Ping: Ben, Sammage and Zinto

[Guest]

You are the three people who did not answer the roll call yet. The off-season starts tonight. Get in there and answer or risk the consequences (whatever that might be ;-) ).

Ben: while I have your attention, will you be making the same offer to the OSFL that you did to the USFL? (ie: pay a bit of money and get a better site plus the ability to do things like make roster updates and owner updates without your intervention?).

[Guest]

I'm out this time.

But yes, I can do that. Payment would be less since I'm not hosting the forum.

[Guest]

Kind of a good new/bad news thing. Good news about the site. Really bad news that you are leaving us. You will be missed.

[Lintyfresh85]

Sorry, but I'm not interested in paying for anything.

I already help pay to keep SGN running.

[Aston]

Linty, yea, definitely don't pay anything. You do so much for the site and this league as is.

Farewell, Ben. You have been a big part of this league since I think the beginning. Point some owners you know to us in your other leagues! :)

Is it a one-time cost? how much will it be? Just out of curiosity. Maybe some of us could chip in, if it's manageable. I know I'm a piss-poor student for now, but that may change in the future :-P

[Guest]

im with linty onthis one, its not like we have a solid core of hardcore owners in fact in think im like the the 4th or 5th tenured owner and ive only been here since 2014

[Guest]

Awww, Ben's leaving. I was hoping I might actually beat him one of these days. Too bad he had my number every game. ;)

I'm 100% committed to this league as my other league shutdown as it bled about 8 owners and recruiting wasn't going well at all. There was something like 12 vacant teams. Oh well. So, I love the OSFL and will do all I can to see that it remains.

[Guest]

I am probably jumping the gun since Ben did not seem to want to discuss this here yet. But here is what he posted in the USFL forums:

--------------

Here's where I am:

1. From talking to some true experts on the subject, I'm slowly coming to the thinking that my hosting provider simply didn't expect to have a customer with multiple databases as large as the FOF ones, which makes me more trouble than I'm worth to them, I suspect.
2. I'm on the most expensive plan that my provider offers, so it's not like an "upgrade" is an option if I were to stay with them.
3. I've tested a move to a dedicated server, and I like the results I've gotten.
4. The move would be an increase of $25 per month in hosting fees.
5. Between the leagues fully hosted on my server (CCFL and USFL), I'd like to feel like I can count on the owners to cover that cost with a once-per-year donation campaign. In short, I want to raise $300 every June at a minimum to keep this thing going.
6. Given that 90% or so of my server usage is for FOF MP, I'd love to actually cover my hosting costs if possible, but the $35 per month I'm currently paying has been in the budget for a while now, so no huge deal if not.
7. I think there's enough interest and understanding of the situation to make #5 happen, if not #6.
8. It happens that I'm going to have a fair bit of free time Mon-Fri next week to potentially move some things over to a new host.

So, I'm giving my host provider until Friday of this week to get this figured out, or at least some indication of a resolution plan, or I'm walking. If I walk, at that point, I'll start asking for donations to help cover the cost. Ideally, I'd hope to see it break down like this. (Again, this is "cover all hosting costs.")

CCFL: $180
USFL: $180
OSFL: $60
FFL: $60
IFL: $60
HFL: $60
PFL: $60
CyFL: $60

IHOF/WOOF: gravy, since these are my personal most-connected leagues

At a minimum, I'd like to see....

CCFL: $75
USFL: $75
OSFL: $25
FFL: $25
IFL: $25
HFL: $25
PFL: $25
CyFL: $25

That would cover the increase. Thoughts?

[Guest]

yeah probably a bad idea to post that just cause this seems to be a very LIQUID situation and some couls over react and inudate ben with pm's

[Guest]

I don't think Linty should have to pay out of his pocket. But people from the league should pay or we should consider going it alone. Ben is already paying out of his pocket for this.

I think it is pretty clear that the league does not use Ben's site to its full potential. Hopefully if we converted that could be changed. Or maybe we should discuss going an even more simpler route and dropping the connection altogether.

(By the way, I say this with the full realization that I have never contributed to anything. So take it for what it is worth.)

[Lintyfresh85]

Sorry, but this league is not going to involve money.

I don't want to see anyone pay for it.

[Guest]

It needed to be edited, but eventually I was going to post.

IF I switch hosts (which isn't decided yet), I'd want leagues that use my stuff to split that yearly cost, pretty much as outlined above. Essentially it'd be a once a year funding drive for the league, with a goal to raise $25-$60 in donations. Basically, I'm talking $2-$5 per month to help with the hosting fees.

[Guest]

Sorry, but this league is not going to involve money.

I don't want to see anyone pay for it.

Seriously? You're not willing to let *other* people pay $2-$5 a month for a fairly significant service to the league? Wow.

[Aston]

In summary: Ben wants to move from shared hosting to a dedicated server. It's an either-or situation that affects all FOF sites he hosts. If he moves, he'd like help covering the added cost.

That's between $25 (minimum) and $60, per year, for the OSFL?

On the other hand, what is the most resource intensive aspect of the site? What if previous year's box scores and game logs weren't kept? Or player ratings not saved and displayed, only statistics? What would a 'bare bones' HTML feature need to cover - current week transactions and scores? + current week statistics? That might be a way to significantly reduce the server load, but not being familiar with it, I can't say for sure.

(edit - didn't see the previous few posts before this one).

I think a bare bones HTML feature might be doable with minimal server strain, and with acceptable loss of functionality, but I'd like Ben's opinion on that.

[Guest]

In summary: Ben wants to move from shared hosting to a dedicated server. It's an either-or situation that affects all FOF sites he hosts. If he moves, he'd like help covering the added cost.

That's between $25 (minimum) and $60, per year, for the OSFL?

On the other hand, what is the most resource intensive aspect of the site? What if previous year's box scores and game logs weren't kept? Or player ratings not saved and displayed, only statistics? What would a 'bare bones' HTML feature need to cover - current week transactions and scores? + current week statistics? That might be a way to significantly reduce the server load, but not being familiar with it, I can't say for sure.

That's more work than I would want to take on. DBUpdater puts full info in the database after every game week. I'd have to write code to remove some of it. Royal pain. (And plus I'm not sure if it'd help..)