Site Upkeep and Management

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Site Upkeep and Management

July 25, 2021, 06:06:15 pm

Hi Everyone,

I'm getting busier with my company and now don't have the time to give to the site that I once did. I'm getting requests from users for changes to the site that I simply don't have time to action.

With that said, I hope there's someone on the site that wants to take over the hosting and tech side to help alleviate my workload. I've been doing this for over 15 years I think, so it's time to hand the reins over to the next group to move the site forward.

Ideally the site would be migrated to a server you manage. The server the site is currently hosted on is on CentOS 7 which needs to be phased out in the near future and I'm in the midst of consolidating workloads.

There's also the issue of the domain, which I can transfer to your preferred registrar.

Thanks

Spanner

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #1 – July 25, 2021, 06:13:36 pm

Superb work, no matter what happens spanner

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #2 – July 25, 2021, 06:40:00 pm

I wish to echo Capcoms words, brilliant stuff Spanner.

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #3 – July 25, 2021, 06:45:23 pm

Hopefully someone with the tech knowledge and services can pick this up.

To Spanner...

The time and effort it sometimes takes to keep things up and running is not always noticeable.
A lot done behind the scenes.
So much appreciation for all your work over the years.
A very big... Thank you!

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #4 – July 25, 2021, 06:49:14 pm

I'll echo Cap, Lods and GTC words, and thank Spanner for his technical expertise in maintaining such an excellent forum.

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #5 – July 25, 2021, 06:57:40 pm

I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here but Ill just ask the question as I know nothing about all this stuff, if we have no one who can take this over from Spanner, can we pay someone to do what is required? That would mean users need to subscribe yearly which I personally would be happy to do if it keeps the site going.
Spanner if it came to something like this would you do it as part of your business (ie paid)?

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #6 – July 25, 2021, 08:05:41 pm

All you've done is deeply appreciated, SpannerMan. Top notch.

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #7 – July 25, 2021, 08:07:57 pm

It’s been a great effort Spanner and greatly appreciated. A massive thanks.
All the very best in your future endeavours.

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #8 – July 25, 2021, 08:18:36 pm

15 years. Great effort 👏

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #9 – July 26, 2021, 08:28:30 am

So obviously we need to have a think about going forward.
Throwing it open to ideas....

I may be wrong but I'm not confident we currently have the connections or the wherewithal to just move the site.
If anyone can help or knows someone who could post it up.

Spanner, what time frame are we looking at before the current host is no longer viable?

Should we not be able to manage an easy transition are there any medium term strategies we could employ until such time as we had a more permanent host?

We could use a facebook page under our own names but lose that anonymity aspect and I think you'd find it would have a stifling effect.
Although I'm pretty sure it against their terms of usage we could use a facebook page under our current profiles (I've seen one prominent member of the site on a fan page under his CSC profile). Not sure that would last long though.

Several years ago, when we were experiencing a run of interruptions, I set up a free 'message board' that kind of mirrored the site.
There are probably similar sites still around that allow us to do the same...but such sites are usually pretty limited in their capacity (and bells and whistles).

Everyone putting in money to maintain the site has a few difficulties...level of commitment (folks drifting in and out of the site), collection of monies etc....but it could be done. We've done it with T-Shirts and Sponsorships in the past

So any ideas?

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #10 – July 26, 2021, 08:52:12 am

Quote from: Lods – on July 26, 2021, 08:28:30 am

I may be wrong but I'm not confident we currently have the connections or the wherewithal to just move the site.
If anyone can help or knows someone who could post it up.

I'm pretty sure there are a few on here with the necessary skills. I'm more than happy to help in the migration and setup of even a community owned virtual server for everyone here.

Quote from: Lods – on July 26, 2021, 08:28:30 am

Spanner, what time frame are we looking at before the current host is no longer viable?

It's not a host that we use, it's just one of my companies cloud servers that the site is hosted on. This particular server is due to be retired and therefore I thought I'd take the opportunity of hand balling the management of the site as well.

The server itself is due for retirement in about 6 months because there's a heap of planning that needs to go on with a number of other sites that need to be migrated as well, so it's not like this has to be done tomorrow for CSC. Take your time and find someone who will care for the community and the site itself. One of your main aims is to find someone who will not hold you to ransom should they become disgruntled with decisions or site/community direction.

If the worst case scenario comes about and you can't find someone, I'll gladly move the site to one of my new servers and continue to support it, but as I said in the original post, I won't have time to make changes etc as users request them. You will definitely need to find someone to do that for you. The site will run seamlessly without changes even on a new server.

If you do move the site to your own virtual server, remember there will be annual fees associated with that. Probably to the tune of $250-$500 annually for a CSC owned VM. This is dependent on the configuration you opt for. My recommendation would be to use Linode and you can see there plans and offerings here... and they now have Australian based data centres so the latency for the CSC site will be greatly improved should you go down that route.

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #11 – July 26, 2021, 09:08:32 am

Thanks very much for that...
I know there have been a few in the past who've had some of the required knowledge. I'm just not sure they're still active.

That's a bit reassuring that there isn't the urgency, but at the same time we need to be aware that it requires some thought and action going forward.

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #12 – July 26, 2021, 09:09:35 am

Pardon my comment @Spanner but if it goes to one of your new servers, retain its capabilities and not accept any changes, isn't that enough of a compromise? Would be for me

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #13 – July 26, 2021, 10:56:53 am

Quote from: capcom – on July 26, 2021, 09:09:35 am

Pardon my comment @Spanner but if it goes to one of your new servers, retain its capabilities and not accept any changes, isn't that enough compromise? Would be for me

That's a fallback position capcom. As I said in the original post, it's time for someone else to take the reins and run with it. The site deserves better than that. It needs someone to spend more time on developing new and innovative features

Re: Site Upkeep and Management

Reply #14 – July 27, 2021, 12:42:50 pm

I just want to add my thanks for all the work you've done for our site Spanner. It is greatly appreciated. Your wish to move on is also appreciated and understandable. I hope you will continue to contribute.

Hopefully, one or more of our number will put their hand(s) up.