You may have noticed that 2draw has been down for quite some time today. I should first say that this was not intended downtime, although ironically it should have helped a little in keeping bandwidth down for this month.

However, this wasn't any random downtime. 2draw.net is currently hosted on a shared server (a single computer with many different websites running off of it). Conflicts in 2draw have caused the systems to crash and other users to complain. Since this puts the webhost in a difficult position, they're strongly recommending I move to a dedicated server.

That gives me 3 choices. 1) I close 2draw, and we all laugh and talk about how good a time we had when 2draw was around, 2) I try to find another webhost, 3) I switch to a dedicated server.
1) Well, personally I don't consider this an option, but if that's what must be done.
2) This is difficult, and will really just delay 'death.' Not to mention it'd be a pain in the ass to do.
3) This is the only realistic solution.

A dedicated server would mean that all of 2draw would be on its own computer, and I'd have full control to theoretically add any features to 2draw that I couldn't before, due to being on a shared server. Two other important advantages of a dedicated server is more space and more bandwidth (about 2x the current).

The disadvantage, of course, is that it will cost 3x as much. Although I can theoretically cover this for half a year or so, it wouldn't be viable for very long.

So, now that I've spilled it all out, what do you guys think?

Hm.

Well...hm. Exactly how much would it (a dedicated server) cost, how many donations would you need, and how much per donation?

What I think you need is someone you are sure you can trust, who could run money stuffs. A treasurer, per say.

What d'you think? Anyone?

The offer that was made is $89.99/m, my webhost is also offering to waive the setup fee and credit the few months I have left for current hosting. I was looking at a.scarywater.net's donation page thing, and almost all the donations are $5-20, over the course of 8 months. As far as treasurer-ness, I could do the same thing for 2draw, is more than that necessary?

1) "Every betrayl begins with trust." Who can you really trust as a treasurer?
2) If you're not able to cover 2draw for another year with what you have right now + donations within a month, then put the cash back in your pocket and close the site. The spam rate is getting higher. It's not worth paying for, especially with only a few donations.

Yeah, yeah, it was just a suggestion. No need to bite my head off.

Anyway, Armando's right. If no one/not enough people donate, and if the spam rate continues to increase at the rate it is at the moment, it's not worth it. It hurts to say it, but it's true.

But even if there were no spam, this would be a problem eventually. I had plans for switching to a dedicated server in the future, although not this suddenly.

One idea I was toying with is the idea of web hosting, that is to pay $5/m or whatever to have a website hosted on the dedicated server, without advertisements and whatnot, that way it could be a donation that actually helps support 2draw. I don't know how popular this would be, but you can do the math to figure out how many people it would take to have 2draw completely self-supporting.

But again, it's just an idea.

I'd hate to see a great site like 2draw die... I've gotta save up and start donating.

Mm. I, personally, like that idea, because I need a site. Badly. But again, we'd need a lot of people....

Gah.

Well, if 12 people paid $90/yr for hosting, then it'd work out even. ;)
But that's not to say I won't "donate," because I've already been paying for the server as is out of my pocket. So that counts for part of it. Plus if I actually worked regularly, I might make some money. But that doesn't seem to be happening.

I dont want it to die! I'll pay because I really think that this site is worth it. ^.^ Maybe you could do like a membership thing? Like other sites have-with premium/ gold memberships. . .and they could have access to other things like making gif's (heh, is that even possible?) .. I don't know, just an idea. But in the mean time I'll save up some money to donate. :)

unfortunately, i'm not in a kind of situation where i'm able to donate...
so all i can say is do your best, because despite spamming, i love this site to death, it introduced me to web drawing and i would be very sad to see it go

bleh, i gotta save up too ~~
i love 2draw, if it died, i'd hafta go kill someone...

vive la 2draw!!!! i need to get my mom to let me donate

mm exactly what would the costs b, i mean u already own the domain name what else other than electricity and maintanance does a server need. Sorry this is probably a very stupid question.

yep.

You could setup a page that indicates how much money is still needed for the, say, next three months. Then you can have a link button there that allows users to donate. When they do so, the "money left" counter is decremented and the donation is added to an user variable that indicates how much they donated... and you can have a hall of fame for donators, or even give them special benefits, like being featured on front page, have links to their pages, etc.

I'm willing to donate a little money now and then if it helps. I couldn't before, but now i may actually have the means. Of course, the ironic part is that now that i have the means I use 2draw about once a week if I'm lucky.

*worries for 2draw*

The money shouldn't be too much of a problem if we all can give a little to donate....bum some of friends! Sell lemonade! I like arch's idea about having a button about donating and showing who donated but there shouldn't be a hall a fame because there are tons of users that can't bum money off of friends! Well anyway I hope we can sort through this and get some donations..or something (just so 2draw isn't shut down)

There already is a list of everyone who has donated. And a button to donate. Click "Help" at the top of any page.

edit:
so one idea is to try to get some sponsors to sponsor, match donations, or something of the sort. I can only think of a few realistic ones at the moment, like wacom or sun.

I'll donate, dont worry. I just gotta think thru the whole mental stuff... for some reason. And you're on a long list of things I've wanted to donate for a long time, like Elfwood, OC, Fearsome, Cave Deli... O_o
Yeah, Wacom would be a good idea - you've programmed plugins that work with their tablets and stuff... Wacom and oekaki is something commonly associated, if you get me...

Tell me, Marcello. There used to be a chat applet. Is it still here? If it is, I'm having a bit of trouble locating it.

It's on the frontpage, but no one uses it as far as I know. (I don't, anyway.)

Thank you kindly, Marcello.

I actually go in the chat, occaisionally. There used to be more people using it... I dun think many people know it exists anymore.

I'm also glad you're particularly lenient, Marcello. Because if you were me, and I was you, I'd have you out of here when you surpassed the first month of absence. So... thank you.

actually, I'm more lazy than anything else. if I implemented that stuff, then I'd also need to implement immunity and whatnot for pictures and users I don't want removed, then the whole issue of deciding who gets that is a pain in the ass.
that's not to say I'll be lenient on people who try to take advantage of my methods

Well, even though I havent been here in a while, I'd be sad to see 2draw go. Great websites that I enjoy visiting are few and far between, especially ones run by people i know ;)
So many other sites I used to like are closing down (newtype asylum, gundam.com just to name a few), and it's a shame. Hmm.....well, i dont know who'd you get to advertise on the site, but I'd much rather have banner or even pop-up ads than have the site close down altogether. A sponsor seems like a more realistic option, though.

I haven't the foggiest clue how I found out about 2draw....but I'd hate to see it go. I would donate, but I'm just a kid. I don't have money to. I MAY be able to donate by december though. I've grown to love this site. If every user in 2draw donates at least a dollar in the same month it would be enough money for quite a while. :')

Yeah. Too bad about 3/4th's of the total users don't even visit here anymore.

about 10% of the registered users were active in the last week, based on some statistics.

That's awful. I really hated being away from 2Draw so long. Terribly sorry I am, really...
I suppose if it were to go, I'd pretty down about it, as well.

Hmm......Then maybe you coud set a limit for how long accounts can be inactive. If they have a good reason (grounded, vacation, phone broken, etc.) it won't be deleted, but in the future it WILL save you bandwith. Or so I think. :P

you think wrong.

Um, didn't someone say something about how inactive users don't take bandwidth because nobody looks at their pictures or something? It might take memory but not bandwidth...I could be wrong tho. Webmaster I am not.

no, inactive users don't take bandwidth because they're inactive. active users take bandwidth. but the site would be pointless without active users, so I'm not gonna prevent that. the problem is when active users post things that don't deserve to be on the site.

I hope I never manage to do such a thing. Though I wish I could get rid of some of the images I've never finished. But I understand why such an action would be taken on anyone's images, and I'd do it, as well.