New Donation System!

**Adam** · 07-18-2008, 05:00 PM

New Donation System for PentaxForums.com Users

As many of you may know, PentaxForums.com is 100% user-supported financially, and we currently host no advertisements or annoying pop-ups to disturb your browsing experience. Our server costs and software expenses, as well as my time spent maintaining the site, are rising, and thus, we now have an increased need for donations to keep the site running and the updates flowing.

Our old donation system, which was accessible only from the User CP, was obscure and difficult to find. Therefore, we've now replaced it with a new, easier system, and we've also added a Donation Bar in the User CP homepage for you to track monthly donation goals. We are also adding a page which recognizes all members who have donated to the site. I will post the URL to this page and create links once enough members make use of the new system.

Users who donate to the site will still have their account upgraded in the same manner as before, though recently, the attachement and gallery quotas have been doubled for all donors. In the future, I also plan to feature an premium account with even larger quotas for the highest PentaxForums.com donors.

There are links to the new donation page from the QuickLinks menu (or Navbar, if using the Simple Skin)*, the User CP, as well as this thread and my signature.

Here are the features for the upgraded forum account that you get after donating; they were increased in September, 2008:

25Mb of attachment space (22Mb more than normally)
Up to 50Kb avatars (20Kb larger)
Up to 50Kb signature uploads (30Kb larger)
Up to 150Kb Profile pictures (85Kb larger)
Larger signatures quotas
Permission for off-site images in signatures
More space in the photo gallery (5x more than normally: up to 250 photos @ 1.5Mb each)
Larger private message inbox (10x bigger)
Recognition for donating here
Italicized user name and special title

To donate now, follow this link:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/payments.php

All donations still go through the same PayPal page, and the process should remain fundamentally the same. Once again, my great appreciation goes out to everyone who has already donated to the site, and to those who plan on donating in the future. The site wouldn't be what it is without you (specifically, it would be sloooow)!

Our currently monthly donation goal is $500. If we don't appear to be reaching our goal during the last week of the month, we especially encourage those who are interested to consider donating again. You can track our monthly donation progress in the User CP homepage.

Thanks for reading, and I'm glad the site has become such a great success. As we keep growing, I'm striving to make it as good as it can get, and as feature-packed and easy-to-use as possible!

With this thread open to discussion, I'm now closing the old thread.

To clear up any doubts, donating is never mandatory. If you can afford to donate, we'd appreciate it, but if not, you can continue to use the site with full access to all public features.

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Should you already be a site supporter and would like to contribute again, or increase your quotas future, a second donation option is available for you. If you choose to make such a donation, your account will be upgraded to "loyal site supporter" status and remain upgraded for two years. The second tier account features the following improvements, in addition to those you already have:

50Mb of attachment space (2x as much as before)
Up to 75Kb avatars (50% larger)
Up to 100Kb signature uploads (100% larger)
Up to 200Kb Profile pictures (33% larger)
Larger photos in the User Photo Gallery: each photo can be up to 2Mb in filesize
Custom user title which you may or may not choose to use instead of the "Site Supporter" text

This option is intended for user who have been using the site for a very long time. You can choose to donate $125, $150, $200, or $250. This option is NOT available unless you have already donated to PentaxForums.com.

*The Quicklinks/Navbar link is not visible by members who have already donated.

**Adam** · 07-18-2008, 05:54 PM

When I originally posted this thread, I installed a standalone donation system and hoped everything would work great. But it never does...so after 2 hours of work, I realized there was one fundamental flaw in the system, and thus, I had to uninstall it and redo everything manually. Therefore, while the actual User CP donation page remains unchanged, there is now a donation bar and more donation links scattered everywhere.

Jim A Svendsen · 07-18-2008, 08:10 PM

I am on a disability pention and can not afford to donate. I had the idea that this was a free site. Nothing ever is though is it?. I will discontinue with this site if asked . Is there any chance I could stay as a member with this site?. I would very much apriciate that . As it started I was only asking a question. I would very much apriciate a reply to my questions.
Thank You : Jim A Svendsen

*Ed in GA* · 07-18-2008, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by Jim A Svendsen

I am on a disability pention and can not afford to donate. I had the idea that this was a free site. Nothing ever is though is it?. I will discontinue with this site if asked . Is there any chance I could stay as a member with this site?. I would very much apriciate that . As it started I was only asking a question. I would very much apriciate a reply to my questions.
Thank You : Jim A Svendsen

Not speaking for Adam, but........

There's no requirement to donate. If you can, do it. If you can't, enjoy the site.

Jim A Svendsen · 07-18-2008, 08:15 PM

[quote=Jim A Svendsen;295559]I am on a disability pention and can not afford to donate. I had the idea that this was a free site. Nothing ever is though is it?. I will discontinue with this site if asked . Is there any chance I could stay as a member with this site?. I would very much apriciate that . As it started I was only asking a question. I would very much apriciate a reply to my questions.
Thank You : Jim A Svendsen

*sewebster* · 07-18-2008, 08:18 PM

The site is free. They are just asking for donations from those who can afford it to help with costs. If you can't afford to donate then you can keep using the site, no problem!

**Adam** · 07-19-2008, 02:42 AM

Originally Posted by Jim A Svendsen

I am on a disability pention and can not afford to donate. I had the idea that this was a free site. Nothing ever is though is it?. I will discontinue with this site if asked . Is there any chance I could stay as a member with this site?. I would very much apriciate that . As it started I was only asking a question. I would very much apriciate a reply to my questions.
Thank You : Jim A Svendsen

No, you don't have to donate anything to use the site. Everything is free, and as long as donations alone can cover site costs, you won't be seeing any ads at all, either.

------------------

On a separate note, I'd like to thank everyone who's sent a donation since the time I posted this thread. From 4PM yesterday until the end of the day, we received $420 in donations, which means that we've now reached our monthly goal.

Considering that all the site expenses- the server alone is $300/month- come straight out of my own pocket, every single donation, however big or small, makes a huge difference. Thanks again!

*Syb* · 07-19-2008, 02:54 AM

I just made a contribution. I hope many of the forum users will follow... it is an appreciation for this great forum.

\\@Admin: my contribution was funded by a paypal address that is not my current mailadress for this forum. Will that lead to troubles upgrading?

Thanks again!

*marcusyoung* · 07-19-2008, 03:02 AM

Mee, too.

I have just made a contribution in support of this great site.

Marcus

**Adam** · 07-19-2008, 03:16 AM

Originally Posted by Syb

I just made a contribution. I hope many of the forum users will follow... it is an appreciation for this great forum.

\\@Admin: my contribution was funded by a paypal address that is not my current mailadress for this forum. Will that lead to troubles upgrading?

Thanks again!

Nope, that shouldn't be a problem at all. Thanks a lot!

*Peter Zack* · 07-19-2008, 05:54 AM

I'll add my encouragment for those that can afford to make a donation to do so. For me this site has been invaluable both in knowledge and the marketplace.

Thanks again Adam

*falconeye* · 07-19-2008, 07:38 AM

Originally Posted by Adam

Considering that all the site expenses- the server alone is $300/month- come straight out of my own pocket, every single donation, however big or small, makes a huge difference.

Hi Adam,

yes, I appreciate the possibility to donate in order to share cost. Thank You very much.

Being in the IT business, I develop some professional curiosity here. pentaxforums.com is hosted by SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. (in their Dallas data center).

E.g., they run an offer: "Dual or Quad Core 2GB Registered ECC RAM SATA II & SA-SCSI HDD Raid 0, 1, 5, 10 Available 2000GB Public Bandwidth Unlimited Private Band." for 260$/m and I assume you use this or a similiar offer. vBulletin is about another 10$/m.

Still, pentaxforums.com feels slow compared to, e.g., DSLR-Forum which uses vBulletin as well and has about >4x higher traffic. They seem to be connected as a business (my business has a symmetric flat rate for internet connectivity as well) and seem to run load-balancing with 4 servers.

I am wondering if you don't pay too much for 2000GB bandwith which is 6 MBit/s. My company pays 259,- €/m for bidirectional 4.6 MBit/s flat -- but that's expensive Germany...

So maybe, there is room for optimization if we would know the monthly transfer volume and average CPU load factor / CPU type. Want to share the info?

I ask because I thought a much higher share of donations would go to you, not to service providers letting their machines work for them

*TomInJax* · 07-19-2008, 01:10 PM

Adam,

I appreciate this site very much and have donated again today.

Over the past year I have sold and bought many lenses. This alone is worth my donation. But, I also have been able to learn from other's experiences, especially in regard to lens performance, techniques, and other information.

Thanks for providing a fantastic resource for us!

Edit: One other thought - why not sell some banner advertising that relates to Pentax? Perhaps B & H, Amazon, or Adorama could help pay the monthly bills too? No pop-ups or other annoying ads though...

**Adam** · 07-19-2008, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by falconeye

Hi Adam,

yes, I appreciate the possibility to donate in order to share cost. Thank You very much.

Being in the IT business, I develop some professional curiosity here. pentaxforums.com is hosted by SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. (in their Dallas data center).

E.g., they run an offer: "Dual or Quad Core 2GB Registered ECC RAM SATA II & SA-SCSI HDD Raid 0, 1, 5, 10 Available 2000GB Public Bandwidth Unlimited Private Band." for 260$/m and I assume you use this or a similiar offer. vBulletin is about another 10$/m.

Still, pentaxforums.com feels slow compared to, e.g., DSLR-Forum which uses vBulletin as well and has about >4x higher traffic. They seem to be connected as a business (my business has a symmetric flat rate for internet connectivity as well) and seem to run load-balancing with 4 servers.

I am wondering if you don't pay too much for 2000GB bandwith which is 6 MBit/s. My company pays 259,- €/m for bidirectional 4.6 MBit/s flat -- but that's expensive Germany...

So maybe, there is room for optimization if we would know the monthly transfer volume and average CPU load factor / CPU type. Want to share the info?

I ask because I thought a much higher share of donations would go to you, not to service providers letting their machines work for them

The site is hooked up with a gigabit connection- the fastest SoftLayer has to offer- and at least for me, the site loads nearly instantly. I'm quite satisfied, as its a huge upgrade over our previous server. Also, from my experience using SSH to connect to the site, both local and remote file operations were carried out at more-than-satisfactory speeds.

The server load is around .2-.3 with our current traffic, so load-balancing shouldn't be needed, either

Rest assured that if a hardware upgrade is needed, though, it'll be carried out right away

Most of the donations the site gets unfortunately do go toward server costs and other companies, and until now, we've barely had any funds left over for extras (i.e. vBSEO, vBadvanced, galleries, lens databases, graphic designers, etc.), but somehow we managed. For me personally, it's a great pleasure to merely sit back and watch the site grow and see the users enjoy it

Originally Posted by TomInJax

Adam,

I appreciate this site very much and have donated again today.

Over the past year I have sold and bought many lenses. This alone is worth my donation. But, I also have been able to learn from other's experiences, especially in regard to lens performance, techniques, and other information.

Thanks for providing a fantastic resource for us!

Edit: One other thought - why not sell some banner advertising that relates to Pentax? Perhaps B & H, Amazon, or Adorama could help pay the monthly bills too? No pop-ups or other annoying ads though...

You're welcome! I'm glad you've made such great use of the site.

If I ever do incororate full-scale ads to the site, they will never be visible by donors, and they will always be Pentax or photo-related. Though, if at all, something like that is far down the road.

*falconeye* · 07-19-2008, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by Adam

The site is hooked up with a gigabit connection [...] and at least for me, the site loads nearly instantly.

I am glad to hear. I willl try to sort it out with my ISP then. Thanks for all your effort and the great work