Momo Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 As of now, I'm stepping down from running the technical and financial sides of the forum. We're looking for someone who can take up the leadership position for the forum. If no one steps up within a reasonable timeframe then I will need to shut down this site. I don't have a hard deadline today, but it will be at least a few weeks. I'm not going to go into details about why, sufficed to say that some recent events have forced my hand but this is something I've been considering for a while now. I've been very hands off with the site, letting the moderator team manage the day to day operation but even that simply isn't feasible now. If someone does step up then I'm happy to spend some time getting them up to speed with the hosting setup and it's been pretty solid and I haven't had to touch much in a long time. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momo Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 One of the mods reminded me I should probably mention what the financials look like: 1. Hosting costs: variable, it's based on usage but usually USD$75~80 per month. There's other cheaper options out there but this is dedicated hosting and has been extremely solid for the last two years. 2. Invision license: USD$60 per 6 months. This is the forum software itself. Not really negotiable. 3. You will need to find your own email hosting as the email for arocalypse.com is the one thing currently tied to one of my personal accounts. I use fastmail which is $5/user/month but there's tonnes of options here. To date, donations have been effectively nil and the old donations page hosted by AUREA is offline now so if you want to pursue that line then you'll need to figure out something for that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roboticanary Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 I'm up for taking on the admin side of this. As for financing I can cover the licencing and email. but $75 a month is too much for me in all honesty. The cheaper option, returning to a shared host as @Blue Phoenix Acemost likely used ( last time the site changed hands he gave a cost at ~$300 per year) that I could do. So if there is no other option I would be happy to step in and run the forum. However it would mean a return to less reliable shared host so if anyone else wants to step up that would be a better option. 1 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaAro Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 22 hours ago, Momo said: To date, donations have been effectively nil Honestly, I’d like to donate. But I have no credit card! It would help if contributions were accepted via Patreon or similar services. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A User Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 bumping this up because i'm a minor but i want ppl who can pay to see this 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nessa Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 You could post on the home page or else where a link where people could donate without any minimum like even 1$. If any member would give whatever he/she/they can it could help. There would be no obligation and for people who don't have credit card maybe PayPal or some other service.... It is just an idea ??♀️but this forum is really helpful for us and I am sure some people would be happy to help even just a bit if they can't afford more . I know that for me Instagram and Arocalypse are really brings me a lot as I don't know any other aro or ace people in real life. It helps me a lot to have people like me here. 4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roboticanary Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 18 minutes ago, Nessa said: You could post on the home page or else where a link where people could donate without any minimum like even 1$. If any member would give whatever he/she/they can it could help. There would be no obligation and for people who don't have credit card maybe PayPal or some other service.... There was a drive for donations after the forum first changed hands, with a donate option not far off what you are describing. However since then I think @Momo has covered all the costs. It is a good idea though and something like it may make an appearance in the future. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaAro Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Nessa said: There would be no obligation and for people who don't have credit card Ok – while I’m aro, I’m not some weird dropout from society! I’m just a European aro and credit cards aren’t a thing here. Perhaps only for people who travel a lot to the U. S. or for business reasons or some high flyers. ? We use debit cards, cash, PayPal, Klarna, wire transfer … Edited February 2, 2022 by DeltaV 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momo Posted February 3, 2022 Author Share Posted February 3, 2022 12 minutes ago, DeltaV said: We use debit cards, cash, PayPal, Klarna, wire transfer … As long as the debit card is still branded Visa, Mastercard, etc. they should still work online. This is the normal case for debit cards here in Australia, but I can't speak for internationally. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaAro Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 (edited) 46 minutes ago, Momo said: As long as the debit card is still branded Visa, Mastercard, etc. they should still work online. This is the normal case for debit cards here in Australia, but I can't speak for internationally. But it is not. I’m stuck (as a customer of a major European bank) with a Mastercard brand that is not compatible with standard Mastercard. I actually got a notification that it starts to get aligned with Debit Mastercard in 2023 (so then it will be compatible with standard Mastercard). But right now, I cannot donate (except if I’m paying some extra fee just so I can donate). I do not make these things up (ok… aside from the fact that way more Europeans having a credit card… 50% maybe … but you can easily live without one). Edited February 3, 2022 by DeltaV 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collie Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 I will consider making a donation once I get my tax return in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boba Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 On 1/31/2022 at 5:57 PM, roboticanary said: I'm up for taking on the admin side of this. As for financing I can cover the licencing and email. but $75 a month is too much for me in all honesty. The cheaper option, returning to a shared host as @Blue Phoenix Acemost likely used ( last time the site changed hands he gave a cost at ~$300 per year) that I could do. So if there is no other option I would be happy to step in and run the forum. However it would mean a return to less reliable shared host so if anyone else wants to step up that would be a better option. I can also help take on admin stuff, to split the work. But I echo the sentiment that I can't financially fund the forum. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Phoenix Ace Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 Hi there! I do believe my shared hosting was much lower cost than the cloud hosted service. I had used Lunarpages which got bought by HostPapa. Seems like in total, I spent about $250 in maintenance per year, which is a much lighter burden than currently, which appears to be roughly $1000. In all honesty, whoever takes up the admin role should assume they will get zero donations. Be happy if you do get some, but don't count on it. For those of you who are crypto savvy, you might consider that as a donation option. It's much less hassle than credit cards. And, I want to thank @Momo for their hard work since taking the site over from me. I think it's been... two years now? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaAro Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Blue Phoenix Ace said: Be happy if you do get some, but don't count on it. For those of you who are crypto savvy, you might consider that as a donation option. It's much less hassle than credit cards. I’d really, really like a BTC donation option! PS: I also would like it if there was a Patreon account. I would donate $ 120 / year if one of those option would be available (I only know Patreon as a donor not as a donatee… but creating an account cannot be that difficult) Edited February 10, 2022 by DeltaV 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roboticanary Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 OK, thought I should give people a quick update on what has been happening. Me and @Momohave been discussing switching the forums over. Should happen later this month. So expect a bit of downtime near the end of february but the forum will be ok. At least to start with I will move hosting to invisions own forum hosting service (~$50 per month but saves a big upfront cost to transferring the licences ($300 which was not known when we first showed the costs), as well as the $120 a year on licence maintainance.) Then maybe move later after considering cost/service quality As for donating, I will look at the options I have, however this will be a while. The short story is I have been looking at rules for self declaring income/tax bollocks in the UK. Making sure I don't get in trouble for recieving money from people. This should be no problem but since the UK financial year rolls over 5th april it is not much of a wait to hold this off till after the year rolls round and would make my life a lot easier. I don't want to deal with introducing the donation system, and paperwork, and new forum transfer shenanigans in the space of a few weeks. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jot-Aro Kujo Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 On 2/10/2022 at 1:39 PM, Blue Phoenix Ace said: In all honesty, whoever takes up the admin role should assume they will get zero donations. Be happy if you do get some, but don't count on it. For those of you who are crypto savvy, you might consider that as a donation option. It's much less hassle than credit cards. If this forum does anything even remotely related to crypto I will leave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roboticanary Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 On 2/10/2022 at 6:39 PM, Blue Phoenix Ace said: In all honesty, whoever takes up the admin role should assume they will get zero donations. Be happy if you do get some, but don't count on it. For those of you who are crypto savvy, you might consider that as a donation option. It's much less hassle than credit cards. I am absolutely not crypto savvy. I'm certainly not going to try it for getting donations from people I don't know, given that I am not good with understanding it. If this is something people would want that is fine but hopefully people understand that I am the sort of dinosaur who would be happiest if you all mailed me a cheque or prefferably donate me a sheep to barter with the forum hosts. Since it is me who will be in trouble if things fuck up there will be no crypto options while I'm in charge. I get that it is probably fine and probably less trouble for other people than dealing with credit cards but this isn't going to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost.Archivist Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 If this forum is ever in real danger of being shut down with all the information and discussions on it being lost, I can independently fund maintaining the website until a way of archiving it can be found. I do not want to lose it, but I am interested in insuring an archive, not necessarily maintaining a functional website. Basically: I am offering a last ditch effort to save it, if I am ever needed. (if needed; contact me at my tumblr, please: a-romantic--aromantic.tumblr.com . ) sorry I can't maintain it, it's just not something feasible with me, and i have never used the arocalypse forums, so it is really genuinely just because i don't want to lose the years of aro discussions/culture/history. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roboticanary Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Right, should probably update what happened in the end. I have now taken over the forums from Momo There was a ~ 1 week period of arocalypse being offline as transferring the forum took a while. This is now over and should not happen again for the forseeable future. Any problems you find please let me know in this thread Currently the site is hosted on invision's cloud servers, at a cost of ~£540 per year plus domain at ~£10 per year. This setup should at least be more reliable and secure than shared hosting, although not as good as the previous setup. As I mentioned earlier, I would like to look at asking for donations, however that will wait till april at the earliest. reports of arocalypse's death are still greatly exaggerated 3 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collie Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 Glad we're still alive and kicking! I'll donate if I can when that's an option 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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