Forums/Z31P/announcements-and-events announcements-site-and-forum-related/Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive - Updated 10/17
Imported from Z31Performance.com Forums{{#if:Jason84NA2T| — original post by Jason84NA2T}}{{#if:2011-10-16 18:15:23|, posted 2011-10-16 18:15:23}}{{#if:64| · 64 post{{#ifeq:64|1||s}}}}{{#if:/Z31performance_archive/forum/announcements-and-events/announcements-site-and-forum-related/15832-z31performance-com-donation-drive-updated-10-17.html|
Local archive: view archived thread on dev.z31library.com}}
Jason84NA2T: (2011-10-16 18:15:23)
There's a first time for everything.
Why: To pay the hosting fees and upgrade to a dedicated server for better performance and more features. We currently have limitations due to the inexpensive shared hosting service the forum runs on.
What are the advantages?
- INSANE bandwidth
- Better performance, easily upgradable as time goes on.
- Limitless database size (current limit is 500MB, which has been exceeded a few times now).
- Open-access for viewing the forum without logging in.
- Specs: 24/7 managed managed server, 300gb/month bandwidth. 2gb ram, 1.5GHz processor.
Disadvantages? Expensive. I hate PBS-style fundraisers and outright please for money, but they are needed if the forum is to support itself and not start to be a large personal expense on my part. That's why we will pre-pay for 3 years, so you won't need to see this shameless plug for donations again for a long long time!
You will notice the forum inxex page at z31performance.com changing to reflect how much of the donation goal has been reached. Donate whatever you feel is fair. Absolutely all funds will be used for the web forum, server and related upgrades.
MADMIKE: (2011-10-16 22:33:15)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
down for a donation, do we get a nifty donator tag so we can make the people who don't donate feel like assholes?
Jason84NA2T: (2011-10-16 23:56:04)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
Yes, the donating member rank and associated sponsorship elitism is included. You WILL have to request it though.
87zxturbo: (2011-10-17 01:31:55)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
Donated my share hope it helps!!
Personal_golf: (2011-10-17 02:38:53)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
Donated, gimmie my search function! :nanan?re
Parker: (2011-10-17 04:53:21)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
How do we request the donator tag? The PayPal donation you got from the Calgary address was mine.
michaelp: (2011-10-17 05:15:42)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
I want epic large PM box. I had to delete like 980 PMs.....
TearingRaven: (2011-10-17 06:57:21)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
Made my donation. This really is my home on teh interwebz!
system6: (2011-10-17 16:10:09)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
I donate but the bar does not update, my sense of self satisfaction is now washed away. damn. :nanan?re
Jason84NA2T: (2011-10-17 22:47:46)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
WOW, we are most of the way there already!
Just PM me. I'll take care of yours right now.
utjon: (2011-10-17 22:50:44)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
we expect more for our money. [archived image: smile.png]
stprasinz: (2011-10-18 00:22:50)
So, donations gets search bar? I want my search bar back!!! lol, I kinda wondered if it was somethinglike that… Oh, and I want donation badges lol, jk
utjon: (2011-10-18 00:58:24)
Why not give those that donate larger PM boxes and stuff like that… I didn't realize little old me had like 300 messages or something.
pabloqc: (2011-10-18 01:42:34)
I just made it for the only web site iam alwais on (without writing because i need to translate myself)
Thanks You For all your good work
DudeZX: (2011-10-18 01:42:45)
This forum has saved me much more than $800 in headache/frustration. Did my small part to help.
dgz32: (2011-10-18 03:18:17)
Donated!
dgz32: (2011-10-18 03:45:15)
Re: Z31Performance.com - Donation Drive
…
MADMIKE: (2011-10-18 04:42:44)
Money Sent give me my smug perk
edicer2: (2011-10-18 12:38:01)
Money sent!
Jason84NA2T: (2011-10-18 14:10:30)
Also a global setting that applies to all users, sorry. I will set it back to a reasonable size once we have the DB space for it. Still, if we could assume every user on the forum was like me or you and had 300 old messages sitting there, that's probably about 25% of the DB size right there… we don't need the extra overhead. I realize it's easy to get into the gmail mindset where there's no need to delete anything, but unfortunately we can't do that with a phpbb forum.
Dr. Pepper PhD.: (2011-10-18 15:31:07)
Bump!… Are we there yet?
Because a small donation is worth not having to scroll through ads on every page of this forum.
edicer2: (2011-10-18 15:44:07)
Well I know we are atleast at 600 now :-)
Guest: (2011-10-18 17:35:55)
What about enabling video embedding?
utjon: (2011-10-18 17:46:11)
[quote]Jason84NA2T wrote:
Why not give those that donate larger PM boxes and stuff like that… I didn't realize little old me had like 300 messages or something.
Also a global setting that applies to all users, sorry. I will set it back to a reasonable size once we have the DB space for it. Still, if we could assume every user on the forum was like me or you and had 300 old messages sitting there, that's probably about 25% of the DB size right there… we don't need the extra overhead. I realize it's easy to get into the gmail mindset where there's no need to delete anything, but unfortunately we can't do that with a phpbb forum.
Reasonable enough. I don't need much space I just never deleted anything and didn't realize how fast they added up.
jjones: (2011-10-18 17:55:20)
Donated
Dr. Pepper PhD.: (2011-10-18 17:56:20)
LOL I think I fill up my inbox every 3 months.
Guest: (2011-10-18 18:11:47)
Sent donation.
juanchoturbo85z31: (2011-10-18 18:20:54)
I'm curious… what amount are we at now? I donated 20 samolians a couple of days ago 8)
JF
edicer2: (2011-10-18 19:37:55)
i bet we are in between 700-800
300zilla: (2011-10-18 20:24:11)
Just donated. Please add the bells, whistles, sparkled and sprinkles to my account. Now want to be known as High Priestess of Z Cars! Where's the rest of the daily users??? Dig in the couch cushions and send it to the forum.
Myzblowsyourcivic: (2011-10-19 00:24:12)
Sent my 2 cents.....
yeah....
shromy: (2011-10-19 07:52:25)
Donated a bit myself today.
Guest: (2011-10-19 20:18:35)
If your z blows my civic doesn't that make your z my civic's bitch? :nanan?re
Yuma: (2011-10-20 02:01:15)
+1[archived image: smile.png] I donated 20 and love the fact that Z31P doesn't have ads. Thank you for an awesome site!!
edicer2: (2011-10-20 02:30:02)
wonder what we are at it has to be close by now
Dr. Pepper PhD.: (2011-10-20 03:27:32)
LOL… I just had a thought. He's probably leaving us in suspense to see how far ahead he can get paid off (which is cool cause its that much longer before he asks again). We probably passed the mark two days ago.
shromy: (2011-10-20 03:57:55)
Yeah I would think so. Fine by me. Turned the money I made from selling my W HG's back to Z31p, figured it was the right thing to do.
Guest: (2011-10-20 23:11:25)
Well?
Gregmatic: (2011-10-21 15:13:39)
Threw a few pesos in the pot the other day…long live Z31P! [archived image: redface.png]
markleemcleod: (2011-10-21 19:32:44)
Thanks for the great Forum. I kicked in $25 for the cause.
Careless: (2011-10-22 00:05:01)
going to donate once the holset thing is done… can't really spend money until my boss pays me for the passed 4 weeks. but i'll definitely fuel the fire when i gots munay in da bankz.
Kingman: (2011-10-22 09:13:57)
Donated to the awesome forum. Can't afford much but it's something.
Bremsen: (2011-10-23 12:08:09)
Made a $20 donation. Wish it was more, but it was all I had in my pp account right now. I will make a concerted effort to donate 10% of any future parts sales back to the site. If it wasn't for these classifieds I probably wouldn't have sold any parts at all.
You might even put something to that effect in the classifieds forum rules. Maybe not a demand, but a friendly suggestion. I don't think its too much to ask.
Kennedy: (2011-10-23 18:49:53)
Updates?
Guest: (2011-10-23 19:19:26)
!'m guessing over $1,000
Jason84NA2T: (2011-10-23 19:33:32)
WOW you guys, just WOW. Sorry I have not updated the total in a few days, but some bad news and some GOOD NEWS. I was just adding up the donations and we have exceeded the goal. In under a week, we raised over $1150 from donations!
The bad news is that after I had my eyes set on a VPS (Virtual Private Server), I started comparison shopping and ended up talking with sales personnel at three other hosting companies. I was told what the first company said the exact opposite of: That a VPS soultion won't offer good performance for a PHPBB3 forum with a large SQL database. :-( Could I make a bigger frown face here?
Anyway, I confirmed this with a very db-savvy aquaintence in the IT department at work; when using features like search are being used to query the database, page load times and everything else would virtually (no pun intended) come grinding to a hault momentarily. This means one person bombarding the "view new posts" could massively slow down the forum for everyone. We can't have that, so dedicated server option it is. The problem is that's a lot more money… the benefit of a few hosting packages I'm looking at is that they offer tech support WAY beyond simply fixing issues. They can deliver customized forum layouts, install MODs, update software and ensure the best available security (so we won't ever get hacked like what happened ~4 years ago when we were running phpbb2). There is also a 100% uptime promise to go along with that…
Personally I am leaning towards wanting to improve the forum in every way possible, even if it means spending a little more money. Just to throw it out there… I am willing to put up more out-of-pocket expence in complete transparency (IE you'll all know the costs) if it's desired. It's also time to get the forum sponsors to renew. At the very least we should have AT LEAST year paid for at this point, and I will be taking this "donation drive" global announcement down this week.
shromy: (2011-10-23 19:46:29)
What will the new costs be? I think a yearly drive a month before needed would be a good option. We all seem to live on here these days, I would not object to a yearly drive.
system6: (2011-10-23 20:15:29)
+1[archived image: smile.png] Even just 5% from the sales, that just about no one would get if it weren't for this site making it possible, I think would easily cover the costs. You may be able to sell the parts without z31p, but the z31 would not be getting near as much attention as it is if it weren't for this site providing the info and motivation for owners.
Jason84NA2T: (2011-10-23 21:57:08)
I'm all for a reasonable approach… but I kind of feel like the forum 'making a cut of the money' on people's sales is getting out there… If people make money easier (selling parts, services, etc) by the forum being here, they can donate of their own good nature or just enjoy it for free without paying like many do. I've commented on how many people have donated, and I'm really impressed that as many people were willing to kick in some dough to help make things better. THat really speaks to having a great community of people here.
The rate is $159/month or $1908 per year for everything included. Subtracting my current hosting fees (for two different hosts) from that and it's still ~$110/month more. The hardware would be an Intel atom dual core, 4gb ram and 80GB storage. SSH/root access, 24/7 monitoring and a Managed backend so we could easily implement features such as a realtime chat, etc.
OK85ZX: (2011-10-23 23:12:19)
I think if that much needs to be collected each year then more incentives could be added for donations. Right now we have the donation badge, but we could do stuff like make different levels of badges for donation amounts… maybe add in a forum section available to people who donate (donator's social lounge or w/e). These incentives could last for a year after the donation to provide incentive for helping the site each year, even if a little bit. A new badge could show how many years said person has donated, etc.. These are just things that I have seen on other forums. It's better to not have "elitist" items like these I think, but something has to pay the bills!
shromy: (2011-10-23 23:42:30)
I think alot of people would like that approach, I for one do not want anything special for helping. I feel it is the least I can do to have a place to gain and share knowledge.
Thats not a horrible deal for what we would be getting but, I do see the shock value there compared to what you had initially looked into. I say we just keep the drive going till we can at least hit that mark. I will donate more as I can, Ill have to admit I am one of the new posters. I have been wearing that button out since I have been unemployed the last month, hell I may be the big cause of it alone sadly.
utjon: (2011-10-24 00:41:36)
I definitely think that doing a percentage of classified sales is a stretch and would stifle the part trading or people would just go around it. I personally think the additional incentives sounds good. We could do tiers for donations and for example:
sgtpepper67: (2011-10-24 01:57:30)
Threw 5 bux towards the cause.
Kennedy: (2011-10-24 05:13:33)
Our club server is VPS. We got double the posts, active users are 50-250 at same time. Search is used. We never had any problems.
But we use SMF forum software and db is converted from YaBB -> phpBB -> SMF :-?
Usually sales persons do not know how the products actually works. They want to sell better becouse they get more money.
-Strike-: (2011-10-24 12:49:15)
Sent $30 your way for now. Without these forms, I don't think I'd even know anything Z31 related.
juanchoturbo85z31: (2011-10-24 13:04:59)
So it was you who did it! I always knew you were up to no good shromy! :nanan?re
shromy: (2011-10-24 13:56:26)
[quote]juanchoturbo85z31 wrote:
I have been wearing that button out since I have been unemployed the last month, hell I may be the big cause of it alone sadly.So it was you who did it! I always knew you were up to no good shromy! :nanan?re
Had to learn the hard way just like the others. lol.
300zxAE84: (2011-10-24 14:01:33)
+1[archived image: smile.png] I would also enjoy having the search & view active topics back.
Just donated $30 for the cause.
KamaKaZee: (2011-12-05 23:56:57)
Sent a support donation today.
KUTGW
govbrown: (2012-02-27 03:16:49)
Sent a donation. I'll send more when I get back from cruisin the seas for 7 months
bettzysdaddy: (2012-08-02 08:36:11)
Just made a donation (even though I'm recently unemployed). I will try to donate more when I can.
rambis: (2012-08-02 11:52:53)
Just made a donation.
FrozenZ: (2012-09-04 22:47:03)
In for $30.
Parker: (2012-10-01 13:17:23)
$25 donated on behalf of PulseCode.