05-21-2015, 10:28 AM
Rather than further derail the tactics thread, I'll start a new one if people want to talk about forum hosting. To provide background, these forums were originally started by someone called Axdec, back in 2008. Shortly afterward though he disappeared, but KTA stepped forward, took the forum backup I was able to get, and eventually turned it into what you are all visiting now. He even kept an eye out for the thaypw.org domain name when Axdec let that expire and grabbed it back for us.
Unfortunately though, back around September of 2013, KTA had real-life changes that caused him to quickly drop from full-time to a non-active member of the community. He does still, however, add new members which I understand is a manual process because we were getting dozens of bots a day signing up fake accounts in years past. So he's around...just not active. Regardless, I've been very pleased with these forums and the job KTA has done in managing them to get them to the nice state they are in, and have been in, for years.
We are approaching the 2 year mark on his general hiatus, I will admit I have been slightly concerned about the future of these forums. But within the last 6-8 months, KTA has assured both me and Sundraoi that he will continue hosting these forums and renewing the thaypw.org domain name, which has provided some peace of mind. I've discussed the future of this site with the staff and it sounds like Sundraoi may have some ability to host the forums if the worst came to pass and these were shut down unexpectedly, too.
But if someone wishes to take over hosting of these forums, we'd need you to work with KTA to ensure a smooth transition. He pays for all expenses out of his own pocket right now, but the costs for someone else taking over would be more than just a one-time expense and include monthly hosting fees and the yearly (or whatever) registration of the domain name. Furthermore, I would require that *if* we end up moving these, the administration of the actual machine or site these forums are hosted on is jointly-done, so if someone does have RL come up, we have another person(s) that can easily step in and take over the costs of running the server/site so we don't get in this same situation when the person in charge can no longer devote time to Thay.
I've got more than enough to do without taking on the job of setting up a new serve rand site for these forums somewhere else, so if anyone wants to see this done, I'll need those interested to take the initiative and see it through.
Unfortunately though, back around September of 2013, KTA had real-life changes that caused him to quickly drop from full-time to a non-active member of the community. He does still, however, add new members which I understand is a manual process because we were getting dozens of bots a day signing up fake accounts in years past. So he's around...just not active. Regardless, I've been very pleased with these forums and the job KTA has done in managing them to get them to the nice state they are in, and have been in, for years.
We are approaching the 2 year mark on his general hiatus, I will admit I have been slightly concerned about the future of these forums. But within the last 6-8 months, KTA has assured both me and Sundraoi that he will continue hosting these forums and renewing the thaypw.org domain name, which has provided some peace of mind. I've discussed the future of this site with the staff and it sounds like Sundraoi may have some ability to host the forums if the worst came to pass and these were shut down unexpectedly, too.
But if someone wishes to take over hosting of these forums, we'd need you to work with KTA to ensure a smooth transition. He pays for all expenses out of his own pocket right now, but the costs for someone else taking over would be more than just a one-time expense and include monthly hosting fees and the yearly (or whatever) registration of the domain name. Furthermore, I would require that *if* we end up moving these, the administration of the actual machine or site these forums are hosted on is jointly-done, so if someone does have RL come up, we have another person(s) that can easily step in and take over the costs of running the server/site so we don't get in this same situation when the person in charge can no longer devote time to Thay.
I've got more than enough to do without taking on the job of setting up a new serve rand site for these forums somewhere else, so if anyone wants to see this done, I'll need those interested to take the initiative and see it through.