2019 PoA site operations fundraiser - help keep PoA running (and free!)

mkosmo said:
Not so bad, then. Have you actually seen any value in GuardDuty? We've been fighting among ourselves about the value (or lack thereof) of trying to shim a traditional IPS in to the AWS network model, and GuardDuty would seem to provide some of that function, even though we can't use our own intelligence sources. Then again, being limited to what effectively looks like reputation-based lists (IP/domain) seems a bit low in the value-add department for the price.

[semi-coherent ramble]
My only thought for costs savings would be to investigate some of the purpose-built VPS hosts. AWS/Azure/etc just don't make financial sense when all you're doing is VPS/IaaS colocation. They absolutely shine when you're taking advantage of the P/SaaS options in conjunction with or replacing IaaS, though! The big disadvantage to the purpose VPS hosts is that it wouldn't be one-stop shopping anymore, leading to more complicated administration and maintenance of supporting and supported resources, fostering additional risk to the service, of course. Since I'm still a few pots of coffee away from fully functional this morning, I could probably convince myself back and forth on this one a few more times.
[/semi-coherent ramble]

P.S. I have no gripes with how you're doing it, more curious than anything. The site's never down when I bother to check in, and the community clearly feels the same since you can collect a couple of years worth of funding in a couple of months!
Click to expand...
Many many things to weigh, obviously. But the "one-stop shop" aspect of what you posted outweighs everything for me. I don't have time to manage a sendgrid account in addition to AWS. Nor encryption keys. Nor WAF. Nor a CDN provider. As it stands now I could create one login and grant complete access to the entire (self-contained) environment. Simplicity over extreme cost savings. At least when the "extreme costs savings" would likely equate to less than 10%/year.

Add to that the fact that managing AWS accounts and resources is *squarely* in the middle of what I do...so I'm able to apply already acquired (and paid for) skills to my volunteerism for PoA. That's what won.

Sounds like you've assembled totally reasonable thoughts on things. The current setup is where I've landed.
 
Now anybody...anybody...that thinks aviation has jargon or uses too many acronyms only has to look at the last few posts in this thread. My head is spinning. I have to fly this afternoon, and I'm not sure my brain can recover from trying to read much less understand in time. this is so confusing I don't know whether to donate more or withdraw my contribution.
 
Lance F said:
Now anybody...anybody...that thinks aviation has jargon or uses too many acronyms only has to look at the last few posts in this thread. My head is spinning. I have to fly this afternoon, and I'm not sure my brain can recover from trying to read much less understand in time. this is so confusing I don't know whether to donate more or withdraw my contribution.
Click to expand...
Sorry! That's why I thought it would be best if we took it to PM.

Let's refocus on the important things...like whether or not we can log PIC! Without sufficient money in the coffers, how will people ever know???
 
jason said:
Sorry! That's why I thought it would be best if we took it to PM.

Let's refocus on the important things...like whether or not we can log PIC! Without sufficient money in the coffers, how will people ever know???
Click to expand...
Hey, I like to know how things work, but wow I didn't have a clue.
And I thought the PIC thing was long ago answered...'tis easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
 
I'll donate at triple platinum level if we can have animated gifs as avatars again.
 
Lance F said:
Now anybody...anybody...that thinks aviation has jargon or uses too many acronyms only has to look at the last few posts in this thread. My head is spinning. I have to fly this afternoon, and I'm not sure my brain can recover from trying to read much less understand in time. this is so confusing I don't know whether to donate more or withdraw my contribution.
Click to expand...

I thought we software and computer folks were bad about acronyms. Until I became a military contractor. We were babes in the woods I tell you! The military will take a group or words and contract them to look like an acronym (COMSUBPAC=Commander Submarines Pacific), they will take an acronym and then pronounce it like a work (JLCCTC pronounced gel-LIC-tic), they add letters to make them pronounceable (Next Generation Threat System=NGTS=pronounced Nuggets. It's maddness. After 20+ years, I can keep up most of the time.
 
Lance F said:
Hey, I like to know how things work, but wow I didn't have a clue.
And I thought the PIC thing was long ago answered...'tis easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
Click to expand...

It takes a lot of acronyms to get Amazon to charge you triple what the hosting should cost. :D

Frankly, I think for this site, AWS makes perfect sense. Nobody wants to untangle a colo box or cloud VM and its secrets when an admin gets hit by a bus. :)
 
jsstevens said:
I thought we software and computer folks were bad about acronyms. Until I became a military contractor. We were babes in the woods I tell you! The military will take a group or words and contract them to look like an acronym (COMSUBPAC=Commander Submarines Pacific), they will take an acronym and then pronounce it like a work (JLCCTC pronounced gel-LIC-tic), they add letters to make them pronounceable (Next Generation Threat System=NGTS=pronounced Nuggets. It's maddness. After 20+ years, I can keep up most of the time.
Click to expand...
Spent most of ‘16 on a mission critical system....30 pages of TLAs. One of many reasons I quit.
 
Alright folks. Thanks so much for all that you have given so far! It means a lot to us as moderators, but should mean even more to contributors to allow us to keep the site running as it does now. The donations are still open, while there have been many, many generous donors we're only about 2/3rds of our way to our goal of a full 2 years of running costs. If anyone else was on the fence about donating, we really would appreciate it, and your donation absolutely does matter regardless of size. Additionally, 100% of the donations go DIRECTLY towards running the site, there are $0 going to any person. We very, very rarely open the site up for donations and hopefully it will be another two years or more before we ask again.

Thanks!
- The MC
 
Any chance y'all can post a fundraising thermometer similar to this to see how far off we are?

images
 
Bill Jennings said:
Any chance y'all can post a fundraising thermometer similar to this to see how far off we are?

images
Click to expand...

I thought about it. But it usually goes so quickly that I was hesitant to spend the time working on it. As of this moment, we're looking to raise another $800-1000.
 
timwinters said:
I gave 50¢ for every day I was banned in 2018 for making random benign jokes. I figured it was the least I could do.

:cool:
Click to expand...
I wonder if I won't be banned so quickly and often now. ;)
 
JOhnH said:
I wonder if I won't be banned so quickly and often now. ;)
Click to expand...
Quite the contrary... now that we have your money it's ban hammer time. :D

Only kidding. Donating gets you no favors with moderation... but we do appreciate it nonetheless.
 
I really want a special banner like Tim's
 
CC268 said:
I really want a special banner like Tim's
Click to expand...
I just updated the pricing and made it available on the upgrades page (same link). $5 gets you one month. A bargain at twice the price!
 
Hey, @jason why did the animated avatars go away? Just a scam to get me to donate? Weak sauce!
 
EdFred said:
Hey, @jason why did the animated avatars go away? Just a scam to get me to donate? Weak sauce!
Click to expand...
I had to switch Xenforo to use a different image processor. The default Xenforo image processor doesn't handle them well. I had forgotten that they didn't work. Your reminder (and offer) prompted me to look into it.
 
jason said:
I just updated the pricing and made it available on the upgrades page (same link). $5 gets you one month. A bargain at twice the price!
Click to expand...

Wooo hoooooo! I wish it said, “I’m special” :)
 
Pitched in my nickel so I can keep offering my $0.02 from time to time. Thanks to jason and the MC for keeping this boat afloat! (Airship aloft?)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top