With this new server and infinitely better features, the forum is no longer free for us to operate. From here on out, we WILL rely on donations in order to keep the forum going.

 

We have set up a "donate" button at the top of the forum page. The button goes through PayPal, which is secure and quite easy to use with a PayPal account, or with a credit card. If anyone would prefer to mail a check, you can contact me privately; the only issue with that is that it does cost me 3.00$ to cash the check, so that will be 3.00$ less that will be added to the fund.

 

No one is obligated to donate anything, but it would certainly be appreciated. The fact is that we cannot afford to pay the server costs ourselves, so we will need these donations. I paid for the transfer to the new server, and am currently paying for the server hosting, but I don't know how long I will be able to.

 

 

We are also looking into some effective, non-intrusive ways that we can get the forum to pay for itself without pop-ups, annoying banners or corporate sponsors, which would create a whole nest of entanglements. We do not want to be beholden to anyone, because that would quash a completely free and unfettered exchange of ideas.

 

Thank you -

 

Ron and Rusty

 

 

A little technical background on the BSB:

Several years ago, circa 2005, Ron had a friend hosting the BSB from his house, but unreliable Internet and computer issues caused an unstable environment. I got the forum database and other files from Ron and was able to re-launch it on a scavenged pc/server out of my house. There was an improvement in availability of the forum, but it still wasn't an ideal situation as I lived out in the country and got marginal-at-best Internet from a phone company that had just started their Internet offering.

I was able to move the server up to my office and host from there, which solved the Internet performance issues. A couple of years later, with the help of a friend at work, we were able to move the BSB from the old server to a virtual computer with high performance disks. This allowed us to add disk space and any processing power or memory that we needed as the forum grew. However, I couldn't afford to upgrade the operating system or database software that ran under the forum software due to cost. It would have cost a couple thousand dollars or so. And so, the forum was stuck on a very old version of the software for a long time. The upside of the situation is that, barring a couple of times where I accidentally paid the domain renewal late or the virtual server crashed because of running out of space or whatever, the forum was running on some of the best equipment money can buy. We had fault tolerance, high grade firewalls, amazing Internet, frequent backups - stuff that costs a lot of money we got to use for free.

When security and rules surrounding the kinds of things we could have on our network tightened considerably over the past couple of years, Ron and I had discussed that the day would be coming when the forum would need to be moved again. Then, a few weeks ago, the friend that had been helping keep the forum alive left to work for another company. Almost comically, within an hour of his departure, the age of the operating system and db server software finally caught up with us. A critical vulnerability was revealed in a sweeping security scan, and it became too risky to keep it on the network any longer. So, at that point, it became a pretty easy decision between trying to buy new equipment and find someone's house to place the server in, or moving to the Webwiz hosting services.

Now, we don't have to worry about supplying the underlying equipment and software, Internet connection, backups, antivirus and security software, or the responsibility of upgrading the database and forum software frequently, etc. We pay a very reasonable hosting fee and these things are handled for us.

Anyway, I know that was a wall of boring info to take in, but I just wanted to give some insight on how and why we got from A to B, and why B is a good place for us to "B" (sorry, couldn't resist).

Take care,

Rusty

Good one !

 

Good point, and I apologize for neglecting that information.

 

Currently, the hosting comes out to approximately 161.00 per year, if paid monthly; however, if we buy a year at a time, we get a discounted rate of approximately 134.00. The server host is in the UK, so the rates are converted from British Pounds Sterling, if I remember correctly.

 

There may be other little things that pop up along the way, but that is the basic and most fundamental expense that this forum has - one that will be with us every year. The rates could change a bit in the future, but that's what they are now; naturally, locking in a rate for a year has a lot of advantages.

 

Considering the PhotoBucket debacle, I've been thinking that it might be worth it to come up with a solution that will allow us unfettered posting of photos, but that is a bridge we can cross if/when needed.

 

WebWiz give me a 2-month notice when the bill is due, so there should be plenty of time to get the word out.

 

These folks at WebWiz are really good; I use them on my other forum ( http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net" rel="nofollow - http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net ) and they provide great service - I have full confidence in them. If there are any problems, they will definitely work with us.

whew....that's a long ride....

 

As I mentioned above, I paid the transfer fees and the first month myself, and that first month is about finished. We can save a dang good chunk of money (2 months' worth) by paying a year at a time, and it would be dang nice to pay two years at a time, so that we know we're secure. We've almost got enough to pay for one year right now (the due date is September 7th), and I'd like to propose that we consider raising enough for two years by the time the renewal comes around in September 2018.

 

Some folks on the "Foods of the World" forum have come up with a good idea of setting up a small automatic donation each month (usually 1 or 2 dollars) out of their accounts, to help support the forum. I plan to do with for BSB and for FotW, and wanted to throw that out there for anyone who might want to consider doing the same.

 

Thanks again to all - I think we're in fine shape right now, but if any "push" is needed right before September 7th, I'll let you know.

 

I looked into this, and it appears that it can be set up at the "payer's" end (the one doing the donating).

 

Somewhere in there, there is a "Payments" tab, and it can be set up there under "Pre-Approved Payments."

 

I am still new at navigating things like this, so if anyone finds out any other information, please feel free to post it.

 

Ron

For anyone who wants to do this through PayPal, it looks like you can sign in, then click the "Settings"icon (It is in the upper-right hand corner and looks like a gear, next to the LOG OUT button). Once there, you get a series of tabs. Choose the "Payments" tab, and then choose"Pre-approved payments." Once there, I am assuming that you can set up the amount, frequency etc.

 

This is an option that a few folks have used on the Foods of the World Forum, with good success.

 

Thanks again, everyone -

 

Ron

 

 

 

Also, I see that a couple of members have set up automatic, monthly donations via PayPal - thank you very much!   I am finally in a position to start doing the same now, as well; and have done so, effective today.

I just send a check to Ron, aka TasunkaWitko.

 

Anything you care to donate would be hugely appreciated; if you want to send it to me, I will cash the check and put it in BSB's PayPal account. Shoot me a PM for the address, any time.

 

Many, many thanks -

 

Ron