Just saw the banner to this effect. I’m curious (being clueless 
) as to just what web hosting for a site like this actually costs per year. Is there a specific fundraising goal that we can motivate people towards? Thanks, and keep up the great work!!! 
[quote=“Dragonbones”]Just saw the banner to this effect. I’m curious (being clueless ) as to just what web hosting for a site like this actually costs per year. Is there a specific fundraising goal that we can motivate people towards? Thanks, and keep up the great work!!! [/quote]Our monthly hosting costs are now US$ 490 per month. [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/advanced-warning-server-move-in-the-works/20215/1 first mentioned the change of server here[/url] - after we made the decision to leave ServerBeach and move back to HostExpress.com (the original web hosting company where we started, back when this website was known as ORIENTED.org)
To match the kind of server we had at ServerBeach, HostExpress custom built the one we are using - look at their dedicated hosts page and review the 2.4GHz Pentium 4 server - then multiply by 2 (approx) because we are using a dual processor, dual hard disk machine. This allows us to enjoy the stability and performance of ServerBeach with a high level of client support that ServerBeach lacks. To date, we have not received any complaints about the performance (speed) of Forumosa since the server move 
Our fund raising goal is to cover that USD 490 every month (approx NT$ 16,000). 2 years ago, hosting for this website cost US$ 20 a month - and we had just crossed the 100,000 post threshold. A year ago, we hit 250,000 posts, but we needed a packag worth USD 120 to handle the daily load. We chose to act 3 months earlier than planned to upgrade our server, since it was clear we were going to hit 500,000 before March.
Over the past 3 months, we have seen less controversy on the website, but our daily number of posts hold at just under 600 posts per day. That’s about one post every 2.4 minutes. Now, imagine what will happen when we get the Classifieds website we’ve always wanted up and running? We expect this to bring us to a new level of traffic.
We are approaching our Web Host Donors of last year to make our case for another round of donations. We have re-designed and simplified our web banner system for their sakes. I hope that you will patronize these organizations since they wil shoulder the bulk of Forumosa’s operating costs.
If you or someone you know are interested in making a donation to place a web banner in Forumosa, please e-mail Maoman or me at admin @ forumosa.com - I’ll be posting the way things work soon in our blog (www.forumosa.org)
Incidentally, you posted your question within about a minute of when I started switching on the donation banners - which kinda shows how effective these new banners are 
Also, banners NO LONGER rotate in “Forumosa-use” forums anymore - like this Feedback forum or the private forums we use to discuss and manage the website. This ensures that exposure of our sponsors’ banners are maximized, and shown only in public areas (and the Women’s forum, too)
Another possible way of fundraising would be to include a Google search engine on the message board. Just an idea.
What do you mean? The search form on the front has always had a Google search option 
What if we all simply agree to post messages that are 75 percent shorter or only 25 percent the number of posts we usually make?
Also, could we tax those greedy posters, such as Tigerman and Sandman, who have obviously been using the forums the most - kind of like paying road tax on gas! 
OK, OK. I don’t have a credit card, but I could pay in dog biscuits or cash - can that Maoman guy be trusted if I slip him a bluey at the next happy hour?
Goose Egg, after banner sponsorship, what is the shortfall per month in $s?
L.
[quote=“Limey”]Goose Egg, after banner sponsorship, what is the shortfall per month in $s?
L.[/quote]
Banner sponsorship equals one month of hosting - a NT$ 16,000 donation entitles the donor to have a banner campaign on Forumosa for the following 365 days
What do you mean? The search form on the front has always had a Google search option [/quote] I mean use the commercial search engine as a way of generating some ‘income’ rather than just a link. There’s more info here. Every time someone uses the google search engine you could get a certain amount of US cents. It would mean using a google banner and search engine on every page and maybe using some of their ads.
I make about $1200US/year running Google ads on my site and I have nowhere near the traffic you get. That might be worth looking into. On the other hand, using just the search function I get very little money. So, I wouldn’t expect just using their Search function to generate money to be of much use. You’d have to display Google ads alongside the sponsor ads.
Thank you for the heads up, puiwaihin.
I’ll talk to Maoman - we might add Google Ads to the Forums then, below the Vertical Tower banner
I just clicked on the “please donate” banner with the full intention of donating some money through PayPal…but it just took me to an empty wiki site. :s Maybe if I get some time tomorrow I’ll try to figure out how to give you my money…then again…maybe tomorrow I won’t be feeling as generous 
.
I had the same problem and PM’d Goose Egg about it. Instead of the top or right-hand banners, go to the Paypal link at the bottom of the screen, which works just fine.
There are a fair number of people wanting to buy banners here.
Google is a evil cult.
Just wanted to pop in and say that the first three times I glanced at this thread title, I thought somebody was claiming that “Web hosting costs quadruped”. And every time I wondered, just what sort of four-legged creature is footing the bill around here?
That is all.
[quote]
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc. said on Tuesday it was introducing a new service for China that seeks to avoid a confrontation with the government by restricting access to services to which users contribute such as e-mail, chat rooms and blogs[/quote]
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060125/wr_ … e_china_dc
Told ya so.