board77

Let me give you the 411 so you can vote with all the information available.

Pricing

1. Domain Name: $7 a year
2. Hosting: $5 - 10 a month
3. phpBB software: FREE

What would be involved

1. Confirm a backup is available here
2. Decide to move
3. Register domain name - DONE
4. Find host
5. set-up host
6. back-up phpbber board
7. no more posts made here
8. move data over
9. set up board
10. move people over

There may be a day or 2 of downtime during the process

Just make sure the downtime is on a day I wouldn't be here anyway...

This is something that really needs to be done if we're going to stay as we are, or progress.

YES!

The only concern I would have is finding a reputable host that isn't a fly by night company, and that doesn't restrict content. I am sure they are out there, but I just don't want to shut down all of a sudden. Companies do fold.
Other than that, I really can see no reason not to move.

update

Lidless just did it!!!
[quote from here]

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I covered Board77.com, .org and .net.

I guess at some point we should also cover B77, Board_77, Board-77, Bored77, Bored_77, Bored-77 varieties as well, if the name means anything to us.

Using aboutdomain.com worked out at USD 13 for each site.[/quote]

So we've got a (several!!) registered domains


I'm sure we'll figure out the rest. :mrgreen:

.. and I just have to say it.... I LOVE YOU PEOPLE
especially Lidless
______________
Resident witch

Alandriel wrote:

.. and I just have to say it.... I LOVE YOU PEOPLE
especially Lidless

(Ok so I'm torn between jealousy and love);)

Steve,

Thanks

I would have gone with godaddy.com since it's cheaper and better to use.

Is there a charge to change the DNS there? I'll have to check it out. We will have to change a lot of stuff with the company you bought the name from so I hope it's easy.

STEVE!!!!

How quickly are you anticipating this move?

Jn

You rock, LIDS!!! :cheers

I don't think we're going to be doing this move anytime in the near future Jn, but starting to talk about it now before this board does get too big. We're starting to find out that we don't have much control over this board and that it's very restricted. Obviously in order to make this place better we'll need control, so better to start thinking about it and prepare.

Well, the vote will run for nine days, and if people do want to move I think we should turn our attention away from the governance issues and deal with the move first.

It will be easier to move while we're small, don't you think? Potentially we could do this within the next three weeks or so. I'm afraid that if we let it drag on and on it will sort of hang over our heads as a traumatic event that everyone knows is coming but doesn't know when and what the new addess will be and so on. Especially with the change of address, I think it's better not to wait until we have another 50 people here.

Jn

Yeah, yeah. Keep posting about it.

*sees royalties mounting up*

If we need to change DNS's, then of course I'll cover that.

Oh shit. I just posted. Now I owe me money.

The one thing that will hold us back is the money issues Jn. Someone is going to have to deal with the hosting and collect money from those who wish to contribute...basically do the sort of stuff Jonathan at TORC has had to do...and it could get a bit tricky with the international currencies.

Well let someone find out the costs in terms of initial set up (host, design even?) and running costs (bandwidth).

It might not be an issue in the first place.

So, are we just voting on whether people find this idea appealing?

See ... curse my logistical mind ... there's several issues that have to be researched and voted on and resolved in order to execute a move. That will take some energy, some volunteers, etc. It's a question of focus and how we're going to invest the time that people have to spend.

If we're going to turn our attention now to a move, then we should do that and not just vote on a nice idea without committing the time resources to execute the idea. We should set our priorities, you know? What part of the grand plan are we going to address first, second, third ... and then follow that plan. Otherwise we'll be going in multiple business directions at once and it will get harder and harder to keep people focused enough to bring anything to a conclusion.

We find that each issue we undertake gets more complicated when we get inside of it, and I think it's a mistake to get half-way in and then launch a different direction without reaching a conclusion on the first one.

In terms of prioritizing, it seems to me that, if we want to make a move, that is something that would be greatly simplified by doing it while the board is small. So we should put all the governance issues aside, solve the move issues completely, and then do the move, and then come back to the other stuff that needs to be done before the board can open and finish that.

Jn

One thing to keep in mind Steve is that you will probably have to give out log-ins and passwords if you are not personally going to run the site. That person will have access to your credit card info.

I would also suggest using an Admin e-mail like a new Yahoo account to sign up to these places so they can be shared without having to ask you to forward e-mails.

I have already looked for a host once I'll share that info here. It is important to get one that can host a phpBB site. Not all are set up correctly. I'd suggest my host Dream Host. I am happy with them so far. However it is a bit advanced for shared Admin.

I'll keep looking.

There is always paypal and amazon to get donations.

Hmmh, I'm with Jny that we need to get clear about what this involves.

Why do we need to move in the first place?
- this board will only allow us so-and-so much storage, so we wouldn't be able to expand as we hope to

- we have no control over what happens to this board (like the e-mail E* just sent, which said that everything was shut down for a week or something like that)

Are these our main reasons for moving?

If so:

- does a new host really give us more liberty? (I don't know the first thing about such things, but if I got it right, holby said any host might shut us down anytime)

- how about moving our stuff? When Squiddy moved to her new board, she had to leave all the stuff posted so far behind and start from scratch!

- money issues: it's virtually impossible to send money to another country except by credit card or paypal. As this is not a commercial enterprise I suppose credit card is out. I've never used paypal, so don't know if there's a feasable alternative there

- what squiddy just said about passwords and running the site sounded scary, even though I don't understand much of it.

So, on the whole I must say I have no idea what we are really discussing here - I haven't voted yet, because I didn't want to waste the vote on a hasty "don't know".

Squiddy an admin email is already set up on yahoo for B77 :mrgreen:

- this board does have a size limit, I'm sure of that. Thing is - we don't know the figure.
- moving stuff: as has been said (elsewhere?) first we need to see with the people who allow this kind of board for free what the deal is with saving stuff from here and moving it. I don't know if one of the current Admins or, as we're soon handing over 2 jobs, one of the new ones would take that on as a priority to find out about. If not, I'd volunteer only, I'll be away all of next week.

- money. IF Lidless allows us to chip in (you all know his all too generous nature :mrgreen: ) You can pay through credit card via paypal. A very easy and secure way. Been using it for years and not ever did I have a single problem. And I'm sure the banks in the US will take checks from different countries Or, Lidless gets lots of free drinks when he tours the world :mrgreen: . Just saying... I'm sure there's a way

- about when: not tomorrow and not next week. This sort of thing takes time to set up and test. In the meantime, please - business here as usual :mrgreen:

Maybe we could form a 'strike' team, dividing up the different tasks amongst those that want them and have experience in this sort of thing.

______________
Resident witch

*packs bags*

Alandriel wrote:

about when: not tomorrow and not next week. This sort of thing takes time to set up and test. In the meantime, please - business here as usual

*sheepishly unpacks bags*

Alandriel, I like the idea of a strike team.

See, I'm running into a small problem here which I PM'd Squiddy about yesterday. RL is closing in on me and I have to stop posting so much.

I had laid out a couple of posts regarding different governance issues and was going to just throw them up here and let people hash them out over the next two weeks or so, while I just look in and answer questions but not lead a discussion, you know? But I do think it's a mistake to force a bunch of serious issues on people all at once. It does detract from the fun of posting if people are being prodded to deal with business all the time.

So I wouldn't like to start several governance threads and leave them to flounder on their own if people's attention is on moving. Since the move seems to command a greater priority, in that it's more dependent on size (I think so anyway, I could be wrong), I'm thinking we should focus on the move, 'assign' research tasks to people and go with that decision first.

This is not an area where I can contribute very much, so doing the move first also works for me. I can back off a little and by the time we've made this decision and figured out what we need, etc. my RL will also have let up.

Jn