|
Post by TyPenn613 on Aug 17, 2006 21:52:07 GMT -5
I'm very happy to say that after a longer than projected process, I have finally gained access to the server that will soon be the www.thescoreboards.com. That said, I am now purchasing VBulletin which is considered top of the line for forums these days. Its similiar to Proboards, but with more options, and light years better than ezboards. I'm happy to get this up and running, and the limited server space I purchased will last for three months. That said, we are relying on you guys to donate in order to get things fully off the ground. I'm going to work on bringing Google Ads in to cover the costs. However, if we have some money to work with, it will help in terms of the server in case we need to upgrade before the three months are up, or if not, we will likely need to before too long. Honestly, when things we first getting going, I never expected to see over 200 members here this quick. I'm thrilled there are that many people as interested as me to get this place rolling. I'm a little afraid that many more will follow suit soon enough. While that is a good thing, we need your support to ensure that we can fully support them. I have my Paypal account open, so anything you can put towards the cause will be greatly appreciated. Big or small, we will be very thankful nonetheless. My e-mail is typenn13@yahoo.com for it. If you have any questions or concerns, by all means PM me. For those wondering, I don't know how long it will take me to have things setup, but once there are working forums, you guys will know. Thanks guys.
|
|
|
Post by FPN on Aug 18, 2006 11:58:05 GMT -5
Sweet. I'll donate $20 later today.
|
|
shooter
Registered Member
Posts: 19
|
Post by shooter on Aug 18, 2006 12:49:24 GMT -5
Typenn, Can you please let us know, in a new thread, when the move to the new site will become offical? (also could you include the link to the site) Thanks!
|
|
|
Post by TyPenn613 on Aug 18, 2006 13:29:32 GMT -5
I don't have a date just yet. I finally got access to the site, and began uploading the software late last night. Unfortunately, the domain name hadn't registered, so I couldn't install it. I checked this morning, and apparently it registered sometime while I was at work now. That said, as soon as I get back to my regular computer, I will install it.
I won't have access Sunday, and likely won't have access to it till late Monday or Tuesday as I have to move apartments. It shouldn't be more than 48 hours, so it will likely be sometime between Wednesday and Friday if I had to take a guess.
|
|
|
Post by UCan on Aug 19, 2006 10:24:06 GMT -5
I'll do what I can, prolly won't be much though.
|
|
|
Post by TyPenn613 on Aug 19, 2006 10:50:39 GMT -5
Doesn't have to be, every little bit helps.
|
|
|
Post by wolfchylde on Aug 19, 2006 11:04:57 GMT -5
Just wait until I graduate law school next may. Then I can provide some financial assistance maybe;)
|
|
|
Post by NoMich on Aug 19, 2006 11:05:55 GMT -5
I PayPaled you $20 the other night. Hopefully you got it.
|
|
|
Post by TyPenn613 on Aug 19, 2006 11:19:40 GMT -5
I did NoMich, thank you. I was trying to figure out who the e-mail address belonged to. Thanks very much for the help. Wolf, once you win your first case, I'm holding you to it.
|
|
|
Post by cooldude32 on Aug 19, 2006 17:35:10 GMT -5
How much does everything cost? If you don't to reveal it in public you can send it via PM.
|
|
gerryf
Registered Member
Posts: 5
|
Post by gerryf on Aug 19, 2006 22:10:51 GMT -5
Why are you considering vbulletin? Why not a freely available forum system like smf or bbphp?
Unless you expect these forums to explode in growth overnight, it seems like overkill to go with a big package like that which arguably does not offer any real advantage.
|
|
|
Post by shimmeroo roo on Aug 19, 2006 22:54:17 GMT -5
We're still allowing guest posting?
PS - nice to see you, gerryf.
|
|
|
Post by NoMich on Aug 19, 2006 23:59:51 GMT -5
Wow, I thought gerry up and left this mortal Internets coil. I hope you aren't a stranger around these parts.
|
|
|
Post by TestSubjekt on Aug 20, 2006 7:29:00 GMT -5
Hiya Gerry!!! Thanks for the visit. We hope to see you register here. We're still allowing guest posting? It's only allowed on this board. Just in case users are having problems registering or whatnot.
|
|
|
Post by Cementhead on Aug 20, 2006 11:59:09 GMT -5
I think it would be a good idea if all the cost's involved were posted in here so we can have an idea of what it is going to take to make thescoreboards work long term.
Also i would suggest the new location having a paypal account explaining site cost's on the main page so we can begin to deal with this A.S.A.P
|
|
|
Post by shimmeroo roo on Aug 20, 2006 12:40:10 GMT -5
It's only allowed on this board. Just in case users are having problems registering or whatnot. I was just confused because you can post to an announcement from any board. I initially replied to it from the BBQ, which is why I was concerned.
|
|
|
Post by Test Testing on Aug 20, 2006 12:50:00 GMT -5
hmmm. good eye
|
|
|
Post by puckinA on Aug 20, 2006 17:02:49 GMT -5
I will contribute $20 as well.
|
|
|
Post by puckinA on Aug 20, 2006 17:07:24 GMT -5
ok, done. So easy to spend money these days.
|
|
|
Post by cooldude32 on Aug 20, 2006 19:04:33 GMT -5
I think it would be a good idea if all the cost's involved were posted in here so we can have an idea of what it is going to take to make thescoreboards work long term. That's what I was thinking.
|
|
gerryf
Registered Member
Posts: 5
|
Post by gerryf on Aug 20, 2006 22:34:29 GMT -5
Thank you for the welcome,
But, no one answered my question(s)
To try and shed some light on costs, but note that it is impossible to say without actually having everything in place
It appears that thescoreboard is going to be hosted by the host company "Hosting Matters"
They have a variety of hosting plans, ranging from $6 per month to $36 per month. What plan they got determines the initial monthly fee. However, note that this is based on a fixed amount of bandwith and storage. The actual monthly fee can be higher due to heavy traffic or large storage needs.
I am assuming they are going with a shared server at first. As fanhome grew, it had to ditch a shared server and go with a dedicated server, which really ramped up costs.
BUt assuming shared server. for instance, let's say they get the b1000 plan, which offers.
400 MB disk space 23000 MB transfer per month (23gb) (and some other stuff you don't care about)
Without having access to the plan, I cannot say how much they charge for additional storage and bandwitdh, but it can be quite expensive if you go over the allowed contract. Think of a car lease in which you go over you yearly limit. (I also think the plan structures offered by this company are a little higher than market)
Anyway, I can say that I host two small websites (shared space) that consume 230mb of space--and that is a small website. No forums. Just pages and file serving. A small database for managing data for dynamicly generated pages.
A large scale forum could be much larger. The database needed for such a forum grows with each post--and the longer you archive old messages, the more space is consumed. (Which is why scout was never too keen on old posts--storage is cheap, but perhaps not as cheap as peopel think and in greater use then they suspect)
The bigger issue is probably bandwitdh though (unless the desire is to keep EVERY single post as the original fanhome tried to do--and why ezboard automatically prunes old messages).
23000 mb of bandwidth, or 23 gb a month, sounds like a lot, but it can be pretty small. On my small website, I push about 3gb a month. An active forum could easily top 23gb...shoot, I bet the Toronto Maple Leafs forum tops that by itself..if anyone has access to the the control panel still, it might be prudent to check that to get a gauge. Pretty sure that it was close to that...but it had a substantial lead over other forums. It seems to me that at one time when I looked the average forum was pushing 1 gb each....but I cannot recall for certain.
More costs:
Hosting matters does not seem to offer any deals on domains. They are not a domain registrar, but use a third pary registering firm at a price of $15 per year.
Vbulletin comes in two flavors--a yearly lease of $85, or an outright purchase of $160.
That's why I was wondering why vbulletin...there was a time when it was head and shoulders above the rest--and maybe still is for a large scale forum, but smf, phpbb and other free alternatives would probably suffice for now, especially since you can run them off a simple mysql database (well, you can do that with the others too)
If you need to go with a enterprise level database (oracle, ms sql) your costs jump again.
Ultimately, it comes down to how large will these forum be? What kind of graphics--you would be amazed at how much I was able to shave off of fanhome just be optimizing graphics...those kbs add up...
|
|
|
Post by TestSubjekt on Aug 20, 2006 23:08:35 GMT -5
Thank you for the welcome,
But, no one answered my question(s) Ty's handling that. I was just the guy with the idea to organize mods and posters and start over before everyone left and the memory of FanHome was dead. heh. Ty's gonna have alot of reading when he logs on. Where have you been hiding all this time?
|
|
gerryf
Registered Member
Posts: 5
|
Post by gerryf on Aug 21, 2006 6:52:34 GMT -5
Not hiding anywhere....hockey season was over. I still post semi-regularly on the hockey forums and Red Wings forums over at scout. I also help out at a pc help forum, www.geekstogo.com, which can keep you very busy
|
|
|
Post by BroadST on Aug 21, 2006 14:06:35 GMT -5
Ty, you should have received my donation last night. If you haven't, please let me know.
|
|
|
Post by TyPenn613 on Aug 21, 2006 14:47:11 GMT -5
I got your money, thanks very much BST. Sent you a PM as well. Everyone will have to bare with me for a couple hours as I try to catch up on everything that has happened. My apologies for the past two days, but I had to move apartments. gerry got most of it if you haven't read that. gerry, glad to see you're still around. You got me through plenty of tough times back when I was a Mod. For the most part, you have the prices correct, and even speculated on the correct plan. I'll try to make things a little more clear. As far as costs have gone so far: VBulletin: $160 Domain Name: $15 (one year) Server Space: $31.95 (three months) The VBulletin software as you can see cost the most, but ignore that for now. I'm covering that cost, and if things really take off I'll hopefully see it come back to me some day. If not, no big deal. The address: www.thescoreboards.com is registered to us for one year, that was $15, not bad. I know there are some slightly different prices, but the difference in a few bucks won't make or break us, and this was easily done with the hosting company. As gerry mentioned, the hosting company is Host Matters where we have a shared server. We did in fact get the B1000 plan which gives us 400 MB of disk space, and 23 GB of bandwidth. At the rate this site is growing, I honestly think we could surpass that well before the plan is up which is why we turned to donations for future hosting. Costs are associated with the host, and depends on bandwidth and disk space. I honestly don't know what to expect in October, November, December, etc. in terms of traffic. Until I see how much we use in the first few months, its hard to gauge future costs. The most expensive shared server they offer is $36 a month (compared to the $11 we currently pay). That gives you 1 GB of disk space, and 40 GB of bandwidth, a considerable upgrade. There was no reason to go for that price so early since we likely wouldn't come near that right away, but in time we could get there, before long I might add. The problem is, after shared servers you have to make the jump to dedicated servers. These are not unlimited, but in terms of us they pretty much are. Having to worry about going over your bandwidth on a dedicated is something only the largest sites have to be concerned with. Now while it would be great to host on there, the jump in terms of price is fairly large where its $150-200 a month. We paid $31.95 for three months let me remind you. If all goes well, we will have to upgrade, but the question will linger until then, just how much we have to upgrade. I would think that sometime in November if not sooner, we will have to make a jump towards the $26 (700mb/36gb) or $36 (1gb/40gb) in order to support it. I'll be more than happy to document costs for those who wish to see it as I only think thats fair for everyone. That said, I'll mention that I've received Paypal donations that came to $80 before Paypal took their fee. I know of at least one other who is sending fund to me in the mail. Even if that brings up to $100, thats good for less than three months of the top shared server, and not close to being able to afford a dedicated for even one month.
|
|