Open Designs Forum » Site Specific
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Hosting Issues and Concerns
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I would want to be the admin as long as somebody who could Manage the money from the ads. I do not want to go into the head aces of that. and I am too young. I really don't know who would be good. But who ever it is must be able to take a lot of shit from users. Who ever becomes the new admin has to deal with, I think, 2 main issues: 1. Improving the performance of the site. I really think Amazon S3 would take a lot of the load off of the site. 2. Getting a loyal staff.Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted By: cthelightI would want to be the admin as long as somebody who could Manage the money from the ads.
I'm OK with being sort of an accountant for the site handling the ad revenue even after I am no longer an admin, but of course the fee's and taxes would come out of the revenue and not out of my pocket.Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted By: Sean the fee's and taxes would come out of the revenue and not out of my pocket.
Why not start that now?Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted By: gnomeWhy not start that now?
Start what? THe non profit org?Posted 3 years ago # -
No. Sean taking the money to pay fees and taxes on TODC's earnings from the money. Even if it isn't obvious what portion of his taxes come from this, he is good at math (or else he would not have offered to take up an accountancy role in the other thread).Posted 3 years ago #
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Oh i see. I agree with gnome.Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted By: gnome
I will actually be doing that now.Posted By: Sean the fee's and taxes would come out of the revenue and not out of my pocket.
Why not start that now?Posted 3 years ago # -
Theirs a step in the right direction.Posted 3 years ago #
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I've mentioned it before and I just thought i'd chip in again but if ever hosting is needed i'd be happy to help, this past month my server has been getting 40,000 unique visitors a day (hosting 30-100mb downloads as well) and handled it pretty well, a little slow at times but its release time for my two sites and it won't be this busy again until next November and i'm looking to double my server specs in order to handle it perfectly in future. If OD needs a home, i'm more than happy to host the site. I'm based in the UK so I think i'm out of the running for any other involvement, but a hosting offer is always there. I've always been a taker more than a giver in regards OD (as can be noted by my lack of submissions) but i'd be more than happy to give something back by hosting the site and I can help out with coding if need be (although my Wordpress knowledge isn't what it used to be, i've had my head in ecommerce for a while now).Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted By: Robthis past month my server has been getting 40,000 unique visitors a day (hosting 30-100mb downloads as well) and handled it pretty well, a little slow at times
@Rob: What site of yours is getting 40,000 unique visits per day? That's like 1,200,000 visits a month on average. That's just mind blowing.Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted By: SeanWhat site of yours is getting 40,000 unique visits per day?
As I read it, it's not one site but all the sites hosted on his server that gets 40k visitors a day.Posted 3 years ago # -
Two sites one with 14k and one with 21.5k, the rest is made up of a couple of measly sites and three facebook apps with 1-2k users. That was only for this month as the game they're focused on released on Nov 14th, around June/July its down to 4-8k a day for each. http://footballmanagerportal.co.uk/ http://sortitoutsi.net/ Both have a few bugs at the moment as they undergo an overhaul for each game release, but you can see their alexa rank etc.Posted 3 years ago #
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I know from a friend of mine, a hardcore Football Manager fan, that http://sortitoutsi.net/ is very popular, even in Denmark. I think we should consider Rob's offer, sounds good to me. Doesn't take much to beat OpenReactions free hosting, does it?Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted By: niemionDoesn't take much to beat OpenReactions free hosting, does it?
nopePosted 3 years ago # -
We need paid hosting, that way when things don't work right, we can complain about it... and with paid hosting, we would get lots of customer support too.Posted 3 years ago #
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It's been close to 1 year since we've received any donations from people and since we are in the process of moving to paid hosting, anything we can get will help. Open Designs currently has over 6,000 registered users. If everyone donated even $1.00 USD, that could really help offset things. AdSense can only earn so much. Of course if you can afford more then $1.00 USD, that's awesome. Thank you in advance for anything you can donate to the site. Here is the link to the donate thread: donate to Open Designs.Posted 3 years ago #
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I'll be happy to throw back part of my contest winnings. Also, who is nurankcorp that I see on that Paypal link?Posted 3 years ago #
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@bradm81: Thanks Brad. As for the link, it goes to the non profit I set up to run the ad stuff through for the site.Posted 3 years ago #
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Sean: Rob's offer could instantly give us the boost we need, then we can move to paid hosting once monthly ad revenue covers it month-to-month. If you insist on paid hosting, Andreas moved over to siteground with a pretty impressive turnaround. I would really rather use community-donated hosting. It leaves more financial breathing room. Rob: are you physically running the machine(s) these sits run on? If not, who is?Posted 3 years ago #
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@gnome: It wouldn't be an instant boost... we have close to 1,400 designs, a DB that is close to 100 MB and basically a ton of files to move from one place to another... As for Ad Revenue covering month to month hosting expenses... it's taken 2 years to build up what we have now... As for paid hosting, as I said in my comment earlier in this thread, why I think we need a non community donated hosting solution with a full-blown hosting company is because:
Posted By: Sean We need paid hosting, that way when things don't work right, we can complain about it... and with paid hosting, we would get lots of customer support too.
The only way I would personally feel ok with donated hosting is if it was from a company like Media Temple, Site Ground, Hostgator, etc... a company with a history and a track record for great customer service and up time. Nothing against Rob or any community member who wants to donate hosting, but as we all know people have good intentions but when push comes to shove, our hosting needs to be rock solid and with a company that can be there 24/7, not someone co-locating a box somewhere.Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted By: conartistdesignsOpen reaction donated hosting and a paid server arent the only options. I emailed hostgator about it, and the sent me this link: Host Gator Technology Grant So this is a possibility.
Lets not forget this option ps: new page ftw!Posted 3 years ago # -
@connor: I already filled out that link and waiting for a reply.Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted By: Sean@connor: I already filled out that link and waiting for a reply.
Sweet.Posted 3 years ago # -
(Note I can't quote things on the frontpage I just get a javascript error :( )
Nothing against Rob or any community member who wants to donate hosting, but as we all know people have good intentions but when push comes to shove, our hosting needs to be rock solid and with a company that can be there 24/7, not someone co-locating a box somewhere.
Rob: are you physically running the machine(s) these sits run on? If not, who is?
No i'm hosting them just as anyone would over at streamline.net, in regards being able to get in contact and complain, I understand although, you've got to understand that half (I can't afford to quit my job just yet) my income is tied up on that server so any problems i'd be there well before you asking for an explanation. I'm not offering to host the site from the perspective of being a hosting provider, i'm just saying i've got a fantastic server and would have no problem having OD on it. However you would want to do it would be fine by me, i'd love the opportunity to be part of the team with my role being to oversee hosting, but if you just want to sit on my server and me have nothing to do with the site that would be fine as well. I've learnt 3 things about web hosting over the last few years 1) It's a minefield 2) Reliability is key 3) You get what you pay for. For that reason I totally agree that the best thing would be for you to have proper paid hosting and be in contact with the hosts. However, what i'm saying is, I already pay £2000 a year for hosting and I would happily host the site and foot the bill, if the site is doing well financially and you want to give a little something back that would be great, but i've no expectations in that regard. Although on the financial front I don't see any reason why a site such as OD shouldn't be bringing in £100+ (sorry i've always dealt in pounds) each month or even more i've got sites bringing in more than that, that don't have the marketability of OD. But I guess that's up to whoever the new owners are. However you would like to do it, I wouldn't mind, if you can see a way that me hosting the site fits into the organisation and structure of OD then the offer is always there, if it doesn't fit into the way you want things to work, then fair enough, i'll always stick around, i'd happily contribute in other ways if necessary my expertise has always been with php/sql rather than design. But yeah, I just thought i'd spell out exactly where i'm coming from properly, I don't think it needs to be discussed any further really unless you'd like to take up the offer.Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted By: Rob Although on the financial front I don't see any reason why a site such as OD shouldn't be bringing in £100+ (sorry i've always dealt in pounds) each month or even more i've got sites bringing in more than that, that don't have the marketability of OD. But I guess that's up to whoever the new owners are.
I just wanted to comment quickly on this. In the past, every time that someone (Sean usually) tried to monetize this site, they were chewed up and spit out by the community. Kontera was a decent example (and I think that now we can all see that Kontera wasn't responsible for slow site performance). If you look at the header, what you don't see is another example. There were Google Ads in the brown bar at the top, but people freaked out, so they are no longer displayed on forum pages. I think at this point there are no ads in the forums, ads in the header only on the home page, and ads in the header and sidebar of the designs page. That's not all that great for an ad supported site.Posted 3 years ago # -
Rob: can we get full specs for your hosting, and stats for your current consumption? If you don't want to post that detailed information here, could you get in touch with me via my site's contact form? I'll forward it on to Sean.Posted 3 years ago #
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Hi to everybody, I just rejoined this site after being away for over a year. I want to compliment Sean for what he - with the help of others of course - has achieved. I also notice that what already has been stated by several members, a forum can lead to discussions. Although I've been away for a long time and have no right of speach, I would like to give my opinion: a community driven website is perfect as long as its members are willing to understand that it always will cost money and time to keep things going. And since its members are from all over the world there will be great culture differences. OSWD whent down due to negativity of its members and the forum function was removed from the website. Within Opendesigns.org it should be very simple: you are not the owner and/or not willing to chip in money as a member? Post your designs, ask for help etc, but please refrain from negative comments. This website is apparently mostly funded by ads via google. Ads about webdesign mostly as far as I checked it out. Which startles me. That's like asking a supplier for the phone number from his competitor. As said, I've been away for a long time (due to severe health trouble) but I'm willing to think about a solution. One solution could be that I would offer $50 a month for a different kind of ad - I'm a business advisor - and when my ad is succesful I will enlarge that amount to a maximum of $200 a month. I'm specialised in Worldwide Business Incorporations (profit and non-profit) and can also advise here. If any interest, please let me know in a private email. Thanks and keep up this good site, MichaelPosted 3 years ago #
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Posted By: gnomeRob: can we get full specs for your hosting, and stats for your current consumption? If you don't want to post that detailed information here, could you get in touch with me via my site's contact form? I'll forward it on to Sean.
Server 1: 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor 4Gb Ram 80GB HD 10mb Datapipe Current State: Maxes out at this time of year, but runs at about 40-50% the rest of the year. Server 2 (the one I would prefer to put you on): 2.4Ghz Quad Core Processor 4GB Ram 100mb Datapipe/Uplink Port 250Gb hard disk 250Gb backup hard disk Current status: Mainly developement sites on here at the moment but will start receiving pretty high levels of traffic between now and the summer (depending on when the sites launch), two Facebook apps with a few thousand users doesn't effect it at all at the moment. Server 3 (currently empty could stick you on this one but I don't know if it would be enough) 1.4Ghz Celeron Processor 512Mb Ram 80GB HD 10mb Datapipe Current Status: Empty I would prefer to put you on the second one, however I could move things around and put you on the first one, i'm guessing so long as the sites stable you wouldn't actually mind. The last server I got as a clearence deal and used it to experiment load balancing by putting SQL on that server and code on the first server, but it didn't quite work out so at the moment its doing nothing at a cost to me of £20 a month, if you could fit on that then i'd happily put OD on it and continue footing the bill, but (without seeing exact stats) i'd be suprised if that server could handle OD. Just to note, these servers are based in the UK. EDIT: Just thought i'd say as it probably looks strange, I only just brought the second server hence why the first server still has sites on it which are maxing it out, rather than them being on the second server, that won't be a problem again until this time next year though, so i'm in no hurry to switch them over just yet.Posted 3 years ago # -
@Rob: Get into contact with gnome and myself via our personal site contact pages so we can discuss a couple details before bringing it to the community. Just click on our names in the forum which takes you to our profile pages, then click the link for our URL's. Thanks in advance. :bakie:Posted 3 years ago #
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@sean: Bluehost is a good option. Please dont shoot this down, but its a good host. I'm sure they would put you on a "high cpu" server. But its unlimited so they can't complain to you that you are maxing out the bandwidth. @all: We made some progress!Posted 3 years ago #