Hello everybody,
Due to recent personal events, i will not keep hosting this website (gallery, forum, wiki) for free past 1st of July, 2016.
There are 4 solutions i can see, by order of preference :
1st solution - Someone is serious and willing to take the whole thing and host it, and administrate it. Keep in mind it is not free. It will require payment for domain name, and hosting. And of course, your time and knowledge about server maintenance. I require that this person is "sponsored" by elder members here. I won't accept demands from people who may pop out of nowhere.
2nd solution - I continue hosting and managing server, but i'll require a 30€ / month for the domain name, server fees, the paypal / bank fees and the management. Paid yearly, so it means we are able to raise 360€ before end of June, and we do that every year. It is more than what it costs, but it's also for my time / management.
3rd solution - We put gallery pictures on a drive/cloud somewhere, we set a Facebook page to replace the forum, and we think about something free also for the Wiki.
4th solution - We declare end of life of Ostan-collections.net :/
Solution has to be found before end of May to leave time for all procedures. Reaons is that 1st of July is a end of server rent date, so it cannot be postponed. There will be no "grace period".
Damn, sucks to see it be like this. After being on here for so long I can't think of this little corner of the net going away overnight!
Since I have experience with hosting websites with Amazon's cloud based servers I'm willing to handle the domain and hosting if people are willing to trust it with me.
The entire site would just be moved over from whatever server its currently on to an AWS that will keep server costs low as long as there isn't a crazy amount of traffic bombarding the server.
I'm willing to front the cost for a while to keep the site up and running, since I'm a amazon partner my expenses pertaining to server costs won't be high, probably around $10/month with the current traffic.
For the gallery I would probably figure out hosting a general wordpress powered gallery on a micro server with AWS, this would probably cost around $4/m unless someone is accessing it constantly and pulling a lot of traffic.
Anyway, that is just my offer to put up in the air and only if everyone is alright with it will I take responsibility of everything.
Good luck with everything Fedora and I hope thing work out for the best around here!
Thanks. For the record there is not a ton of traffic currently, so i don't expect high costs. It's more that unless something changes (back) in my life, there are things i need to do to go forward.
Currently the site is partially self-hosted on a VDSL2 line, partially on a OVH server. It costs something like 10€/month total, so like i said it's not the physical cost the worst.
Unless another steps up, I think Kraus might be our best choice; since he has experience. I'd try, but given I lack experience in managing a server, on top of having money issues as it is, it would end very, very badly ^^;
So, yeah; my vote is for Kraus.
Voting Kraus too.
I'd be more than willing to donate what I can, too.
EDIT: I'm short on money but I have time to spare. In the event Kraus hosts the forum, I would be more than willing to help as an admin or mod.
Regarding questions i got by PM, here are answers which i believe are of public interest :
- Members who would like to have their account deleted / their posts removed can have that done - just PM me. This might interest some members with sensitive posts from ages ago that they don't especially feel like being resurrected in future.
- I will publish for everyone an archive of the gallery (.zip with all pictures) and an html extract of the wiki with all its content.
- All passwords will be reset prior to database giveaway. That means that all members will require a "password recovery" on their first login on the new host, and that their email must be valid.
- Database is about 200Mb (mysql) and files about 10Gb.
Is the database just an archive of the wiki and gallery or the whole forum too? I'm worried about losing my old posts (and Stew's too).
I won't give out database to public but only to the person who will host. Database contains data from gallery, wiki and forums.
No posts will be removed except for people who asks explicitely.
Alright.
In the event that Kraus can't host it for whatever reason, I'd be willing to. I have (more than enough) server space that's going unused and want to make sure it can continue!
I hope os-tans wiki will become active again.
I want to participate rights to update some more info about Linux OS-tans distributions.
Application Girls & Malware Girls.
Beside, won't you set up Facebook Group for os-tan forum members?
Otherwise once the forum gone everyone will be scattered to unkown places unable to unit back.
Quote from: Ghost Member on April 21, 2016, 03:51:13 PM
I hope os-tans wiki will become active again.
I want to participate rights to update some more info about Linux OS-tans distributions.
Application Girls & Malware Girls.
Beside, won't you set up Facebook Group for os-tan forum members?
Otherwise once the forum gone everyone will be scattered to unkown places unable to unit back.
Forum ain't die'n on my watch bud, I'll become host and fork out the dosh needed to keep everything how it is right now.
I can firmly say that I'd be able to solidly host everything for a good 5 years minimum.
I'm just putting 5 years up because I can somewhat firmly grasp what is going to happen in the next couple of years in terms of my cash flow, living, and so on.
If I end up as the host I'll probably end up hosting until something catastrophic happens like Amazon's server blowing up or something, so probably forever as I'm able to.
Quote from: Dr. Kraus on April 21, 2016, 06:19:35 PM
Forum ain't die'n on my watch bud, I'll become host and fork out the dosh needed to keep everything how it is right now.
I can firmly say that I'd be able to solidly host everything for a good 5 years minimum.
I'm just putting 5 years up because I can somewhat firmly grasp what is going to happen in the next couple of years in terms of my cash flow, living, and so on.
If I end up as the host I'll probably end up hosting until something catastrophic happens like Amazon's server blowing up or something, so probably forever as I'm able to.
Kraus, you are the freakin' best. <3
Quote from: Dr. Kraus on April 21, 2016, 06:19:35 PM
Forum ain't die'n on my watch bud, I'll become host and fork out the dosh needed to keep everything how it is right now.
I can firmly say that I'd be able to solidly host everything for a good 5 years minimum.
I'm just putting 5 years up because I can somewhat firmly grasp what is going to happen in the next couple of years in terms of my cash flow, living, and so on.
If I end up as the host I'll probably end up hosting until something catastrophic happens like Amazon's server blowing up or something, so probably forever as I'm able to.
That's a good news to hear. Thanks for the information.
I don't want OS-tans traditional meet it's end. Even I want to revive Linux OS-tans back.
Because of social services shit, I can't donate or anything... but it would be a bummer to see this site go, even if I haven't been here for that long relative to you guys.
shit man, i haven't been active much due to life shit but damn. if nothing else i can throw money at you people. i make enough atm to have disposable income (very subject to change, hours are going down) and i'd love to see it go somewhere useful where it can actually make an impact (if i gave money to my sister, it'd be a drop in the bucket, but i probably should >>; ). so i'm on board with everything except seeing this place going down in flames. ideal situation means i get to keep my posts.
in the event we need a free wiki, Wikia isn't the worst place. i had good luck with it with my wiki. :0
Quote from: Chocofreak13 on April 24, 2016, 08:31:27 PM
in the event we need a free wiki, Wikia isn't the worst place. i had good luck with it with my wiki. :0
as long as we use the classic wiki theme instead of that bloated-ass html5 page
Update 1 - There is a possibility that i found a free host which would accept the site under some constrainsts that I feel are acceptable.
I have answer in a dozen days, i keep you informed.
Update 2 - Even in the case hosting is taken away, I will keep the ostan-collections.net domain name ownership - even if i'm OK to delegate the administrative contact and management to the new host.
Glad that you figure it out about "free host".
You can find free host a lot from freewebspace.net forum or freeweb-hosts.com
In fact I want to ask that is it possible to use github as hosting?
Seems they give unknown amount of space for hosting files which host by amazon aws cloud.
It usually use for host open source project with theirs sites & files.
But some ppl start to take advantage to host their websites.
I'm start to take interest to host my website over there as well.
if possible, maybe we could split the wiki and the gallery up into different sites that use freeish hosting, then just keep the links here? i had a -booru going for a brief bit for the OS-tans, but that isn't super-good in terms of organization. :0 (and like i said, Wikia's a good option for the wiki, and stupidly easy to use.)
the sites with free hosting, though, don't those usually have caps on bandwidth or a shitload of ads? i mean, we don't get a lot of traffic, so any caps likely won't be much of an issue, but still. :0
Quote from: Ghost Member on April 27, 2016, 06:21:58 PM
In fact I want to ask that is it possible to use github as hosting?
Seems they give unknown amount of space for hosting files which host by amazon aws cloud.
It usually use for host open source project with theirs sites & files.
But some ppl start to take advantage to host their websites.
I'm start to take interest to host my website over there as well.
Can't really see github as a usable host.
There is a file limit for github hosting that peaks around 512MB from what I've worked with.
I used to host my personal site with github and when I started to upload .pdf's of my little novel or of my projects it could only really handle taking 2 pdf's at a time without failing to load others.
So github seems to kill whatever files you attempt to add after having a 3 page minimal website a 2 pdfs
Quote from: Dr. Kraus on April 29, 2016, 07:35:55 AM
Can't really see github as a usable host.
There is a file limit for github hosting that peaks around 512MB from what I've worked with.
I used to host my personal site with github and when I started to upload .pdf's of my little novel or of my projects it could only really handle taking 2 pdf's at a time without failing to load others.
So github seems to kill whatever files you attempt to add after having a 3 page minimal website a 2 pdfs
I see, so that's their limit thanks for the info.
I was about to host my Linux distro project website over there.
Sorry for the slow replies here, I was away for a few days!
Quote from: Fedora-Tan on April 27, 2016, 06:52:28 AM
Update 1 - There is a possibility that i found a free host which would accept the site under some constrainsts that I feel are acceptable.
I have answer in a dozen days, i keep you informed.
What sort of constraints are there?
Quote
Update 2 - Even in the case hosting is taken away, I will keep the ostan-collections.net domain name ownership - even if i'm OK to delegate the administrative contact and management to the new host.
Whoever hosts the forum will have to choose another domain name then?
Where is your hosting service located now? I mean in what nation?
1)
You can consider hosting in nations different than yours, some asian based like in India are very cheap, servers are in plain english, and support is good.
Then amount of money to collect per year will be significant less than 360€ and we all could help you by donations.
MilesWeb in India once offered Geek (High Traffic) Hosting for 7US$ per month.
EDIT
i read on their site that they now offer unlimited bandwidth single domain hosting for 3.50 US$ per month if you sign for a 3 years contract.
https://www.milesweb.com/cpanel-hosting.php
EDIT END
-
2)
Also consider publish advertisings on site, this could also help you with significant renevues.
Site is well known, it is more or less an historical site of Internet, and generate high traffic, so any serious advertising company will gladly offer you a decent renevue for publishing advertisings on ostan-collections site.
-
3)
[Most relevant suggest]
In the end Consider to launch a donations campaign on indiegogo crowdfunding site. Otaku people from all around the globe will gladly donate to keep your site active.
IMHO a good combination of keep hosting site in an emerging country together with a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo (that must be renowed once any year) will help you collecting all the money you need with ease.
Just launch on Indiegogo a Crowdfunding with this title:
Help funding hosting for historical OSTAN site!
All manga-anime lovers donate!
And then hundreds people will give you money for sure.
Look this crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/production-et-commercialisation-de-miel#/
They collected 1800 US$ in 15 days out of 2000 they need, for selling honey!
Or this one collecting 3397 US$ out of 6500 in 11 days to publish a Manga Artbook:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/production-et-commercialisation-de-miel#/
Then collecting just 360 Euro per year, it is just a trivial matter for a relevant and beautiful site like yours!
Also If you make a good propaganda on main social sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., and Anime-Manga sites, like Animeclick, etc., any single year (coinciding with expiring of hosting contract) about the indiegogo crowdfunding to keep OStan-Collections alive, sure you will be noticed, and will collect all the money you need.
I hope these advices could be of some help for you.
Ciao,
Raf
Thanks for all the suggests :)
Crowdfunding problem is that a good % goes to the platform, which is quite a waste still.
There is an embedded function on the forum which could be of use, i tried to set it up but i don't know if it works properly. For those who dare to try it :
https://ostan-collections.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;area=subscriptions
(Also reachable in your profile --> Actions)
It's a matter of a few ppl only using it actually so it keeps running.
If anyone tries that please keep me informed if it works well !
Hey Fedora-Tan, do you have any news about the possible free hosting solution you mentioned awhile back?
They don't accept porn, and hentai is considered porn...
Back to square one then? :/
Quote from: Fedora-Tan on May 15, 2016, 02:32:49 PM
They don't accept porn, and hentai is considered porn...
do we need the section, though?
Quote from: Ye Olde Swagfag on May 18, 2016, 04:05:04 AM
do we need the section, though?
TBH I was wondering the same thing, I'd rather give up that part of the forum and keep the rest.
I'm assuming that, given that the gallery would be there, too, Fedora would have to go through and remove the entire hentai section; which seems more work than if we were able to find cheap hosting that would allow us to keep the H-section
True. :/
Unless Fedora-Tan (or someone else here) can find a cheap/free host that will take the site as-is, I like the Kraus option the most.
Quote from: Fedora-Tan on May 15, 2016, 08:48:22 AM
Thanks for all the suggests :)
Crowdfunding problem is that a good % goes to the platform, which is quite a waste still.
There is an embedded function on the forum which could be of use, i tried to set it up but i don't know if it works properly. For those who dare to try it :
https://ostan-collections.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;area=subscriptions
(Also reachable in your profile --> Actions)
It's a matter of a few ppl only using it actually so it keeps running.
If anyone tries that please keep me informed if it works well !
That is almost unuseful as it reachs only people who are registered...
...Amongst the registered users is usable only by those who are active...
...And amongst the active users, it will be clicked just by those who will gladly donate...
Indiegogo is a worldwide well-known platform for crowdfunding and you can reach thousands and thousands of people...
If only those thousands will gladly donate 1 Euro, with only 1000 people backing the collect, your site will be supported for at least 3 years.
And you will renounce to easy 1000 euro, just because 5% (this is Indiegogo price) goes to crowdfunding site? It is just 50 euro out of 1000!!!!! :o
You will collect 950 euro!
IMHO is quite honest price.
If you set crowdfunding target at 500 Euro, and you reach your goal, you will keep 475 Euro (that is quite more than 360 Euro you need) and you will pay just 25 Euro of fees.
And with the presence on indiegogo, this site will start being recognized also as hiring yearly campaigns for crowdfunding, and this fact will generate a platform of regular donors who will donate any year.
Don't keep yourself stay closed in your courtyard when your stage could be the whole world...
Advertising is the soul of commerce and you need big visibility to collect enough funds. And with big funds you could also continue keeping online Hentai section too on your usual provider.
Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo can really help you to keep OSTan-Collection site alive.
I suggest you to try a crowdfunding now and check what happens. At least it could cost you just 5% of the funds, if you reach the goal, and it has no charging costs if you don't reach the amount you were asking for.
[EDIT]I just donated 5 dollars with Subscription Feature of OSTan site. Please refer if money arrived.
This will mean that you set it well.
The only issue that I see with crowdfunding other than the percentage is that its going to get buried with every other website that is also attempting to collect funding.
Also you aren't going to keep €950 because you WILL(unless the nation doesn't place crowdfunding in its taxable gifts/income brackets) get taxed upon collecting the funds which will vary depending on country.
France, if my memory serves me correctly, has a pretty high tax rate compared to other European nations within the Union so I will confidently say that €950 isn't what you will be looking at if you even can get a thousand people to give €1.
Though whatever route we go I will happily accept it and support it! But only when its been confirmed and its our only feasible option.
In terms of going to the free option for hosting it would probably be a bother to have to rid of all the 18+ stuff on the site that has gathered over the years. I also don't like the notion that we would have to censor the gallery where some people who come to visit would want to go.
Anyway, hopefully everything can be sorted out by the deadline at the end of this month!
I agree that the relatively small active userbase of this site seems like it would hinder crowdfunding. I hadn't thought about the taxation aspect either but that's a good point. :/
Since we're running low on time here, what SHOULD our next steps be in the next week and a half (roughly)? I'm really concerned about running out of time without coming to a satisfactory conclusion on what we want to do.
Quote from: Raffaele the Amigan on May 18, 2016, 07:28:21 PM
...
I just donated 5 dollars with Subscription Feature of OSTan site. Please refer if money arrived.
This will mean that you set it well.
It arrived, thanks ! :)
About the crowdfunding, it's like Dr. Kraus said, about 30% of it will go to tax and probably around 15% to the platform itself. Like we mentioned, it's not enormous amounts and just a few people participating would be enough.
For the close call right now, i'll move it to some reserved space, it's not a permanent solution but it allows to not renew useless stuff and to have more time to think about it.
Quote from: Fedora-Tan on May 19, 2016, 01:16:04 AM
It arrived, thanks ! :)
About the crowdfunding, it's like Dr. Kraus said, about 30% of it will go to tax and probably around 15% to the platform itself. Like we mentioned, it's not enormous amounts and just a few people participating would be enough.
For the close call right now, i'll move it to some reserved space, it's not a permanent solution but it allows to not renew useless stuff and to have more time to think about it.
It is stated that Indiegogo applies just 5% picks from the amount you collect, and only if crowdfunding reaches goal success, else all money are refunded to donors.
Taxes? It depends from nation to nation.
For example in my country Italy, if your site generates less than 5000 Euro in a year it is considered "perquisite" (occasional earning), and you must not pay taxes on it, but the state picks up 20% of the money you earned...
State picks nothing from site earnings if the net income of the person is (in total) less than 5000 euro per year, including his/her salary (it happens for example if you are unemployed, or you pay nothing if you are aged less of 18 years).
Site can also be declared as "charity", "cultural", or whatever else, and being subject to a reduced withdrawal from the tax office (10% or 4% if I remember well the percentage).
Northern european nations are the most sensible and generous with these kind of sites, upto the point that they declare certain sites being tax-exempt.
Keep present that 1000 euro of amount that I wrote in the example are purely indicative so don't assume it is a precise amount to rely on it. I used 1000 just to keep plain calcs.
FedoraTan should check carefully what are his needs and set a goal amount that matches best the incomes/tax ratio.
If in doubt, he could also ask informations from a local tax office, business consultant, or a local consumer association in his country if he is subject or not to a taxation (full, reduced, or tax-exempt).
Consumer Associations tax experts give usually their counseling for free.
In the end Fedora must choose if hire a crowdfunding collect and keep site alive with no any concerns (as the money come from donors, not from his pockets) than pay 5% of amount collected to crowdfunding site (and pay some taxes by chance if necessary by law, or if declared NOT tax-exempt), or perhaps decide if running a reduced OSTAN site, amputed of some parts and features, with his own money and receiving a few money by us sparse active users who decide to donate in random occasions time.
Choose is simple.
The one and only thing that I haven't been able to grasp about this entire situation is the total cost needed.
As Fedora stated in the opening post about this issue, the total cost is around €360 per year.
In my opinion this cost is substantially higher than what it should be around if all hosting of forum, database, and gallery were placed on the same server if not the same service.
The cheapest and best option I can see for us is moving over the Amazon Web Services due to the very low price point for EC2 cloud servers.
The best option I see is the following:
EC2 micro for Forum&Database - ~$5/month = ~$60/year
EC2 micro for Gallery - ~$3/month = ~$36/year
========================================
Total cost yearly == ~$96
Now I do have a small form factor dell comp lying around that I could use to host everything in which nothing would need to be paid but if power goes out or internet service (which happens somewhat often around here at the bottom of the USA) AWS would be the option I would go with.
Anyway there is my 5cents on what can be done.
Quote from: Dr. Kraus on May 19, 2016, 03:10:34 PM
The one and only thing that I haven't been able to grasp about this entire situation is the total cost needed.
As Fedora stated in the opening post about this issue, the total cost is around €360 per year.
In my opinion this cost is substantially higher than what it should be around if all hosting of forum, database, and gallery were placed on the same server if not the same service.
The cheapest and best option I can see for us is moving over the Amazon Web Services due to the very low price point for EC2 cloud servers.
The best option I see is the following:
EC2 micro for Forum&Database - ~$5/month = ~$60/year
EC2 micro for Gallery - ~$3/month = ~$36/year
========================================
Total cost yearly == ~$96
Now I do have a small form factor dell comp lying around that I could use to host everything in which nothing would need to be paid but if power goes out or internet service (which happens somewhat often around here at the bottom of the USA) AWS would be the option I would go with.
Anyway there is my 5cents on what can be done.
Not feasable IMHO as Amazon is not kind with porn and Hentai Section is porn. And it is the section that attracts best part of otaku visitors.... ;)
And I found an Indian Hosting Service that wants 3,50 US$ per month if customer signs a 3 years contract.
See my first post.
Quote from: Raffaele the Amigan on May 20, 2016, 06:27:09 PM
Not feasable IMHO as Amazon is not kind with porn and Hentai Section is porn. And it is the section that attracts best part of otaku visitors.... ;)
And I found an Indian Hosting Service that wants 3,50 US$ per month if customer signs a 3 years contract.
See my first post.
Amazon has no say as to what you host on their servers unless its illegal, if you want to have a hentai section amazon isn't going to throw a fit unless you are generating insanely large amounts of traffic and you advertise yourself as an Amazon partner or that you are heavily using their services.
Plus you just take the hentai and put it behind an age wall where the user has to verify age before entering.
Amazon is too large of company to worry about porn being on their servers unless its being sold, illegal in the hosting territory, or generating extremely large amounts of traffic.
Sure the Indian service might be cheaper but then you have to add different factors into it:
How secure is the server from outside attacks?
How secure is user information on their servers?
Will they sell user information?
Will they sell user IP identification?
Will they throttle bandwidth?
Are their servers elastic type which can adjust to demand and even auto turn off if there is absolutely no demand(quite rare in many cases)?
Will there be secure image backups of the server and site?
How clean and streamlined is setup, operation, and management?
Overall the main question is,
Can they be trusted?
With AWS your getting everything listed above along with Amazon's supreme customer services if something goes wrong!
Your getting servers that are located in the United States, are secure, simple, and elastic.
Even if our goal was to largely expand the site and community, which I believe it isn't, what happens when a larger server is needed?
More cores, RAM, disk space, bandwidth? You get charged with it at a heightened rate compared to what the starting rate was!
Am I saying that hosting services in India are a bad choice or idea?
Not entirely, just that when there is an option that leads to better long term security and sustainability for the website and community as a whole available why not make that choice.
In the end its entirely up to Fedora to make the choice on how we will move forward though I believe it would be best to make a decision together that will benefit the site and community at whole.
I will stand my ground and say that AWS is probably our best option moving forward, even if a somewhat cheaper site can offer a slightly cheaper rate than AWS I will feel safe and satisfied with an American or Western European based host.
Just to touch base on the whole porn thing one last time, Amazon isn't going to make a move on a small time forum that has been somewhat buried in the back of the web for years.
Even if we start growing at an alarming rate that causes Amazon to take notice at what we are doing they won't make a move unless it directly affects their ability to provide service or it tarnishes their name is some way. Though it wouldn't even be a problem as long as you don't do something like sticking "HOSTED BY AWS" at the bottom of every page, if people don't know your being hosted by them then it isn't an issue.
I say all this with confidence as a Amazon Certified Partner, IBM Certified Partner, and Google Certified Partner.
We are very tiny little fish in an over populated lake that everyone is looking at, no one is going to bother us if we have a little pink when most other probably have more.
Don't ask me Dr.Kraus.
If you want these infos you may conduct a survey by yourself. by checking webhosting rating sites or feedback & comments by the users.
perhaps I found an interesting webhosting site in USA, with good votes on sites that rate webhosting services.
It is called FastComet and offer hosting starting from 2.95 US$ per month.
Quote from: Raffaele the Amigan on May 22, 2016, 05:30:13 AM
Don't ask me Dr.Kraus.
If you want these infos you may conduct a survey by yourself. by checking webhosting rating sites or feedback & comments by the users.
The questions were rhetorical, I answered them after asking them.
Quote from: Raffaele the Amigan on May 22, 2016, 05:33:23 AM
perhaps I found an interesting webhosting site in USA, with good votes on sites that rate webhosting services.
It is called FastComet and offer hosting starting from 2.95 US$ per month.
FastComet is fine since it's American based piggy backing off of TelX servers located in the four corners of the USA.
I'm still going to advise AWS just due to the main point of it, you have
complete control of the server and how it operates.
You can move data at a faster rate, manage quicker, and streamline it when needed. This goes along with having other AWServices available for use if ever needed.
If we end up with a host that uses TelX servers then I'm fine with it in terms of security.
I don't know if I've thrown it out here yet but whatever option we pick I would like to help support it financially, if needed.
It probably won't be much but I'd like to kick in what I can.
The only reason I haven't donated yet is that I'm not sure what's going to happen with the site with regards to ownership...
Okay guys, I'm officially coming out of retirement. The deadline is closer than my fingers are to this keyboard right now, so if we don't get something arranged ASAP then we may find ourself up a certain creek without a paddle.
Even though I'm unemployed, I'm in a relatively financially stable position thanks to my disability benefits. I can cover some of the cost of running the site, and even some of the admin work. I've got a bit of experience with running forums and would be glad to lend a hand to whoever takes over if required. If need be, I can liaise with Bella and help support her budding server farm if she is the one who takes responsibility for the site. Hell, I may even be able to throw in some server space myself provided someone explains to me how it would all work and assure me that it wouldn't bend my router over its knee and spank it.
Come at me, guys.
Red! I'm so happy to see you back!
AFAIK Kraus will be taking over, but in case he can't for whatever reason I'm willing to. At any rate, regardless of who manages OSC in the future it's good to know there are a number of people willing to provide labor and financial support.
It is 30 of May, what has been decided?
Yeah, I'm also wondering what's going on. I talked to Kraus the other day and it sounds like everything is good to go on his end.
Well its 10PM here on the East Coast of the USA...
Guess I'll start prepping for the worst if it is to come.
Here is a link to a Discord server I made, "Ostan Refugee Camp", for us to gather in if need be.
https://discord.gg/012tkI5gkjGS1BMhz
Hopefully things have somehow been sorted out behind the scenes.
God speed.
Er, what time zone is the server in anyway? I assumed it would be the end of the day in central european time zone, but I don't know.
"the instant invite isn't valid or has expired"
w0t
Quote from: Bella on May 31, 2016, 11:04:41 PM
Er, what time zone is the server in anyway? I assumed it would be the end of the day in central european time zone, but I don't know.
I figured that as well but I guess we are walking zombies for the time being atm?
Quote from: Ye Olde Swagfag on June 01, 2016, 05:18:10 AM
"the instant invite isn't valid or has expired"
w0t
For whatever reason the link is rejecting you.
just add me on discord and I'll throw you in the server
interlach#3414
Quote from: Dr. Kraus on June 01, 2016, 10:18:54 AM
just add me on discord and I'll throw you in the server
interlach#3414
done
How are we not ded yet
Quote from: Fedora-Tan on May 19, 2016, 01:16:04 AM
For the close call right now, i'll move it to some reserved space, it's not a permanent solution but it allows to not renew useless stuff and to have more time to think about it.
I'm curious about the details too, but I assume this is why OSC is still live.
Quote from: Bella on June 02, 2016, 10:54:35 PM
I'm curious about the details too, but I assume this is why OSC is still live.
Well its good that we didn't die off without anything happening.
Hopefully everything will be figured out in time before something happens for the non permanent solution.
i honestly wouldn't mind slipping a £20 here and there
i don't know if it means anything, though
it comes to my attention that some of the inactivity here might be due to us not speaking much outside of this forum anymore. idk about most of you, but the only person from here i talk to regularly is Pent. might be because the conversation ran dry, but i digress. (with that, me apologizing for not being here for the conversation feels dumb since it doesn't affect anything. work and life got in the way. it's been a shit week and a semi-busy month. my hours are dropping, though, so we'll see if i can manage to get more of a presence back here again. what ever happened to Nej?)
@Red: you're back yaaaaaais
@Amazon: Kraus, I realize you're an Amazon partner, but that sounded like a giant infomercial. Regardless, the service sounds nice, but we should weigh other options. The flexibility is nice, but we might be able to get cheaper, and if there's even the potential to pitch a fit about porn, we might have a problem, since there are national and international cases on the books (http://io9.gizmodo.com/5894245/escape-from-canadas-manga-censorship-dungeon) regarding hentai depicting teenagers or those appearing underage, (http://www.otakuusamagazine.com/LatestNews/News1/Canadian-Man-Jailed-For-Watching-Anime-Porn-5920.aspx) regardless of the character's ACTUAL age or the age of consent in the country of origin. (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.175488-Hentai-Collector-Sentenced-to-Jail-Over-Obscene-Material)
If we have additional time, perhaps we should all research this further and investigate which countries are more secure for webhosting and which are cheapest, while considering the options each host provides.
Also, it's not ideal, but if we go this route rather than having one of the members let the site shack up with them, I mentioned earlier in the thread that hosting the images on a booru' and the wiki on Wikia, and attaching the links here is also an option and may cut down on site size.
@Crowdfunding: If this becomes a thing, I will promote the hell out of it on every platform I can.
@Advertising: We used to have ads here, when I first started. 'Internet/Otaku History' or not, the only advertisers I see us getting are either knockoff retail or porn. :\
Also noting that I will throw money at the problem (as much as I can manage) until it goes away, once we figure out what's going on.
I'm also guilty of letting life get in the way of my online friendships. Hopefully with summer here I'll be able to maintain a better online presence. :(
it's funny how much it can get in the way. this entire time i just assumed none of you wanted to talk to me. xD;
I feel shitty about it, but the busier I am the harder it is to keep up with people I don't have to interact with because of class, work, etc. During the school year, my social life outside of the CS department was practically nonexistent, online or offline. :/
I'm only working part-time now, so that probably won't happen.
31 of May has passed. Any news?
How's situation? Hosting Service decided? Migration is about to start?
I would also like some news. :0
I third this notion...
...Hi.
I'm glad to see the site is still here. I would also like to say that I am willing to donate to keep OSC alive.
It's good to see more people on board!
Quote from: Raffaele the Amigan on June 09, 2016, 03:03:41 AM
31 of May has passed. Any news?
How's situation? Hosting Service decided? Migration is about to start?
real life things taking their toll, sorry i didn't have time / will yet to do anything.
deadline is still end of this month... I'll sort out something, surely.
P.S. Thanks to the only person who supported hosting fees so far ;)
The offer that I've put up before still stands and everything is pretty much in place for the big move.
Haven't been active as of late due to work & family but I'm still willing to take the transfer if that is what ends up the case.
Fedora, I sent you a PM with my current e-mail so you can contact me there if you need to.
I hope everything goes smoothly!
** Update **
Okay... there were some unexpected events which forced me to change plans. Due to some storms and the miserable ability from my ISP to get back my line up, the whole thing was down for a while.
I currently still don't have my connection back, but i managed somehow to put a part of the site back on a server i rented a bit on the fly ...
Since i had to do that with my phone data, i can only put back the forum for now. Don't worry about the rest it's safe but i cannot upload all with phone data only ^^;
Okay now the good point is, since it's done anyway, we don't really have to move anymore externally (thanks to all who offered backups !)
If you want you can still participate -> https://ostan-collections.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;area=subscriptions - it's not much but it really helps.
P.S. Setting up a server with phone data is crap and slow :p There may be bugs still, please report everything you bump into.
So far, everything looks good
My heart skipped a few beats the day the site went down. I'm glad it's back up and the situation seems to have resolved for now. Thank you for everything, Fedora-Tan!
Is the $5/year subscriber donation a one-time thing (in other words, each user can only order once) or can it be done multiple times? I'd like to kick in funding when I have the chance throughout the year.
Quote from: Bella on July 02, 2016, 12:23:08 PMMy heart skipped a few beats the day the site went down.
Me too, not for totally same reasons, still :p
Quote from: Bella on July 02, 2016, 12:23:08 PMIs the $5/year subscriber donation a one-time thing (in other words, each user can only order once) or can it be done multiple times? I'd like to kick in funding when I have the chance throughout the year.
It can be done once, or once per year. There is no plan for more as i think it should be enough. It is not an automated payment so everyone is free to renew manually, or not.
Alright, I just donated. :)
I haven't posted here in, like, 5ever, but I'm still interested in OS-tan. Is there a way to give more than $5 at a time? If so, how?
Glad to see the forum is back up, though it's looking a little different than I remember! I just purchased a subscription, so you should have a little more in your coffers now.
Quote from: Bella on July 03, 2016, 01:28:59 PMAlright, I just donated. :)
Thanks !!
Quote from: Tenkohime on July 03, 2016, 05:14:46 PMI haven't posted here in, like, 5ever, but I'm still interested in OS-tan. Is there a way to give more than $5 at a time? If so, how?
If some ppl really consider that, i can put a bigger amount but at the moment i'm struggling with the new server and my extremely thin free time to keep what is working afloat :) I'll post there when i came with something bigger, if anyone wants.
Quote from: Red-Machine on July 03, 2016, 09:03:58 PMGlad to see the forum is back up, though it's looking a little different than I remember! I just purchased a subscription, so you should have a little more in your coffers now.
Thanks too !
That's really heart warming. Don't forry about the look, the ostan icons and such will come back, just i need 5 minutes to do it :) Keep in mind that if i have a list of to-do things i will forget less of them :) So far it's mostly icons i have to put back (main forum, ranks, etc.)
I fixed / setup the mail server there so now it should work (have to go work, i didn't really have the time to test it ^^; )
Good news ! I changed internet provider and i got my internet back today. I will then be able to complete ostan restore this week end :D
the new look is pretty disorienting
Quote from: Fedora-Tan on July 08, 2016, 01:12:26 AMGood news ! I changed internet provider and i got my internet back today. I will then be able to complete ostan restore this week end :D
Woohoo! I'm glad to hear it!
Quote from: Ye Olde Swagfag on July 08, 2016, 04:53:30 AMthe new look is pretty disorienting
I'm pretty sure this is just the default SMF theme and when Fedora restores everything we'll get the other theme back.
I do really like the like button and quick edit option, I hope we can keep those if possible/easy.
It's the new version of the forum, if you have anything missing / suggests i can see if i can do something about it
@Bella : Yes, i'll try more to bring back some style things to new version rather than losing features (i just have to remember the old theme looks, that's the more difficult so don't hesitate to point out what's missing :p )
Quote from: Fedora-Tan on July 08, 2016, 12:32:43 PMIt's the new version of the forum, if you have anything missing / suggests i can see if i can do something about it
@Bella : Yes, i'll try more to bring back some style things to new version rather than losing features (i just have to remember the old theme looks, that's the more difficult so don't hesitate to point out what's missing :p )
I probably have some screenshots lying around if you need a reference!
At this point I'm mostly missing the old header image, it really gave the site some flavor....
I'm also wondering how difficult it would be to implement user-selectable themes for the forum at some point in the future (for instance a light daytime theme and dark nighttime theme), since I've seen it done on other forums. Right now I'm just mostly looking forward to the wiki being put back online, since I've had the urge to work on that.
Sure, it's just still transfering data - about 600Gb so it takes a while (there's not only ostan). It's easier for me so i can work on all at the same time and not have to worry if i uploaded that part or not.
Technically speaking, wiki and gallery are already uploaded on the server, so as soon as the full transfer finishes, i'll work on that. There should not be major issues except php version not being the same on old server and new one (php7 - that's why i had to upgrade the forum actually)
For your suggests no it doesn't look too hard to do, i'll look into that after having put back gallery and wiki. Screenshots can help to bring back old look but it's also nice to talk about what is really wanted back so i don't bother to move useless things :)
Thanks !
Glad you've managed to jump-start the old girl, Fedora-dono!
I don't think it's disorienting. It's just default looking. I'm glad to see things aren't crashing and burning. C:
There is an excessively bothering database crash which happens regularly, i'm investigating it...
EXCESSIVELY long and boring maintenance today on the server V______________V
Took me the whole day, i guess it was not what i planned for the day off.
I guess i progressed still, as what is done seems stable at least.
P.S. : Sorry for maintenance dowtime. Did you meet my Maintenance Rabbit (http://burrow.ovh) while i was toying with server ?
To be frankly honnest i was going to send all to hell at some point, but i thought it wouldn't be faire for ppl who donated, so you can surely thank them :D (and i do, also)
I was wondering what was going on. Which, Bella told me she's having some trouble logging back in; it acts like it tries, but then she isn't logged in, and the password reset doesn't seem to work.
It works for me, please use my email fedora-tan@ostan-collections.net if you encounter any problems, i'd be happy to help.
Thanks for helping me get logged back in Fedora-Tan!
And I'm glad you got the site fixed! Was it more database trouble?
I can't enter Wiki neither Gallery.
Here is the error:
Quote
The requested URL /imeeji/ was not found on this server.
Fedora hasn't restored the Wiki or Gallery yet; they're still down
The wiki has been restored. However, this version of the forum is incompatible with the wiki so they'll live their lives separately. That means that you may have to create an account on the wiki if you don't have already. Please use the same login as on the forum so it's easier to identify you. The passwords may be different if you want.
You can create an account here :
https://www.ostan-collections.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&type=signup
You can login here :
https://www.ostan-collections.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin
I think your current forum login/password should work, if it is not the case please try to recover password from the wiki :
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:PasswordReset
If you don't receive password reset request, maybe email on wiki was wrong, in that case just pm / email me directly and i'll sort it out.
List of currently registered users :
https://www.ostan-collections.net/wiki/index.php/Special:ListUsers
The rights are now made easier, you must login to edit the wiki, but you don't need to be part of a specific group. All registered users can edit, as long as they're not banned :)
Database upgraded, hope it fixes the crashes. Also restored a few icons / pictures, can anyone points me what's still missing (apart from the gallery) ?
Cheers, the backups for the gallery got corrupted with all the moves and i hope i have still some backups somewhere at home... that's what you get to move the servers in emergency... I keep you informed.
I lost the gallery as an installed software. Hopefully i had some backup of the gallery files (pictures) and i'll be able to restore from that. I've to say, i really thought i lost it for good. :(
Gallery is back, in a new way :)