Figuring out the next step.

[Diffident]

Why is there a $99 yearly fee for Font Awesome when Font Awesome is open source?  I guess it's too late now with the additions that have been made, but using open source forum software would have saved a lot of money....probably would have eliminated everything in your "Yearly cost" list except maybe the marketplace.

[bonami2]

Would importing the server to a Invision subscription based server hosting be an option?  I don't know if it possible but maybe it would be cheaper that ways.

They do offer transfer from dedicated back to their service.

Don't know how much storage we need.

 

The forum run on flarum if am right.

 

Am in for donation. 

 

 

[ENTERPRISE]

8 hours ago, Diffident said:

Why is there a $99 yearly fee for Font Awesome when Font Awesome is open source?  I guess it's too late now with the additions that have been made, but using open source forum software would have saved a lot of money....probably would have eliminated everything in your "Yearly cost" list except maybe the marketplace.

 

You have to pay if you have custom Font Awesome Icons. Which we do as there were no suitable free ones available. Font Awesome have a lot of icons...but typically not the ones I wanted lol.

 

The forum software is the smallest cost, at least as a base platform and going for a well known and supported platform was paramount. There are loads of options but this was the best of the lot in my opinion.

7 hours ago, bonami2 said:

Would importing the server to a Invision subscription based server hosting be an option?  I don't know if it possible but maybe it would be cheaper that ways.

They do offer transfer from dedicated back to their service.

Don't know how much storage we need.

 

The forum run on flarum if am right.

 

Am in for donation. 

 

 

Yes, they do offer there own all in one hosting now. However, kiss goodbye any custom dev work as there cloud services don't support it :(. Most all in one services are like that. If you want full control over the sites shape and form, you are better off with dedicated hosting.

[bonami2]

8 minutes ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

You have to pay if you have custom Font Awesome Icons. Which we do as there were no suitable free ones available. Font Awesome have a lot of icons...but typically not the ones I wanted lol.

 

The forum software is the smallest cost, at least as a base platform and going for a well known and supported platform was paramount. There are loads of options but this was the best of the lot in my opinion.

Yes, they do offer there own all in one hosting now. However, kiss goodbye any custom dev work as there cloud services don't support it :(. Most all in one services are like that. If you want full control over the sites shape and form, you are better off with dedicated hosting.

 

 

Ah so complicated just started reading about it i had a free forum 8 years ago. And just looking now it so expensive to have anything with storage capacity and no inode limit scam then after that every pluggin and addon are like pure scam.  Dedicated is the best option but so expensive. 

 

And it not only about having a forum. It having someone who is dedicated about the project like you. 

 

Maybe this could be an option?

MigrateToFlarum - Launching soon!

MIGRATETOFLARUM.COM

 

https://discuss.flarum.org/d/21040-converting-from-invision-community/2

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PCSarge]

14 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

1. Buy me a winning lottery ticket

2..... 

 

So a breakdown on costs that I can recall at this moment, but I believe this to be a correct list. 

 

Monthly Costs

 

£150 - Server proactive maintenance (I have a really decent guy for this who I was happy to pay to keep it off my hands and he is far more experienced in this that I)
£20 - CloudFlare 
£180 - Dedicated Server (Dedicated over cheaper VPS as originally wanted a rock solid platform, this could be reduced obviously)
£150 - Basic SEO (Was £300-400 at full tilt)

 

£500 GBP/ $616 USD Total

 

Yearly Costs

 

$100 Invision Community
$99 Fonticon Icons (Font Awesome)
$40 Tag System 
$35 Discord Integration 
$20 Marketplace 
$30 Carousel Slider
$60 Video/Stream System 
$25 AWS Mailing Sytem 

 

Total $409 USD/ £330 GBP

 

These are running costs. This does not include bespoke development for the site or one off feature costs. Custom Dev which would include things like :

 

Rig Builder 
Latest News/Review Blocks 
Award System (Ready but not active yet)
Dark Theme/Theme Adjustments
EHW Premium (Any and all perks included in Premium packages) 

 

Obviously these are one off costs for custom dev. The other one off cost features....is another list.

 

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

Perhaps my mistake in all this is trying to do everything, which I have been guilty for...forever lol. I have no issue with remaining the owner and doing what I can moving forward. But If that were to be the case I think we need to get a staff going here and re-structure possibly what we have on the site. A NEED vs want. I would love to keep all of it as it shapes the site well. But beggars cannot be choosers and ultimately it depends if people are wanting to collectively pitch in and help out etc. There is of course no obligation to do so. 

if i had income i'd help in a heartbeat.

[Avacado]

18 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

1. Buy me a winning lottery ticket

2..... 

 

So a breakdown on costs that I can recall at this moment, but I believe this to be a correct list. 

 

Monthly Costs

 

£150 - Server proactive maintenance (I have a really decent guy for this who I was happy to pay to keep it off my hands and he is far more experienced in this that I)
£20 - CloudFlare 
£180 - Dedicated Server (Dedicated over cheaper VPS as originally wanted a rock solid platform, this could be reduced obviously)
£150 - Basic SEO (Was £300-400 at full tilt)

 

£500 GBP/ $616 USD Total

 

Yearly Costs

 

$100 Invision Community
$99 Fonticon Icons (Font Awesome)
$40 Tag System 
$35 Discord Integration 
$20 Marketplace 
$30 Carousel Slider
$60 Video/Stream System 
$25 AWS Mailing Sytem 

 

Total $409 USD/ £330 GBP

 

These are running costs. This does not include bespoke development for the site or one off feature costs. Custom Dev which would include things like :

 

Rig Builder 
Latest News/Review Blocks 
Award System (Ready but not active yet)
Dark Theme/Theme Adjustments
EHW Premium (Any and all perks included in Premium packages) 

 

Obviously these are one off costs for custom dev. The other one off cost features....is another list.

 

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

Perhaps my mistake in all this is trying to do everything, which I have been guilty for...forever lol. I have no issue with remaining the owner and doing what I can moving forward. But If that were to be the case I think we need to get a staff going here and re-structure possibly what we have on the site. A NEED vs want. I would love to keep all of it as it shapes the site well. But beggars cannot be choosers and ultimately it depends if people are wanting to collectively pitch in and help out etc. There is of course no obligation to do so. 

I have held off commenting after I read the initial post because I didn't know what to say. I do wish you had brought this issue forward sooner, we are all ok with advertisements if it means keeping the site afloat. I think all feature integration and development should stop at this point and leave the forum in it's current state. 

 

Where are we with ad integration? Is there a timeline? How much revenue would ads bring to the coffers? 

 

I usually donate $100 every few months to the site anyway, so I would be fine doing that monthly to help us get by. 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Avacado

[bonami2]

60$ canadian for me  monthly would not be an issue.

 

Ive being thinking maybe we could backup the site and just put a temporary one with the same domain on 

https://www.websitetoolbox.com/forum/pricing

https://xenforo.com/

 

Of my crappy search and trying to learn those are best easy setup and functionnal and cheap option.

They both have free demo. For easy setup Websitetoolbox is great.

[Sir Beregond]

3 hours ago, Avacado said:

I have held off commenting after I read the initial post because I didn't know what to say. I do wish you had brought this issue forward sooner, we are all ok with advertisements if it means keeping the site afloat. I think all feature integration and development should stop at this point and leave the forum in it's current state. 

 

Where are we with ad integration? Is there a timeline? How much revenue would ads bring to the coffers? 

 

I usually donate $100 every few months to the site anyway, so I would be fine doing that monthly to help us get by. 

 

 

I agree. The forum is in a great state as far as main features go as far as I am concerned. No reason to keep paying for that right now.

 

I am also willing to chip in some monthly, maybe not as much for now unfortunately, but every little bit helps.

[mouacyk]

best, E!

[ENTERPRISE]

11 hours ago, bonami2 said:

 

 

Ah so complicated just started reading about it i had a free forum 8 years ago. And just looking now it so expensive to have anything with storage capacity and no inode limit scam then after that every pluggin and addon are like pure scam.  Dedicated is the best option but so expensive. 

 

And it not only about having a forum. It having someone who is dedicated about the project like you. 

 

Maybe this could be an option?

MigrateToFlarum - Launching soon!

MIGRATETOFLARUM.COM

 

https://discuss.flarum.org/d/21040-converting-from-invision-community/2

 

 

 

 

 

 

I certainly appreciate the thought and idea. Migrating to another forum software would be fairly disastrous to the sites health and growth. Migrations are always a setback and unless you have a big dev crew to get everything back to "Normal", migrations are costly for those reasons and more 

 

Ultimately the cost of the software is a minimal issue in the big scheme of things

10 hours ago, PCSarge said:

if i had income i'd help in a heartbeat.

Appreciate the thought bud!

5 hours ago, Avacado said:

I have held off commenting after I read the initial post because I didn't know what to say. I do wish you had brought this issue forward sooner, we are all ok with advertisements if it means keeping the site afloat. I think all feature integration and development should stop at this point and leave the forum in it's current state. 

 

Where are we with ad integration? Is there a timeline? How much revenue would ads bring to the coffers? 

 

I usually donate $100 every few months to the site anyway, so I would be fine doing that monthly to help us get by. 

 

 

Ad integration is on the way. However I need to check in on that. Apparently all is green for go, but Google has to learn the site before ads pop up, however that is taking longer than expected and needs looking at.

4 hours ago, bonami2 said:

60$ canadian for me  monthly would not be an issue.

 

Ive being thinking maybe we could backup the site and just put a temporary one with the same domain on 

https://www.websitetoolbox.com/forum/pricing

https://xenforo.com/

 

Of my crappy search and trying to learn those are best easy setup and functionnal and cheap option.

They both have free demo. For easy setup Websitetoolbox is great.

A little like a migration, this can be a setback so far as search engines and SEO. Mothballing a site/replacing it with a temporary version would virtually bring your standing with Google to Zero. However I see your logic so far as a strictly saving money point of view

2 hours ago, Sir Beregond said:

I agree. The forum is in a great state as far as main features go as far as I am concerned. No reason to keep paying for that right now.

 

I am also willing to chip in some monthly, maybe not as much for now unfortunately, but every little bit helps.

Appreciate it

52 minutes ago, mouacyk said:

best, E!

Thanks bud!

 

........................... 

 

I just want to say that the support is very heartwarming and just goes to show what community is all about. I thank you all for your kind words and support of every kind!

 

After thinking about it and speaking with my partner, we both know why I founded this community and both agree that walking away completely would be a mistake. That being said, it is also clear that I need to better delegate some of the sites operations to a staff for the sites wellbeing, as well as my own. It is a win win. 

 

From a financial point of view. Hopefully once the Ads come in these will help. However I do not foresee that making much of a dent (at least until we see growth). So I think for the community to remain and prosper, I would have to take those who are able/offered up on there generosity with helping with site costs.  

 

If you are happy to help with costs, please post here, as some of you have or send me a PM. 

 

Regarding Staff and helping me to run the site, leave this with me to come up with positions and we can go from there. My goal is to be active, but ultimately being a watchful eye.

 

So far as site development. This is halted, but was halted anyway as there was nothing else to be done at this point so far as site features.

 

Monthly running costs will be reviewed and we will be moving to a more cost effective hosting solution, possibly VPS rather than full dedicated. SEO will be stopped. @iamjanco. I will speak with you regarding server side bits and bobs via PM. 

 

More to come, this is a post from my phone lol. 

 

With gratitude,

E

 

 

[damric]

I can do $50 per month recurring until ads and proper sponsors are caught up.

[UltraMega]

I'm not really in a position to help financially as I'm still recovering from being off work during covid, but I'm definitely down to help in other ways if possible. 

 

Maybe you should change the title of this thread to something like: figuring out the future of the site. 

[Avacado]

Yea i'm in. I'll start donating on the 1st. 

[Sir Beregond]

In as well - someone might need to point me to where one does that though.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Sir Beregond

[ENTERPRISE]

2 hours ago, UltraMega said:

I'm not really in a position to help financially as I'm still recovering from being off work during covid, but I'm definitely down to help in other ways if possible. 

 

Maybe you should change the title of this thread to something like: figuring out the future of the site. 

Hey man, more ways to help than just money. I did get your PM. Will get to that soon

2 hours ago, Avacado said:

Yea i'm in. I'll start donating on the 1st. 

 

1 hour ago, Sir Beregond said:

In as well - someone might need to point me to where one does that though.

Really appreciate it guys. For all those who wish to donate on a monthly or on a whenever basis, it is best done via : https://forums.extremehw.net/clients/donations/

 

I will see about making this section more visible. 

[iamjanco]

4 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Monthly running costs will be reviewed and we will be moving to a more cost effective hosting solution, possibly VPS rather than full dedicated. SEO will be stopped. @iamjanco. I will speak with you regarding server side bits and bobs via PM. 

Ready when you are. 

 

3 hours ago, UltraMega said:

Maybe you should change the title of this thread to something like: figuring out the future of the site. 

Was obviously a great suggestion 

[damric]

3 hours ago, Avacado said:

Yea i'm in. I'll start donating on the 1st. 

Me too that VA pension check

[damric]

@JosephStewartPE

[JosephStewartPE]

I can pitch in 25 USD a month. Just let me know how to send the money.

[ENTERPRISE]

Thanks guys. For ease of those who are able/want to make a recurring donation, I will setup way to do this later today.  

 

I will also be investigating our new server today. Thank goodness for weekends lol.

[Sir Beregond]

2 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Thanks guys. For ease of those who are able/want to make a recurring donation, I will setup way to do this later today.  

 

I will also be investigating our new server today. Thank goodness for weekends lol.

Cool deal, let me know when you get that setup.

[PCSarge]

13 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

I certainly appreciate the thought and idea. Migrating to another forum software would be fairly disastrous to the sites health and growth. Migrations are always a setback and unless you have a big dev crew to get everything back to "Normal", migrations are costly for those reasons and more 

 

Ultimately the cost of the software is a minimal issue in the big scheme of things

Appreciate the thought bud!

Ad integration is on the way. However I need to check in on that. Apparently all is green for go, but Google has to learn the site before ads pop up, however that is taking longer than expected and needs looking at.

A little like a migration, this can be a setback so far as search engines and SEO. Mothballing a site/replacing it with a temporary version would virtually bring your standing with Google to Zero. However I see your logic so far as a strictly saving money point of view

Appreciate it

Thanks bud!

 

........................... 

 

I just want to say that the support is very heartwarming and just goes to show what community is all about. I thank you all for your kind words and support of every kind!

 

After thinking about it and speaking with my partner, we both know why I founded this community and both agree that walking away completely would be a mistake. That being said, it is also clear that I need to better delegate some of the sites operations to a staff for the sites wellbeing, as well as my own. It is a win win. 

 

From a financial point of view. Hopefully once the Ads come in these will help. However I do not foresee that making much of a dent (at least until we see growth). So I think for the community to remain and prosper, I would have to take those who are able/offered up on there generosity with helping with site costs.  

 

If you are happy to help with costs, please post here, as some of you have or send me a PM. 

 

Regarding Staff and helping me to run the site, leave this with me to come up with positions and we can go from there. My goal is to be active, but ultimately being a watchful eye.

 

So far as site development. This is halted, but was halted anyway as there was nothing else to be done at this point so far as site features.

 

Monthly running costs will be reviewed and we will be moving to a more cost effective hosting solution, possibly VPS rather than full dedicated. SEO will be stopped. @iamjanco. I will speak with you regarding server side bits and bobs via PM. 

 

More to come, this is a post from my phone lol. 

 

With gratitude,

E

 

 

i will gladly help as much as i can, we're in this together dude. we've all been together as friends for this long. now its time to pull together and share the workload of a place we all love.

 

sign me up for whatever you need. i was already excited to get some of my knowledge down in content for the community, putting in a little more time cant hurt.

[bonami2]

 

Il send some money in the next hour or days and will sub when the option out 

So happy to see everyone helping. Thank you @ENTERPRISE For this community 

[ENTERPRISE]

A shout out to all who wish to Donate on a recurring basis. I have now setup the appropriate subscriptions for doing so. 

 

Please see here: https://forums.extremehw.net/subscriptions/ 

 

You can donate in increments of 10,25,50,75 & 100, of whatever your currency is depending on your locations. As per the description of the Donor sub, for your generosity you will be recognised with a badge in your profile (This will exist in the signature as an award). I need to create the artwork for this, so this will not show immediately. 

 

More to come soon. A huge thanks once again for everyone's support!

[Sir Beregond]

19 minutes ago, ENTERPRISE said:

A shout out to all who wish to Donate on a recurring basis. I have now setup the appropriate subscriptions for doing so. 

 

Please see here: https://forums.extremehw.net/subscriptions/ 

 

You can donate in increments of 10,25,50,75 & 100, of whatever your currency is depending on your locations. As per the description of the Donor sub, for your generosity you will be recognised with a badge in your profile (This will exist in the signature as an award). I need to create the artwork for this, so this will not show immediately. 

 

More to come soon. A huge thanks once again for everyone's support!

Thanks E, set up for reoccurring, hopefully can do more in the future.