Hosting of BLC / cost issue

michael's picture

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Hi all, I'm running into a cost issue to host our catalog.

The story is the following: This catalog was written in Drupal, because I liked to learn this content management system (CMS) now 5 years ago. What I did not know at that time, was the technical requirements and the associated cost.

I started with a 'small cloud server' with 5€ a month. Because of many functions I liked to test, I added program source for a chat, analytics, statistic, search engine optimizing, flip books, etc to our catalog. In the end, I needed more RAM and pay now 20€ a month, because the main memory is expecive. So far this is fine for me.

But now the database is extending the 1GB. When I started, I could not believe that our few labels (without the pictures) will need a database with more than 1GB. This is because the seach function, the 5 translations and the many verfications & like it, etc. There are now huge indexes used at the database.

So my provider asked me to migrate to the next higher hardware platform with 50€ a month. So what do you think, how can we share the cost? Does someone know a banana company which likes to pay us to document this 'art' and we add an advertisement? Or could someone help to find a cheaper provider? Or do we want to migrate to an other CMS which does not need so much webspace?

Sorry, I did not know this consequences, when I started this catalog, but have now to solve this issue. 50€ a month for the rest of my live is too much ...

Michael

We should all contribute, you

We should all contribute, you should not have to carry the cost.

Perhaps a yearly subscription to cover the cost?

Ciao Micheal, io sono d

Ciao Micheal, io sono d'accordo a contribuire al costo del sito. Potrebbe bastare mettere una quota a testa, mensile o annuale, basta decidere, credo che chi ama questo passatempo non si faccia problemi a pagare un contributo per un catalogo così importante, Paolo

...So what do you think, how

...So what do you think, how can we share the cost?..

Nope, you should cut some functions- all these translations, verfications, likes and chat. Guys don't use it much. 1 languadge + 1 forum is more than enough. Too few users for all these functions, they are great, but 50 per month is madness, no way you can get it from users.

Even 20 per month is way too much.

I would donate only if I have to, sorry. Make it impossible to exchange without small fee, kinda you can see other email only after sending 5 bucks or something. Or you can see who has this label only after... Guess it's the only way to gety something from this place. You are a great dude and the site is great, but again even 20 euro per month... it's crazy

Hi Sergeev,

Hi Sergeev,

thank you for your feedback and maybe there is a misunderstanding, 50€ is not the cost per user but of this whole website. If you have a (professional) website, you have the cost to host the application. It is never for free, because computers cost money.

To reduce functions will not lead to a significant cost cut. And I know the translations are used and all the other functions too. The verfication is important and one reason why this site exists. We have now 71000 verfications and it helps to separate the mango, papaya and avocado labels form banana labels.

I would not expect any money from most of our collectors for example in EC or CR. But if 10 of our 200 collectors are willing to pay 5€ a month we have this issue solved. This is the eqivalent of 2 beers a month and probably it is worth for some of us to build up this catalog of all known banana labels and to provide a platform to trade labels.

My question to share the cost is on voluntary basis.

Dude, I got you. Still, imo

Dude, I got you. Still, imo you should make most of trade options to be fee-based. Like see others trade lists, see who has got a particular label, see others emails.

Or another thing you don't have- to have an oportunity to buy/sell labels. Kinda you may give prices for your labels. By this you can sell your labels, we can donate labels for selling. Again it can be a paid option to have the oportunity to buy/sell, to see who sells what

Price of labels?

Go on E-Bay and see the trade in labels and use that.    Hopefuly we are in the hobby for fun. I trade with plenty on a one to one and have no problems

I think we should go for a

I think we should go for a yearly subscription so all collectors share the cost. However this opens up  for administrative discussions on trial membership etc. if it is on a volutary basis you risk to erode the basis for teh fee.

Please dont go down the line

Please dont go down the line of selling labels.

Putting a price on them will destroy the joy of collecting and lead to printing without ever being intended to go on the fruit. Lets just put our hands in our pockets and help pay for the site

I also like to keep the money

I also like to keep the money out of our hobby in trading banana labels.

It is rather about the cost of an infrastructure for collectors, because we like to show & see all known banana labels. We like to see the labels in best quality in a comprehensible catalog. We like to identify the treasures by ‘like it’ and we like that the labels are verified to be banana labels. We like comments, discussions and to be close to other collectors of this funny hobby. We do not like fees.

We only need few collectors to operate this infrastructure of all the things we like. It seems not to be necessary to make it more complex. It should work to get the annual cost on a voluntary basis. So far we are Claus, Pablo, Bert, Peter and me. I’m very happy with this situation and the support of this dedicated collectors. Only a few collectors are missing to have it complete.

Who is next?