xxdarkdemonessxx911
Teh Zoey!
do you have that link by chance? :3
Server Hardware Fault
- Thread starter Dragoneer
- Start date
- Status
do you have that link by chance? :3
rubixcuber
Beef Potato Wheelman
Donated $20. If the insurance claim from my stolen car goes through I might donate some more. *grumble grumble*
FA caps per user bandwidth down to 2Mbit, and a max of 3 concurrent connections. It's really more then enough for most.
Wolf_Fox_Guy
Cant think up a custom title
once I get a job and some extra cashola to toss around I will deffinatly donate some. I really like this wesite. on anther note, I read what the issue was and was wondering if anyone knew how long this was going to take? Normally folks have really big hissy fits so I was wonder if it will be down long enough to spark furry riots.
Suntiger
Member
In addition to the subscription-paid perks that cassandrarising and foxystallion suggested (which I think are a good idea), why not set up a subscription style donation of 2$ or 3$ per month for people who just want to support FA regardless?
I really like FA and would definitely sign up for it.
Partly because while I also could just send in 2$ month 'manually' I'm terrible at remembering stuff like that and having it pulled automatically the same date each month would give me less of a headache and provide FA with a bit of regular income.
In general I've found that a small but regular income beat a big dump of cash when the shit hits the fan.
Call it maintenance instead of repairs if you will.
Partly also because Internet gives lots of people a (false) illusion that there is such a thing as a free lunch. There isn't. It's just paid in other ways than money, usually time.
Keeping a website like FA up and running isn't free, even if it offers accounts, uploading and all that other stuff without charging a fee.
Me as a user being given all that just means that there are some very generous people around who take up the bills for me.
That is what free sites essentially means. Someone else paying my bills.
I'm willing and able to support that with a small but regular monetary support. Get enough people supporting it and we'll get even more nice stuff, including better reliability.
I really like FA and would definitely sign up for it.
Partly because while I also could just send in 2$ month 'manually' I'm terrible at remembering stuff like that and having it pulled automatically the same date each month would give me less of a headache and provide FA with a bit of regular income.
In general I've found that a small but regular income beat a big dump of cash when the shit hits the fan.
Call it maintenance instead of repairs if you will.
Partly also because Internet gives lots of people a (false) illusion that there is such a thing as a free lunch. There isn't. It's just paid in other ways than money, usually time.
Keeping a website like FA up and running isn't free, even if it offers accounts, uploading and all that other stuff without charging a fee.
Me as a user being given all that just means that there are some very generous people around who take up the bills for me.
That is what free sites essentially means. Someone else paying my bills.
I'm willing and able to support that with a small but regular monetary support. Get enough people supporting it and we'll get even more nice stuff, including better reliability.
Zerosarmor
The noble fanloser
I completely agree with you man, and can relate to it. Especially since I have no money... ^^;
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KickahaOta
Avoid Reality At All Costs
*looks at Amazon stats* Pretty impressive. You're already up to $2350.
*looks at personal finances, sighs, clicks* Make that $2400.
*looks at personal finances, sighs, clicks* Make that $2400.
Ainoko
The Wild And Crazy Hybrid
What is the Amazon link?
And o the note of a $2-$5 monthly subscription fee, let do it. It would that much less for me to spend on the local lottery anyways and it go towards a better goal.
arcticsilver
Member
Yah i would spend 5 bucks a month for a fee for extra stuff.
Wolf_Fox_Guy
Cant think up a custom title
thing is I think most furs have little to no money, yeah bonus features would be awsome. fact is I'm willing to bet that like 3/4 of the artists here have no money.
Growly
Member
Ahh, something I DO know something about!
Yes, I bought things online with money orders for a couple years before I got paypal and while I was still a minor. You can get them at all US post offices, and even some convenience stores. It's similar to cash- you instantly pay for it, it's not like a check where it comes out of your money AFTER the other guy deposits it.
It's also *relatively* safe, as it has to be signed by the recipient, and it is traceable (ie: you can see who deposited it, when). However, it didn't stop some assclown in New Mexico from stealing mine a couple times. I guess that's one of the problems with having a really common name!
So if you send one in the mail, wrap some paper around it so it's less obvious what you're sending.
Gutierrez
Draconic Laconic
That's why I kinda like this funding drive that's going on right now. The artists may not have the money, but people who want to commission artists tend to have a little extra around. I don't think shaking the collection box every now and again is a bad idea. Will FA:United have any attachment to funding the site itself?
Firehazard
I can fix it!
I'm going to have to strongly recommend NOT implementing "themed user pages." MySpace, anyone? SheezyArt? I don't want to have to look at shit like that. You thinks some people on FA are bad at drawing...
FurAffinity isn't a hosting service. It's a single community site with members, like a forum. People's pages contain comments from other members, art from other members (favorites list), and so on; it's not like these are their own websites all run on one system.
However, I wouldn't mind a little more customizability. The "headers and footers" we put in journals right now are a joke. They're a joke on deviantART too, really: in practice they get used more like a shoutboard (which is also an available feature in dA but they're relegated to the journal page, which hardly anyone ever sees). If Ferrox were designed to implement something like a cross between the userpage header, journal header/footer, user facts (the stuff below the journal), shoutboard, and deviantID-style image, then said box could theoretically be made skinnable. I really wouldn't mind that. The few people on dA who bother skinning their journals seem to know what they're doing, and I suspect the CSS-savvy among FA's users would too.
FurAffinity isn't a hosting service. It's a single community site with members, like a forum. People's pages contain comments from other members, art from other members (favorites list), and so on; it's not like these are their own websites all run on one system.
However, I wouldn't mind a little more customizability. The "headers and footers" we put in journals right now are a joke. They're a joke on deviantART too, really: in practice they get used more like a shoutboard (which is also an available feature in dA but they're relegated to the journal page, which hardly anyone ever sees). If Ferrox were designed to implement something like a cross between the userpage header, journal header/footer, user facts (the stuff below the journal), shoutboard, and deviantID-style image, then said box could theoretically be made skinnable. I really wouldn't mind that. The few people on dA who bother skinning their journals seem to know what they're doing, and I suspect the CSS-savvy among FA's users would too.
Growly
Member
Especially gross tacky flashing porn ads!
QT Melon
AMF Member
I believe Dragoneer has sold FA t-shirts at Anthrocon and are planning to make more. However, ma'am you do need to understand once he starts working on making a store he has to plan ahead for taxes and company profits. Unlike artists that just come on and work for commissions, when he reaches certain amounts of money for FA the IRS comes and looks to see why so much money is going into a website. So he has to prepare. He's in the process and already registered a company for this, but this has to be treated like a business. This means planning ahead.
Selling a t-shirt is really an expense that comes in a wave. Most people will buy one, and then want something else. It's limited in its profit potential because of print runs, and sizes of the t-shirt, the design and the color. So it has little re-purchase potential.
From my short time enlisted as staff I do have to say yak is one of the most reasonable admins I have been around. He's open to suggestions and constructive criticism, has a good sense of humor even with the language barrier, and shows he cares a lot about keeping the site up. I also have to say under the guidance of Damaratus he's been very wise, patient, and reasonable. Yak isn't off the mark about what he has said about staff.
I hope people do take the time to donate, but I think FA needs to budget for its future. From my understanding, FA has come quite a long way from its early days. I like to thank everyone who has donated and taken the time to share their thoughts and opinions even if we don't see eye to eye.
Torakhan
Member
Fundage...
I think that even a $5 yearly subscription fee wouldn't be terrible. Or $25/year for a "Paid Subscription" that would give Search features or the ability to make very simple changes to your account (limited color options for background/text/links, larger file uploads, etc.) wouldn't be so bad.
I wonder how many of the high-profile artists that use FA would be willing to donate a single commission's proceeds towards FurAffinity? While a few $25 commissions would add up over time, one or two of the folks who can manage to pull in a $500 commission (whether outright or through bidding) might be a nice contribution to the server that also helps them reach that audience.
... what about a "Support FA" (series of?) poster with proceeds going towards FA? Maybe just one, or maybe three or four.. one offered each month off of the front page of FA, through one of furry print-houses too? Just a thought.
I think that even a $5 yearly subscription fee wouldn't be terrible. Or $25/year for a "Paid Subscription" that would give Search features or the ability to make very simple changes to your account (limited color options for background/text/links, larger file uploads, etc.) wouldn't be so bad.
I wonder how many of the high-profile artists that use FA would be willing to donate a single commission's proceeds towards FurAffinity? While a few $25 commissions would add up over time, one or two of the folks who can manage to pull in a $500 commission (whether outright or through bidding) might be a nice contribution to the server that also helps them reach that audience.
... what about a "Support FA" (series of?) poster with proceeds going towards FA? Maybe just one, or maybe three or four.. one offered each month off of the front page of FA, through one of furry print-houses too? Just a thought.
Pi
Member
Like a tape drive?
Taigitsune-Kun
Dead Sexy!
I'll admit I'm somewhat ignorant about such things, despite working in the industry and shortly becoming an Admin for The Planet, but why not lease? I see leasing as an attractive option because if something breaks with the server, it's then the datacenter's responsibility to make it right. There is a slightly elevated cost, but as much as FA's servers are pounded, it sounds like a reasonable insurance policy to me.
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We have not decided that yet. It depends on the amount of money the donation drive will raise.
The best possible solution I envision right now is two dedicated servers, one for processing web requests (many physical cores, little RAM and basic drives), and another as a file server (1-2 core CPU, lots of RAM for cache, large RAID5 array).
Failing that due to the lack of funds we would have to fallback to a single server combining the strengths of those two.
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What we have right now are two physical 1U servers. First server is a dedicated database, and the second is the rest. We are looking for a replacement of the second server, with two physical dedicated machines.
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Load averages are the following:
Website pushes over 250GB of traffic a day.
Site has aproximately 20 request/sec from registered users, and thrice as more from guest users.
RAID5 array of 750Gb drives is being utilized 80% of it's maximum capacity bandwidth wise, and ~40% storage space wise.
WarMocK
I like to nuke ^^
Wouldn't bet against that. Come to think of how many artists do comissions ...
Personally I wouldn't mind doing some donation art FA could sell on the market. That would possibly make the staff earn enough money for better hardware, in addition to the donations they get.
Putting some (I repeat: _SOME_) banners on the site might help too (depending on how many visitors FA usually has, two or three ad banners might earn you more than donations and selling artwork at once.).
QT Melon
AMF Member
I will do another commission, once I finish some of the ones I have where the proceeds will go to FA. I usually run them where a pecentage goes to FA once it hits a certain limit. I just didn't do the offer now due to bad timing of being behind on my other ones. :<
StainMcGorver
:-J
Why not both of what WarMock said?!
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