Important Message To All Members

[Tiedgen]

It has been brought to my attention that my 3 year free trial of 1and1 host is coming to an end in the next 2 or 3 weeks. I love this board as much as you guys and I had(have) even greater plans for a planettrail70 website too (which has been developing slowly because of college).
Being back at school this semester has left me almost no time to get the board and website update, although I try to get on a couple times a week and make sure everything is flowing properly and people aren't getting rowdy.. This forum has grown so much since it was first introduced and we are now at about 1000 members. Thats incredible. I like to think of everyone here as a great big community or almost a family. I have been on many webboards and most aren't nearly as friendly and helpful as this one has been.

To make a long story short (and sorry for my rambling) If i dont renew hosting with 1and1 this board will cease to exist, and since its on a mySQL database, it cant be hosted with any free servers (plus it wouldnt be nearly as fast even if it could be hosted).
Host 1and1 offers packages ranging from $3.99 to $19.99 a month, but the problem is that we need a mySQL database in order to run this board, so I would need the Professional, Business, or Developer Linux package. The Developer package is $9.99 a month. This doesnt sound like much, but for a college student this is a lot! I will try to scrap together some money to keep this site up, but unfortunately I won't have enough for the whole package.

So it comes down to this, I either pay for an upgrade or this site goes under. I would like some feedback from you guys/gals, since it is you that ultimately runs this forum and keeps it going.
If anyone would be willing to donate or contribute to upgrading the server, please let me know, or click on the donate link at the top of the page. But I want to make it clear that I am in no way forcing anyone to donate, and please don't feel obligated. Hopefully things will work out for the better, and in a couple weeks we will still have this forum up and running like nothing happened..

Thanks for everything! This webboard has become so much more then just a forum, and I would love to keep it going that way.

-Ben Tiedgen
Forum Admin And Owner

[50CONNECTION]

Donation sent. I hope others will do the same. This is a great site and would hate to see it go under.

[clubford00]

Ben is this 9.95 per month to run the whole show or is that for each of us to get on? Dean

[Tiedgen]

Originally Posted by clubford00

Ben is this 9.95 per month to run the whole show or is that for each of us to get on? Dean

No Dean, all those prices listed were per month to run the whole server, which would be between $120 and $240 for the year.

And Thank You very much for the donation 50Connection!

[makotosun]

Donation sent here too. Ben - if it looks like you are going to have issues raising enough money for this, I am planning on purchasing a package through 1&1 and potentially would be interested in hosting the webboard.

If you would be interested in some sort of co-management, let's discuss off the board. This site needs to keep running, as it has way too much valuable information to go down.

[kenfyoozed]

If it wasnt for this site, my bike wouldnt be running. Hope the donatoin helps. Keep us informed.

[clubford00]

My Paypal donation has been sent good luck great site. Anything else we can do just yell !! Dean

[honda123]

Done Deal Valubale site , a wealth of information. Anytime.

[chris_s]

I run a small webhost reselling biz, what are your traffic numbers like? If it's reasonable, I could definitely host for a while

btw, I have one of those free 1&1 accounts too, trust me, it's not worth $10/month compared to a real host

[hondaCT701972]

I will be sending my donation this week.... this board is not going dowwn that easy, The sever has to have a melt down to keep us away