DZComposer Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 I have been looking into my finances this weekend, and unfortunately I need to make some changes. As things are right now, I am spending too much money, and perhaps the thing I spend the most on, outside of rent, is SF-O. In the past, when money has gotten tight I have asked the community for donations. I thank all of you who have helped there, but I need to make changes so that I never have to be in that situation again.I am currently paying for a dedicated webserver and a virtual server for game nights. The dedicated server has increased site performance, but looking at the usage lately, it has turned-out to be like hanging pictures with a sledge hammer. The game server is not worth the money I am spending. It is not stable and it lags constantly, even when no game is running on it. I am of the opinion that they over-sold VMs.What does this mean?Well, it means there will be some changes coming soon. As far as the site and forums, the changes will probably not effect much, but I am not currently sure if I will be able to keep the game server.The big change will be a server move. There are things I like about Dreamhost, but there are also things that are very annoying about Dreamhost. I was never keen on using Dreamhost to begin with, but Mr. Krystal talked me into it back when we co-ran the place.I will be switching to Amazon AWS. AWS's pricing model is pay-as-you-go. This means I can tweak things so that we only use enough server for our needs, and if we ever have a usage spike, more resources can be added on-the-fly and then removed when the traffic subsides.I may move the game server to AWS as well, but that will be very dependent on pricing. If it comes out the same or more expensive than currently, then I, unfortunately, will have to discontinue the server.The only other option I have is to run ads, and that is NOT and option. I despise ads, so I would never do that to you guys.So, I guess the next question is "When is this happening?" I can't ETA it, but it will be soon. Probably within the next couple of months.I am studying for the RHCSA exam, which will hopefully lead to being able to land a better-paying job, but for now I must cut spending, and I can't afford to spend as much on SF-O anymore. (Another advantage of AWS is that setting-up the server there will help me with my RHCSA studies) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrypticQuery Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Sounds like a plan; higher efficiency and more cost-effectiveness are always appreciated. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneWolf Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 We all appreciate the money you put into the site, and if you have to close down the gameserver to save the site that's fine. We can host elsewhere. Any chance you could buy an old windows PC and repurpose it, run it at your house? Just buy your own box for the server? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Orange Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 I honestly wouldn't mine ads. They're just ... there. I'm not bothered with them and could bring in some extra rupees. I will miss the game server though. A big chunk of my time will vanish. Yet all for the better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZComposer Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Keep in mind: I am not saying the server WILL go away, I am saying it MIGHT go away. I will try every option to keep it running.I could for not much money throw together a cheap Linux box that could host srcds, but the problem there is my internet connection has a terrible upload speed, so it would be laggy. Plus, they don't like residential customers hosting servers. TBH, I'd love to do it this way (renting servers sucks), but I just can't afford the requisite internet connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icy Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Yeah, I hope the TF2 server won't have to go away, but it's fine if it does! We all want SFO to stick around, of course! Also, we really do appreciate all the work and money you put into the site, DZ. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xidphel Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 But... If the servers leave, I won't be able to argue about how OP everything is and how people suck because I got a lucky hit! D: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kursed Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Three words Firefox,Ad block Well i hope you can work stuff out DZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vy'drach Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Three words Firefox,Ad block Well i hope you can work stuff out DZ. Which would defeat the purpose of the ads since that prevents revenue, actually, unless site ads work differently from youtube or livestream ads. See, take a popular youtube channel such as, oh, Game Grumps or FPSRussia. They make profit off of ads, earning a little bit of money for each person that sees an ad. Might not be much per person, but when those channels get millions of hits in a short time perioud, that money adds up. However, if people use adblock, which a lot of people do, then no money is earned for those views. The same works for livestreamers. The Grumps complained about it in at least one of their videos, one of the Sonic '06 ones I believe, and a popular League of Legends player and streamer, SaintVicious I believe it was (though don't quote me on that part), noticed people bragging about their adblock in the stream chat, so he intentionally brought up ads so they would play over the stream and left it like that for a good while. This didn't bring him any money but it was a colossal middle finger to people using adblock because that shafts him and people like him quite a bit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owner/Technical Admin Sideways Posted June 3, 2013 Owner/Technical Admin Share Posted June 3, 2013 Where is your gameserver hosted and how much do you pay a month? If you hurry now, the company I use to host my RTCW / ET server is running a special on a source server ( CS:GO, CS:S,DoD:S,L4D,L4D2, and ... TF2) for $5 a month. I've been using this company for quite a few years and they're pretty decent. If you sign up, put my server IP in the referral box; 108.178.55.90. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZComposer Posted June 3, 2013 Author Share Posted June 3, 2013 I rent a VDS that I can access the OS on. I like the flexibility. It means I can run any game on it at any given time and run any mods I want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psy_commando Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 My father bought a pretty damn fast internet connection. We get 31mbps download and 11mbps in upload speed. And I got 2 servers, with 2 backups. The 2 active ones are a ubuntu server 12.04 webserver running on a 2003 k7s5a with an amd athlon xp. It runs ssh too and is all setup to run hlstatx. The other one, an amd athlon x2 (I think.. At least its a 2ghz dual core processor) with 2gb or 4gb of ram which runs the TF2 and KF server is running on windows xp, with ultravnc running for remote control. It auto-update itself daily, and has sourcemod and replays setup. It was having some hiccups with wave 666 and sometimes when there are huge mvm waves, but in regular tf2 it didn't seem to have any problems with like 16 people on. We gathered on it for halloween once to kill merasmus ! Though, I got an admin powertrip then, and began messing with gravity a few times for luzl XD But I don't usually do that. unless a hacker shows up. And if he spams the server with commands, I can simply go downstairs use the server console and kick his ass, low-level style ! Though, I might need to update a few things like source mod, and make sure nothing got broken during the steampipe upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clearwater Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Guys, we do know that if DZComposer NEVER made this website, we wouldn't be here in the first place. You've got my support DZComposer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snys93 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Guys, we do know that if DZComposer NEVER made this website, we wouldn't be here in the first place. You've got my support DZComposer. Here here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Orange Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Guys, we do know that if DZComposer NEVER made this website, we wouldn't be here in the first place. You've got my support DZComposer. *cough* *cough* Mr. Krystal *Cough* *Sneeze* 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZComposer Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 A bit of an update:Switching to AWS will cut the monthly bill for SF-O's web presence almost in half. And that is using my estimates of how much resource we will need. It could even be less.The game server, though, is not looking so good. Getting a comfortable Windows VM will triple the cost of the current solution, while switching to Linux still makes server costs double. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rin Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 That's really good, cutting it in half like that. I'd feel sorry for the ones who use the game server, but if it has to go, it has to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZComposer Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 I'm not sure about the game server yet, though seeing as the webserver will cost less than I expected, I may just keep the current gameserver host. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fana McCloud Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Sounds like we've got a good solution - hopefully that'll do the trick. Too bad we can't get a better game server, but I kinda expected that wouldn't be as simple. This didn't bring him any money but it was a colossal middle finger to people using adblock because that shafts him and people like him quite a bit. Considering that so many ads have MALWARE embedded, I feel a million times safer with Adblock - it's not that I wouldn't mind disabling it for sites that I think need the revenue, it's that too many ad networks are SKEEVY BASTARDS or don't properly check their ads before serving them. People visiting deviantART for a period of time were getting viruses from ads served by one of their ad networks, and it took them ages to figure out which one and blacklist the hell out of it. I wasn't affected because I had Adblock Plus, thankfully. But it just goes to show that any site can be affected by problems like that, not just places that people shouldn't be visiting to begin with (like porn sites). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psy_commando Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Besides, ads are based on speculation, its a crazy business.. Like trying to win lottery, or the stock market.. Plus, there's something wrong about force feeding people that kind of crap if they hate it so much, and are actively trying to avoid it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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