How much does this site cost to run ?

Can the database be reduced ?

Many thanks.

We may as well use this thread for said discussion..

The notice you mention is directed to members, not lurkers - based on the point that members are making 'more' use of the site than others. Currently, the site is costing nearly £50 a month. That is an increase from where it was this time last year - where £50 would actually serve three months. Since applying the above mentioned notice, I've received one contribution which has helped a great deal and means the site is guaranteed for the next couple of months, when combined with my own money put aside for the site.

I do not suspect there will be any gold in truth, but it is there just in case. However, let's say 10 people out of nowhere sent £200 each - yay, there's £2k to spend either now completely all on myself and just buy things with... or ensure there's enough monies in the kitty to keep the site going for a good long time. I hadn't put a huge amount of thought into the figures, and initially only had a quick idea to ask for 30-40 ppl to put £1 to £5 p/m - 30x£5 would suffice. This was put to a few members via PM who seemed to agree with it as a strategy for ensuring the site's continuation. Then I realised that it was unlikely there would be 30 people willing to make any contribution, so it occured to me that some may prefer, as you've stated, to do a one-off (hence my signature) or even a 'lump' annual sum to put towards the upkeep.

Let's assume best case scenario - that the site generates £2,000 - which more than covers the costs of hosting (nearer £600p/a + $15 domain p/a) - we've clearly done well. What would happen to the change? It's already been put forward to me that any leftover could go on advertising / awareness, improving the server in various ways and other similar ideas.

Further, if there was really that kind of money left over - it could be put to other uses too. For example, not too long back, many of us received a request to help toward the costs of the buses for an NF4J demo. Some of the leftovers could have greatly assisted in that. And, as members who do make a donation are able to access higher areas of the site - a poll of sorts could be used to allow everyone who has money invested to actually vote on how to spend the money (left overs from hosting).

I don't expect 'pay' for doing this, but years I've been the one doing *most* of the paying to keep it alive - and I cannot let that be said without giving credit to several people who have also assisted financially, some of them at times when the site was on it's last days. Some people here have quite literally saved this site from going down. So while I'm not expecting to get rich from hosting this site, I do ask that people who can afford to - try help it stay afloat. At this time, I'm not able to and haven't for a few months. So far, we've been working from two things: 1) money sat in my paypal which had already been set-aside for hosting costs and 2) donations from people back in Christmas '09 - yeah, that money has lasted since then, which is pretty good going really.

The difference between the £1p/m and £100p/a is simply one is making a lump sum - and the other is a trickle, but still a great help. It's not about classes,it's about keeping the site afloat. Some people may only be able to afford £1 per month, while someone else may be able to easily afford £50 or even £100 - whatever is avialable is a help. Also, the £1p/m is similar to the old £10p/a that was always in place. When the £10p/a was normal (i.e. until last night lol), there was never enough to fully suppor the site and most would still come from my own pocket and a handful of others who had helped out, such as CaptDMO, TMOTS and a few others. This way, people who could afford the £10p/a - are only being asked for an addition £2 p/a, which is still pretty cheap!

If you'd like to help do some of the paper work, to ensure everyone's getting a fair stab - you have my number and we could talk.

I have actively been working at reducing the database size (notice how the membership figures have gone from 1600 down to 800, for example). I am also in talks with the software developers on how to manually remove some of the now redundant elements that were once necessary. Through these and various other manipulations of the database, I've brought it down to about 700mb (about 2/3 of a GB). This is what I mean when I say there's a lot of work goes on under the hood. Last week, TMOTS worked his ass off for several hours trying to resolve one of the many database problems we were encountering. The software developers have also had to do some under the hood work to help keep things ship-shape. For example, upgrading the software had become - literally - impossible due to certain conflicts that had occured deep within the system. It took one of their developers to come here and manually fix it so the site could continue and upgrade in the future when needed.

Oh another point, adsense has been a great help in keeping the costs - but only in the last few months has it actually started to generate enough to be a meaningful contribution. However, this month especially - the 'earnings' from that have reduce to pennies because of the downtime suffered earlier in the month, traffic itself is half that of a normal month. So I don't expect this to be an ongoing thing - I'm hopeful this will be a short term resolve and in the near future adsense can pick up where it left off.

Finally, you are free to click the little red x on the tab which will remove the notice.

I've often considered donating, but am on benefits so it's not so easy... think, though, i would prefer an annual £12 donation to a £1 sub fee... could that be counted?

£600 pa for running the server seems a lot.. you have a dedicated server??

Sorry, my bad - it's just over £500 p/a, not 600. It's a VPS, not dedicated but the next best thing. As I understand it, a VPS splits a full computer into about four 'virtual' computers in which you get 1/4. The site isn't big enough to justify a dedicated, but it cannot survive on shared hosting (several hundred sites on one machine). We are in the mid-block, and at this time - we're comfortable just as we are (ie. resources, space, CPU, etc.)

There may come a time when that changes and yet another upgrade will occur - but for now, VPS it is!

I have sent you 10 pounds by paypal I will sent small amounts time to time as I can afford them cheers shaazam

and haahoo started this thread?

i thought the internet was useless and no one did anything?

oh well..live'n'learn

Quote from outdoors

and haahoo started this thread?

i thought the internet was useless and no one did anything?

Apparently its not useless since the effete elites and paper tigers are fighting tooth and nail to shut it down!

Quote from shaazam

I have sent you 10 pounds by paypal I will sent small amounts time to time as I can afford them cheers shaazam

ditto

Quote from outdoors

and haahoo started this thread?

i thought the internet was useless and no one did anything?

oh well..live'n'learn

A car is useful for moving its occupants from A to B. Until it is used in the correct way, it is just a tin box with seats and a cd player. There are too many stationary vehicles in the mens online movement with one or two folk within playing their own tunes..

Then you have places like facebook, which is like a traffic tailback.. Where everyone can wind their windows down and drown each other in cacaphony..

This antimisandry vehicle can move, and sometimes it does, all it would take is for sufficient folk to follow a good lead. Marx has been showing some impressive desire to do such recently I have noted, so I believe we have a good chance now to do things that could well get traction..

Folks,
This is one of the premier places to talk about men's rights and other such men's stuff.
To not have "Supporter" beside your avatar here, means that something is wrong.
Sure some may have changed their "title", but if you haven't given a bit of silver, you need to think about doing so.
No guilt trip whatsoever, but, walk the talk when it comes to mens rights.
The site that we have here doesn't run on fresh air.

Actually, that's about to change for some... You'll see

seems that ppl cannot make a one-time donation and have to do the monthly thing-or am i missing something?

monthly payments just won't work for me

Outdoors, thank you for trying to sort something out - it's all good. My signature has the one-time link. I've momentarily disabled the one-time payment from the donation page as it's under maintenance.

Quote from MikeT

No guilt trip whatsoever, but, walk the talk when it comes to mens rights.
.

I'll say it. If you are the first person to piss and moan about the damned message asking for assistance in a dire straights situation and then DONT cough up an effing quid... well, you're an asshat.

Just saying.

TMOTS