Server Under Heavy Load

[fc3schick87]

you should hold a donation or something. 5$ from every one who wishes to donate would help you upgrade right?

i'd be willing to fork over money, for such a great site.

this site pops up for multiple google searches. it pops up for searches on building fake rock, it also pops up for reptaid, which is becoming more popular. there is no surprise that you have to upgrade again

 

[beardie]

Actually, there are ways that people can donate to support the site.

http://www.beardeddragon.org/payservices/sponsorship/

Donations have been very helpful in helping carry hosting costs and will continue to help with things like server upgrades. The $5 fee for Forsale forum access also helps.



-Alex

 

[slavetoIzzie]

Alex, is there a way to just donate a one time sum? Because I don't have a way to donate on a on-going basis (no paypal or credit card). I do get prepaid credit card several times a year that are used exclusively for online purchases. I do buy from the Beardie Stuff store, but it doesn't seem be enough of a help.

 

[beardie]

Well, for those who don't have an alternative, I have allowed people to just send a check as a last resort. But in all honesty, if money is tight, my preference is that you save it to take extra care of your beardie. The revenue from ads covers most of the costs for the site, donations/sponsorships and Forsale access covers much of the rest. The calendar sales is also a big boost (should cover the upgrade costs).

 

[slavetoIzzie]

Great! I now have the perfect reason for needing to order more calendars, mugs, etc. Finances aren't really my problem, just making sure we don't wreck our credit again. Had to cut up all the cards several years ago due to a near bankruptcy.

 

[beardie]

Calendars are the biggest money maker from the Beardie Stuff store. For each calendar sold, I get $5 in profit. Of course, I have to pay the taxes on that at tax time, but I also get to claim the hosting costs as tax deductions too, so that balances out. Other items, the profit margin is generally closer to $1 to $3 (mostly in the $1-2 range). I should probably just make everything with a single profit margin. some things might be pricey for what they are, but I guess people can just see it as "each item purchased donates $3 to the site" or something like that.

-Alex

 

[beardie]

The server upgrade will be delayed a little. It's going to cost a little extra for me to delay things, but some personal life issues require my attention for the next week or two (and the last week or so).

However, I have been making some progress. The biggest problem (which I knew it would be) is getting the mail server configured the way I need it to be. I really wish there were good options out there that actually had DOCUMENTATION!! It's such a pain having to go through various "how-to's" with how someone set it up for their own environment... but then have to try and guess how I need to tweak it for mine. I was hoping to use a software package that "in theory" would make things simpler overall... but the lack of documentation for the Apache JAMES project is a road block. So, I am trying to do a nearly identical setup to the mail server we have now. But it's a hodge-podge of different pieces of software and many configuration files. It's close to working, but certain pieces keep failing, and I'm not yet sure why.

The web server, the database, the DNS server... all that stuff... no problem. Email servers are always the weak link in the chain when it comes to a simple and manageable setup.

Anyway... just a status/heads up.

 

[beardie]

I hope that you all have noticed the significant increase in performance. I'm still mucking around, but the performance levels I'm seeing even impress me. Well beyond my expectations.

 

[diamc]

It is MUCH better Alex, great job. Thanks for all your time in increasing the performance already.

 

[spurlee01]

I haven't had any problems tonight! Well, not with bd.org anyway :lol: