[Mickey]

As you likely know, we have been having a rising number of connectivity issues over the last few months. Our current host has been very helpful in dealing with these issues, but they continue to come up. Helpful only works for so long when the problems keep popping up.

So, we're looking at moving to a new host. Specifically, we're looking at moving to SiteSouth. The servers we would get from them would be a little bit faster than what we have now. More importantly, though, they are on a much larger and more stable network, so the connectivity issues should be completely resolved. I've looked into SiteSouth a good bit and they seem to be a well-established, reputable company. If you have other info about them (good or bad), please post in this thread and let us know.

The monthly cost for these servers will be a little big higher than what we're paying now. That alone isn't a problem, as our ad revenue (as well as paid memberships) will be able to cover that. However, there are some substantial set-up fees that we need to come up with in order to make this happen.

We need to get some extra memory on each of the machines at SiteSouth, at a cost of $290 per server (so $580). Also, there will be some overlap during which we'll be running both sets of servers (while we're copying files, testing, etc) and we'll be getting charged by both hosts. I anticipate that to cost us around $400, although it's hard to say for sure.

As a goal, I think we need to try to come up with $1000. In this thread I proposed asking the community to try to contribute toward this and was met with very positive feedback. So, if you're willing to give toward this goal, now is your chance.

You can send the money via PayPal to mickey@christianguitar.org. Or, you can also mail a check or money order or whatever to me at home. Make sure you note that it's for the new server so I'm don't think it's for a paid membership or something.

Mickey Mellen
1612 Alexandria Ct.
Marietta, GA 30067

I'll keep a running tab on this page of where we are relative to the $1000 goal. I'm looking to make this change early next month. Ideally I'd like to get the new server up and running by about March 13th or 14th, do some testing during the week and get CGR moved and running on the new server by March 19th. Most (if not all) of this money would need to be put down in order to for them to start building the servers, so we'll need to try to come up with it by about March 7th.

I understand that some of you simply cannot come up with any money to contribute and that is perfectly fine. If you'd like to help in other ways, you can post a note in your signature linking to this thread, and we always appreciate prayers for the site. Thanks for all you do to make CGR what it is!

Mickey



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Current Status:
Needed: $1000
Received: $849.50
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Remaining: $150.50
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[Mickey]

One payment received for $30! Woo-hoo! Good start.

[Gustin]

hey Mickey... may I suggest putting this up on the homepage aswell?

this way we may get support from people who only use the tab portion of the site as well as those who use the forums

just a thought...

[PatrickStar4491]

Mickey, so if we decide to become a paid member, that won't go toward the new servers?? People might decide to donate if they can get the paid member status...

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by PatrickStar4491

Mickey, so if we decide to become a paid member, that won't go toward the new servers?? People might decide to donate if they can get the paid member status...

In some way probably, yes. However, I've got hundreds of dollars in costs every month that most of the paid memberships go toward. I guess if we got a bunch of them then I might be able to use some toward that.

Of course, paid members see fewer ads than normal members, so if a bunch of people suddenly became paid members then our ad revenue would drop a bit...

For now, we'll just have it as straight donations and see what happens.

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by Crstngtrplyr77

hey Mickey... may I suggest putting this up on the homepage aswell?

this way we may get support from people who only use the tab portion of the site as well as those who use the forums

Good call. Done. Don't forget to add a link to your sigs to try to get the word out if you want, too.

[PatrickStar4491]

Ahh. I get your point. I use Adblock anyway... except for Google ads.

[PatrickStar4491]

Don't forget to add a link to your sigs to try to get the word out if you want, too.

Speaking of that... I decided to make an unofficial campaign image. (See below)



So... if you want the image in your sig, use the following code:

<a href="http://www.christianguitar.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=96117"><img  alt="Donate To Help CGR To Get New Servers" title="Click here to learn how you can help CGR get new servers!!" border="0" src="http://www.christianguitar.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47664&stc=1"></a>

[Nate]

I'll be sending something out sometime next week, Mickey.

[Young Twig]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by Young Twig

Just so you know, the [email] tag doesn't work on the homepage.

I noticed that once and took it out. I guess every time I edit the thread it puts it back. I'll fix it again in a sec.

Update: Donations of $40 and $50 just came in, bringing our total to $120 in and $880 remaining!

[Gustin]

Originally Posted by Mickey

Good call. Done. Don't forget to add a link to your sigs to try to get the word out if you want, too.

walkin over to my user CP now

[Mickey]

Another $20 came in...

[Mickey]

$20 more in, $840 to go...

[Nate]

Wow, this is going even quicker than I expected. Awesome.