Time has come again...

[cassiusa]

It seems there's a lot of people willing to donate their bit. Jan from Rotown made some good points.

With regards to hosting it independently, maybe I can help.

The company I work for does Dedicated Servers. Basically, you have a server that's used only by you, located at our facilities, and on our fibre back-bone. UrbanTO would have complete control over the server, meaning not only could they set up the message board, but the website (when done) could also be hosted on it. UrbanTO members could get UrbanTO email addresses if that's at all of interest. FTP could be set up so that we'd pretty much never have to worry about who can host our images again. Plus plenty of other benefits.

However, FTP, email, and website are all easy to set up. But someone would need to know how to do the forum itself. Whether that be installing one, or writing one.

Also, it's definitely more expensive than eZboard. If we were to provide the server, you'd be looking at about $200CDN/mnth + 7% tax. If someone provided the server, we could probably do it for $100/mnth + 7% tax.

As far as bandwidth, my boss is fairly interested in urban development (particularly Regent park where he own land). I'm willing to bet he'd give us 400-500GB/mnth. And that may increase by the beginning of next year if our costs go down.

BC,
If this is seen as a plug and you don't want it here, please remove the post. I haven't mentioned our company name.

 

[Are Be]

Count me in for $20.
We can get together and give BC the cash, or whatever.

 

[SD]

Declared contribution: michaelpfox, Jarrek, alklay, GeekyBoyTO, joel in TO, caltrane74, Darkstar416, AlchemisTO, cassiusa, ganjavih, Archivistower, jgreebnerg76, Canuck 36, kpad, cdl42, 0tas0, EnviroTO, Junglab2002, rxj71, 3Dementia, fiendishlibrarian, TdotTrickyRicky, Hairspray77, Jayomatic, miesvanderjoe & [safe to assume a little chip in from] billy corgan19982.

Add me to the list.

 

[TO Tower Fan]

I will contribute my share....but I will have to mail it in.

 

[Westend0r]

i think the SSC consideration is probably not the best thing thing for this forum,

i like it the way it is, so of course i will do what i can to help keep it the way it is

i will donate, no questions asked!

if anyone has net banking on here, you can now do email money transfers, and just email BC some money

easy as pie

 

[canarob]

I'm in for $20 as well...

 

[jgreebnerg76]

There is no need to start sending cheques all over the place.

www.ezboard.com/help/both...chest.html

"The Community Chest is an innovative and unique payment option for ezboard services. With it, every active community member – Global, Local, Admin, and even unregistered members – can contribute and help pay for ezboard services. Generally speaking, covering the costs for large or even small communities may not be feasible for a single individual. The Community Chest allows the entire community to share the in the responsibility. Contributors always have the option of remaining anonymous. Please see the Community Chest FAQ as well for further information."

I still like the idea of getting sponsors for the site - real estate agents would be perfect.

JG

 

[vaseline1]

i know i'm not really that active on here, but i check on TO developments almost everyday. and i like urbantoronto as it is (read: free of trolls). so yeah, i'd be willing to throw in CDN $10-20 to help out. just let me know how.

oh, and sorry for the late reply.

 

[afransen TO]

I'd also be willing to donate something. I'd prefer sending a cheque as I don't want to bother with PayPal or anything like that.

As for the site, maybe we could get support from developers in exchange for featuring a development. It would be hard to escape their pressure and remain impartial on matters relating to their projects. For instance, I don't think Tridel would be a willing partner with all the flak they would get from us.

 

[cdl42]

Okay, another idea... I have seen this be done before so don't think I am making this up.

Intenet advertising revenues are based upon the number of views (impressions) a certain ad can get. Now, UrbanToronto may not be big enough to get advertising on it. How well do you mods know the people who run SSP, SS.com, SSC? If you partner with them and host the same ads (say just a banner ad across the bottom or top of the page), you will be able to get more impressions, and make more money.

They benefit by getting more impressions and, therefore, more money, and you benfit by getting your share of the profit.

Would it work?

 

[billy corgan19982]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Personally I would like to leave ezboard and get our own server up and running, however financially this might not be feasible. Once I know all the costs associated with the different options I will post a poll and let the members decide the future of the forum.

Thanks again,

Admin

 

[BuildTO]

Thanks to Jan for his generous offer!

 

[Brighter Hell]

I'll chip in

 

[EnviroTO]

If we can find a forum that has something like a personal spam filter that would be nice. Something that can be set on an individual by individual basis to make it easier to ignore certain individuals.

 

[afransen TO]

I think I know whom you might be referring to, Enviro.