Server issues- the good news and the bad news.

[Winged Mermaid]

As many of you noticed, we have been having a lot of server issues again lately. Last time, through a lot of digging and research, we were able to do a few things to help the server in terms of it's load. The errors came and went until recently when they've been much more prevalent.

We've had a lot of back and forth with our very unhelpful server host. We think we now know the cause of our server issues. Our account with the host is a "personal class" website hosting. We thought that would be acceptable becuase we are supposed to have unlimited, well, pretty much everything. However, apparently the capability of our host to spread users out to minimize the load on servers, and thus keep them from crashing and having down time, is not available to the "personal class" hosting. So basically we have too many users and traffic for our server to handle, so it just crashes. Malinghi and I are know little to nothing about web development, but from what we can tell taking action to minimize the load only puts off these issues. As we grow in size, we have more and more crashes and doing small things to minimize server load hardly does any good for it. It could be when we get grow more that it will do nothing to help.

The GOOD news is that apparently it can be fixed by upgrading out hosting to "Business Class". The BAD news is that it would be $285 PER YEAR for said hosting.

Right now the admins eat the expenses and pay for it out of our own pockets. Malinghi was extremely generous in paying over $300 for the vBulletin software, and we've payed for the $80 hosting every year. We've had some donations which we are extremely grateful for (again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!), and helps take that money load off of us.

However, we can't afford to pay that much out of pocket every year for business class hosting. We are looking into alternative hosting companies, hoping that perhaps if we migrate to a better host and another server that it may help our issues. However there is absolutely no guarantee that this would help anything at all, and server migrations can be rough.

So basically: At this point it looks like we raise enough money to cover the higher class hosting, or we just deal with the constant server issues. It's possible as we get more traffic and users these will become more frequent and longer in duration. It sucks, but those are pretty much our options for now.

We have 238 active users right now. If every active user donated $2.50 we would be set for two years. However I'm not very hopeful on this, as attempts to raise money before were not very successful. But it IS an option if everyone agrees to help.

We're always open to help from our users and fellow community members! If anyone knows anything about web development, please email Malinghi at malinghi@gmail.com.


I would love to hear feedback and any ideas from you guys.






http://mernetwork.com/index/image.php?u=2&type=sigpic&dateline=1310510451

[lynsea]

I'd be happy to give! $2.50 is a pittance to pay. Unfortunately, I don't think all of our 238 users are active.

[Theta]

I'll donate. How do we do it? Is there a paypal button someplace?

[Blondie]

I would totally pay that. $2.50 is not a lot guys. Dig in the couch and your car and you're bound to find it.

[Odette]

i would gladly pay $2.50 to help if needed.This is a wonderful forum that alot of mermaids have gotten useful info from and get to meet so many wonderful people.

[Dacora]

I could also do $2.50 to help out.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[AniaR]

we have tried fundraisers before and I know they haven't helped a great deal. A few people donate which is awesome but not enough. I know I was unemployed for a while and literally had someone else paying my bills so I couldn't fork out anything. But now I've got a job and I'm planning on making a donation and buying some merch!

I'd be happy to do a fundraising effort through Tail Flip as well, perhaps we can simply change this thread into an article to raise more awareness.

There is a paypal button and a link to a cafepress website, but I keep searching and can't find it. Would be great to have that on the front page again :) And we can obviously post it here too.

[roamingmer]

To be honest i would happily pay much more to help the site stay alive; there are some great articles and infomation. I just resubscribd to a forum for 90$ for 2 years. But im also getting tired of the constant bitching / ohh pretty / i want to make tails too/ isnt school great / bad type posts which threaten to degrade the quality if mernetwork.

If you are going for a subscription model which i would heartily support, you should consider what type / quality of content you want to keep for the future as that has an influence on your users and their perceived values.

[malinghi]

I'll donate. How do we do it? Is there a paypal button someplace?

There's a paypal button at the bottom of the main page (http://mernetwork.com/index/forum.php). If you just scroll all the way down you'll see a button for paypal donations.



Unfortunately, I don't think all of our 238 users are active.

Actually 238 is the number of active users, not total users. Its defined as the number of registered users who have logged in within the past week. The total number of users is 1,444. This info is listed at the bottom of the main page under "MerNetwork Statistics".



I want also to add:
In addition to collecting money to upgrade our hosting or to simply do nothing and accept the errors, another option would be to add advertisements to the site. This could generate revenue to pay for hosting.

If we do upgrade our hosting plan, we are uncertain if we want to stay with out current host, but I don't know how to find a better one. If anyone can recommend any good, reliable web hosting companies that we should look at, please let us know.

[Mermaid Annariea]

what if we dont have paypal?

[Winged Mermaid]

Sometimes the PayPal donation buttons "implode" as they change their coding. I'm looking into an add on that will allow the donate button to stay put.

Until then, here's another one:

9483 (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=GAYF5NEXFN9BA)

[Winged Mermaid]

Also you do NOT have to have a PayPal account to donate. Just a credit or debit card.

[doomkitty]

I only joined a couple days ago, but am excited about being a part of this community on my journey to mermaid-dom. I don't have a lot to offer, but I can manage a couple dollars.
Hope every little bit helps!!

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Donated. :3

[MerEmma]

I'll ask my mum about it when she's in a better mood. =P

[MermaidRaven]

Iona, please contact me on facebook <3

[xXMillieXx]

I don't have much money due to the fact that I recently moved to a different state, but I'd do what I can to help out

[MermaidBrittany]

Donated :D

[MerEmma]

I got permission and I'll do it tonight or tomorrow. =)

[Mermaid Pickles]

I'll try to donate when I get my paycheck! No, scratch that, I will donate when I get my paycheck!

[NerineArcticMermaid]

Im recently employed.. funds are tight but.. yeah Im gonna donate.
This site.. all of you mermaids our there.. Are my dear friends andI do want to continue this!

So Im gonna donate $10 that will cover me and 3 mers who cant! :D

[Mermaid Momo]

I'll donate once I get my debit card in the mail :)

[Spindrift]

I can donate. But it might take a while because I want to use a friend's card.

[Mizuko]

This is an incredible site, of course I'll donate! <3 I'd hate to not have all of you around anymore *__*

[Aino Revontuletar]

I donated $5 :)

[spottedcatfish]

Maybe we should have a tally thread or some kind of way to keep track of how much we have vs. how much we need for the fee.

[Mermaid Hamant]

I donated $5.

[Mermaid Annariea]

once i finally get paid, i'll donate too.

[Blondie]

Donated! :mermaid kiss:

[Dacora]

I also donated. <3

[AptaMer]

Im gonna donate $10 that will cover me and 3 mers who cant! :D

Great idea. $10 donated.

[Ariel-Starfish]

Donated! <3

[Mermaid Narina]

2.50 is a good price, if everyone donates im sure that mernetwork can stay afloat!!! :3 might buy some tshirts when i get paid too!

[Mermaid Fenicia]

Wish I had some money to doneted, but as I'm disabled, live with my boyfriend and not aloud to work, I haven't got any money :(

[NerineArcticMermaid]

Dont worry...

Some of us are donating to cover those who cant.

[Mermaid Fenicia]

Thanks ^_^

[Merrow]

Donated. Also, since you asked about server companies, I can recommend Rack Space (www.rackspace.com). One of my dads is employed there & I brag on them every chance I get. Rack Space also has Cloud servers if you guys would rather not bother with a whole lot of traditional server problems. I hope this helps some.

[jukumerboii]

I will def be giving back to u guys!!!

[Moongazer]

I know proboards is free, but I'm not sure if that's the type of forum you're looking for...

[telzey.amberdon]

Done, and paid for one more mermaid.

[Bellasea]

$7.76 has just been donated

[OceanRose]

$5.00 donated by me :-)

[Mermaid Allie]

I think i can do it! I'll ask my mum next month though because shes paying off our recent vacation right now lol.

[rezse1981]

I've thought about doing it just to see what would happen.

[NerineArcticMermaid]

Rezse..its proper here to post an introduction before posting to other threads. Your comment is odd also..what do you expect to happen? Other than the site to continue to run

[Ariel-Starfish]

How much $ has the forum got donated now?

[MerEmma]

I've been completely delayed by this point, oops. I'll do my best to get my mum in here soon. :b

[Usagi]

Rezse..its proper here to post an introduction before posting to other threads.

I never introduced myself...just started posting and no one ever said anything...am I in trouble? Haha

[Mermaid Cascada]

I never introduced myself either. lol. I'm gonna ask my mom if she will donate for me. I have money to do it but I don't have a credit or debit card.

[Mermaid Momo]

donated $3

[AniaR]

due to people making alt accounts and spam registration we like people to introduce themselves, it's very odd to have someone just jump in somewhere randomly ;) we're a community

[Mermaid Gosalyn]

Donated for two. :D
I have been talking to my husband, who is a web developer, and trying to see his opinion on the issues. He says that basically there is nothing web development based that can be done at the moment. What host are you using at the moment and are you having troubles with them other than the space issues? His computer is not working properly right now, but I can message one of you his email if you'd like? Personally I think advertisements would be fine and may be needed in the future, even if you raise enough money now for the first two years. Also, any articles or such in places like Tail Flip or I Am A Mermaid would probably be very helpful. This forum has really been a blessing to me and I think whatever it takes to keep it here for all the mermaids who need it is a worthy cause.

ETA: I've been told it would help to have the donate button on every page here, and to have it say something like "Donate to help keep this forum running" or such. Also, a top donators list seems to help, and maybe something small (like a postcard) to give to the top donator each month would be incentive.

[Spindrift]

I'm donating using a friend's name. Where are we on the donations? Is there a chart somewhere, or a tracker?

[AniaR]

ETA: I've been told it would help to have the donate button on every page here, and to have it say something like "Donate to help keep this forum running" or such. Also, a top donators list seems to help, and maybe something small (like a postcard) to give to the top donator each month would be incentive.

Agreed. How about charging for RELEVANT ads? like from the mer community? You don't even have to have them everywhere. maybe just have an affiliates page. or rotate on the front page. That helps everyone- you get money and mer community people get more exposure directly to their market.

[MerEmma]

I was a bit nervous because it came up and said I was donating to Seaside Siren; is this correct? I donated right on ahead and I went on ahead to double it because of how long it took for me to get around to it. I am also curious as to how much more money is needed, though.

[Spindrift]

Come on people! Who hasn't donated yet? Its only $40 more before we reach our goal to support the forum for just one year!

[MerEmma]

Wow, where is everyone, then? xD

[roamingmer]

Come on people! Who hasn't donated yet? Its only $40 more before we reach our goal to support the forum for just one year!

How did you calculate that? from the listed donations in this thread... as some people donated anonymously... well kind of not if im writing this now.

[Spindrift]

@roaming: I asked Iona. And I donated a bunch.

[Mermaid Momo]

ETA: I've been told it would help to have the donate button on every page here, and to have it say something like "Donate to help keep this forum running" or such. Also, a top donators list seems to help, and maybe something small (like a postcard) to give to the top donator each month would be incentive.
I'd be more than willing to donate new art each month for a postcard for top donators. It seems like a good idea and if other artists here donate photos and drawings they can sort of be collectible because they could all be one of a kind.

[Nykur]

I would love help with that art idea, draggersprez! Sounds like a fun idea,;)

[Winged Mermaid]

Update long time coming for you guys! So the big hold up here was that Malinghi and I were debating if we should upgrade or if we should move hosts all together, and researching what each of those would mean. It seems with hosting companies there's a lot of love-or-hate with customers, so it was kind of dizzying for people who don't know much about the intricate workings of this kind of stuff. Then the renewal for the host we're with came up earlier than we thought, so we decided to just renew and upgrade with them and stick with that for a year, see how it goes.

So the day before yesterday I confirmed the plan with Malinghi. We're doing our research on what it takes to migrate servers, since we have to do that to upgrade. I've heard server migrations can be an absolute nightmare if they're not done without preparation, so we want to know what we're doing. I understand the servers have been especially bad lately, and I understand everyone's frustration, but we don't want to rush a migration. We're setting the goal of having it done by May. If anyone knows anything about doing server migrations please email Malinghi at malinghi@gmail.com or mernetwork@gmail.com.


The super awesome great news is that you guys donated enough money to cover $240 of the cost!! That's AWESOME you guys! We really can not thank you enough!!:group hug:

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Woo! So glad to hear that Iona!

[Thalassa]

Can we still donate as we keep getting money? If nothing else it could go towards a fund for next year?

[Winged Mermaid]

Of course! We still have $40 to go on this year's. The donations previous to this (when we moved from MerYuku) went to the hosting and vBulletin software. Any future donations will go to next year's hosting :) If we have extra to play around with at any point - I imagine this would be from possible sponsors or advertisements rather than donation money- the money will always go towards the site related expense. Like bringing in a web developer to optimize the site, getting better software for the site (like better chat software for example), advertising in one of the mermaid magazines, ect. We're always grateful for any donations and will make sure it goes to good use :)

[AniaR]

Yay! I know that the security software can also prevent people from posting too, sometimes posting too many links at once makes it think you're a spammer XD

So glad you got enough $$. How awesome is it that people love the site so much they donated? :)

[Winged Mermaid]

Yeah I've had to explain the security mod issues to a lot of people. If you first post contains any links are automatically put on a watch list. I managed to turn off most of the automatic moderating it was doing (thus preventing posts from actually posting) but there are still kinks. Well less kinks, more tailoring the software to our needs, which are apparenlty much different than the needs of other forums that use the same mod. But it's better than hundreds of spammers crashing out servers and posting all over our forums!

It makes me beyond happy that people are pleased enough with the site to contribute! :yay:A lot of our freedoms that we enjoy here come form hosting the forum ourselves (rather than having a forum host site like Yuku). It's awesome that people want to support that and what we do for the community!

[lamplighter]

I am new here but I have been looking at your members list. As a suggestion maybe a bit of maintenance could be in order. I noticed a lot of people signing into the site and nevershowing in up again. Never sending messages or doing to the site. Just taking space in the mainframe. After a time maybe a bit of deletion could be in order. Just an idea to toss around.

[AniaR]

they do do that.

[lamplighter]

there are some people listed that have not been in the site in over a year

[AniaR]

many people lurk and choose not to post. As a member, you can't see all their activity. But the admins can. Some people only use the chatbox.