DescentBB

perhaps it just me, but it seems that since the move i get a lot of hanging while moving about the forum. used to be that it would happen occasionally, but now its quite constant. its like using an old pentium 133 to open new browser windows... wait for it... wait for it .... get a cup of coffeee... oh there it is.

We moved from a semi-dedicated environment to a shared hosting plan.

We may not have many choices, unless we take monthly donations to maintain the DBB on a semi or dedicated server.

I found a plan that would house only 35 accounts on a server but they wanted 35 buck-a-roos a month to do so.

I have noticed that when it's working it screams, but when it's not you'd think it was molasses in space!

In closing I guess we are still looking for a hosting service that will provide us with unlimited bandwidth/space and sole access to a mysql server. Until then we will have to continue the search until we find one!
KB

gotcha, well... i wanted to voice my concern.

do not think i don't appreciate that it is here! i very much understand the $$$ constraits that a dedicated board would be.

i do also expect that many of us here would probably be willing to shill out a couple bucks a month for it, if it came down to it.

thanks

(i was basing this post on the notion that the move was meant to improve speed... so i was putting in 2 cents on that... sorry)

Frye,

I hope I didn't come across wrong, but the move wasn't related to speed, from what I understood we had to vacate by the end of November, I found this host which was relatively cheap, since I could pay more I took what I could get, I too find these intermitten delays extremely frustrating.

If things don't improve I will find a new host and go through this nightmare all over again.

BUT I learned an enormous amout in this move and it will make future moves should they be need MUCH easier.

I think maybe we should consider a different approch to the DBB, maybe we should have elections, form a semi corporation with a treasure and all, then we could collect minial dues from the users with the understanding that our inate need for speed drives the selections of our hosting service. If we have about 35 users that would chip in a buck a month we could get a semi-dedicated account, this will be the only way to really enhance the speed of the DBB, in a shared hosting environment you can have several hundred sites on the same server, in a dedicated or semi-dedicated those numbers drop off drastically depending on the hosting service.

KB

What about setting up a paypal account for donations?

re: fyrephlie = x2
re: MD-2389 = x2

also i believe that i am not getting notifications of replies via email?

From Kazillions of miles away it's been much faster for me since the move. Go figure.

Seems faster for me also and I 4th a Paypal account.

Who is the host?

The mysql is lightening fast MOST of the time, other times I feel like I am stuck at a railroad crossing waiting on a 10 mile long train!

pun,
the host is http://www.webhostingbuzz.com I opted for the $3 a month account.

kb... omg ... a $3 month account. i retract my statement, this is the most incredible $3 a month account i have ever seen. so what if we wait at a crossing, if no one is going to chip in for a monthly then it is great.

if there is a donate option in the future, i say ... wooo i mean.

umm i didnt notice that the pirtate4x4 forum does this and they use a star system to identify users that donate, and give them voting rights for different issues. just thought i would point that out.

Damn good point frye, I will look at pirtate4x4 is that dot com?

KB

found that i AM getting reply notifications for posts made after the move.

KoolBear wrote:The mysql is lightening fast MOST of the time, other times I feel like I am stuck at a railroad crossing waiting on a 10 mile long train!

pun,
the host is http://www.webhostingbuzz.com I opted for the $3 a month account.

KB, what happened to Xciter hosting the DBB with his FIOS Connection? 15/3 Mbit would be plenty enough right?

AceCombat,

Life has a way of ripping you away from many things.

This is one of the things life ripped away from Jim. Trust me had this remained an option it would have happened.

KB

koolbear... yessir it is pirate4x4.com. they obviously have a much larger user base, but i think in principle it will still work for the dbb. they don't have a direct link to their pricing, it was something i came across throughout their forum in ragards to getting wenzeled... since i don't feel like sifting around, and there isnt a link on the front of their site... i will give you the synopsis. it is something like $20 a year for a red star and $5 a month for a yellow star. they added the yellow star during the 3500 users online wenzel affair, but i think something of this nature would really be something to think about.

figure out what you would need for a year up front of hosting. polls users to see approximatley how many would be willing to shill out a few bucks (i mean even i could see $35 for a year, and it would only take 12 of us to support it for that long... i sure more than that would do it!!!) then do the math and make the offer plus ... say 10% for those that back out. i would guess it would fall in the $15-20 range for a solid server with just a handful of us chipping in.

we could even brainstorm what kinda perks might go along with that... besides the star. i dunno what ... but there has to be something.

For one thing, pirate4x4.com is based on vBulletin. I'm thinking the contributor status is a feature of vB, since another vB-based board I go to just implemented contributor accounts. You go to User Control Panel, click the type of donation you want (e.g. $18 for 6 months or $30 for one year), it sends you to a Paypal page, you pay the money, and when it clears the bank it automatically updates your profile with the contributor status (with no intervention from an admin).

You can set the restrictions on contributors to be different from normal users also. On the Sentra board, only contributors have avatars (wouldnt go over too well here methinks ), and they have the flood control for posting lifted (likewise). The other changes to peoples' accounts are:

* Ability to Change User Title
* Storage for Private Messages upped to 300 (from 70)
* Ability to send to 15 private message recipients at the same time
* Flood Check for Posting lifted
* Avatars
* Forum area just for contributors, not accessible by the general public
* 50MB of image and video hosting space
* Access to Repair Manuals
* (Eventually) Howto library with detailed install documentation
* Knowing that you are helping to contribute to the forum

EDIT: One of the admins has this to say:

yea its built into vb. make the usergroup for contributors, assign the accesses and permissions, plug in the paypal acct and youre done.

alright, so if it is vBulletin then i wonder if this is feasible using phpbb, if there is no contributor option. since it is a much smaller community, i would think that it is possible to do this, and select moderators to keep track of who contributed, and who didn't. many of those features you mentioned are certainly availiable in phpbb (although its been quite a while since i used it for my only clan site back in the dizzay).

if not, perks are out, but contributions could still be in. even just a special user title, would be appropiate. (i seem to remember being able to fork people back in the day. i.e. user - n00b / member - n00b, still honoring the ranking system.)

if not, forget i said anything and have a nice day.

KoolBear wrote:...We may not have many choices, unless we take monthly donations to maintain the DBB on a semi or dedicated server.

I wanted to do this a LONG time ago but Kevin wouldn't hear of it.

...and if I remember correctly, a lot of other people supported the idea as well.

Yes, I remember and I offered back then also. I'll still donate now.

KoolBear wrote:AceCombat,

Life has a way of ripping you away from many things.

This is one of the things life ripped away from Jim. Trust me had this remained an option it would have happened.

KB

what the hell happened? PM if you dont want to disclose publicly

While I've noticed the delays, it doesn't seem a major problem to me. It's a FORUM, not a gaming connection. I don't have to have lightning speed.

But I also think the paypal idea is a good one. Even at $3 a month, why should one kind host bear all the burden for supporting the rest of us?

Kilarin

AceCombat wrote:

KoolBear wrote:AceCombat,

Life has a way of ripping you away from many things.

This is one of the things life ripped away from Jim. Trust me had this remained an option it would have happened.

KB

what the hell happened? PM if you dont want to disclose publicly

he moved.

now this morning i am noticing some very MAJOR slowdowns. its averaging about 1:30 to get from page to page right now.

punisher wrote:
he moved.

well damn, i never heard about that..........


where to?

interesting. here on the east coast (if that has anything to do with it) 12-4 at 4am est it was very speedy. now at 12-5 12:15 it is still speedy.

yesterday for about 10-15 minutes i couldn't load anything, but the entire day it was very slow. last night for a few hours it told me, and a few others, that our accounts were suspended (of course that could be completely unrelated).

The "suspension error" was due to a backup I was preforming, I guess the load on the sever to create the backup sent a flag up and so the hosting service locked/suspended the account.

I just forund out from Kevin that he was footing a $79.95 a month for a semi-dedicated account to host the domain on.

So our options are as follows ...

$3-$6 month - Deal with a shared hosting environment several hundred accounts on one server (CURRENT DBB ACCOUNT)

~$35 month - "intense" hosting plan max 35 accounts on one server.

$70-$90 month - SEMI-Dedicated server only a few accounts per server (OLD DBB ACCOUNT) Kevin "Sickone" was footing this bill!

$150+ month - One account per server.

Ideas/suggestions?

80 bucks a month? holy ripoff batman!

have you looked into any other hosts perchance?

if the previous was the ludicrously expensive plan, i wonder what the 35 account per server plan would be like ... i imagine it would have to be better than this.

i would say if a few of us are willing to help foot the bill.. lets at least move up a little. if people are satisfied with it as is, then, well, we stick it out and post when it lets us.

KoolBear wrote:The "suspension error" was due to a backup I was preforming, I guess the load on the sever to create the backup sent a flag up and so the hosting service locked/suspended the account.

I just forund out from Kevin that he was footing a $79.95 a month for a semi-dedicated account to host the domain on.

So our options are as follows ...

$3-$6 month - Deal with a shared hosting environment several hundred accounts on one server (CURRENT DBB ACCOUNT)

~$35 month - "intense" hosting plan max 35 accounts on one server.

$70-$90 month - SEMI-Dedicated server only a few accounts per server (OLD DBB ACCOUNT) Kevin "Sickone" was footing this bill!

$150+ month - One account per server.

Ideas/suggestions?

First off, is the freakin server runing on 486 box? There are times (many) where the DBB is inacessable for up to 15 minutes.... totaly unacceptable, IMHO.

Lemme see what my ISP can do for the DBB. He's got a major pipe (at least one DS3) straight to the backbone in Chicago (Norlite, it's like 3 or 4 hops to the backbone) and a backup route (a DS1 I think) to Minneapolis.

I'll call him tomorrow and post back here his response.

P.S. If we need a box, I can come up with one, easy....

I run a phpbb on mher hosting, it has never been even close to as slow as the DBB is right now.

http://www.mher.org/

Krom wrote:I run a phpbb on mher hosting, it has never been even close to as slow as the DBB is right now.

http://www.mher.org/

I have 2 PHPBB boards running on mher.org (thanks Krom). Once in a while they hiccup, but never anything like this. I pay 5 bucks a month.

Sarge wrote: Lemme see what my ISP can do for the DBB. He's got a major pipe (at least one DS3) straight to the backbone in Chicago (Norlite, it's like 3 or 4 hops to the backbone) and a backup route (a DS1 I think) to Minneapolis.

Oh man, Sarge. You're making me hungry for some of those Mess Tent servers again. Those things were the bomb for us Chicago D3ers. Pretty please with sugar on top?

If it's just a matter of money, I'll pay for some better hosting...

punisher wrote:Oh man, Sarge. You're making me hungry for some of those Mess Tent servers again. Those things were the bomb for us Chicago D3ers. Pretty please with sugar on top?

My ISP is moving his ENTIRE equipment room to a new location which has been going on for a few months and is expected to take a couple more.....

But I've been thinking the same thing! When he gets all settled in I'm gonna try and stick up another one.

Good, reliable, feature-rich and cheap hosting:

http://mher.org/

Check it out.

EDIT: I just realized that link has already been posted and reccomended. In that case, take it as testimony!

I also use http://www.mher.org/ for the District 15 Area 60 A.A. website. No BB but we have a php/sql calander. I've only been with them for 2 months, but so far thay have been flawless.
Another "thank you" to Krom.

Heheh, this time I got to watch two full 24 minute anime episodes before the DBB finally loaded a page! woot