Public Service Announcement - Geekhack Needs Your Donations! $$$$

[CPTBadAss]

All information has been gleaned from the posts made by iMav in the Geekhack Facebook group. Any misunderstandings are mine of course. I'm not iMav and I'm not the best source of information. I'm just trying to bring awareness.


As we all know, last week, Geekhack went down. When iMav was ready for the datacenter to plug us back in, they declined to. iMav then moved us to a different datacenter. Previously, we were fortunate enough to not have to pay for the colo or datacenter services. But now that we've migrated to a new datacenter, we no longer enjoy free services. iMav needs to pay for it.

We should all consider donating money to iMav so we can directly pay for the server costs and keep Geekhack running. All server donations can go through the menu bar "Donate" tab.

I believe fohat.digs has a t-shirt fund raiser thread. I'm considering running another t-shirt buy myself. I'll have a sale as well coming shortly.

This thread is to discuss how we can best support Geekhack and keep it going. And for iMav and anyone who has more information than me to answer questions.

Again, donations to help keep the server running should be sent through the donate tab on the menu bar.

Dedicated server costs are as follows:

$240/mo for server
$50/mo for backups

Believe me...we can NOT run on someone's home internet service.  That would be a nightmare.

We also incur around $150 monthly for our AWS infrastructure...which provides support functions, such as email (including anti-spam, anti-virus), some administrative connectivity, etc. 

It would definitely be helpful if folks would consider a monthly subscription.  We will definitely come up with a cool way to identify those who contribute in this way to the community...

I very much dislike ads. GH has never been about making money.  We will have some profile "flair" to recognize those that support the site.  I will also, on occasion, reach out to supporters with some sort of thank you (gift, perhaps...depending on the current financial status).

[rm-rf]

donated!

[demik]

ah nvm, different thread.

[tp4tissue]

What kinda bandwidth and cpu power does GH need.

it might be cheaper if we just do it local, and chip in some equipment and ship it to the GHer with the cheapest electric bill.


The main issue will be the power bill if we're @ over 1000 watts.

[vivalarevolución]

Any ballpark figure on the amount needed to be raised?

[CPTBadAss]

Any ballpark figure on the amount needed to be raised?

I honestly have no idea what the costs are nor if there is a figure. I only know that there is a cost.

[Puddsy]

imav pls advise

[HoffmanMyster]

I'm ready to donate but I'd like to know how much is needed.

[retrochick]

I'm all for donating as well, just need a few more details like total cost of monthly operations and any other factors we should be aware of. However, I'm not sure about donating via Paypal - perhaps we should start one of those gofundme sites for GH datacenter costs?

[iMav]

Dedicated server costs are as follows:

$240/mo for server
$50/mo for backups

Believe me...we can NOT run on someone's home internet service.  That would be a nightmare.

[Belfong]

I'm just wondering why don't we use public cloud services like IBM Softlayer or AWS? Are they more expensive that local data center hosting? I'd think they have the economies of scale to be more competitive prices than local hosting.

[esoomenona]

.

[demik]

50 to back that thang up. Cheaper than a strip club.

[retrochick]

Can this run off a dedicated VPS? Can we use Amazon S3 for the db? Can we host the files locally and store/backup the db remotely? Just trying to see if a modular approach is better than relying on a purely local solution. Amazon's pricing is pretty good.

[iMav]

I'm just wondering why don't we use public cloud services like IBM Softlayer or AWS? Are they more expensive that local data center hosting? I'd think they have the economies of scale to be more competitive prices than local hosting.

Based on the horsepower and bandwidth we use, AWS would be horrifically expensive.  We are actually handling much of our email infrastructure on Amazon's cloud now...They are pricy. 

[iMav]

iMav, is it true that, as a feature for people who donate, there is a version of the site with no bugs?

No. 

But with a $50 donation, I'll give you your very own @geekhack.org email forward.  (GHusername@geekhack.org forwarded to an email account of your choosing) 

[demik]

For 240 can I have somebody muted for a day? Pls

[esoomenona]

.

[BlueNalgene]

I may be a hella poor grad student, but I could throw down for a site I waste so much time on. 

Is there any sort of quasi-official donation drive in the works?  I might hold out donating until that comes around.  We should get some PBS quality fundraising going.  I want to see Hoff telling us why 'your donation matters, it helps us bring you quality content like this,' then cut to a best of TP thread.  I want to see Halverson and SpAmRaY in the background ready to take my call.  Let's make this happen folks.

[HoffmanMyster]

For 240 can I have somebody muted for a day? Pls

I'll mute you for free.    All you have to do is ask, bby.

[demik]

Wow rude

[Bromono]

the email deal sounds awesome o.o but I would want a name change. bromono doesn't sound the best =(

[tbc]

the email deal sounds awesome o.o but I would want a name change. bromono doesn't sound the best =(

your name isn't hard to say, but it does still sound terribly awkward in my head lol.

[CPTBadAss]

I'd like an email address: demikisabish@geekhack.org

Thanks for chiming in on the costs iMav. Donation coming on pay day:D.

[Belfong]

I'm just wondering why don't we use public cloud services like IBM Softlayer or AWS? Are they more expensive that local data center hosting? I'd think they have the economies of scale to be more competitive prices than local hosting.

Based on the horsepower and bandwidth we use, AWS would be horrifically expensive.  We are actually handling much of our email infrastructure on Amazon's cloud now...They are pricy.

IBM SoftLayer network bandwidth is pretty generous. AWS have low cost in compute power but when you add the bandwidth, it became very expensive. That is how they nail you. IBM SoftLayer on the other hand, has very generous network bandwidth (250GB/month outbound free), almost negligible 

[katushkin]

Donated. Gotta love a geekhack.org email address

[iMav]

Donated. Gotta love a geekhack.org email address

All set up. Enjoy!

[katushkin]

Donated. Gotta love a geekhack.org email address

All set up. Enjoy!

<3

[intelli78]

Have you considered adding a public tracker/widget to the forum that shows progress toward monthly donation goal, kind of like Reddit Gold? I bet this would get results.

[demik]

I'd like an email address: demikisabish@geekhack.org

Thanks for chiming in on the costs iMav. Donation coming on pay day:D.

ಠ_ಠ

[iMav]

Have you considered adding a public tracker/widget to the forum that shows progress toward monthly donation goal, kind of like Reddit Gold? I bet this would get results.

I am considering a lot of things...

[ddot]

What about giving donors the opportunity to have a dollar sign or something by their avatar, similar to the stars or the gears that the makers have?  Giving people the chance to publicly stroke their own ego may encourage more donations.  Just a thought.

[baldgye]

after a while I came to the realisation, I spend way too much time here not to contribute

[esoomenona]

.

[livingspeedbump]

I would love to see a way to set up a monthly donation via PayPal, not only would it not require any sort of real hit to anyone's wallet, but it would create a more sustainable system. You'd probably get more than needed a month honestly.

[BlueNalgene]

I would love to see a way to set up a monthly donation via PayPal, not only would it not require any sort of real hit to anyone's wallet, but it would create a more sustainable system. You'd probably get more than needed a month honestly.

Yeah, like a Patreon type thingamabobber.

[demik]

Have you considered adding a public tracker/widget to the forum that shows progress toward monthly donation goal, kind of like Reddit Gold? I bet this would get results.

I am considering a lot of things...

Have you considered shutting down this site and letting everyon migrate to the superior /r/mechanicalkeyboards?

We can start by banning epzy. See if the site gets better.

[Air tree]

I would love to see a way to set up a monthly donation via PayPal, not only would it not require any sort of real hit to anyone's wallet, but it would create a more sustainable system. You'd probably get more than needed a month honestly.

I would totally do a monthly donation as a recurring thing!

[wlhlm]

How about setting up a club like Deskthority?

[livingspeedbump]

I would love to see a way to set up a monthly donation via PayPal, not only would it not require any sort of real hit to anyone's wallet, but it would create a more sustainable system. You'd probably get more than needed a month honestly.

I would totally do a monthly donation as a recurring thing!

I would too. I feel like a vast majority of users here that visit GH on any normal basis would be totally fine with $5-10 a month. My problem with that would be that I'd forget if I had to do it manually, but having a way to automate it via PP would prevent that.

[nickheller]

I would love to see a way to set up a monthly donation via PayPal, not only would it not require any sort of real hit to anyone's wallet, but it would create a more sustainable system. You'd probably get more than needed a month honestly.

I would totally do a monthly donation as a recurring thing!

I would also!

[iMav]

I would love to see a way to set up a monthly donation via PayPal, not only would it not require any sort of real hit to anyone's wallet, but it would create a more sustainable system. You'd probably get more than needed a month honestly.

The "Donate" button at the top of the forum now has options for either a one-time gift or a monthly subscription.

[livingspeedbump]

I would love to see a way to set up a monthly donation via PayPal, not only would it not require any sort of real hit to anyone's wallet, but it would create a more sustainable system. You'd probably get more than needed a month honestly.

The "Donate" button at the top of the forum now has options for either a one-time gift or a monthly subscription.

Fantastic! Donating by the month now.

[Jokrik]

Less 3 bottles of beer a month
That won't be hard

[baldgye]

damnit if I had known about the sub option I wouldn't have made such a random donation, ahh well still better than a bronze sub I guess

[demik]

How much do I have to donate to become a mod? How much do I have to donate to take over a mod?

[esoomenona]

.

[suicidal_orange]

iMav, is it true that, as a feature for people who donate, there is a version of the site with no bugs?

No. 

But with a $50 donation, I'll give you your very own @geekhack.org email forward.  (GHusername@geekhack.org forwarded to an email account of your choosing)

Do spammers hate GH as much as script kiddies?  While this sounds awesome two addresses sounds like a recipe for double the spam.

On second thoughts *hatches plan for Raspberry Pi e-mail server in the corner, complete with cool GH e-mail address*

[demik]

How much do I have to donate to get someone banned? How much do I have to donate to assume ownership of geekhack?

tree fiddy

[iMav]

A GH email address has the added benefit of being filtered with an industry-leading anti-spam/anti-virus solution, before the email is forwarded to you.