Help pay for the hosting

[Darina]

Everyone,

This board is slow as hell, and even more so if you access it from outside of Thailand. It's driving me nuts! At least partially this can be alleviated by getting proper hosting.

A decent virtual server costs about 20$ per month.

My first reaction was to say "Sylvie, I have a job, let me pay for a server." And I'm still prepared to do it. However, what if something happens to me, or I lose said job, or who knows what else? As an engineer, I prefer a more robust solution.

I pledge that I will pay 5$ per month for a year toward the hosting of this board, if at least three other people pledge with me.

If more people want to contribute, that's great. Then Sylvie can either get better hosting or save the money for later.

The period of "one year" is rather random. I'm prepared to pay longer, but I think it would be good to have a date when we can re-evaluate and see how the board had developped.

Like many of the women (and hopefully men, too) here I'm immensely happy to have a place where I can have a civil discussion and talk about things that are taboo in most places. Yesterday, I had a very bad experience after a gym trial. I was really sad. I did not know who I could talk to about it because nobody in my life in Berlin can relate to it. But then I realised that I could just go home and write about it here. I did and I felt better.

This is absolutely worth paying the price of two capuccinos per month in order to keep the board alive and growing.

If you don't want to pitch in in public, that's fine, just PM me.

[Darina]

Only need two more people :)

[threeoaks]

I can pitch in.  Lawrence Kenshin uses a subscription service (sorry I cannot remember the name) so people can voluntarily support his awesome breakdowns - that works well - I do a buck a month cause I love them.  I see Sylvie has taken to other methods to support her fights now that the 100 fight goal has been smashed; not sure if there is wariness to ask for support but again but I'm game.  I imagine you fighters often don't have the budget to support what with working less to train more but I'm older now and happy to support in any way I can.

[dtrick924]

I can pitch in.  Lawrence Kenshin uses a subscription service (sorry I cannot remember the name) so people can voluntarily support his awesome breakdowns - that works well - I do a buck a month cause I love them.  I see Sylvie has taken to other methods to support her fights now that the 100 fight goal has been smashed; not sure if there is wariness to ask for support but again but I'm game.  I imagine you fighters often don't have the budget to support what with working less to train more but I'm older now and happy to support in any way I can.

Lawrence Kenshin uses Patreon https://www.patreon.com/

One of the drawbacks to Patreon or GoFundMe or any other crowd funding site is that they take a percentage of the donations. Sylvie mentioned this in one of her blog posts http://8limbs.us/blog/go-fund-update-done-99-fights-accomplished. 

I know that Sylvie takes direct donations via PayPal, with the address: sylvie 8 limbs @ outlook . com  http://www.paypal.com/bg/webapps/mpp/send-money-online (just remove the spaces in the e-mail address).

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

A decent virtual server costs about 20$ per month.

My first reaction was to say "Sylvie, I have a job, let me pay for a server." And I'm still prepared to do it. However, what if something happens to me, or I lose said job, or who knows what else? As an engineer, I prefer a more robust solution.

I pledge that I will pay 5$ per month for a year toward the hosting of this board, if at least three other people pledge with me.

If more people want to contribute, that's great. Then Sylvie can either get better hosting or save the money for later.

The period of "one year" is rather random. I'm prepared to pay longer, but I think it would be good to have a date when we can re-evaluate and see how the board had developped.

Like many of the women (and hopefully men, too) here I'm immensely happy to have a place where I can have a civil discussion and talk about things that are taboo in most places. Yesterday, I had a very bad experience after a gym trial. I was really sad. I did not know who I could talk to about it because nobody in my life in Berlin can relate to it. But then I realised that I could just go home and write about it here. I did and I felt better.

This is absolutely worth paying the price of two capuccinos per month in order to keep the board alive and growing.

If you don't want to pitch in in public, that's fine, just PM me.

 

I can pitch in.  I imagine you fighters often don't have the budget to support what with working less to train more but I'm older now and happy to support in any way I can.

 

Lawrence Kenshin uses Patreon https://www.patreon.com/

 

So sorry I've been off-line and couldn't get to this sooner. I arrived in Chiang Mai with serious pain and have been crashed for the last 18 hours. But I'm back!

First of all, I am so happy that you all are vibing on this forum and I absolutely dream of it being a place where users feel it is theirs. Crowdsourcing support is a great way to do this, but it's somewhat complicated (and yes, a somewhat sensitive issue).

A number of problems immediately present are these:

1) I need to confirm with my design guy that a change in server will actually improve upload time, significantly.

2) I'm very happy to set something up where members can support the site (financially) if they like, and as an "opt in" selection. The options available for member-supported service will have to be explored further; those you mentioned and what Lawrence uses look pretty good.

3) This is probably the biggest concern, which is that, once moved to an upgraded server, it then becomes an expensive site, and we become dependent on donations to maintain it. As Darina pointed out, situations and personal circumstances change over time. The solution of having multiple members offering support is a good safety-net, but for this reason we can't move the site until the support is there. Otherwise the forum could be at risk in the future, as there is the real possibility that I personally cannot afford to keep it up on an advanced server. As it stands, I can maintain it, but an upgrade requires the support of more people - which is being offered, which is great, but we have to proceed on secure footing.

In any case, a quick fix isn't possible. I have to have my design guy clear a date on his calendar, as so far he's been donating a lot of the time put in for his technical support. I understand that it's frustrating to have the site be slow and, most likely, the more people on the site the slower it might be. But I do have to confirm with him that moving to an advanced server will, in fact, be a solution to the problem. I'll look into these different member-support options and talk with Deep and we'll move forward when the answers are clearer.

Thank you all again for your willingness to support and for wanting to make the site better.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

I see Sylvie has taken to other methods to support her fights now that the 100 fight goal has been smashed; not sure if there is wariness to ask for support but again.

I am wary, mostly because there were a lot of harsh things said about me - which is ongoing - for even asking for support. The internet can be an abusive place. But then, that's part of what led me to want to create this place. I just want to be careful about how I frame community support and want the whole community to feel good about it, given the wide spectrum of views on the issue.

[dtrick924]

This is a little off topic but I have found that using different web browsers make a huge difference for loading time. My preferred browser is Chrome but both the blog and the forum load painfully slowly. For me the fastest loading browser is Internet Explorer followed by Firefox. The new site is gorgeous but it definitely loads slower than the old one.

Paypal has an option for a website owner to create a subscription service/recurring payment button their website. Paypal does charge a fee for the service. https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/get-started/recurring-payment-processing

[Darina]

In any case, a quick fix isn't possible. I have to have my design guy clear a date on his calendar, as so far he's been donating a lot of the time put in for his technical support. I understand that it's frustrating to have the site be slow and, most likely, the more people on the site the slower it might be. But I do have to confirm with him that moving to an advanced server will, in fact, be a solution to the problem. I'll look into these different member-support options and talk with Deep and we'll move forward when the answers are clearer.

 

I'm sorry, I did not want to rush you and/or things. Don't feel pressured to act immediately. But know that there are at least (as of writing) three people willing to contribute towards a better server. When think that the move makes sense, let us know, we're here.

 

I am wary, mostly because there were a lot of harsh things said about me - which is ongoing - for even asking for support. The internet can be an abusive place. But then, that's part of what led me to want to create this place. I just want to be careful about how I frame community support and want the whole community to feel good about it, given the wide spectrum of views on the issue.

 

This is off topic, but I was definitely critical of it when I first saw it. But then I found 8limbs, and I realised just how much you give back to the community, not in money, but in time, which is even more precious. You have every right to ask for support because you don't "waste" the money, you create things with it that any athelete can profit from.

[threeoaks]

I am not bothered by the slow server, personally, and if no money means no problems better wait IMO. Sorry you took the crap for crowd-sourcing.

[threeoaks]

MO MONEY MO PROBLEMS. Stupid pedantic spell check.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

But know that there are at least (as of writing) three people willing to contribute towards a better server. When think that the move makes sense, let us know, we're here.

 

Not at all! This is great news. I'd love to put the forum on more solid footing, and that members want to help put it there is exciting. In the next few days I should know more about what is possible. I'd love for this forum to be the best it can be.

[Micc]

I'm not having any problems with loading the forum...I have avarage internet connection (10Mb/s) and the forum loads in a tolarable time-frame for me. The blog does load a bit slower than the old version, but it's not very bad.

I'm using Chrome and I'm not sure if it really helps, but enabling the one-color background instead of multi-color might help with the speed of the forum.

A faster server is always great, but I like the way Sylvie thinks - you never know how long there will be people to donate for the server costs....

[dtrick924]

 

A faster server is always great, but I like the way Sylvie thinks - you never know how long there will be people to donate for the server costs....

 

Donors should be free to spend their money however they like. However a more expensive server also diverts money that people might donate to to Sylvie's fight journey. Personally I'd rather be patient with a slow forum and get Sylvie to more fights.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Now that we have a Patreon account set up if anyone would like to pledge to move the Roundtable to a proper server - we've had problems with the current server sending out email notifications, which prevents momentum on topics - let me know in a note (or here in comments) that your Patreon pledge is designated for moving the forum's server. If this is fully established we can go ahead and make it happen. 

This dovetails with my attempt to just make my writing sustainable, a much larger goal, but I'd like to upgrade the server as well.

[Lobo11]

Maybe I'm late to the dance but I encourage anyone that is thinking about it to donate through the Patreon link above.  Any amount would help. 

This forum/website is a full time job in and of itself.  Quality content/always updated/immensely interesting...

[NewThai]

I'm on an iPhone and the forum is not much slower than anyrhing else for me.