Too late to expand tanstaafl, but still pointing to new favourite netspeak site. Which gave me a long moment of geeky joy upon learning that ACRONYM can actually be a meaningful acronym. Hee.

(Abbreviated Coded Rendition Of Name Yielding Meaning)

It's called a typo. fixed it.

But I can edit too and still make you look crazy.

I just wanted to chime in (because at some point I knew who was giving what, too) that I agree with Jesse that we won't have a huge problem gathering money right now (especially since it seems like a crisis). Last time we gathered, people gave what they could, and if we hadn't calmed people down, I think they would have given more than 2400.

I don't think that board culture will change unless we make it a point to praise/chastise eople for their donations. I am more than happy to help with drumming up support/sending mass emails again.

Also, I am really non-tech savvy, so I think the Geekies should decide what is best.

OK a couple of points. I agree with not going with the lowest bidder. But I also am suspicious of going with he high bidder who gives us a short deadline for decision, demands strong guarantees from us and offers very limited guarantees in return. I think we should consider dedicated hosting or virtual dedicated hosting rather than making a rushed decision in those conditions. I think it might be worth considering the offer if they would give us an out if things still don't work our.

Secondly I think most of us (don't want to speak for ita) misunderstood and thought the week was an extension on the offer. I don't think it is a reasonable deadline for finding and moving to a new host. I thought you said we could stay with the current plan as long as we wishe and just get error messages. If we decide to move to a new host, then I think we should stay with this one until we find the right one. Of course we would accept that until we get the riight one we would get error messages and limited technical support. But if this proves not to be the right host for us, then we should not do what we did with host rocket and have to rush to find a new one. We should stick with this one until we find a new one.

Lastly, I'm totally with the Geeks who have been active buffista geeks making the decision. I offer my opinion for what it is worth. But even though I'm a geek, I'm not one who has contributed much technically to the board. But I have not only technical experience but business experience, I can tell you that I think the offer (well-meant as it is) is likely to provide unhappiness for both us, and our host. If it solves the problem of course stuff would be fine. But if it did not and there is no guarantee we both would be miserable.

As I understand it, in the virtual hosting environmet we can do everything we need including rebooting. True?

demands strong guarantees from us and offers very limited guarantees in return

Refresh my memory -- what guarantees (apart from money and contract length) are they demanding, and what are they not giving us back?

in the virtual hosting environmet we can do everything we need including rebooting. True?

My assumption was that rebooting was not possible -- not a cold reboot, anyway.

I don't think it is a reasonable deadline for finding and moving to a new host.

I didn't say moving. I said finding.

Honestly? I'm already refunding all your money. I don't think asking you to make a decision yay or nay on staying here or going elsewhere in a week is unreasonable. I don't think asking for a definitive timetable about when you plan to leave is unreasonable.

Basically, I'm asking you to not make me pay for another two months of web space that I don't need while you debate the merits of other webhosts. Because, yes, last time, it was a two month process.

We can offer you a managed, semi-dedicated account. You would get 25GB of storage, 100GB of bandwidth and 255 MySQL connections. Now, it's not cheap. It would run you $200 a month with a $100 setup fee. But it is cheaper than getting your own dedicated server. You could also offset your costs if you know people who want to switch webhosts and they open accounts with us. If five Buffistas decide to move their websites to the FG server, we would pull their space from your allocation and reduce your costs accordingly. Also, if down the road we work out the resource issues and FG needs more space for new clients, we're willing to buy back space from you, further reducing the cost.

The server would be entirely FanGeek's and we are willing to play around with the configuration and settings to see if that helps your situation. Whether or not it does, the site would stay up and there won't be any further error message issues. Also, being that it would be our server, I can reboot it any time we need that to happen.

The server would be a P4 with 512MB of RAM [if you want to do some comparison shopping]. There would be no additional fees, aside from extra storage and bandwidth should you somehow need that. All of the normal management services that a webhost provides are included in that $200 per month fee. The software, kernel and module updates are all taken care of. The backup is taken care of. Etc.

Now there are two catches to this offer. One, it's for a limited time only. A decision, yay or nay, needs to be made by noon [board time] on Friday. The second catch is that you would need to commit to a year long contract. I'm not saying you need to pay for a year upfront but you would need to agree to stay on for a year. I'd need the setup fee and the first two months in order to place the order. We could probably be up and running at the new location in two weeks or so.

Here's Kristen's original post again.

This seems like the best offer we're going to get(IMO), in terms of being hosted by people who will listen (and reboot), and not having to share resources. I know the deadline's a pain, but if it wasn't there, would people be keen on it? Or are there other reservations?

I think most of us (don't want to speak for ita) misunderstood and thought the week was an extension on the offer

Speaking for myself, I wasn't asking for an extension. I was answering her question about how long before we decide where we're going. if our deciding runs past 12pm tomorrow, wherever that is is not going to be fangeek.

For what it's worth, I understood Kristen to be saying what she's saying. That it would be helpful to her if we could tell her if/when we decide to leave. And she didn't impose the week deadline even for that, she asked us to give her some heads up, and ita replied that she thought we could probably know (if we're leaving) in a week.

Which seems reasonable to me, and even if it didn't, ita, being the head developer with knives, has the latitude to say so if she thinks so.

Secondly, I think the primary objection to the IH/Fangeek plan is financial. Kristen did say there were two catches, one being the deadline and two being the year commitment. I'm okay with the deadline (and again, even if I weren't, I can't control that, there is a deadline, so let's just work with what we got, right?) but I am at least mildly concerned about the year commitment, because of the finance. If we really have unworkable problems, even on the semi-dedicated (for us) dedicated (for Fangeek) server, I'd be uneasy at having spent a grand and a half with no recourse.

However, the plan itself looks reasonably good to me, personally. If it weren't for the financial concerns, I'd think it worth a try, definitely. And we do have the cash on hand that would be needed to get it up and going. It's just the commitment, really, that I'm ancy about, and let me state that I totally understand why it's there. We don't want to stick Fangeek any more than Fangeek wants to get stuck.

If we do go with the offer, perhaps it's time to rethink maybe putting an understated "donate" button on the home page and Message Center page.