Our server bill is due July 19 for a total of $447.45 (we pay quarterly)
However, we are quite short of the total due

Currently we have $134.33 from donations, that makes use $313.12 short for our bill

If we do not have the money, then WoWRoster.net will need to be shut down, as I cannot afford to pay $313.12 out of my pocket

Basically we are asking anyone out there that can help us, or offer us other options such as hosting or funding

Please discuss in this topic

How about using sites like Sourceforge/Launchpad/Google for hosting large chunks of the site, such as SVN and the download section? I'd think that would divert a lot of traffic from your own server, maybe leaving just the forum and wiki for this server. That way you might be able to go for a cheaper account at your hosting provider.
I'd offer hosting on my own server, but I've got the feeling that your bandwidth needs would be a lot higher than I can offer, could you give some insight on that?

mhh zanix i could give you 1-2gb webspace on my webserver without traffic limitation if you need..?

The server we have is the cheapest our current provider offers
I will pm more details about our bandwidth

We also have some specific needs such as the svn and the code to tie the auth into DF

We are also considering providing hosting off our server, and offering to install and set up Roster for users

I too have plenty of room on my server which is at a datacenter however it is in Australiaand most of your members would be in the US I guess which would potentially make the site slower for them but otherwise happy to help out in what ever way I can

I'd like to thank those who have donated today

To be honest I and surprised that so much has been donated in just a few hours, you guys must really love this place

You're surprised? This is probably the most useful thing I've ever seen specifically for guild sites. In fact, get rid of the probably.

Well, donations since the beginning of this year have been falling short of our server costs
So seeing this amount of support is kinda surprising, but very much appreciated

Thanks to all those who donated today and those who donate in the future
It is you that keep our server running (and me from going broke when I have to pay for it )

hey zanix 82% *g* gz!

::licks Zanix::

You've done a hell of a job. Keep it up, and sometimes you just have to remind us that we're needed to help.

Only 4 days after the start of this post, we have reached our goal for the server bill

Thanks to everyone who donated
And especially all those who enjoy using Roster, the addons, UniUploader, UniAdmin, and PvPLog

This will give us 3 months to decide how we want to continue
Whether we move to a cheaper solution, or stay and figure out more ways to pay for the server

We are considering providing hosting and providing setup for Roster
Although we do not have any plans for what software to use or how much to charge

I run an IT department for a video game company and am partners with a tier one data center. I have plenty of experience hosting bandwidth heavy websites (videos, game patches, HD content, etc) for as cheap as possible, so I may be able to help.

Can you give me an idea of how much bandwidth you consume?

I would ideally like to see something like the last 3 to 6 months AWStats reports. If you cannot run AWStats, something similar would be nice.

Also, there are tricks to hosting fairly popular sites pretty cheap. My most expensive site gets between 200k and 300k unique visitors every month. We host most of our images, videos, patches etc on amazon's S3 service which has saved us a ton.

A combination of hosting providers like www.slicehost.com and aws.amazon.com is a pretty cheap way to host most smallish websites.

(I highly recommend Slicehost btw).

Also, check your logs to make sure you are not getting slammed with traffic by hackers scanning for exploits, etc. (AWStats will break down hits per object).

I once had a rogue server that had an open email relay... that one cost me about 5k before I realized.

Just be sure to only open the ports you have to on your server and block IP addresses that frequently get 404's.

As far as your SVN server goes, I cannot imagine that it takes very much bandwidth (I could be wrong as I honestly am not that familiar yet with your tools); but if you are open to the idea of GPL, then hosting your code base on sourceforge, etc may be an option. Slicehost (again) would be a good option here.

There is also nothing wrong with making a little money as well! If you get a decent amount of traffic, throw Google adsense up (something is better than nothing).

No promises... but if your site is not that bandwidth intensive, I might even be able to host you for free (hopefully my email is private so have your sys admin shoot me an email).

All the best,
Vapo

I use Dreamhost and have a ton of HDD space left.
If you wish I could help host some of the stuff
also, if you need hosting I have like 2tb open not being used..

Zanix,
I to can provide web hosting space for the site. I also have a VPS server I can setup for the SVN that you can have root access to to maintain.
I would just need to know some of the monthly numbers, bandwidth, required space, which I am sure I can handle. My current account has 1T of allowed space and I am only using at best 100G.
If you wish to let me know the info, I think I can help out.

Finian826

I can set up FTP on my host and give you any amount of bandwidth you need. No cost to you, or you can use probably one of the best host (imo experience wise) http://www.bluehost.com/

They are great! customer service with help on any situation from setup to fix.

I have used slicehost, 1and1, netsolutions, yahoo, msn, and now bluehost wish has been superb.

If you want FTP for file upload or anything really (legal only)