"Second star to the right, and straight on till morning."

[ENTERPRISE]

Hello all. 

 

Quick update.

 

As I have not found someone within the community who would be willing to purchase the site, I will soon endeavour to look beyond the community to secure a new owner, I would have liked to have kept the ownership "in house" but hopefully I will find the right type of person from outside the community to take on EHW  Again, if you are interested, please contact me via PM or via the Contact Us form.

 

All the best,

E

[GanjaSMK]

Same as it ever was and still change is imminent. 

It comes often at a moment's notice and sometimes as a slow, timid trickle, down the stream. 

 

Rest assured, those challenges were present and defeated. Yet they always remain. 

Find peace in knowing your own contribution at its very core contributed to the many in ways you still may not still comprehend. 

 

Be wise, then. Stitch up a smile and giggle a little bit in the sheer magnitude of such grand connection. 

 

Thank you so very much for all that you've brought forward in not only technology, but that which has bound those through it, as well. 

 

 

[Mr. Fox]

Blessings and best wishes as you embark on the next stage in your life journey. May you find happiness, peace and personal satisfaction every step of the way, Brother E.

[Supercrumpet]

Sad to see you go E, but I completely respect your decision. Thanks for all of your efforts and dedication to the online communities I've been fortunate to be a part of, and best of luck wherever you find yourself in the future!

[bwalker36]

E, the fact that you got us here is something to be very proud of.  I don't post as much as I did on our previous home when I was not a father, employee, or frankly and adult.  But you have always fostered a great community focused on the right things.  Sad news for sure but I wish you the best in everything and totally understand where your coming from, I couldn't do this. 

 

So thanks for everything friend, keep on trucking.

 

[J7SC_Orion]

On 24/09/2024 at 10:47, ENTERPRISE said:

Hello all,

 

It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to move on from ExtremeHW and community management. I have made this decision based on a few reasons.

 

1. Motivation/Time

2. Health

3. Fresh Start

 

Firstly, my focus in life has changed. While I still love all the same things concerning technology, PC’s and overclocking/tweaking, my motivations are now aimed towards other life projects/goals. This has not happened suddenly and is something I have been fighting with for months now as to what I should do regarding a balance between EHW and the rest of my goals/life, but I must bite the bullet and do what is best for myself and the community and realise that I cannot have my cake and eat it.

 

Secondly, health. Like many people I struggle with mental health and anything I can do to reduce workload & stress will be beneficial for my quality of life moving forward. This is nothing new as I have struggled for many years but as I am getting older, I am getting wiser as to what is best for me.

 

Thirdly, I have been in this game since I was 15 years of age with respect to being heavily engaged with community activities, to site management and eventually to the ownership of my own site. The journey has been awesome, despite any challenges or sad times along the way. I feel that after 20 years I have achieved what I wanted to, but it is time to start a new chapter.

 

My aim for the community is to find a new private owner, or possibly groups of owners who will have the right qualities for moving this site forward and growing the community.

 

So, what now? Well rest assured that ExtremeHW will remain operational, and ultimately for you, the user, nothing will be changing up until the time new ownership takes over. 

 

If you are interested in stepping into my shoes, becoming the next owner of ExtremeHW and starting a new chapter for the community, please feel free to PM me on the site or use the sites Contact Form to learn how and what is involved.

 

All the best,
E

 

 

Hi E - Even if it is understandable, it is still a big loss for us here. Thank you for all you have done at Extremehw.net, and best wishes as you travel past the second star on the right and straight on till 'morning'   - J7

[ENTERPRISE]

Thanks for the kind words guys, means a lot. 

 

It is with sadness that I have not been able to locate anyone willing to take on the site to date. I of course understand that there is a time commitment required  to take on such a project and it seems that while most would like the challenge, do not necessarily have the time to do so. 

 

So, I have made the commitment to continue running the site up until Feb 1st 2025 If by that point a new owner has not bee secured then sadly I will have to retire the sites and associated services. I hope that everyone can understand that I have draw a line in the sand so that I can make plans for the future. 

 

All the best,

E

 

 

[Alex]

2 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Thanks for the kind words guys, means a lot. 

 

It is with sadness that I have not been able to locate anyone willing to take on the site to date. I of course understand that there is a time commitment required  to take on such a project and it seems that while most would like the challenge, do not necessarily have the time to do so. 

 

So, I have made the commitment to continue running the site up until Feb 1st 2025 If by that point a new owner has not bee secured then sadly I will have to retire the sites and associated services. I hope that everyone can understand that I have draw a line in the sand so that I can make plans for the future. 

 

All the best,

E

 

 

Here's to hoping, I assume its more expensive to run a site like this than most of us imagine and making it hard to find new owners.

[Sir Beregond]

42 minutes ago, Alex said:

Here's to hoping, I assume its more expensive to run a site like this than most of us imagine and making it hard to find new owners.

Also wondering if the cost to develop the site is not reflected in the current activity of the site. Which is a shame, from a feature perspective, great site. 

[UltraMega]

8 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Thanks for the kind words guys, means a lot. 

 

It is with sadness that I have not been able to locate anyone willing to take on the site to date. I of course understand that there is a time commitment required  to take on such a project and it seems that while most would like the challenge, do not necessarily have the time to do so. 

 

So, I have made the commitment to continue running the site up until Feb 1st 2025 If by that point a new owner has not bee secured then sadly I will have to retire the sites and associated services. I hope that everyone can understand that I have draw a line in the sand so that I can make plans for the future. 

 

All the best,

E

 

 

 

If you don't find a seller sooner than later, have you thought about trying to auction it off or something like that? Even if it didn't go for the amount you'd hoped, it would be better than nothing, right? 

[ENTERPRISE]

5 hours ago, UltraMega said:

 

If you don't find a seller sooner than later, have you thought about trying to auction it off or something like that? Even if it didn't go for the amount you'd hoped, it would be better than nothing, right? 

 

An auction was something I was considering running around December time, however there is no reason why I cannot kick an auction off now. I will prepare a topic on this now

[ENTERPRISE]

2 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

An auction was something I was considering running around December time, however there is no reason why I cannot kick an auction off now. I will prepare a topic on this now

 

In light of my last comment, please see the auction topic here: 

 

Thanks all,

E

[UltraMega]

Just an additional thought about this:

 

I don't really know anything about the cost of running a site like this so forgive me if this is totally out of touch. 

 

IIRC, I think you had mentioned @ENTERPRISE that the cost per month is something like $300. Are there ways to bring that cost down significantly? Maybe there are features the site doesn't really need until/unless the user base were larger that could be dropped? 

 

Could there be a situation where the site is stripped down as much as is reasonably possible without destroying the core functionality to reduce the cost, and thus give you more time/flexibility in finding a new owner? Or if the per month cost were significantly less, you could potentially let someone here take over the management and monthly cost sort of indefinitely while you remain the owner for as long as it takes to sell the site, or figure out a way to transition it without shutting it down?

 

If the monthly cost were much less, I could potentially even afford to essentially keep the lights on while you/we figure out what to do next. 

 

 

What is to stop you/us from building a server ourselves and just hosting the site on that? Wouldn't really need that much bandwidth for something like this, right? Heck, I could setup a server and host the site from my standard comcast home plan without any issues I'd think. Then all we would need is someone who knows how to move the site over to that server, which I don't know anything about but I'd imagine a lot of people here do. 

 

So is there any reason someone here couldn't setup a server and host the site from there?

[neurotix]

21 hours ago, UltraMega said:

Just an additional thought about this:

 

I don't really know anything about the cost of running a site like this so forgive me if this is totally out of touch. 

 

IIRC, I think you had mentioned @ENTERPRISE that the cost per month is something like $300. Are there ways to bring that cost down significantly? Maybe there are features the site doesn't really need until/unless the user base were larger that could be dropped? 

 

Could there be a situation where the site is stripped down as much as is reasonably possible without destroying the core functionality to reduce the cost, and thus give you more time/flexibility in finding a new owner? Or if the per month cost were significantly less, you could potentially let someone here take over the management and monthly cost sort of indefinitely while you remain the owner for as long as it takes to sell the site, or figure out a way to transition it without shutting it down?

 

If the monthly cost were much less, I could potentially even afford to essentially keep the lights on while you/we figure out what to do next. 

 

 

What is to stop you/us from building a server ourselves and just hosting the site on that? Wouldn't really need that much bandwidth for something like this, right? Heck, I could setup a server and host the site from my standard comcast home plan without any issues I'd think. Then all we would need is someone who knows how to move the site over to that server, which I don't know anything about but I'd imagine a lot of people here do. 

 

So is there any reason someone here couldn't setup a server and host the site from there?

Big problem probably isn't traffic and bandwidth but I imagine it's also the premium members using tons of disk space for images. I'm guilty of it with my graphics design albums as well as posting like 15-20 pics per keyboard for a couple of keyboards I built and posted images of in the mechanical keyboard thread.

 

I wonder what the servers total footprint is when it comes to hosted content like images, and the necessary disk space is constantly growing. So that might be part of it too that you're not factoring in.

[UltraMega]

33 minutes ago, neurotix said:

Big problem probably isn't traffic and bandwidth but I imagine it's also the premium members using tons of disk space for images. I'm guilty of it with my graphics design albums as well as posting like 15-20 pics per keyboard for a couple of keyboards I built and posted images of in the mechanical keyboard thread.

 

I wonder what the servers total footprint is when it comes to hosted content like images, and the necessary disk space is constantly growing. So that might be part of it too that you're not factoring in.

I understand server hosts charge a lot for storage. But if someone here built a server, storage would be a non-issue.

[Sir Beregond]

I'd be curious the actual storage needs.

 

What you lose with a single physical server in a house is dynamic scaling for increased activity / bursts of activity, redundancy for outages, etc. In my estimation of current site activity, probably not a big deal, but still things to consider.

[UltraMega]

45 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

I'd be curious the actual storage needs.

 

What you lose with a single physical server in a house is dynamic scaling for increased activity / bursts of activity, redundancy for outages, etc. In my estimation of current site activity, probably not a big deal, but still things to consider.

Yea I mean, if the site grew it could be moved back to a more scalable environment later on. 

[Slaughtahouse]

To your point, I am sure the community would understand and appreciate anyone who keeps the site running, even if in skeleton crew / value-engineered mode.

 

Beyond any technical reasons that I dont understand, there are likely some other benefits (redundancy, services, maintenance) when hosting offsite . Pragmatically, you'll save the most operating costs (long term) if the new owner can find a way to host it locally but it comes with trade offs. AKA more effort.

 

E mentioned in the post that he will help with the transition and support any value engineering from the awarded bidder. 

 

I know nothing about running a forum and don't want to take on that scope, but I'll remain active here until the lights turn off. 

[neurotix]

37 minutes ago, Slaughtahouse said:

I know nothing about running a forum and don't want to take on that scope, but I'll remain active here until the lights turn off. 

 

This 100% (though I know a lot about running forums)

 

I do agree with cutting out all of the paid stuff, switching to Invision Free, and possibly hosting the site on a home server. As long as we could keep the rep, rig builder and postbits. But those (probably rig builder) may require the use of Invision Paid and paid plugins.

 

Also I still think the total size of the site on disk, as well as the fact it's constantly growing, are a issue for hosting at home.

Edited Friday at 23:03 by neurotix

[Cerberus]

8gbit up and actual rackspace here, lol

 

 

 

[UltraMega]

24 minutes ago, neurotix said:

Also I still think the total size of the site on disk, as well as the fact it's constantly growing, are a issue for hosting at home.

 

Why do you think this? 

 

1000 full 4K images would be about 12GBs of storage. I'd think a 2TB NVMe drive could easily last a very long time for all of the server's needs. 

53 minutes ago, Slaughtahouse said:

To your point, I am sure the community would understand and appreciate anyone who keeps the site running, even if in skeleton crew / value-engineered mode.

 

Beyond any technical reasons that I dont understand, there are likely some other benefits (redundancy, services, maintenance) when hosting offsite . Pragmatically, you'll save the most operating costs (long term) if the new owner can find a way to host it locally but it comes with trade offs. AKA more effort.

 

E mentioned in the post that he will help with the transition and support any value engineering from the awarded bidder. 

 

I know nothing about running a forum and don't want to take on that scope, but I'll remain active here until the lights turn off. 

 

Redundancy is easy to solve. Just setup a 2 drive RAID or clone the drive once a month or so. Considering the state of things here, that should easily be enough. As for services, I don't know any specifics but I don't think there is anything that can't be done locally unless it's for analytics or something like that. 

 

Maintenance on a single server just hosting a website should be very minimal I would think. 

 

I would be willing to contribute some hardware/cost towards a server that could host this site locally for someone at the very least. 

[ENTERPRISE]

Hello all. 

 

I will answer the questions/musings tomorrow, I have read them but im away at the moment and a proper response requires that I be home

 

More soon. 

 

Thanks, 

E

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey guys, 

 

As an update, we have received a bid of $2000 for the site.

 

To answer some of the questions asked above. we host the site on a dedicated server, to which the specs can be seen below.

 

 

Current memory usage for anyone interested. Memory load can be attributed to the forum and folding stats databases for the most part.

 

 

The hosting server of the site and associated subdomains could be located on a cheaper hosting service, possibly even a VPS. I personally would not self host from the home as there are just too many scalability and infrastructure concerns. 

 

Our Disk usage in all honesty is not that bad considering as a site we are highly flexible with allowing large uploads, you can see the disk usage below at 60%.

 

 

Cost engineering the running of the site is a relatively easy task and there are certainly some areas where savings can be made through moving to a lower cost server/hosting, retiring dedicated IP's and removing other non essential items with respect to the actual forum such as the product review site and or the folding stats site. There is not an awful lot of saving from removing site features as A, They are relatively inexpensive & B, the renewal for updates of various plugins whether off the shelf or custom, is low. However every little helps. You can of course gather further savings if a perspective buyer has all the knowledge and knowhow of setting up and maintaining the server as well as the sites related DNS/WAF requirements.

 

If anyone else is interested in bidding, please feel free to contact me for details. 

 

All the best,

E