?  More than I completely understand, but a lot of good points, things to consider, goals.

All that redundancy sounds great, good to have a non-disappearing site. Security & privacy good also.

How to handle subscriptions or donations? PayPal? Send a check or money order? And to whom?

I can donate some hours, but doing what? I've read a teeny bit about PHP but am fundamentally basically totally ignorant re programming or scripting.

What skills would be useful?

[typonaut]

And why does the name Elfspice sound so familiar?

I used the Tor link in Loki's post. I noticed the OSX version of Tor is beta. Does anyone have experience with it? I ask because I'd prefer to go thru life without another major computer problem ever ever again.

Thanks for any info.

[Anonymous]

yeah it's not 100% but i use it all the time and the worst that happens is sometimes it takes a little longer than usual to establish a connection, but i feel that is worth the sacrifice to know that my internet traffic cannot be traced back to me. I have a way old computer and its slow anyway, but yeah, i recommend trying it out, its not gonna cause system crashes, it just might make the internet connection behave sluggishly now and then. but then i don't know, it could just me my slow old computer (pentium 166 mmx with 64mb ram running win2k)

[CJ]

bounce

[CJ]

For myself,I can throw 50.00 or so at the situation right off the bat if it`s for real, then I could.if gen agreed,do a subscription thing. Iv`e donatedthis before, and kinda wondered.
    And yea,I know 50.00 also can be peanuts to an elephant,but I can help a bit.

    Mabe the 50.00, or so, will go farther this time...

[Stonehenge]

Very good points, loki. Having a mirror backup is a neccessity now. I do not think it'll cost anywhere near $2000 to $4000 a year, at least not to start off. I seem to recall bandwidth costs around $10 a gig and the first few months we won't even use that much. You can register a domain for $20 to $30 or even less if you have a good source. If we got together even a couple hundred that should be enough to get off the ground.

We can't expect Andy to shoulder the cost any longer than it takes for us to get organised and he should get his costs back. Thanks, Andy. We will need admins and mods. We will need someone who is savvy with setting things up and trouble shooting. I understand you can get website software cheap or even free if you allow an ad. We will also need donors which has been mentioned. To start, how about figure where to send donations and who is going to handle the funds? That person will be the treasurer and an admin level person. In the past it was Eddy but he seems to have taken off.

I'm willing to help. I can send a few bucks to get it going and can stop in every day and do whatever is needed. I don't think I want to be treasurer and am not running for the top slot or anything. We will have to sort out who is willing to help and what each person can do. I would think that whoever was willing to help the most would be a good candidate for running things.

Fund raising is going to be vital for long term viability of spf. Asking members to dig in their pockets is better for an emergency but not that great in long term. People get tired of getting hit up after a while. I say get some traffic built up and sell banners. Classified ads would be great too. Not everyone wants to pay $40 and up for a banner every month but might want to pay $10 every 6 months for a classified ad. We discussed that at spf but nothing ever came of it.

Stoney

[JRL]

I can help with money, and anything else short of the tek stuff.

[CJ]

Really just checking in again. I have no computer skills,but I am willing to throw some money at the situation. I can do that, to a point do that.

     This Andy of Yage.net,he is starting to sound like a focus. If someone else is truly running the show here at this point,I`ll address to him/her. I do want to help,if the intention of this community is to survive,which we really should.

     Depite some wierd noise you`ll find at any site,thingswere pretty much clicking along. Hate to see that all lost.

     Eddy was nice to me at an early stage, but with or without(hopefully with) I`m used to being self reliant,being a working boy in the trades. Eddy was a good boss,but if necc. I can live without. More need those who can do things I truly cannot.

     I don`t know Nitroburn,but in his world he seems to have good computer grasp.  All we need otherwise is someone.....LW strikes me as a good admin. Hes done it before,now it really would be his own show.... Has this been covered yet?

     Just speaking off the top of my head. If an immediatte donation is needed,please post where.

[Anonymous]

I don't think money is an issue. Its more just getting ahold of eddy to get the database and scripts off him, or for him to get back to fix his server problems. Also I have 2-5TB of bandwidth to waste, and i dont think SPF would put that big of a dent in it if we need hosting.

Nice to meet you CJ I've hosted the SPF Chatroom for the past years... damn... how time flys when your having fun.

It shouldn't cost even $30 a month to run SPF. I doubt it has much heavy
load at all.

Anyone have more concrete info on the SPF stats?

[tralfaz]

My guess is that eddy will be back around.  He has too much time and energy involved to walk away.

Is he a squirrel sometimes?  Mmmmmmmm, maybe.

I take it he hasn't been to chat at all since the board went down?  

Well, this board serves its purpose for now.  I'm sure things will come together one way or another.

tral

[Stonehenge]

Looks to me like Eddy just walked off and said to hell with it. Hopefully he can be reached and will cooperate to some extent to help us get set back up but I wouldn't count on even that. I brought up the subject back when spf was still up but no one wanted to touch it with a 10 foot pole at the time. I pointed out that spf had gone down a few times and when was Eddy going to turn over the reins to someone else like he had hinted at before. Frankly, I don't think it's such a good idea for Eddy to set things back up and continue as before. We will just end up back here again. Time to look to the future.

LW and Andy look like prime candidates for top slots in the new SPF. Former mods who found their way here and those who want to pitch in could form the second tier. Just thinking out loud, maybe someone has other ideas?

Stoney

[Anonymous]

eddy let people know he was going to be away for a while
we are still before the date he said he would be back.

I don't think it really matters who ends up "running" the server. This is a community anyways. Andy, LW, anyone... We just need to build up the tech side. The few problems i've seen at SPF during my 4 year stay have been small and usually just involved a little server trouble or involved something just not getting done. we need more people involved who will get things done (like andy! spfradio rocks . I don't know what other sites or personally things eddy had going, but SPF's needs and wants get neglected at times. The integration of the radio and chat could have been alot tighter and better connected. But I know eddy had reservations from the beginning with allowing tech contributions from external groups. I wont go into it, but we need a few people who can do custom PHP hacks for the forums and main portal. Simple things really. The creation of a page to skin the chat to the layout of the main page. Another to integrate the radio station with the main site. maybe a Now Playing: .... at the top of the pages to help promote and develop the radio aspect. There are just so many things that  could be done to really add more to the features of SpiritPlants.

Cha think?  :lol:  :lol:

[andy]

Hey Nitro. I tend to agree, there are a few simple things that can be done easily by any of the techy type people. Its just a matter of getting together to sort out what needs done and implementing it. Personally I think we should wait until Eddy was supposed to come back before going ahead with anything, just to see what the final score is. If that doesn't happen then we start to get things back together again..

Andy

[VajraPirate]

Eddy was supposed to be back sometime mid-late this month... Or atleast that's what I remember reading somewhere...

Wish I could offer some kind of assistance, but it looks like what we need the most is what I am the most ignorant of.