Down time...

[lmilano]

Re: Down time...

I still don't understand why we can't ask Canonical. They have been very generous all along, this is the default forum for a supported variant of Ubuntu, and frankly, they do have the hardware.

Nor me. Reading the main Ubuntu forums you wouldn't think that there are other versions available with so much talk of Unity and Gnome 3 going on at present. A dedicated Kubuntu forum is a must as any KDE/Kubuntu posts get lost in the noise there. The main Kubuntu site has a link to this forum, in fact it is mentioned in preference to the main forum site.

As I don't know how or why this site came into being I won't comment any further but I think I'll have to use Kubuntu a little longer before I make a donation. Although I still have Ubuntu 10.04 installed it's only been just over a week since I started using Kubuntu 11.04 exclusively.

You hit the nail on the head, Paul.

KDE/Kubuntu support gets washed out in Ubuntuforums, and I have been bashed a few times there with "hey, why would you use that KDE crap anyway". I know this is against the forum policy, and they are run by wonderful people. It's just that it is a huge forum and it's hard to control. Here we are fewer and we keep it cozier

Through the years, though, there have been numerous similar questions here: why is this run on Windows (from a company that is trying to destroy Free Software), and why does it go down so often. The answers are all similar, and I believe unsatisfactory. This is not to say that there is evil involved. We are a group of very nice people, we are just not doing a gppd job at this.

I have 2500 posts, probably 1% of them requesting help, I mostly help people. I guess it is fair to say that I am a relevant part of this story. I have no idea why we are requesting money, who would get the actual funds, what exactly will be used for, etc. No accountability. This is not a good sign. Changes in future direction of community efforts are better off concerted by their communities, not dictated. So I am still hopeful we can enter a fruitful discussion about this matter.

So, here goes my opinion. It is hard to organize a proper fundraiser with proper accountability, etc. , so it is way, ways better to fall under a larger umbrella, and let the parent organization manage this. As far as I can tell, we could contact:

• The Kubuntu.org people
• Canonical directly
• KDE

The question is pretty simple. Could you please host us, and we keep our kubuntuforums.net domain and identity? I think they would all say YES. And I still don't understand why we are not even trying.

[Detonate]

Re: Down time...

I would rather see the forum remain independent. Anytime you start depending on another entity to provide your needs, you give up your freedom to make your own rules, and you have to live by theirs.

[lmilano]

Re: Down time...

I would rather see the forum remain independent. Anytime you start depending on another entity to provide your needs, you give up your freedom to make your own rules, and you have to live by theirs.

That's a good point in general. But to be pragmatic, I don't think any of these options I mentioned would impose any draconian restrictions. I wouldn't be running their software if I thought they would And frankly, they all have excellent, fast, Linux servers.

Cheers!

[dibl]

Re: Down time...

I share Detonate's attraction to "independent", although it is a fact that "beggars can't be choosers". I kicked in some money the other day to help out OpenSource.

FWIW, my own web site has been satisfactorily hosted by freehostia.com for several years now. I've never known it to go down. I get 500MB of space and 12GB of monthly traffic for $36/year. Just FYI. I'm sure this site needs a beefier traffic figure -- I have no idea about the space it uses.

[lmilano]

Re: Down time...

I know what you mean. But we need to be careful. The regular users of this site are usually donating their time to help others, other to get helped. Most people who get hlped stick around a few posts and leave. Some say to learn and help others.

And frankly, my strong suspicion is that there are resources out there we can use for free, given the nature of what we do. So we are painting ourselves into a "beggars can't be choosers" corner. Oh well.

[claydoh]

Re: Down time...

We aim to be independent. I do not think Canonical are interested in investing in another forum where , from their standpoint, one very good one already exists. We are having a slow time just trying to get a separate Kubuntu wiki/help site set up by their sysadmins - that would involve more time and effort on their part, like it or not

Kubuntu, despite having some paid developers (our fearless leader Jonathan Riddell, and Aurelien Gateau, who works on Ayatana and Unity-2d), we are still a community distro. We don't have much input or direction from up above, really.

I want to keep this separate from ubuntuforums because we get to have our own ruleshttp://www.kubuntu-de.org/, our own say. And, heck we are even independent of Kubuntu itself.

An example is the also-independent German Kubuntu community who also do things on their own, and have somewhat similar forum usage. All run from donations. I have spoken with a couple of their members in irc before, I will be looking to ask them some questions as we proceed

[MoonRise]

Re: Down time...

I agree with Claydoh, Dibl, and Detonate. I believe we'd loose quite a bit and frankly from what I've seen from Canonical and their supported sites, much less to be desired.

[jager]

Re: Down time...

I have a server that I am willing to share. I seldom register at forums but I have been a frequent lurker/visitor here over the years. I messaged Open Source directly about it, but I see in other postings that he is often away for long spaces so I thought I'd offer it up to the room at large. Perhaps sharing a server is not the sort of independence you had in mind? Message me for details, I suppose.

[claydoh]

Re: Down time...

I have a server that I am willing to share. I seldom register at forums but I have been a frequent lurker/visitor here over the years. I messaged Open Source directly about it, but I see in other postings that he is often away for long spaces so I thought I'd offer it up to the room at large. Perhaps sharing a server is not the sort of independence you had in mind? Message me for details, I suppose.

He should get it, iirc. if you want you can PM me or another moderator and we will make sure he gets it. Any ideas, suggestions, and offers are worth considering. And greatly accepted We have a fantastic group of people, you all keep proving that every day

[Open Source]

Re: Down time...

So, a couple options look good, including hostgator and bitfolk. Hostgator has a long standing company reputation and offers an affordable package. I am not as familiar with bitfolk, but that is not to say they don't provide the same quality of uptime. I especially appreciate discounts offered by them. I would love to hear more about bitfolk.com so please feel free to PM me. Thank you to everyone that has been a part of building this forum and to those who have donated services and finances along the way.

At this time, someone has donated their vBulletin license. It is version 3.1 and can be upgraded at the discounted rate of $250 or we could use it as is. If we upgrade the software to get the full CMS suite (for $250), we currently have enough money donated to pay for the software and 2.5 months of hostgator service. If we don't upgrade, we have enough for approximately 8 months of hostgator hosting. The current donation account sits at $385. As I mentioned previously in the announcement, I would like to collect enough funds to support the site for one year. That way ongoing fund raising would be easier and there wouldn't have to be down time for lack of funds.

I want to be very open about the donations and the status of KFN simply because it isn't my intentions to make money off of it, but more so just to provide a forum that is user supported. I am no rich man, otherwise I would just pay for everything on my own. I hope this addresses some of lmilano's concerns about accountability.

VPS hosting suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,
OS

[Snowhog]

Re: Down time...

The current donation account sits at $385. As I mentioned previously in the announcement, I would like to collect enough funds to support the site for one year. That way ongoing fund raising would be easier and there wouldn't have to be down time for lack of funds.

I believe that is a sound approach.

[ardvark71]

Re: Down time...

At this time, someone has donated their vBulletin license. It is version 3.1 and can be upgraded at the discounted rate of $250 or we could use it as is. If we upgrade the software to get the full CMS suite (for $250), we currently have enough money donated to pay for the software and 2.5 months of hostgator service. If we don't upgrade, we have enough for approximately 8 months of hostgator hosting. The current donation account sits at $385.

Hi...

What are the differences between vBulletin and SMF? Does vBulletin offer services (that SMF doesn't) that are needed by this forum?

Regards...

[wizard10000]

Re: Down time...

IMO vBulletin's CMS suite is way overkill for a forum like this, plus if you ask me the UI is just awful. vB 3.x (current is 3.8.7) should be more than sufficient - even the Ubuntu forums run vB 3.8.4.

My own board is running vB 3.8.5 and can be found here if anyone would like to take a look -

http://www.ebassist.com

the front page is a free plugin called vBadvanced

http://www.vbadvanced.com/

and a direct link to the forums is here -

http://ebassist.com/forum/

I'm currently gatewaying two Usenet groups into the forum where users can read and post. vB 3's functionality is IMO considerably better than SMF.

vBulletin's got a pretty good plugin system and I've got probably 15 plugins installed - I no longer install hacks that require altering vBulletin code as it makes it too hard to upgrade. vBulletin 3 is at end of life (all they're doing are security updates) but it's a robust product. Out of all the forums I frequent I only know of one running vBulletin 4 and IMO it's awful.

Plugins and products for vBulletin are at http://www.vbulletin.org but you've gotta have a valid vBulletin license to download any modifications. As I mentioned I recommend pretty strongly against installing any hack that requires altering vBulletin core files - there's plenty of functionality available without altering the code by just installing plugins and making template edits

I would be willing to grant Open Source temporary admin access to my own board so he can take a look at admin and moderator controls if he likes. I've got a daily database backup and he can't alter my own account, so it's pretty unlikely he could break anything

edit: I almost forgot. My own forum is skinned - the skin is available here.

http://vbskins.com/theme/browner.html

They have both free and non-free skins.

[jager]

Re: Down time...

One of my friends works at Hostgator, it is indeed a good company. Because of this, though, I happen to know that all their operations are hosted at Softlayer; http://softlayer.com, and it's cheaper to go to them directly. Hostgator will tell you this, if you ask, and will claim that their support is far better (it is) and thus it is less costly in the long run to just go with the gator. Your mileage may vary depending upon what you get and the amount of support you need and expect.

[MoonRise]

Re: Down time...

Does vBulletin have better search capabilities than SMF? Better search functions would be a great improvement point.