[ADMIN] Future hosting of ILX 2017 Edition

As you might have noticed, the Google Ads have been turned off on the site for a number of months. They were disabled because Google took offence to some pictures of bosoms on I LOVE CRICKET: THE CHINATOWN OF ILX, and now we seem to be trapped in the byzantine appeals process. I've been pushing it for months, but it really does now seem like we've reached the end of the line.

As you might know, the ads were paying a chunk of the monthly hosting bills, meaning the funds we had to raise every year or so were relatively acceptable. Without them, we need to decide what to do. And quite soon, as my credit card is picking up the difference.

Although hosting on AWS is a) convenient, b) easy, c) mostly reliable, we also pay quite far over the odds for those things. If Google's paying for them, that's fine, but I don't feel comfortable getting people to waste their own cash.

So the alternative is to go back to self-hosting. Since the last time we did this (in 2006-9) servers that do what we need have become dramatically cheaper, and new types of places to host them have sprung up too. I've found one near me, and a suitably cheap server. This means the monthly bill should be far cheaper, which I'll be much more comfortable asking us all to pay for.

The drawbacks will be: bit more work for me, possibly less reliable (eg if the box dies we'll have downtime until we get another one) and a few hundred milliseconds slower for users in US (but faster for Britishes). None of these are awful, so I think this is my preferred option.

Thoughts welcome below, but in the absence of anything better I'll set up a fund drive in the next week or so to pay for a) the last few months of AWS, b) the new server, c) the first year of self-hosting charges.

They were disabled because Google took offence to some pictures of bosoms on I LOVE CRICKET: THE CHINATOWN OF ILX: THE CHINATOWN OF ILX

delete I LOVE CRICKET: THE CHINATOWN OF ILX imo

Knew you'd bow for The Man. What's next, getting rid of all mushy peas posts? You sicken me.

stet can we ban all mushy peas posts pls, lbi is def onto something here

this ploy will not stand

xp ;)

Whatever you need me to contribute in order to ensure a future replete with bosom pictures, you got it.

Although you may have forgotten that us Americans don't wait for anything, so that might be a problem. I need my bosom pictures NOW.

yeah, just tell me where to pay for bosoms and I'll chip in.

there were bosoms in cricket town?

i'll chip in some $$$ too, bosoms or no

Where do I put my goddamned money already

farewell g00gle ads, i barely knew ye

OI MATES SOME BIG BOSOMED BIRD IS ALL OVER THE CRICKETY WICKETIES, I"M GONNA MAKE ME A 'ORRIBLE POST ABOUT IT TO ME ILC CHUMS AND GET US BANNED FROM GOOGLE

oh come on, it's not our fault we were hijacked by Bosom Bats : https://twitter.com/bosombats

http://www.liketotally80s.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/bosom-buddies-buffy-hildy-1.jpg

fuck this thread for causing my mind to stumble across the phrase 'mushy bosoms' tbh

hey that's my favourite Feist song

I thought you said "Faust" there..

"It's a rainy day, Mushy Bosoms"

I'm fully behind the self-hosting solution as long as the "bit more work" element is okay with you, stet.

Not that I particularly want ilx to become a NSFW channy paradise, but I've definitely been dubious about some of the censorship issues that arose due to having adverts, so I think this will be for the best. (I can't remember the exact thing but didn't they take down the entire Loverboy thread or something?)

Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow

Stet's plan sounds good to me

Yup, sounds fine here.

would happily back a kickstarter for a printed best of ilx compendium complete with pop-up doublesided santorum.jpg / wallogina section

How were those two images never melded together into one. How.

well, we've never done a kickstarter before, it's an idea whose time has come

grrr I forgot about the Loverboy thread, whatever it takes to avoid that in the future is what I will give $ to.

I think ppl will pay for the more expensive option that's less work for you, Stet?

Not like we didn't raise cash quickly and easily each time prior.

Will foreign users be allowed on those British servers after Brexit?

I must note that the Cape of Good Hope have always enjoyed good relations with the fine people at Google, and have never upset them with inappropriate bosoms or bristols

agree that contributions seem to come in p quick for this, would consider aiming for the more expensive/less work option and defaulting to the self hosting if the collective will/wealth is suddenly lacking

AWS hosting is a money pit, though

How big is the cost difference? I like the suggestion of staying with AWS if funds are abundant and falling back to a Real England server otherwise

even microsecond delays could be heartbreaking for ILX-dependent Americans #MAGA

None of these are awful, so I think this is my preferred option.

Happy to go with stet's preference.

Good question on the costs. It's a bit of a movable feast, but suspect around £2500 a year for AWS vs £600-odd a year for self-hosting (not including one-off getting started hardware costs)

Is there a halfway house of a cloud service that isn't amazon? I seems daft to be provisioning a server in this day and age.

^ doesn't tip servers

The big cloud services are all more expensive. Best private server I found was OVH, and even they run £70 a month for something big enough to host this.

you can always appeal to the authority of the Pinboard guy when it comes to the bare metal vs Cloud question

I've changed my mind and will only be donating negative dollars until the twitter embed function is removed

Mushy peas and embedded tweets have no place in the bosom of ilxor, that is my platform

i will contribute, but i also favor spending a little more if it lessens stet's workload and means we americans don't lag

We're usually behind by at least four hours, I don't think we'll notice a few ms here and there

Hello yes. Kickstarter seems silly bc you "need" to have all this pitch info and shit that we (the users of ILX) don't rly need and, frankly, I like this little dark corner/web 1.0 holdout. Can we just setup a venmo somehow and send straight cash?

...I have selfish reasons as I have venmo and I hate signing up for new services

Any news/updates?

If past ILX fundraisers have taught us anything, it is that we devotees are willing to pay for the privilege of having our playground.

Sorry for going quiet. I have been looking into a better plan — still “cloud” hosting, but substantially cheaper than what we pay Amazon, and think I have one.

The host I’ve found is in Cambridge (UK) so there will still be a few extra fractions of a second for non-Brits to endure, but if you didn’t want that you shouldn’t have let us vote for Brexit.

It’s also a company we’ve worked with before — the first versions of Pink Box sandbox lived in their colo — so I trust them.

To pay for all this, and settle our AWS divorce bill, I’ll fire up a GoFundMe this weekend (unless anyone knows of a better service!)

Thanks stet

OK, here we go! I've never started one on a Friday before, suspect it will take longer to make it over the weekend.
https://www.gofundme.com/ilx2017/

Done

Done!

^^^early frontrunner for the Gold Star

cor that was quick, through the £300 mark already

Can't believe stet realnamed me in a fundraising beef

I don't like how they call private donations "Anonymous" because now it's like we're all haxx0rs or something :(

Ha ha, I did my pre-coffee conversion math backwards. That's cool, though. ILILXOR.

lol

you're lucky there's not much to convert these days

Tell me about it. Though my sister (in Leeds) was smart enough to use the conversion rate to pay off her mortgage in the days after Brexit.

These things normally happen in a flash while I'm elsewhere. Happy to have been able to contribute for the first time.

I would have donated more but Stet's already wearing a bow tie in his picture

I will get on this as soon as I'm home this evening and can send monies securely. Very wise to start this on what I'm sure is many people's payday!

did a lot of work for charidee, don't like to talk about it

done. thanks stet!

lol 'suggest ban' putting in £51 like your style

haha

done, thanks stet, made it in time to donate this round

✧✧✧@K✧✧.E✧✧

lol

done, thanks!

tonight I eat ramen

suggest ban otm

£51 in the bin!

bump -FYI @ everyone using the Flagging app: you're not seeing the link to the fund raising site, go to ilxor.com with your browser.

suspect it will take longer to make it over the weekend.

ha!

done

£1,800 of £2,100 goal raised in 9 hours.

https://i.imgur.com/4wECJr2.jpg

I did not get a onesie, what gives?!

happy to contribute as always

My donation?

http://www.etonline.com/sites/default/files/images/2015-04/yougotitdude.gif

lol this is gonna be done in another hour or so, 12-13 hours total

done, 2,102

I DONATED

And that’s that

assuming the UK still exists for 12 months

damn, i always miss these. thanks stet and all y'all who kicked in $. plz somebody bump this thread when next year's goes up!

xp at this rate colos might be the only profitable business left here

I gave. I was the one called Anonymous.

Raised by 69 people in 1 day

nice

I don't think it has ever taken more than 24 hours to raise the necessary funds.

No, we’re all clearly happy to throw our comic book and record store money into the hat, that wasn’t the point qualx was making though

It was over the goal by the time I was able to catch it, but I threw a tenner in anydamnway.

Done, thanks as always for your hard work Stet

Should I be able to login to the sandbox with my ilxor account and password? Because I amn't.

No, you'll need your sandbox account for that. What do you mean you don't have one?

it's okay, I didn't know they were different. robot sent me my (old) password & that worked! Thanks!