PF Costs: What are the Server & Maintenance Expenses?

[lekh2003]

I was just curious about how much effort and cost does it take to maintain PF. How much server space is needed to contain PF and how much does it cost to have that server working full time? Does Greg need to pay programmers and web-designers to maintain PF or does he simply do it himself? What are any other costs that Greg has to pay attention to?

 

[jedishrfu]

You can find a lot of information on this by searching the web "costs of running a forum website'

Here's a couple of references:

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/for...ales-questions/136759-cost-of-running-a-forum

https://www.webhostingsecretreveale...tarting-and-running-a-forum-for-your-website/

and here:

https://www.quora.com/How-much-money-does-it-cost-to-set-up-a-website-with-a-forum

Most forum owners would be reluctant to answer a question such as this and indeed it may be difficult to compute the true costs as there are many variables involved especially since non net neutrality is lurking around the corner with tiered pricing.

 

[lekh2003]

You can find a lot of information on this by searching the web "costs of running a forum website'

Thanks for the links they're very helpful (now I realize I could have searched this stuff).

Most forum owners would be reluctant to answer a question such as this

Yes, I understand why Greg might be reluctant, but I found my answers elsewhere in those links.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I was just curious about how much effort and cost does it take to maintain PF. How much server space is needed to contain PF and how much does it cost to have that server working full time? Does Greg need to pay programmers and web-designers to maintain PF or does he simply do it himself? What are any other costs that Greg has to pay attention to?

Are you curious in the sense of starting your own community?

 

[lekh2003]

Are you curious in the sense of starting your own community?

No, no reason, just curiosity. Anyways, PF is everything I ever wanted in a forum, so I have no incentive.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I was just curious about how much effort and cost does it take to maintain PF.

Hard to put into numbers, but a lot. There is a lot going on in the background. It's like a restaurant. What the community sees in the dinning area. Clean, peaceful, full of interesting dishes. But there is a busy kitchen area where the chefs work hard to maintain that atmosphere and make sure threads are tasty! Then there are the administrative, marketing and maintenance rooms making sure the bills are paid, promos sent, electrical, pluming and security etc working. I personally bounce between all 3 zones.

How much server space is needed to contain PF and how much does it cost to have that server working full time?

A full compressed backup is about 25GB.

Does Greg need to pay programmers and web-designers to maintain PF or does he simply do it himself?

I have occasionally contracted some work out that was beyond my skill and there is a bunch of public 3rd party addons that we modify, but a lot is me too.

What are any other costs that Greg has to pay attention to?

The actual server accounts for only about half our costs. When you become as serious and large as PF a lot of things come into play. It does get expensive.

 

[jedishrfu]

So PF mentors are the wait-staff ... or the dish washers?

 

[phinds]

So PF mentors are the wait-staff ... or the dish washers?

Neither, they are unpaid slaves.

 

[jedishrfu]

No, they are unpaid slaves.

Says the doorman...

 

[lekh2003]

Hard to put into numbers, but a lot. There is a lot going on in the background. It's like a restaurant. What the community sees in the dinning area. Clean, peaceful, full of interesting dishes. But there is a busy kitchen area where the staff works hard to maintain that atmosphere. Then there are the administrative, marketing and maintenance rooms making sure the bills are paid, promos sent, electrical, pluming and security etc working. I personally bounce between all 3 zones.
A full compressed backup is about 25GB.
I have occasionally contracted some work out that was beyond my skill and there is a bunch of public 3rd party addons that we modify, but a lot is me too.
The actual server accounts for only about half our costs. When you become as serious and large as PF a lot of things come into play. It does get expensive.

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. I appreciate it even more that I know the people running this site take so much effort so people like me can discuss physics.

So PF mentors are the wait-staff ... or the dish washers?

Doesn't feel as important any more?

 

[jedishrfu]

No, I know we are really dementors... hahaha

but me I'm a robot so what do I know...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

So PF mentors are the wait-staff ... or the dish washers?

Try the chefs at a michelin 3 restaurant

 

[jedishrfu]

Try the chefs at a michelin 3 restaurant

Yes, we deal in tires...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Michelin_3-star_restaurants#United_States

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Yes, we deal in tires...

I shouldn't have assumed a robot knows about food

 

[jedishrfu]

I shouldn't have assumed a robot knows about food

You've not seen Forbidden Planet. I made 60 gals of quality liquor for the visiting chef...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

You've not seen Forbidden Planet.

haha I own the movie, what a classic!

 

[fresh_42]

Neither, they are unpaid slaves.

Drummer to the scullers of the galley:
"I have good news and bad news!"
"The ratios of rum will be doubled."
"Now, the boss wants to water ski."

 

[jedishrfu]

No its more like Ben Hur:

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

No its more like Ben Hur:

Except there are only 22 of you rowing that massive boat and there is an endless sea

 

[berkeman]

So PF mentors are the wait-staff ... or the dish washers?

I was a busboy at one summer job at a Wyoming truckstop. I'll be the busboy.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I was a busboy at one summer job at a Wyoming truckstop. I'll be the busboy.

Table 5 is dirty, move move move!

 

[RonL]

Except there are only 22 of you rowing that massive boat and there is an endless sea

I have always enjoyed my part in helping train the mentors

 

[Mark44]

So PF mentors are the wait-staff ... or the dish washers?

We're the bouncers...

 

[lekh2003]

We're the bouncers...

I agree because that's exactly how it feels. The real wait staff are the members with all the honorable badges (all a ploy of slavery)

 

[jtbell]

Except there are only 22 of you rowing that massive boat and there is an endless sea

With an occasional rest stop on Bora Bora.

 

[dlgoff]

But there is a busy kitchen area where the chefs work hard to maintain that atmosphere and make sure threads are tasty!

You need this.

 

[berkeman]

I think a PF apron would sell more. Maybe that should be added to the PF store?

I only got to wear an apron as a busboy...

 

[jedishrfu]

Full apron or half apron? With or without fills?

 

[berkeman]

I'm pretty messy. Probably I need a full apron.

 

[Hendrik Boom]

Table 5 is dirty, move move move! [emoji3]

Is table 5 quantum gravity?

 

[ISamson]

A full compressed backup is about 25GB.

Is this a lot? I don't know what to make of this...

 

[lekh2003]

Is this a lot? I don't know what to make of this...

This is about as much as about 20 1080p full-length feature films. It is quite a lot for a forum full of text. Also about a million word documents.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

It is quite a lot for a forum full of text.

We store more than text

 

[jtbell]

Remember, every image uploaded in a post gets stored on the server. Also, in a fairly recent change (last year or so), all images linked from external sites are also uploaded automatically and stored on the server, to protect against "link rot."

 

[lekh2003]

Remember, every image uploaded in a post gets stored on the server. Also, in a fairly recent change (last year or so), all images linked from external sites are also uploaded automatically and stored on the server, to protect against "link rot."

So the exorbitant size makes sense. Regardless, 25 GB is quite a lot for text and the occasional media. A single image might just be a few hundred kilobytes. There's a lot of PF.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

So the exorbitant size makes sense. Regardless, 25 GB is quite a lot for text and the occasional media. A single image might just be a few hundred kilobytes. There's a lot of PF.

We have about 200k images and pdfs.

 

[lekh2003]

We have about 200k images and pdfs.

Oh wow. I underestimated the amount of media. The more you know the better.

 

[phinds]

So the exorbitant size makes sense.

The figure is hardly "exorbitant" for a site this size. It seems perfectly reasonable to me.

 

[lekh2003]

The figure is hardly "exorbitant" for a site this size. It seems perfectly reasonable to me.

I initially thought that it was all text, I was corrected. It seems reasonable now.

 

[Spinnor]

No its more like Ben Hur:

Great scene from a great movie. I wondered how they provided resistance for the oars to make the rowing realistic. Google knows.

"the rowing scene in ben hur how did they provide resistance to the oars to make it look real"

https://www.google.com/search?q=the...9i57j69i64.29783j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

First link,

"

• When it came time to film inside the boat, it was discovered that the large 65mm cameras wouldn't fit. The boat had to be taken out of the pond, cut in half lengthwise, and placed in an Italian sound stage. The oars wouldn't fit in the soundstage, so they had to cut them off just beyond the hull. This resulted in an extremely light oars which, when rowed by the actors, didn't look believable, since you could move them with one hand. To solve the problem, Zambuto sent an army of production assistants to all of the hardware stores in Rome to buy the kind of spring-and-hydraulic piston mechanisms that are normally attached to doors to force them closed but to keep them from slamming. Placing these devices on the oars and the hull gave enough resistance to make the rowing scenes look realistic. ..."