You Can Help Make a Difference

[FurLoverinFL]

I'd like to urge everyone to read: http://thefurden.com/bbden/viewtopic.php?t=4205

 

In the last year or so, the Den has grown tremendously. We've moved to our own site, and have opened sections (for example - The Gallery) that simply could not exist at this time last year.

 

If we were able to raise enough money, we'd be able to move to our own server. So what, you ask? Well - for starters - that would go a long to towards ending the debates we always seem to get into if something gets banned.

 

Please help - thanks in advance!

 

FLinFL

 

Edit by AK: shortened link

[Guest]

didn't the vote point towards a fetish site in the first place? why would the fetishers stump up cash for this site now....?

[White Fox]

Man you have totally lost me here. Vote? You know that if you come here that you are the guest of BrGr's.

 

We have a site with almost 5,000 photos. You have access to ask people in the fur business questions. We have told you that more options are coming.

 

We have one of the biggest links pages on the net, and with your help we will soon be far beyond anything existing in that catagory. We have a collection of close to 60 fur videos that can be referenced instantly in the Library along with a movie list with something like 160 movies. We have about 16,000 Den posts available for you to look at. We will soon that the ability to change the look of the site completely in every area. With a different server we could let you see things like spell check, faster servers, etc. We have posts like Tryxie's Essay, Mr M's on model shoots, and Mr B's thought on fur in the Library along with Peta's Stupidest things done yet. We have all posts from the "List your furs forum" so you can see them immediately. We have an erotic photo album. We do not allow XXX photos, but we do allow you to pass that information between you and we do allow you to even post the names of them here! Have you looked closely enough to know that we indeed have a special section for you just so you can see those instantly? No matter how big that list gets?

 

We have a site that has not went down once in the last almost 9 months. Think of what Melody was like. All of this was begun by BrGr with his money. AK has spend endless hours here. Working so that you can use the site. Every time he has to do an update at the end of the month takes him almost half a day. Do you spend half a day once a month here posting photos to add to the site? Or working to improve it?

 

Tell me something. BrGr and AK have up to just recently gave members all of this, and paid every cent of expenses. And you are telling me that is not enough?

[foxkid]

Another alternative if you don't want to pay for a fully blown server (which does cost a lot) is to look at a VPS (Virtual Private Server). VPS hosting is between shared hosting and dedicated hosting. The nice thing with VPS hosting is that other users on the server can't bog down the server (or make it liable to hackers) because they have got/written insecure code. Likewise most VPS systems give you admin / root access like dedicated servers.

 

The downside to VPS / dedicated servers is that the person maintaining the site needs understand how to setup software (Mail, databases, firewall) and OS. While it's rare to need to make changes it's a good idea to know this as managed services are even more expensive.

 

If you did go down the dedicated or VPS route, I would be happy helping config stuff if any help was needed. Being a student I can't afford to chip in cash wise too easily.

 

VPS hosting can be as cheap as about $30 / month for decent hosting which is a fair deal cheaper than dedicated hosting, yet offers more less the same admin features. The other thing VPS's is if you need to more resources, it's easy to upgrade the RAM/drive space was the server is virtualized. If you did go down this route look at using something called Xen, regardless if you go for dedicated or VPS hosting, I would strongly suggest Ubuntu or Debian as a OS as they are rock solid and not to hard to manage for a server OS.

 

Anyway, that's my 0.02c. I' got a fair knowledge in this area, so if the adminis want know quiz by PM over anything technical feel free to do so.

[AKcoyote]

Foxkid,

You are correct that a VDS (virtual dedicated server) is a possibility. Our goal (if we can get enough support from the membership) is a dedicated server, but at slightly less than the monthly cost you quoted, VDS hosting is an option. We need to see what donations we get in the next few weeks before making any decisions for 2007. Our current hosting contract expires in January.

[Guest]

so, correct me if i'm wrong here....? you're looking for more funds so that you can move to a dedicated server (stated goal from AK) & that by being on a dedicated server the membership "could possibly" benefit in being allowed to have a more "risque" product (as flinfl suggests).....?

 

I think that's what your all "hinting" at but for one I would appreciated it if you jus came out & said that straight up, possibly gauge the membership interest in the additional benefits & throw some figures at us (a cost/donation per annum required maybe?) lets jus cut to the chase eh? how much & what are you proposing to add to the membership (as mods have suggested) by going to a dedicated server....?

 

Never know you may get a more positive response if members knew what's on offer which was what I was kinda asking in my first response, agreed somewhat cryptically but.......

[White Fox]

Thanks for clerifying your question Furelli. I will bow to AK on this one. We are certainly not trying to hide the costs of the upgrades. It is possible that with a larger site and larger memberships that we could make more specialized areas within the Den, the Gallery, etc.. But, as you have pointed out. We can make an area that would not be offensive to a particular member, or be a PETA target, but we do have to do it within the rules of our server.

 

At the moment, by looking at statistics, you would think we have a lot of room left yet. But as you know the problem is response time. What we have to do is to find what is a possible goal and look toward it. So, doing that is certainly not as easy as it sounds! I'll let AK give what he knows of the details as he knows them better.

 

AK your turn...

 

W

[AKcoyote]

To clarify further, our goal is to provide, to the degree possible, short and consistent response times for our members and guests while improving the maintainability of this website as it continues to grow. In my opinion, the best way to do that is with a dedicated server as that would not only eliminate the interference of other hosting accounts competing with our account for the the machine's resources, but also provide a lot more flexibility in setup and maintenance that could improve the reliability and security of our software and data.

 

Upgrading the type of hosting service we use will not free us from the terms of service of our host. As WF has indicated we have to be careful to not only avoid anything that PeTA could use against us, but stay within the terms of service of our host. Any areas that we may setup that are by invite only are mainly to keep guests who may be underage or members who are not interested from viewing discussions that while within our Code of Conduct, are inappropriate or too erotic for some.

 

If you really need to know the current financial costs of this site, you can research that for yourself. We are using GoDaddy's shared Linux hosting. More specifically their Economy Plan on a 12 month contract.

[foxkid]

Just so people are aware of the costs for VDS/VPS or dedicated hosting goes, generally speaking it costs around

[FurLoverinFL]

We're in the States... costs vary...

 

FLinFL

[polbeton]

I have put some money down.....

[wallee]

Polbeton...did you see this post?

[Guest]

We're in the States... costs vary...

 

FLinFL

 

Are you restricted to the States? Can't the server be located in a more cost effective / less restrictive country....? Jus a thought