[clue-admin] Future Hosting Plans

[Collins Richey]

My $.02 - comments interspersed.

On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Jed S. Baer <cluemail at jbaer.cotse.net> wrote:
> Hi Folks.
>
> Time is running shorter. The old thread on this is:

> A few points to consider:
>
> 1) VPS has been very stable. It's also the most we've ever spent on
> hosting. And we're out of money.

According to one of the later posts, the cost is $250 per year - not
much when you split it up. We have about 10 regular attendees at
meetings (South), some number (North), and maybe others who only vist
the list. Divide that into the cost and you get <$25 per year per
person contributing. I personally don't care whether that is tax
deductible or not.

>
> 2) Our co-located hosting had times of stability, but we were
> plagued with hardware and other issues.

I would think: Never again.

>
> 3) Having our own server, virtual or otherwise, requires having a real
> sysadmin. I believe Crawford is willing to continue doing that job, but I
> wonder whether our needs rise to that level any more.

Apparently Crawford and others are willing, so this would appear to be
a moot point.

>
> 4) When we went to the VPS, the only real argument for continuing to have
> our own server was the need to service the commitments we had made for
> the membership program. Since that is de-facto dead, we should examine
> what our needs really are.

Maintaining a membership program, IMO, is an even more onerous task
than sysadmining the site. I would recommend a once-a-year collection
program to fund the renewal of whatever the site is.

>
> 5) VPS or shared hosting frees us from having to worry about hardware.
> This is a very good thing, IMHO. It also gets redundant network
> connections and UPS power. Not that we have 24/7 requirement ...

A very good thing, IMO, the only reasonable approach.

> 6) Shared hosting plans are available that provide Mailman and shell
> access. I haven't ever seen CVS available, but then I never looked for it
> either. Whether we even need shell access is debatable, but that depends
> on other factors.
>
> 7) If we were to go with a typical shared hosting plan, we'd probably
> need to rethink how we update the website. I've seen shared hosting plans
> that offer WebDAV. Other possibilities come to mind, some of them a bit
> goofy, but do-able. Probably not worth thinking about in detail at this
> point, but something to keep in mind if a plan to use shared hosting
> looks likely.
>
> 8) A shared hosting plan without shell access would mean coming up with a
> new way to do offsite backups.
>

I, for one, don't have a clue about VPS or shared hosting. I would
prefer to pay a reasonable amount (the current arrangement seems
reasonable) to have almost error free service. We should put all this
together and circulate on the regular list.

I didn't see an answer thus far about the deadline for renewing the setup.

I'm not a wealthy dude, but, if push comes to shove, I could see my
way clear to advance the $250 as long as I have a gentleman's
agreement that regular members would pay their share.

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.