posted 08-24-2002 03:50 AM                  

Thank you CJ for starting this very timely post.
The POA website was just about break even, yes we do charge for advertising, but we also have to pay for hosting and website/discussion forum development, maintenance, software, and don't forget about the T-Shirts and hats! LOL

Here are some facts...

The POA website has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years and takes up well over 1200 megabits of hard disk space on our current server (I know that this is minor compared to current hard disk prices, but hosting sites charge dearly for hard disk space). We also own and maintain a separate server here in Houston where the Scrapbooks, Event Calendar, and other various space consuming image files are stored. This server alone holds nearly 2000 megabits on its hard drives. By having this secondary server here in Houston, we have been able to avoid the additional fees for space on the main server, which is located in Atlanta, but the Discussion Forum grows in size daily!

At our current rate, our hard disk usage grows by about 1.5 megabits daily. Based on new registered members, this will only continue to expand. One alternative would be to delete old posts, however I know that we all rely on being able to use the search function to find old posts and pictures that may have been posted along with them.

Besides hard disk space, we exceed the maximum bandwidth (through-put) daily and this also increases as our community grows.

Our current server has less than 20 other accounts (websites) on it because the Discussion Forum is so processor intensive and if they were to put anyone else on it we would begin having problems with load times from the server. The two other servers that are co-located and owned by our hosting company contain nearly 1500 accounts each. All said, our host is actually losing money on our account.

I believe that the reliability of our hosting service has been extremely high for the past year! We have been paying $100.00 per month, which was a real deal! I'm not interested in changing hosts or going with a lesser quality server. The company that hosts us is financially solid and dependable and I don't want to change services nor do I fault them for complaining. We have been asked to do something about our bandwidth and hard disk usage or we will have to look for a new host, which again I'm reluctant to do because of the outstanding service record that they've provided us.

Here’s what we need to do...

Since we are literally hogging all of the resources of this server our hosting service has recommended that we purchase our own server and they will provide a slot for us in their rack space and continue to provide us with the great service that they have for the past year.

The costs??

$8000.00 for our own new Dell server with a 1-hour downtime replacement parts guarantee. Our new rate will be $450.00 per month. Totally, I need to come up with over $13,000 (based on the cost of the server, one years service and server installation) to make this change and go forward. Next year we would only need to raise the $450 per month since the server will already be paid for.

We will have 20 gigs of hard disk space on redundant drives, dual processors, daily backups, and complete support for the server that will be located and maintained at the same location in Atlanta. This should keep us going for years to come with all the hard disk space and bandwidth we need for future growth.

With additional funding, we could also afford to expand and grow the site by hiring additional personnel and help take some of the burden off of myself. Between monitoring the site and the daily/weekly maintenance, I spend nearly 30 to 40 hours a week. What started off as a hobby has grown to a full time job for me!

Any further suggestions on how we could take up collections would be greatly appreciated. I for one don't like the idea of membership and am in favor of voluntary contributions, possibly with a page that would rate the different levels of those contributing i.e.: Platinum for $200 + a year, Gold for $100 to $199 a year, Silver for $50 to $99 a year and so on. We could also have this status show up under the username in the Discussion Forum. We would put a complete balance sheet on the website with full disclosure of where the funds went. Any excess funds can be used for sponsoring events, event insurance or whatever else we as a group decide to use the money for.

I thank you all for your concern and hope you'll monetarily help support your POA.

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Mike Krehel
ProwlerOnline.com
POA site supporter
Prowler Junkie

posted 08-24-2002 09:26 AM                  

# 1 for information on the Prowler, upcoming events, and meeting the BEST people on the roads today!

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Call 911 - there is a Prowler in my garage....
3.5 power packed POA hours daily, always with rock solid analysis of all the hot topics!

posted 08-24-2002 09:47 AM                  

Great site...that we should all support..

Don and Sandra

posted 08-24-2002 02:20 PM                  

Click here for more information. There is also a Paypal link to contribute using a credit card.