Succinctly put, we're stuck at this version of the OS, PHP, and the database for this cost. Whether or not we ever change any code, this is so. Once these softwares go end-of-life there will be no more updates or patches, and our vulnerabilities will go unclosed.

ah, I see. So, we need money, to switch to something that will have more flexibility?

will a server for what we need ever get cheaper, like memory for PCs does?

If we need more money/month to do what we need to do, then that's that. what needs to make it official?

Not with a given provider, I don't think. I mean, technically there's no reason it should ever get more expensive to provide us with exactly the same horsepower

We currently have:

• 2.6 Ghz Celeron
• 512MB ECC Memory
• 80 GB
• CentOS 4.x

For $10/month more we can get:

• 2.4 Ghz P4
• 512MB ECC Memory
• 120 x 2 (hardware raid 1)
• CentOS 5.x/Plesk 8.x

Much of a muchness, pretty much. It's every time we have to change that last line, we have to change servers. And that will never be cheaper, and I doubt it will never not increase our monthly, as well as incur a once-off cost.

If we don't have our own server (I'm not saying for sure we can play well with others, but I don't see how our code is that crap, even though we've relaxed to take up the space allowed us) server version upgrades are not something we should have to chase or pay more for.

does anyone else feel like they're watching Charlie Brown and the teacher is speaking?

not really. ita is making a lot of sense. I would like to pitch in - where to send $?

I understand money is needed but that's about it.

where to send $?

this.

Money can always be sent to donations courtesy of buffistas.org.

I just want to make sure I'm not charging off down some geeky route with everyone else's money in hand. I get distracted by shiny things, see.

This all makes sense to me. If we don't move forward it will be like keeping the system running on Win98. Some things just won't be options and won't work. We should keep current on upgrades and on security patches.

The upgrade need and plan make a lot of not-charging-down-some-geeky-route sense to me (I'm very prone to the shiny distractions, but that's for personal flooping around and I appreciate the relative caution here; but it's time that an upgrade is really needed.)

OTOH, that's just a vote of confidence and not practical advice -- I have no clue at all about what the market's like for dedicated server hosting for projects this size.

And, as others have said, I'm always happy to donate -- I try to do so when I remember anyway, but if any unusual push is needed for a board-health project, just say.

As a complete surprise I received an email from our website host that said I could move to a new faster server with more room and it would cost less. An hour or so downtime for the transition. I didn't see the downside and moved. They actually refunded me for the past few months that we paid at the higher rate. Still shocked, but a month or so later no problems. (ICDSoft)

but I don't see how our code is that crap

Certainly not for us! Have we looked at other sites recently? This board = a beautiful thing.