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.

Oh - I did not know we were being refunded. OK then the week is reasonable.

But in terms of Steves offer - we are being asked to guarantee a year of payments, and we aren't being guaranteed results. Maybe I misunderstood, but it looks like our level of control is a lot less than in the virtual hosting environment. I understand why Steve needs the guarantee, I just don't think we would be right in offering it. We don't know what the problem is. We need an environment where we can both diagnose it, and still be able to move to a new host if we find out that the problem requires it. That combination is something Steve can't offer - and I understand why. We are already a money loser for them; if we diagnose and find out we need a dedicated server within three months, that is not a good deal for him. But being committed to a year at that point is not a good deal for us.

This is not in anyway fangeeks fault. And I don't even think it is the ISPs fault. I really think we need more flexibility than can be offered. We cannot afford to guarantee staying a year at this point. If we leave now, we were given a high level of service which proved not enough for our needs. We can leave friends - no hard feelings on either side. If we stay and things don't work out it seems like somebody gets screwed. WE either pay for a year of service that is not adequeate (maybe through our own fault.) Or the contract is written so we can leave, and Steve and Kristen lose more money. Basically we are betting everything on this new level fixing it. The 'virtual hosting' which may just be the same service Kristen offers in disguise does come with the ability to terminate if we need to upgrade to a real rather than virtual dedicated serverss. In that circumstance we tweak what we can (which may be no more than we can tweak in Kristens offer) but if does not work we can leave and do something else .