what ISP are you using?
I like what you do .... and i like the site but i dont understand the idea behind the donations??????
If you guys dont mind me asking, what ISP are you using? How much does your plan go for? I hate that you guys are struggling with the cost of service. I am familiar with many other good ISPs. Its possible I might be able to find you guys a better plan. Anyways, just wanta help in the best way I can. :)
It's also worth reiterating that OFPEC is not just a little fansite, it's a major operation. We can have 400 users on the site at once ... that's not 400 a day, or an hour, that's 400 at a time. There's many a commercial site that would be very pleased to have that kind of a attention.
As i mentioned above i can manage with the running costs (electricity and isp), but not with upgrading the server hardware (and especially not with buying a new server). The current setup we have now is me hosting the actual server (ie. i have full physical access to the machine) on a 10 mbit broadband connection (ethernet to a fiber backbone). This give us all the flexibility and growth we need currently when it comes to the ISP part. The problem with hosting OFPEC on an external site is that it requires a lot of juice in the machine. And few ISP's are willing to host a site that demands shell access, 40 gigs of space (and growing), multiple ftp accounts including public ones, SQL Database server (102 megs), 4000 unique visitors & 300 000 hits every day, 400 simultaneous users, montlhly bandwidth transfers of 100-150 GB. all without getting paid? Today we have total control of the server and its contents simply because we are running it ourselves.
i made a small donation yesterday (this should solve halfe of the problem) ;)
Once we hit our target, you'll quickly notice the result of your generosity in the form of a much quicker and more efficient OFPEC.
There... a token 20€:s sent your way. Not much, but I hope it helps in some way.
Now, being a hardware/server junkie, I have alwasy wondered what kind of setup is running OFPEC? How about a "behind the scenes" article with pictures of the OFPEC staff and the hardware? ;D
any method to donate that doesn't require a mastercard or visa. i hate using cards on the internet and i don't even have either of those!!
Want to, will do, but can't unless there's another way!
Paypal can transfer directly from your bank account. That's how paypal transers funds when I donate. Dunno if you have to have a creadit card to sign up for paypal though.