It hurts me to try to post during U.S. business hours, listening to the hamster’s agonized breathing, knowing that he’s heading straight for an aneurysm or a coronary or something…
The Better Half wishes to point out, in a spirit of helpfulness, that ever since the DotCom bust, it’s possible to pick up fairly large and healthy servers, if not for a song, then at least for a song and a half (say the song and a couple of reprises on the chorus). I would be willing to kick in 20 or 30 bucks to a PayPal account towards this end. So won’t some kind person explain to me, in words of one syllable, why a bunch of us can’t do this? In a spirit of altruism and of continuing the Fight Against Ignorance without tormenting a small captive rodent, those of us who were interested could sign some kind of disclaimer for the Reader relinquishing all whining rights vis-a-vis “edit-my-own-post”, “animated-smilies”, “I need HTML/IMG to be happy”, etc. input. I would be perfectly content merely to fling my money into the Straight Dope void, trusting Jerry the Tech God to make the best purchase for the money.
This has been suggested many times before. The answer still remains the same as far as I know - The Chicago Reader, being a corporate entity, cannot accept donations for legal reasons that escape me. The Chicago Reader does not seem interested into making the SDMB a non-profit entity. There were plans for raising revenue from the board, but those plans were put on hold while the board was down the past few weeks. There is still talk about some kind of revenue-raising system. We have passed on to the Chicago Reader the suggestions that have been made in the many threads on the subject at the SDMB.
For those interested in donating money to the SDMB, you could always use this method - order some of the Straight Dope books. If you already have the books, buy some more and donate them to a local library / high school / whatever.
If a group of SD citizens raised enough to buy a server of the specs recommended by Jerry, could they purchase it and then sell it to the Chicago Reader for a token figure?
Alternatively, could the Chicago Reader offer a choice of free “basic” memberships or fee-based “advanced” memberships? Advanced membership could give you, say, access to a Member’s Only forum and a customized title announcing your status as a contributor (not individual customizations, which might be too difficult to monitor, but say a $5 membership gives you the custom title “Contributor” and a $50 membership gives you “Gold Star Contributor” or something like that?).
Sorry if I’m covering ground that’s already been covered many times, I just hope the powers that be are prepared to keep us going as long as possible!
I’d like to second this suggestion. Not only does it make this board more profitable, but (IIRC) once all the old books are sold, they may get around to printing a new book.
I, for one, already own all the books. C’mon Dopers - get with the program.
Right, Arnold, it’s the “reasons that escape you” that I’d like someone to 'splain to me in words of one syllable. They “escape me”, too, and if you don’t get it, I sure don’t get it either.
I ran the “5K to 8K” figures for a new server past the Better Half, and he was, like, “pfft!” " :rolleyes: "
He wants me to ask Zotti if that was an actual tech-person’s estimate, or if that’s just an off-the-top-of-his-head estimate by a Suit at the Reader. “Well, hey, a server’s a big tech box, right? And a big tech box is like a car, right? And a server can’t cost as much as a car, right? So, 5K to 8K sounds about right, right?”
Like that.
There are websites selling used and “refurbished” servers for less than $1,000. What kind of tech specs are we talking about here, that would be necessary for a server for a MB the size of the SDMB?
Somebody with nothing better to do, go look through these, see what you think.
Techie checking in. I have to agree that the server figure given is very high. I took a contract last week to pick up what equipment I could from a technology company that went under. Among the 20 PC’s I got for a song, I also got there central company server.
It had Dual Pentium 3 processors at 800 mhz.
Two RAID hard-drives with 80 GB storage combined.
Industrial Rack mounted architecture
Redundant power everything
This was a SERVER, not some souped up PC. The company I represented is going to use it to run a central office, warehouse, e-mail server etc.
Cost a auction, $450 dollars. The fact of the matter is that no one competes with you for all of those used servers so the prices are ridiculously low. The only people that need one are the company I represented and you. My company just got theirs so you shouldn’t have any problems picking one up.
Come on guys, the SDMB is what, 1.2 GB in size and handles a few hundred users posting TEXT only at one time. I am serious when I say that $500 should be plenty to pick up a used machine that will be more than capable of hosting this board.
Read Ed Zotti’s answer quoted by yojimbo above. Some of the words are two syllables unfortunately.
It has also been mentioned in the past “I could set up the board for a lot cheaper than the prices you guys are quoting!”
That’s an issue the staff will not be able to address. The decision is made by the IS department at the Chicago Reader. They must have reasons for citing that price that I ignore.
The Reader is a company. It’s not a group of die-hard people running a server out of a garage. Companies have preferred vendors, preferred equipment, service contracts, and support contracts they have to buy. And they get their butt ripped on the prices too. $5k-$8k for a server? Shit fire and save the matches - the last server we bought, which is about the same power as the SDMB’s current server, cost about $10,000 installed.
The Reader may be requiring the full installation, setup, and troubleshooting costs be paid out of the estimate. Well…I charge about $1000 a day for on-site support; some people charge more. Assuming Jerry does all the work and the charges are covered internally, at a 1.8 multiplier, the Reader may have an effective charge of only $360 per man-day. It all depends on how they have to account for the tech support effort.
You can bet that the Reader is only going to buy a new machine, from a reputable ($$$) company. This is because they don’t want to hear the Tarzan-like screams of protest the next time the server crashes because its cut-rate hard drive decides to turn into a 3-inch dremel wheel.
But these issues have all been discussed before; I’m not saying anything new here.
There’s no need to be snotty about it, Arnold. I did read it, although I had to get my kids to help me with the two-syllable words.
Ed’s reasons for not allowing us to chip in for a new server.
Can’t help him there. Weirdness must be dealt with on a personal level.
And I wonder whether, say, Wal-Mart would feel weird accepting donations. Income is income, I would have said.
If it was a PayPal Account, “collecting on pledges” wouldn’t be a problem.
What I hear is a Dad Voice saying, warningly, “Now, you know that just putting Bondo on the dents isn’t a permanent solution…” So, okay, we’ll worry about that when we get to it. But when the boards are slow, I don’t hear anybody blaming “slow com lines”–it’s always “the server isn’t up to the task”.
So, who’s going to sue you for not delivering top-quality service? Are we that many whiners, who are volunteering to chip in for this?
Sounds like a lot of excuses for “we just don’t wanna” to me, quite frankly.
And what I would like to have 'splained to me, in words of one syllable, is “why” they don’t wanna.
How about marketing some Straight Dope MESSAGE BOARD items, as opposed to the regular SD ones? They could be sold at a premium, with the extra money being ploughed directly into funding the board.
Ed keeps talking about “Plan B”, but he keeps ignoring my “Plan C”… I intend to pull off a hostile takeover of the Chicago Reader, buying out the name and rights to the Straight Dope (and the SDMB), and then setting it up as the cornerstone to my online Empire of dementia!!!
You are forgiven. Have some chocolate birthday cake–it was Bonzo’s b-day Thursday. Just ignore the portrait of The Rock done in sky-blue icing (I think that piece you have there is what remains of The People’s Eyebrow…)
If enough people bought books, would the Reader let us chip in for a new server? Is it like clapping for Tinkerbelle? “If we all believe in Cecil hard enough…”
I have no idea what goes on at the Chicago Reader corporate office. But if they did see an increase in sales from Straight Dope items I would think it would be an additional reason to make sure the SDMB server is kept running smoothly.
TheLoadedDog - the message board was created primarily to be a means for discussing the Straight Dope column. Maybe many people at the Chicago Reader still view it that way, so in their mind the difference between Straight Dope items and SDMB items would not be an important distinction? I am just guessing here.
SPOOFE - please remember your old admirer Arnold when you are king of the world. (cheesy grin)
I certainly can’t speak for everyone, but I think the reason people may be reluctant to view doing that as a solution to the server problem is the fact that there’s no guarantee that any profits from book sales will go directly towards the purchase of a new server. Book sale revenues go into the general pot - which is fine - it’s The Reader’s money to do with as they please. What some people are looking for is a way by which items can be purchased/donations can be made/servers can be donated, etc., that will actually be guaranteed to go towards a new server. While I agree that it would be helpful to The Reader overall if more people purchased SD items (and FYI, I have done so, myself), it still doesn’t solve the problem.
Have some chocolate birthday cake–it was Bonzo’s b-day Thursday. Just ignore the portrait of The Rock done in sky-blue icing (I think that piece you have there is what remains of The People’s Eyebrow…)