Sponsored server?
Posted: Sun 29. May 2011, 13:35
A small server costs in France or Germany around 20 euros per month in a reasonable offer. (You also find offers with "unlimited storage" but I wouldn't count on that for a project of our size ) Such a server would hold most of our infrastructure and give us some space for growth and some nice extras (like our own BitTorrent tracker). It could also serve as an uploader, at least for part of it (depending on the harddisk size). 20 euros/month is ridiculous compared what you needed to pay eight years ago, but still a bit much for a volunteer person.
Such a server would be not absolutely necessary now, but rather a convenience for future growth. This forum is currently hosted at Tuxfamily (a French free hoster for Free projects), which is very appropriate. Database, catalogue and some small scripts will also fit on there, just no uploader.
I think we agree that we don't want neither to display any ads nor a nagging "Please donate!!" button. But when a (hosting) company would pay us a server, we could show a little "hosted by..." button at the side or at the bottom of catalogue and forum, couldn't we? See for example the "hosted by ibiblio" button on http://new.linuxfocus.org
If you are fine with that, I'd first ask some companies I know personally, then we could ask some large hosters (Strato, 1&1, OVH, Free...) with a letter that I'd first post here for approval.
In the worst case, nobody accepts and we just continue to go on with some server resources that I can provide for, and maybe we find other members who own hosting or server packages that we can use.
Such a server would be not absolutely necessary now, but rather a convenience for future growth. This forum is currently hosted at Tuxfamily (a French free hoster for Free projects), which is very appropriate. Database, catalogue and some small scripts will also fit on there, just no uploader.
I think we agree that we don't want neither to display any ads nor a nagging "Please donate!!" button. But when a (hosting) company would pay us a server, we could show a little "hosted by..." button at the side or at the bottom of catalogue and forum, couldn't we? See for example the "hosted by ibiblio" button on http://new.linuxfocus.org
If you are fine with that, I'd first ask some companies I know personally, then we could ask some large hosters (Strato, 1&1, OVH, Free...) with a letter that I'd first post here for approval.
In the worst case, nobody accepts and we just continue to go on with some server resources that I can provide for, and maybe we find other members who own hosting or server packages that we can use.