Site Upkeep and Management

[Spanner_smf2_import2]

I may be wrong but I'm not confident we currently have the connections or the wherewithal to just move the site.
If anyone can help or knows someone who could post it up.

I'm pretty sure there are a few on here with the necessary skills. I'm more than happy to help in the migration and setup of even a community owned virtual server for everyone here.

Spanner, what time frame are we looking at before the current host is no longer viable?

It's not a host that we use, it's just one of my companies cloud servers that the site is hosted on. This particular server is due to be retired and therefore I thought I'd take the opportunity of hand balling the management of the site as well.

The server itself is due for retirement in about 6 months because there's a heap of planning that needs to go on with a number of other sites that need to be migrated as well, so it's not like this has to be done tomorrow for CSC. Take your time and find someone who will care for the community and the site itself. One of your main aims is to find someone who will not hold you to ransom should they become disgruntled with decisions or site/community direction.

If the worst case scenario comes about and you can't find someone, I'll gladly move the site to one of my new servers and continue to support it, but as I said in the original post, I won't have time to make changes etc as users request them. You will definitely need to find someone to do that for you. The site will run seamlessly without changes even on a new server.

If you do move the site to your own virtual server, remember there will be annual fees associated with that. Probably to the tune of $250-$500 annually for a CSC owned VM. This is dependent on the configuration you opt for. My recommendation would be to use Linode and you can see there plans and offerings here... and they now have Australian based data centres so the latency for the CSC site will be greatly improved should you go down that route.

[Lods]

Thanks very much for that...
I know there have been a few in the past who've had some of the required knowledge. I'm just not sure they're still active.

That's a bit reassuring that there isn't the urgency, but at the same time we need to be aware that it requires some thought and action going forward.

[capcom]

Pardon my comment [member=2]Spanner[/member] but if it goes to one of your new servers, retain its capabilities and not accept any changes, isn't that enough of a compromise?  Would be for me

[Spanner_smf2_import2]

Pardon my comment [member=2]Spanner[/member] but if it goes to one of your new servers, retain its capabilities and not accept any changes, isn't that enough compromise?  Would be for me

That's a fallback position capcom. As I said in the original post, it's time for someone else to take the reins and run with it. The site deserves better than that. It needs someone to spend more time on developing new and innovative features

[DJC]

I just want to add my thanks for all the work you've done for our site Spanner.  It is greatly appreciated.  Your wish to move on is also appreciated and understandable.  I hope you will continue to contribute.

Hopefully, one or more of our number will put their hand(s) up.