Forum hosting costs

[tebee]

Hi folks

Sorry I've been a bit busy with other things and not been on here as much as I would like. I'm about to go and spend six months in Thailand and been getting things here sorted out ready. I'm hoping I'll have a little more time there and can catch up on the maintenance of the forum software, but am not 100% sure how good my internet access will be.

Which brings me to the point of this missive. I need to start collecting donations to cover our hosting costs. I'd like to get enough so I can pay for a year in advance, so that if I do have problems I'm not having to find a way to connect at the right time every month - I only get a window of about 5 days between the issuing the bill and them cutting access off.

This means we need to find $240 - though I believe I may get a 10% discout if we pay in advance.

As usual send money by PayPal to donations@gn15.info

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year to all you Gnutcases out there and keep posting!

Tom

[Jon Randall]

Done Tom.
Thanks for your service to our community.

[PeterH]

On the way. I need to arrange PayPal through my son, which will take a few days.

[chris stockdale]

Hi Tom,

Hope you had a good Christmas.

Money just sent.

Cheers,

[Gnu Bee]

Tom
I have just sent a donation. Thanks to all admins and mods for providing us with a great virtual model railway club.

Geoff

[Gnu Bee]

I've put a link to this on the Facebook GN15 and GN9 page.

[docnjoj]

Money sent.
otherDoc

[nu2ng]

Donation sent.

Thanks Tom, keep up the Good Work

Cheers

Andi

[Canuckflack]

I've just sent some along as well - don't post much, but read a lot!

Colin

[lesmond]

Donation just sent - I'd be lost without the accumulated wisdom here

Les

[Bruce]

I am new and have never posted but I have used the site a lot!

Money Sent!

[tebee]

Thanks to everyone. We are about 3/4 of the way there now.

I'm thinking of using any surplus we get to buy a registered and supported version of software I installed for photo hosting last year. How many are using this or think the might in the future ?

Tom

[rue_d_etropal]

Just noticed I had not been logged on since July. Having been looking though, and was using the FB page, until I felt it was going over the same ground as we covered a while back here.

Just sent a small donation .
Happy New Year

As for hosting photos, I still recommend people to buy their own little space online and use that as you then have control, and it does not cost that much.

[Gnu Bee]

Can you update us on the progress?

[PeterH]

Tom, I wouldn’t use a separate photo hosting site. I’ll only put photos on a forum itself, to avoid possible problems in the future if the separate site changes.

[tebee]

OK I think we are there now. Assuming we can get a 10% discount on annual hosting, we have enough to pay for a full year from Jan 20th when the renewal is next due. Will talk to them and arrange it.

Still got slightly iffy internet access, but that should be better in a week or so.

I'm mulling over the best way to do this in future - shall we look at making this an annual event or explore other avenues, like putting advertising on the forum?

Photo hosting: The problem with using the internal forum hosting is that it's incompatible with using the same photos elsewhere on the internet.
My solution was to set up photo hosting within the gn15.info domain, so it could then be used internally in the forum or externally on other forums like NGRM Online. We won't lose this unless we lose the forum also.

The software we need for this has two options. We use it for free, but get no support if we have problems and we must retain their branding and name. Alternatively we can pay a one off cost of 90 euros and get lifetime support, access to the source code and the ability to reformat it and put our name on it.

If few are using it it's not worth spending the money, but if it is something that lots might use, then maybe it is better to get a full licence.

Tom

[Jon Randall]

90 euros and a donation every year is a lot cheaper than Photobucket and I'd be happy chipping in.
Ads are ok if everyone turns off adblockers.

[PeterH]

I would rather pay than have ads.

[docnjoj]

What they said.
otherDoc

[lesmond]

I'm with Peter - I'd rather pay a few quid than have ads.

Les

[tebee]

Just to say I paid the hosting for the full next year yesterday, so we don't have to worry about it again until Jan 2019.

Got a bit of discount so we still have about $40 in the till. Will save for next year as it doesn't look as if our photo hosting is being heavily used

It looks like most people would prefer no advertising so I'll keep it like that for the moment and will start another fund raiser next December.

Tom

[PeterH]

Many thanks for doing all the backscene maintenance work like this Tom.

[lesmond]

What Peter said. Thank you, Tom

Les