Okay. I am like days away from making a final decision about upgrading the server to a dedicated hosting plan. Decision you say? You thought this was already decided correct? Well you know how life is. Things are not always going as planned. Just 1 DAY after doing the migration to the new server in Atlanta (to recap this was to switch to an almost indentical but lower cost plan for the interim to save about $120 for this month)... anyways 1 day after this I see an add on Interlands homepage. "Dedicated Hosting from $99!". Now I think to myself. Okay...don't get excited. This will be some wimpy hosting package that won't have anywhere near what this site needs in terms of monthly bandwidth transfer or server RAM. I click on.... 2 packages. I look at the $99 plan. 512mb of RAM. Not bad but that's what we have now roughly and we need more. The next plan is only $30 more per month...and...(I fall over at this point) it HAS 1GB of RAM!! I have searched High and Low for a plan like this and for a low monthly rate and it's even with the company we have been with since the start (albeit they just bought-out this smaller company that the plan is through). I read on. The plan is complete self-managed. No free tech support or automated back-ups. Hmm...they do offer PLESK which is some kind of backup tool. 120GB of storage space. This is about 30% more than would have gotten with the other company I was looking at. But the real deal is the overall cost.

Per Month: $129
Setup Fee: $49
Key limitation phrase: "Limited Time Offer"

Hmm...will they raise the rates 3 months in to $300 a month?? Nobody knows...

So now you see my conundrum. My plan is this. Sign-up for this server. Get the site up and running on it in tandem with the existing site. Get a bunch of people to test it and hopefully run it under some kind of load. Then we will see if this company and server are worth the change (or full of poo-too-tee).

Many of you contributed to this upgrade and I will obviously have some money left over if this scenario pans out (the other server was going to cost upwards of $1000 for the first month plus setup). I am sure many of you will just want me to put that money to good use somewhere else on the site. And I will, I am already scoping out a cool photo gallery application that will allow each user to have a set amount of storage space to upload their pics. This app will run about $150 so having this extra money available helps with stuff like this. I would also like to organize a new contest for the Spring. This time will be a bit different I think. I plan on getting donations from hobby retailers or manufacturers and will ship out the winning products myself for speed sake.

If however anyone who donated for the server upgrade thinks I am pulling a "fast-one" and wants their money back. I will understand and gladly refund you via paypal. I was incredibly touched that so many of you gave up your hard-earned dollars to help out the site and your buddies on it.

Thanks for making this such a fun and supportive place to be!

Cheers,
Jim

Jim,

I am quite confused now. Have you already paid for the new server, with the money that some donated, and want a new one, that is better? I am sorry, but I don't understand you now. I thought that you already bought a new server (see topic "Welcome to the Twithlight zone).

It seems like the new server is very good! But do we need such a "supermachine"? Please, don't missunderstand me now, Jim. I like the proposition, but it is nececery with this upgrade?

Good thinking Jim. Totally on board. Thanks for shopping around for us and make this site even better. I don't even know how it's possible, but you always pull it off.... Thanks!

Aragorn, the new server we switched to is not a better server, just a cheaper one. We have needed a better one for some time. Yes we need a "supermachine." This site has grown too much to not upgrade.

Jim, Is this a better plan in terms of server and bandwidth than the one you were thinking about? Or is it just better than the one we have now? I am also conscerned that it might give us a little room to breathe now but long term might hinder our growth, would this be the case or will it be more than adequate for another 2000+ users? Is the PLESK like a RAID backup?

My feelings are that if it lasts more than three months the cost savings would be sufficient enough to justify it. That would give you time to get the new gallery program and if neccessary save up more money for the switch to the plan you had previously decided on.

Rob

Jamal,

I seriously don't understand your point here. I might be wrong, and if so, I apologize to you in advance for it.

But as far as I know, Jim is the owner of this site, he runs a pretty damn good site, and IMHO the best. And he is kind enough to inform us every step on the way how he is going to upgrade this site. man, he is doing this for free, he ain't got paid.

I say why don't you just keep those thoughts to yourself, and let Jim does his thingy which so far I see no problem with it, and even if you do, I mean hell, it's his site. Put in this way, as far as I see, comes to website owner, they are like king, they own this place, it's not a democracy.

And we are lucky to have a good king.

Just leave Jim alone and let him do his thingy, okay? Thanks!

Sounds like a great plan and I am with SS on this. Don't know how you can pull it off, but have no doubt you will.
If it saves time and money and you think it will be better for the site then how can you not at least check it out. As far as I can tell Jim has never steered us wrong intentionally or at all for that matter. I give him all the credit and respect for even posting the message he could have said that is what I am going to do and do it. Thanks just for asking what we think Jim.

The only 2 real questions I have are this though.
1. By doing this will it free you up of having to work so hard to maintain the best model site on the net?
2. Even if they did raise the price of the server would it be worth the money?
Good luck with the conundrum you face and I know you will make the best decision for the site. Me I'll just buckle up the old seat harness and enjoy the ride and live with whatever decision you make and give it my 100% support.

Dave,

I think that you missunderstand me now. I am not as good as you are on english, so please, don't missunderstand me now again. And I think that your post was quite rude.

I didn't ment to offence someone here, I just asked, do we need a such good machine? Is it worth the money?

So please Dave, don't write such posts again.

Hi Jim,
I'll be glad to make a donation to support the site. How can I do it?
Ciao

Hey guys,
Moving to new server caused some problems for Jim and when Jim has some problems we all feel much stressed becuase I know Armorama is more than modelling website for all of us,but we must be cool and never let stress cause some more problems for all of us... Remember we all are in the same side..best regards all

All I'll say is your the one who knows the details and I will support you with what you decide is best for the site. and even if there is a price increase in a few months, it might be worth it for the savings in the meantime.

keep up the good work and thank you for keeping us informed.

Dave I have to step in here for Jamal.

First off, I have seen several mails of Jamal and I have gotten responses from him also, his English is not perfect, and when you are trying to bring a message which is not in your mother tongue that it is very easy to be misunderstood because you are not able to bring the message across as you would like to.

Second, Even I was confused, but after reading this and earlier postings I got back on track and saw that I missed something before.

Third, SS, you are right, Jim is the "king'' of this site and he is a darn good one and I give him all the respect he disserves and I think it is mighty fine of him to keep us updated, I appreciate it a lot.

But I never have known Jim to be annoyed by any comments/remarks he has gotten from any member of this site, Jamal has the right to ask as we all have, the fact that Jim is updating us is giving us this freedom, but .. it also or duty to inform others when they misunderstood something, and not putting them down!

Just my 2 cents

Jim
I have seen these kinds of things happen all the time. So I don't feel hood winked at all.
In looking at the management of this site from day one I have total faith that you are doing and decide to do what is best for the site and all of us who get the priveledge to use it.

Bottom line - you've got my support. You know what it takes to keep this site running better than anyone else.
If you need any help just ask.

Thanks guys.

And Jamal I got your meaning in the above question. I can understand your confusion as my post kind of rambled a bit. Basically to answer your question we really do need a better server "if" we want to grow beyond where we are at now.

Thanks again,
Jim

:-) Jim, I'm with what ever you do, especially if it gives us more hosying space for pictures.
As ever keep up the good work :-)
Mal

Jim,

Go, Go, Go !!!!

I'm fully confident that you invest the money in good purposes ! Go for it.

Danny

Jim,
I am totally with you. Being a QA Analyst/Software Tester I can tell you that you'll need that stuff. Also, since you mentioned that you'll need some people to test it, you'll probably want to do some load testing, stress testing and performance testing overall on the new server. 1Gig of memory should be enough for our needs for now. An automated testing tool will be of much help for you in this case. Rational has a tool for this and if I am not mistaken, you can download a free evaluation copy from their wbesite. In terms of the features that the new server has, you should probably ask those guys how is backup setup (frequency, space allocated a.s.o.). I believe it is a RAID system so you should not have too many headaches with it. Keep us posted with your needs, maybe we can help you.
Rational

Jim,

What the heck is going on?!!! Gimme all my money back. Only kidding

Hey thanks for keeping us up to speed on what is going on. I was just going to make a suggestion about Rational when I saw Sebastian's post and I won't offer up suggestions on the ISP as I am sure you know what you are doing and appreciate your updates.

When you posted this originally, my hardest decison regarding this hobby at the time was whether or not to lop the head off of my fourth figure to replace it with a better one. Both of our dilemnas equally precarious.

This is why you are at the helm and we are here to support Armorama, we band of brothers!!!

As always, if you need any support, please email me. GR8Voyager

Onward Brave Soul! You've got my full support.

Gunnie

Jim,
You built the best scale modelling site on the web and I trust your judgment. Do what you think is best. And thanks for all the hard work.

All I can say Jim is keep up the outstanding work you have been doing in the past and I'm sure thee willl be very few complainers