First the good news
After a lot of thinking and planning and talking with friends, the administrative structure of ESMB has been settled upon.
Human Again (Natascha) hasn't been posting a lot lately as she's been completely under the pump at work, so most of you probably haven't noticed that she is now an administrator of ESMB. If you have a look at her profile you can see she has lost all her stars (like me) and her title says "Administrator". As soon as both of us can get some time together (hopefully over the weekend) I will train her in the most common admin functions and she will gradually take over the reins of the "front office".
This means that she will be the final arbiter on bannings, thread closures, dispute resolution and all those (although infrequent) unpleasant duties. She will also be answering emails & PMs that are ordinarily sent to the admin of a message board. She will decide on moderators and moderating, any rule changes, infaction system changes etc. should the need arise.
I will remain on ESMB as an administator also, but my duties will be mainly "back office". I'll be here as a back up to Natascha if ever she should need me, but primarily my role will consist of server & software maintenance, trouble shooting server problems, finances, software upgrades, database backups etc. The domain name, software and server space will remain in my name only and I will be the only person to have server & database access.
I feel that this is a really workable solution. I get to basically walk away from the day to day admin duties that I've had enough of after nearly 4 years, but I still get to be a part of this great group.
I know Natascha will be a great administrator. She's very sane and far, FAR more organised than me. I know you will give her your support as she learns the ropes. She has said to me that she has no intention of making any big changes and hopefully things will just chug along as they always have. I won't say too much about what her plans are, as I'm sure she will want to post her ideas herself in good time.
Now the bad news
You might have noticed a Pledgie badge up in the top left hand corner of the site.
Yep. It's dono time again.
Unfortunately it costs quite a lot to run ESMB on a dedicated server. Besides being too big for a shared server, I've found the convenience, server speed and capabilities for handling traffic and data really good on the current set up we have.
Most of you have been through this cycle at least once. For some this will be the third time. You know how difficult I find it to ask for money but I have no choice.
In the past I've been overwhelmed with the generosity of ESMBers to financially assist with the continuation of ESMB. I really appreciate it and hope I can stretch the friendship one more time and ask for a small offering. With less than $3k needed, and more than 500 regular posters each week, I hope we can share the load and get this thing done quickly.
I've put some details up on the Pledgie page: http://pledgie.com/campaigns/13835 but basically it comes down to this:
The server we use is here:
https://www.siteground.com/dedicated_server_details.htm?dedt=20
It's $219 per month for 12 months plus domain renewal which totals $2643.00. It's a bit less than last year because I don't have to renew the Vbulletin license. I have to take into account Paypal Fees (which in previous years I've forgotten about). These are calculated at 3.5%. I know Paypal advertise 2.4% but I always cop 3.5% but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm accepting foreign currency. I'm not sure and if anyone knows please clue me in.
Anyway, the final figure comes out at $2735.50.
I've used Pledgie before and found it to be very good and transparent. The only problem I've faced, and it's proven to be a royal pain in the ass, is where people want to remain anonymous.
PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO DONATE.
Pledgie relies on Paypal. Paypal uses your REAL NAME. If you have a credit card or a Paypal account you will have that name registered as a donor UNLESS YOU CHOOSE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS.
You have the option of remaining anonymous when you donate by simply ticking a box. PLEASE remember to tick the box as it takes ages to get this fixed if you don't. Some of you might be fine with having your real name up on the pledgie board. Thats cool too. Either way I will be notified of the donation in YOUR REAL NAME. Only I will get the email from Paypal and I'll never post those details anywhere.
The other option is to pay straight into my paypal account. This will mean I will update the Pledgie manually using your ESMB name. If you really want to do it this way then OK, but it means more manual work for me but I'm happy to do it if it makes you more comfortable.
I already have some donations received earlier to put up. I just need to confirm with the donors whether they want to remain anonymous or not.
That's about it for now.
After a lot of thinking and planning and talking with friends, the administrative structure of ESMB has been settled upon.
Human Again (Natascha) hasn't been posting a lot lately as she's been completely under the pump at work, so most of you probably haven't noticed that she is now an administrator of ESMB. If you have a look at her profile you can see she has lost all her stars (like me) and her title says "Administrator". As soon as both of us can get some time together (hopefully over the weekend) I will train her in the most common admin functions and she will gradually take over the reins of the "front office".
This means that she will be the final arbiter on bannings, thread closures, dispute resolution and all those (although infrequent) unpleasant duties. She will also be answering emails & PMs that are ordinarily sent to the admin of a message board. She will decide on moderators and moderating, any rule changes, infaction system changes etc. should the need arise.
I will remain on ESMB as an administator also, but my duties will be mainly "back office". I'll be here as a back up to Natascha if ever she should need me, but primarily my role will consist of server & software maintenance, trouble shooting server problems, finances, software upgrades, database backups etc. The domain name, software and server space will remain in my name only and I will be the only person to have server & database access.
I feel that this is a really workable solution. I get to basically walk away from the day to day admin duties that I've had enough of after nearly 4 years, but I still get to be a part of this great group.
I know Natascha will be a great administrator. She's very sane and far, FAR more organised than me. I know you will give her your support as she learns the ropes. She has said to me that she has no intention of making any big changes and hopefully things will just chug along as they always have. I won't say too much about what her plans are, as I'm sure she will want to post her ideas herself in good time.
Now the bad news
You might have noticed a Pledgie badge up in the top left hand corner of the site.
Yep. It's dono time again.
Unfortunately it costs quite a lot to run ESMB on a dedicated server. Besides being too big for a shared server, I've found the convenience, server speed and capabilities for handling traffic and data really good on the current set up we have.
Most of you have been through this cycle at least once. For some this will be the third time. You know how difficult I find it to ask for money but I have no choice.
In the past I've been overwhelmed with the generosity of ESMBers to financially assist with the continuation of ESMB. I really appreciate it and hope I can stretch the friendship one more time and ask for a small offering. With less than $3k needed, and more than 500 regular posters each week, I hope we can share the load and get this thing done quickly.
I've put some details up on the Pledgie page: http://pledgie.com/campaigns/13835 but basically it comes down to this:
The server we use is here:
https://www.siteground.com/dedicated_server_details.htm?dedt=20
It's $219 per month for 12 months plus domain renewal which totals $2643.00. It's a bit less than last year because I don't have to renew the Vbulletin license. I have to take into account Paypal Fees (which in previous years I've forgotten about). These are calculated at 3.5%. I know Paypal advertise 2.4% but I always cop 3.5% but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm accepting foreign currency. I'm not sure and if anyone knows please clue me in.
Anyway, the final figure comes out at $2735.50.
I've used Pledgie before and found it to be very good and transparent. The only problem I've faced, and it's proven to be a royal pain in the ass, is where people want to remain anonymous.
PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO DONATE.
Pledgie relies on Paypal. Paypal uses your REAL NAME. If you have a credit card or a Paypal account you will have that name registered as a donor UNLESS YOU CHOOSE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS.
You have the option of remaining anonymous when you donate by simply ticking a box. PLEASE remember to tick the box as it takes ages to get this fixed if you don't. Some of you might be fine with having your real name up on the pledgie board. Thats cool too. Either way I will be notified of the donation in YOUR REAL NAME. Only I will get the email from Paypal and I'll never post those details anywhere.
The other option is to pay straight into my paypal account. This will mean I will update the Pledgie manually using your ESMB name. If you really want to do it this way then OK, but it means more manual work for me but I'm happy to do it if it makes you more comfortable.
I already have some donations received earlier to put up. I just need to confirm with the donors whether they want to remain anonymous or not.
That's about it for now.
And THANK YOU, Emma - and Human Again
s
