Plans for the future of Gamingforce

I've been throwing this idea around for a little while, but what finally triggered this post was a PM from Miles:

Originally Posted by Miles

I got an email on my iphone saying that our server space is up to 100%

fuck the iphone

Anyway, note that our server is now host to SD as well, with the owner chipping in on the monthly fees. The problem now is disk space, and there is an obvious solution to that. I"m planning to separate the Concert Hall and My Stuff forums from gamingforce.org (which is our dedicated server) and move them back to gamingforce.com (on a shared hosting plan), along with all their attachments. Obviously we can't re-use our vBulletin license for that (unless someone else coughs up the cash for another one) so the .com side will most probably be converted to SMF.

Meanwhile, GGMD will be moved to the Entertainment category. Behind the Music could be made a subforum.

The move will most probably happen around the end of the month. All current members should retain their accounts on both domains. After that, registrations will be separate.

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About 15 gigs, I think.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Well there's a difference between suggesting it because oh shit and suggesting it because fuck you

But we're pretty much going to move the entire attachment directory over so once that's done, we'll wipe all attachments on this side (due to the implementation it's impossible to tell which attachments are from which forum -- they're stored in a directory structure depending on user ID). Plus, we'll be transitioning to vBulletin 3.8 someday so we could be nuking a good number of our modifications and plugins in addition to that.

By the way, Pang will be moderating .com as well. Just so you know.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I got Kaleb to point the DNS to my Dreamhost account, so gamingforce.com is now hosted on the same location as the former Serious Business.

Our dedicated server has 50GB of space. 22GB is taken up by VGMdb at the moment.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

gamingforce.com isn't exactly a noble URL. It was and will always be known for filesharing. That's why I'm moving those forums back there, since I like to think our community has outgrown that.

Acer, we're pretty much piggybacking on the VGMdb server. Did you think we had the money to pay for two dedicated servers?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Donations ran out a while ago. Right now we're paying for the server out of our own pockets. To be frank, the admins are primarily paying for VGMdb.

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

I could have sworn VGMdb was split from GFF to do its own thing for this and other reasons; not being associated with a thieves' playground being one of them. Really, I bet noone would raise an eyebrow if Wikipedia and Mininova were on the same server. =/

Yeah, what do you think I'm trying to accomplish by moving My Stuff as well (they don't use attachments).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

SD is SlightlyDark.

Concert Hall and My Stuff are our biggest liabilities right now. Although we've had only one DMCA takedown notice so far, I'm fairly certain our host won't take kindly to future notices.

Got any more snark to add? I know I'm not the best GFF cheerleader around but I'm the one getting shit done here.

FELIPE NO

Oh, please. The effort to split the two forums from GFF is barely worth it as it is. I know most of you have never administered anything other than Dreamhost's one-click MediaWiki install but trust me, this shit isn't trivial.

Since you're all upset that GFF apparently isn't top on my list of priorities, maybe someone would like to step up and take over. I'm tired of this song and dance.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

THE ADMINS ARE DOING SOMETHING THAT IS ALIGNED WITH MY INTERESTS

I WILL NOW PROCEED TO INSULT THEM

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Pang doing his battered wife impersonation now

How ya doing, buddy?

Oh by the way removing CH and My Stuff will also remove all their props

Do you love me now

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Space issues is the immediate problem. And seanne, filesharing used to be the main draw of this community, so that kind of offset the risks. But as you said, those days are behind us. My Stuff isn't pulling in the membership anymore, so it's become more of a liability.

However, the best thing that would come out of this move is the separation of two communities that are perpetually hostile towards each other.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by seanne

If it really is a liability, will simply placing it on a different forum really change that? What do we do when the next letter arrives?

Huh? Why would a letter for gamingforce.com affect gamingforce.org? They're on completely different hosts.

I was speaking idiomatically.

See, the wonderful thing about this is that if shit goes down on .com, it doesn't affect .org. It also doesn't affect the other domains that are hosted here. That's the entire point. We can chug along fine while the .com side does whatever needs to be done. (Note that our last letter was, in fact, not for VGM)

So, are we clear now?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

There's four regular contributors to the monthly fees now, so we don't have to rely on donations anymore. Speaking personally, I'd rather not, because people have arbitrary expectations of what donations entitle them to.

GFF will be around for the long term. I don't expect we'll even be removing the attachment feature, because attachment usage outside CH is relatively minimal.

FELIPE NO

Acer, are you really that upset that Concert Hall doesn't get to use our server space for their attachments? Really now, this move benefits GFF as much as it does our other two domains.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Acer:

Do you not remember when we delayed the restoration of GFF during the last crash? That was because Miles was busy saving the data for VGMdb off the broken hard drive -- on our dime too, since we weren't going to ask GFF members to pay for something that wasn't theirs. In fact, in my temporary message put up on gamingforce.org I explicitly stated that GFF and VGMdb were hosted on the same drive. Nobody made a fuss about it then. Why now? What do you want me to do, Acer? Get down on my knees and suck your dick, because you're suddenly waving money in my face? I'm sorry that I hurt your ego, but if your only argument against this decision is my tone of voice, I'm going to devote my attention elsewhere.

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See, I'm a little bewildered here because essentially VGMdb and GFF share the same set of admins (me, Miles, Secret Squirrel being a past admin). Heck, Naka from SD used to be a GFF admin too. We're not exactly strangers.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Miles did say that it was another $30 a month to double our disk space. We could afford that but you'd agree it's more cost effective to move CH instead. Moving My Stuff is just a matter of killing two birds with one stone.

Also, I've already addressed the issue of priorities. I have stated before that I'm preoccupied with VGMdb, that's exactly why I pushed for CHz to take over my role. He's been doing great so far, don't you think?

Acer:
Let me put it this way: even if I'm not that enamoured with GFF recently, Miles is still the de facto owner of the server, so rest assured he has your backs.

I'm indeed planning to shelter the .com side from public view. As for what the public facade should be, I'm planning to leave in the hands of the admins and moderators there.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Some clarifications I feel I should make:

Q. Are you going to prune other parts of GFF?
A. What else is there to prune, really? How much more space can we get by removing posts? Just to put it in perspective, every single post on GFF added together (all 650,000 of them) comes to merely 300 megabytes. The drive space consumed by text is downright negligible.

Q. But what happens when we run out of space again due to VGMdb?
A. We'll start paying the additional $30 a month to double our drive space to 100GB. Happily.

Q. What happens when that runs out?
A. With requirements of that magnitude we'll have to seriously consider third party storage. Removing GFF wouldn't solve anything.

Q. So why move the two forums instead of just moving the attachments off-site? The forums themselves aren't using much space, like you said.
A. To decrease our risk of legal liability. This also ensures the long-term survival of GFF and its fellow tenants on our current dedicated host. The two affected forums will be moved to cheaper shared hosting, which means there is a lot less at stake.

Another motive for this is the separation of disparate communities. There's the possibility that the migrant forums can have their own dedicated administration.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

So if I present supplementary arguments for moving the forums, I'm just spewing crap?

I was speaking idiomatically.

I don't think there's any need to further justify things to a person who thinks a DMCA notice from the service provider is a trivial matter.

It's just one notice! No sweat!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

In any case, I've read through the posts supporting the case for Concert Hall to stay put. That's fine with me. If the Music Library is preserved as an external link visible only to members in Concert Hall people might not even notice it's moved.

FELIPE NO