Recently we had to upgrade our hosting plan because the forum had significantly exceeded its data cap, mostly due to excessive numbers of attachments.
We are currently on the second tier of cloud hosting, which should be enough for the rest of the year when combined with our current caps on attachment size.
However, I am now committed to moving off of cloud hosting and onto self-hosting by 2024. The up-front costs of moving are not insignificant, but don't really add up to more than 3-4 months of cloud hosting rental. Once the transition is complete, we will be more secure and more flexible; a lot of modifications I really want to add to the forum simply can't be done on the cloud.
Below is a breakdown of our current operating costs.
Current Monthly Bills:
Xenforo Cloudhosting: 128 USD (VAT hate).
IncogNET.io private hosting for Matrix: 25 USD.
Total: 153 USD.
In other words, donations need to equal at least 153 USD per month in order to keep this project financially viable. At the time of writing, we have 88 members online. If every person online donated $5 right now, we'd be stable for three whole months. This is not encouragement to donate, merely an observation that our userbase is very clearly large enough to make this a relatively trivial sum to come up with.
Migration Plans:
User @Fucking YTs has been instrumental in reaching this point, and has recently offered to host the forum when we transfer off the cloud, eliminating an awful lot of potential uncertainty. If for any reason he becomes unable to continue providing this service, I will probably go to IncogNET.io, as they have been good partners so far and I believe in supporting companies that share my core values of privacy and free speech.
To migrate off the cloud, we will need to buy Xenforo's self-hosted license, which costs 160 USD. We will also almost certainly need the Enhanced Search feature, which costs 55 USD. Migration cost will therefore be a minimum of 215 USD in total, though VAT (VAT hate) will probably add 40 USD or so to that total. Assume 300 USD to cover absolutely everything.
I would like to have some new features ready before making the transition off the cloud, so I doubt we'll be doing so for at least a month or two. I may aim for our anniversary to make the transition, but can't be certain. The migration will happen, it just depends on when everything aligns properly. Which leads me to...
The Future:
Once off the cloud, our options open up enormously. We can implement custom code, test new systems, add features, integrate with external websites, etc. As it stands, we're shaping up to be a feature in the industry. We know that talents read this forum. We know at least some regard us as a reasonable source of feedback and sane critique. I intend to push us forward along this path, growing the forum and associated community by drawing in members that can be relied upon to foster an environment where honesty and freedom of speech walks hand-in-hand with restraint and civil discourse.
There are millions of deranged parasocial vtuber fans out there. I want us to be a showcase of the 0.1% that have something worth saying. Granted, no community can ever be perfect, and we certainly aren't. But unlike many other communities I've worked on/with in the past, I feel like we have common cause. Jokes, sarcasm and irony aside, I like being the owner of this place. I like keeping relatively intelligent people connected, and I especially like sticking one in the eye of the greater vtuber community and their deranged obsession with not mentioning past lives and similar ridiculous practices.
That's all for now. See you at the anniversary post.
We are currently on the second tier of cloud hosting, which should be enough for the rest of the year when combined with our current caps on attachment size.
However, I am now committed to moving off of cloud hosting and onto self-hosting by 2024. The up-front costs of moving are not insignificant, but don't really add up to more than 3-4 months of cloud hosting rental. Once the transition is complete, we will be more secure and more flexible; a lot of modifications I really want to add to the forum simply can't be done on the cloud.
Below is a breakdown of our current operating costs.
Current Monthly Bills:
Xenforo Cloudhosting: 128 USD (VAT hate).
IncogNET.io private hosting for Matrix: 25 USD.
Total: 153 USD.
In other words, donations need to equal at least 153 USD per month in order to keep this project financially viable. At the time of writing, we have 88 members online. If every person online donated $5 right now, we'd be stable for three whole months. This is not encouragement to donate, merely an observation that our userbase is very clearly large enough to make this a relatively trivial sum to come up with.
My personal life is currently in a state of flux. I am a renter along with my elderly parents. Our landlord has recently made it clear he wants us out, and we are not in a financial position to buy anything in the current market. The EU is also a wretched shithole where feckless busybodies constantly pry into your business and demand you pay tens of thousands of euros to bring older properties up to their arbitrary modern standards, or they'll throw you out onto the street 'for your own good'. I hate the EU and will leave the instant my mother's ashes are done cooling in the crematorium.
That said, our issues are with bureaucracy, not our bank accounts. We are not rich, but neither are we desperately poor. Our current circumstances are an annoyance and a distraction, but they pose no direct threat to this forum beyond frequently leaving me with less time and energy than I'd like to interface with it. Transitioning away from cloud hosting will also ensure the longevity of this forum beyond my own immediate future prospects. If there comes a time when I am for any reason rendered utterly incapable of acting as administrator, I will pass those responsibilities on to people who I trust to sustain this place in the spirit it was created. Keep in mind this is a vanishingly unlikely possibility, just one I feel the need to account for anyway out of a sense of personal duty.
That said, our issues are with bureaucracy, not our bank accounts. We are not rich, but neither are we desperately poor. Our current circumstances are an annoyance and a distraction, but they pose no direct threat to this forum beyond frequently leaving me with less time and energy than I'd like to interface with it. Transitioning away from cloud hosting will also ensure the longevity of this forum beyond my own immediate future prospects. If there comes a time when I am for any reason rendered utterly incapable of acting as administrator, I will pass those responsibilities on to people who I trust to sustain this place in the spirit it was created. Keep in mind this is a vanishingly unlikely possibility, just one I feel the need to account for anyway out of a sense of personal duty.
Migration Plans:
User @Fucking YTs has been instrumental in reaching this point, and has recently offered to host the forum when we transfer off the cloud, eliminating an awful lot of potential uncertainty. If for any reason he becomes unable to continue providing this service, I will probably go to IncogNET.io, as they have been good partners so far and I believe in supporting companies that share my core values of privacy and free speech.
To migrate off the cloud, we will need to buy Xenforo's self-hosted license, which costs 160 USD. We will also almost certainly need the Enhanced Search feature, which costs 55 USD. Migration cost will therefore be a minimum of 215 USD in total, though VAT (VAT hate) will probably add 40 USD or so to that total. Assume 300 USD to cover absolutely everything.
I would like to have some new features ready before making the transition off the cloud, so I doubt we'll be doing so for at least a month or two. I may aim for our anniversary to make the transition, but can't be certain. The migration will happen, it just depends on when everything aligns properly. Which leads me to...
The Future:
Once off the cloud, our options open up enormously. We can implement custom code, test new systems, add features, integrate with external websites, etc. As it stands, we're shaping up to be a feature in the industry. We know that talents read this forum. We know at least some regard us as a reasonable source of feedback and sane critique. I intend to push us forward along this path, growing the forum and associated community by drawing in members that can be relied upon to foster an environment where honesty and freedom of speech walks hand-in-hand with restraint and civil discourse.
There are millions of deranged parasocial vtuber fans out there. I want us to be a showcase of the 0.1% that have something worth saying. Granted, no community can ever be perfect, and we certainly aren't. But unlike many other communities I've worked on/with in the past, I feel like we have common cause. Jokes, sarcasm and irony aside, I like being the owner of this place. I like keeping relatively intelligent people connected, and I especially like sticking one in the eye of the greater vtuber community and their deranged obsession with not mentioning past lives and similar ridiculous practices.
That's all for now. See you at the anniversary post.
