[H]ard Paypal Fund

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

AragornTK

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 2, 2005
Messages
251
I noticed the forum and site problems earlier today as well, but right now they are fine. Anywho, a thought occurred to me today, when I read a post where someone said that the forums are free, so we can't really bitch about it. But what if we had a "[H]ardcore Membership" basicly VIP access to the forums and site, like extra forums for us and getting to see reviews a few days earlier than anyone else. These things would be relatively low cost for the admins/editors/webmasters to incorporate, and would allow them to perhaps upgrade or hire more people in order to better the site and forums. Maybe they could even have a monthly raffle for members, for the latest video card or CPU reviewed. Make it cost $5 bucks a year, if only 200 people sign up, that's an extra $1000 to improve the site.

If you dig this idea, give this thread a bump so we know how many people support it.
 
Good idea that's already semi in use.

I'm a proud subscriber of this idea as well, it's called GenMay Aragorm.
 
AragornTK said:
just seems to me like more incentive AND advertising is needed for it
Click to expand...

I think Genmay is well worth the paltry sum that it costs.
 
AragornTK said:
just seems to me like more incentive AND advertising is needed for it
Click to expand...
From your original post, it sounded like you wanted to help this place out, so isn't that incentive enough to buy a subscription? It was for me, anyway. As far as advertising goes, it is mentioned just about everywhere it can be without being annoying(rules, faq, as well as an announcement that appears at the top of each forum).
 
Genmay needs to be advertised more, I've only heard of it through other peoples' posts, and I've been here a couple months now. I'm going to join soon.
 
Genmay needs to be advertised more, I've only heard of it through other peoples' posts, and I've been here a couple months now. I'm going to join soon.
Click to expand...

um, go into ANY subforum. At the top of the topics listing you will see a message about subscription access from Kyle (He's the guy that runs this place). Read the annoncement.

I don't see how anyone can say that it isn't presented as it is omnipresent :D
 
As Kyle mentioned in the Announcement, we are doing occasional previews where registered/logged-in members can view GenMay but not post. The last several have been "sneak peek weekends" so I'm thinking we might do the next one mid-week after the first of the year.

The news crew has been very generous in pimping the previews on the front page of OCP, and a sticky is made here in Help/Feedback for the duration. So keep an eye out for one soon. :)
 
Yes, genmay is advertised in the subforums. But not out there, in your face like annoying tv commercials. Ive hosted my website and forum (GTA/GTA london) years ago on a hand-me-down server. Due to lack of funds, all that was holding it together were (literally) masking tape, and some failing components.

But then again, its not always best to throw money at the problem (think of the IBM commercial). If we all do our part donating a little here and there... Well, if we all donated 2$2-3 per year, 50000x3...

You really have to apperciate what everyone has done to keep this forum together. 50,000 members, many moderators. Its a lot of work to keep something as large as the hardforum running smoothly for nearly a year straight.
 
I'll quote Kyle on the hardware specs he mentioned a few months ago here:

Actually we own our own servers, ThePlanet provides bandwidth, power, and of course the cabinets.

The forum has a dedicated database server that is a dually 2800+ AthlonXP setup with 4GB RAM, 1 RAID5 array (3 15K RPM SCSI) for OS, 1 RAID0 array (2 15K RPM SCSI) for Index, and 1 RAID0 array (3 15K RPM SCSI) for data. We back up to another server.

For web, HardOCP and HardForum share 3 dually Opteron servers. All are brand new and have been purchased in the last year. So I think they are all 2.2GHz or better with 4GB ram each.
Click to expand...
Other than the occasional Planet or DNS glitches, the biggest issue seems to be that MySQL was never intended to handle something as large as the [H] has become.

Adding some more perks for subscribers is a consideration. I know a shorter wait time between searches is something many people have mentioned, but a lot of vBulletin settings are universal and cannot be changed selectively except by custom programming.

Kyle is in the midst of a re-design for the main OCP site. Until such time as that is completed, upgrading the forum software takes a back seat. And there are no plans to further customize the current software, as it would be lost in the eventual upgrade.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top