Dedicated Server Donations - Server goes if we dont get money.

As the thread says Chalex has spoken to me and is canceling out renewal on the Dedi in February.

Since it doesn't really get used to play games on often its not that bigger deal really but TS is running from there.
There are a lot of other things we could have done with it but nobody seems to have the time or interest.

It costs about £45 / month for the dedi.

Obviously we can rent TS for less than that (i think about £7 / month for as many slots as we need but im not sure maybe less).

If people want to keep the server and are willing to donate a little (£4-£5 each or something) then it can stay and I'm happy to give people access to the server to do what they want (within reason, can be discussed) for that.

If chalex wants to go on a power crusade and say that unacceptable then so be it.

I'm happy to commit to making a donation of £5 / month. If anyone else is then I'll keep a tally on this thread.

TOTAL £10
NEEDED £35

Donators:
Mitch £5
Vicious £5

Good idea to create this thread. I wish we could keep it going without having to resort to donations, but that doesn't really seem possible right now.

Don't have a problem with people getting access to the server :). We'll obviously have to discuss with you how you plan to use it first though.

If I can get access to the server to run some TF2 and CSS etc. on occasionally I'll donate a little (can't much student yada yada) but if I can do that you can count me in.

If someone active gets the power to completely change and set it up to how we want it then ill give a fiver

edit: i also want a different colour name and ability to change whats below my name

ill donate if people are going to actually start using it, im sure the hidden server gets used alot but just not by us :D, is it by paypal?

Can people post how much they are willing to donate (doesn't commit you to this on a monthly basis).

@Marshy yes people can be given power to do stuff, but unless you know how to set shit up then have fun with that ^^. Also the forum colours have nothing to do with the server, can probably change your colour but not give you access to change it yourself.

If you donate, I'll make sure everyone gets added as subscribers. That'll mean you get a blue name and editable title :).

I'd put forward £5 a month while I can still afford it.

FYI for the people "on the fence" so to speak in regards to "ill pay if we will use it".

It isn't hard or even particularly time consuming to even set up various servers etc, its just the maintenance that is an issue really.

For example the CS:GO servers get an update almost ever day, meaning they need to be shutdown and updated.

This in total probably doesn't take more than half an hour, but actually having the drive to make time and do that EVERY DAY around an already busy life is the issue.

I tend to make huge bursts of contribution, like setting up a ton of servers some in virtual machines and setting up the network and ports etc all in one go, usually in a full evening with no breaks.

If more people were up for helping with this stuff it would actually improve the quality of our game servers. It doesn't take any real skill to administer them so we could look into writing a basic procedure for anyone to use to make changes etc.

Ill chip in for the teamspeak server but I have never seen anyone use any of the others so seems a waste.

Would rather spend the money getting ATK flags/ league of Drauen flags made for the i48 finals.

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Originally Posted by drauen

Would rather spend the money getting ATK flags/ league of Drauen flags made for the i48 finals.

getting ATK flags/ league of Drauen flags

league of Drauen flags

league of Drauen

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http://i.imgur.com/L3wRM.png

Can we not host some servers for to raise some moneys ???

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Originally Posted by Target

Can we not host some servers for to raise some moneys ???

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Chalex said no (and we dont have anyone with time to actually manage doing this, or a control panel or anything for users)

As Mitch says, my answer would have been yes if it'd be possible to actually manage the hosted servers properly. Unfortunately, noone has the time and we can't even manage our own servers! We also don't have the funds to invest in solutions that would do this all for us.

I may be able to convince some Uni friends of mine to donate a little, but obviously before I even think about arranging that I'd need confirmation that I'd be able to manage a TF2 server with full control so we can do what we want with it.

Unfortunately poker listings is now significantly reducing their deal with us, so unless we can actually pay for this 100% ourselves, I'm afraid we're going to have to cancel it. Anyone else feeling generous?

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Originally Posted by Vicious Horizon

I may be able to convince some Uni friends of mine to donate a little, but obviously before I even think about arranging that I'd need confirmation that I'd be able to manage a TF2 server with full control so we can do what we want with it.

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Chalex read ^

Ah okay. We can definitely give you the control you're after, but there's no pretty control panel to use. If you're fine with using scripts to start/update servers (I can help you write it, then you just have to run it), then you'll be okay. As Mitch says though, you'll regularly have to login to the server (daily at least) to close the game server down, and update it. That doesn't happen automatically, and is a bit of a pain.

Yep I've run servers in a similar fashion before so that shouldn't be an issue, I'll have a chat with people at Uni at lunch in that case and see what we can do.

Any idea when you'll have made a decision on this by VH? It basically rests on you at this point!

People are willing but not really making a decision, I'm trying to push people to make a decision soon though. Is there any money left in the ATK fund at all we can use and is there anyone in ATK who wants a CSGO match server etc. run?

FYI my friend that I'm considering going into business with after uni currently rents a server with the same spec as ours.

He is thinking of canceling too but doesn't really want to as the server will become useful next year and is silly cheap for what it is.

He said that if we could pay half of the cost then he would be happy for us to host TS / gameservers on it, and if vicious wanted to give money he could have a login too to set up his own stuff.

As he doesn't know any of you he's weary about giving people full admin rights he doesn't know but we can definatley sort it for vicious at least and if we sort out a second account level with the right permissions more people too.

Basically we can have what we have now for half the price if we share, its in both of our interests.

This sounds like a good idea Mitch. Is the spec actually identical?

FYI the ATK fund cannot support spending another penny on the dedicated server unfortunately, so it has to be 100% funded by the community.

So wheres TS coming from then?

Yes its the exact same package (which they dont offer anymore).

I was thinking that if we could get the £8 or whatever it is for a 30 slot TS server towards it + vicious / friend donation + the other donation that would cover about half of the cost, then me and andrew cover the rest

Can't we host it on the new dedi? Interesting that they don't offer this package any more! Wish to god we could still keep it.

In terms of how much ATK can contribute, that's a difficult question. Funds wise, we're already looking quite stretched. I'll PM you the specifics. It all really depends on what advertising plans we decide on for the next year.

The most important thing to know is that the server ends on 26th. Everything needs to be sorted by then! Don't want to lose everything.

Oh I thought we'd already lost the server? If we still have 20 days that gives me a good deadline for people who are interested to get involved on my end.

Double post for laziness!

I've been told that I'm going to be handed £12.50 from a friend of mine today. Which including my £5 and Mitch's £5 makes £22.50 - If we're halving the price with this guy then that makes us square on the server.

Good stuff VH. Actually, Mitch and I had a long chat about this yesterday and are going to try to keep our own dedi. To do this, we hope to move our web hosting to the server and that's an area in which we are now experimenting.

What this means is that ATK can actually put a more substantial sum towards the server. This, plus the £22.50 (or more) monthly from you and friends, will make this highly feesable :). We just need to ensure that this money comes in from donators on a regular basis, as ATK will run out of money quickly if not.

More will be announced soon.

I can't start work on moving the website till our test backup completes and its gunna take quite a few hours.

Money from my end shouldn't be an issue.

And since I'm getting badgered about it, when should I expect to be able to set stuff up on the/a server?

Nice. We need to first confirm that this plan will work (before 26th). Once that's done, we can talk about setup. No ETA quite yet!

Is there a chance I'd be allowed to use the server we've got in the mean time? Because people have already given me money and and I'm being asked fairly often when things are gonna happen.

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Originally Posted by Vicious Horizon

Is there a chance I'd be allowed to use the server we've got in the mean time? Because people have already given me money and and I'm being asked fairly often when things are gonna happen.

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If your on when I get home from work tonight will discuss. Probably yes.