# It's over $9,000!



## Dragoneer (Jul 3, 2008)

Since we started taking donations we've managed to get some surprising numbers. While I original posted several times that I'd drop word on Monday, we just hit a milestone that I feel is worth sharing. 

Our Amazon donations started at a little over $1,300, money that was raised from the previous backup server fund. We allocated that money into funding a new system for the data server. Well, as of this writing, the Amazon Donations Page reads [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]*$6,881.35*. That's an additional $5,581 raised by Amazon alone.

But wait, there's more.

We've also raised *$3,884.82* via Paypal as of this writing. That means in the past two days the furry community has raised over $10,000 for Fur Affinity.

Yes, you read that right. More than $10,000. _And donations are still coming in._

So I'm happy to report not only will we be adding *two new servers* to the FA family, *as more money comes in, we will begin to upgrade existing servers by adding more RAM and faster components* to improve everything across the board.

You've done a great job. All of you, and I can not thank you all enough for your support. 

The servers will be ordered Monday morning. So we still have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to continue raising money. The more we get, the more we will upgrade all facilities of Fur Affinity... and bring back some old friends. 

_So keep on donating._ As I said before, if everybody who uses FA were to donate a single dollar we'd be able to fund the site for a year. If donations continue to come in we'll boost everything to the single best gear we can buy... and then some. 

<3
[/SIZE][/FONT]


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## Guilmon1fan (Jul 3, 2008)

WHAT $9,000?!! LOL ^.=.^


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## Daniel Kay (Jul 3, 2008)

SWEEET F-ING AWSOME, i think FA is looking into a briiiiight future now 

EDIT: That means we overshot our initial goal of 4000$ over 250%, THAT is awsome


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## TheGreatCrusader (Jul 3, 2008)

That is pretty fucking impressive.


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## Dragoneer (Jul 3, 2008)

Daniel Kay said:


> SWEEET F-ING AWSOME, i think FA is looking into a briiiiight future now
> 
> EDIT: That means we overshot our initial goal of 4000$ over 250%, THAT is awsome


Originally we were just going to get a data server, then we felt we really could benefit from a dedicated web server. Given this, if people keep donating... we'll be able to upgrade EVERYTHING.


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## JAH2000 (Jul 3, 2008)

9,000 thats fucking awesome ill have to see what i can scroung up to donate


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## iBurro (Jul 3, 2008)

Never underestimate the power of an online community. BD I knew you'd be able to get more than $4000 in donations, but it's very impressive that we've managed to get over $10k. o_o


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## Grimfang (Jul 3, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Yes, you read that right. More than $10,000. _And donations are still coming in._



Do we rock or what? Damn, keep them coming :]

Our FA will become more powerful than we could have possibly imagined!


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## JAH2000 (Jul 3, 2008)

Grimfang said:


> Our FA will become more powerful than we could have possibly imagined!



then nothing will stop us HAHAHAHAHA!!!!


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## mukichan (Jul 3, 2008)

0.0;; that's a farking lot of moolah!! UNITED FURFAGS FTW!!! (>^3^)> *woots* United we stand, and together... WE PWN ALL!!!


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## Arbiter (Jul 3, 2008)

Wow over $9,000 already??  like iBurro said, u can never underestimate the power of an online community. im glad to hear about this to. Looks like FA is heading into a bright future after all


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## Daniel Kay (Jul 3, 2008)

Oh yea and so much for those idiots saying "FA IS FINISHED"... OWNED


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## Zeikcied (Jul 3, 2008)

That's incredible.

I hope FA ends up being a lot more reliable because of the upgrades.  I also hope it's back up soon.  (Hopefully less than two weeks.)


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## tundra_arctic_wolf (Jul 3, 2008)

That's totally frickin' sweet, Dragoneer.

I hope the donations keep coming for the next three days.

I would love to donate to help FA, except, I don't have a credit card, so I can't use Paypal and/or Amazon Honor System.  The only way I could donate is by using a domestic money order from the US Postal Service.


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## duo2nd (Jul 3, 2008)

FA is gonna be a Super Site if the donations continues.


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## Runefox (Jul 3, 2008)

This is astounding. I'm really sorry I couldn't donate anything to help, but I'll offer technical advice if you need it. ^^ I still think you should get KVM-over-IP capability with those servers, though. In fact, I urge you to if you've got the spare money. That would make things so much easier in a crash (which shouldn't happen so often after this anyway =D)


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## KickahaOta (Jul 3, 2008)

Holy.
Farking.
Shiat. 

(glad I gave $50)
(I gave $50 to TransFur too; share the love)


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## Tombfyre (Jul 3, 2008)

Well that is really good news indeed. ^^ Hooray for everyone!


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## Undying Song (Jul 3, 2008)

*CHEERS!* Woohoo!


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## rallyrev (Jul 3, 2008)

Wow, congrats guys.  I only check in with FA about once a week so I'm just finding out about the mess.  Nonetheless I kicked in a little something as a thank you for building & maintaining such a great site.


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## Wolf_Fox_Guy (Jul 3, 2008)

you know, if we could do this for porn, imagine what we could do for world hunger? I mean, all those starving folks overseas gotta be skinny, and I'm sure some of them are over 18. Just get em to take of their clothes, slap on some fake ears, we could make Mother Teressa look like Ebinezer Scrooge


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## Undying Song (Jul 3, 2008)

Wolf_Fox_Guy said:


> you know, if we could do this for porn, imagine what we could do for world hunger? I mean, all those starving folks overseas gotta be skinny, and I'm sure some of them are over 18. Just get em to take of their clothes, slap on some fake ears, we could make Mother Teressa look like Ebinezer Scrooge



Um... what?


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## SilverAutomatic (Jul 3, 2008)

Daniel Kay said:


> Oh yea and so much for those idiots saying "FA IS FINISHED"... OWNED



Nothing feels better than to prove someone wrong, and they continue proving them wrong another $6000 worth. XD


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## Le_DÃ©mon_Sans_Visage (Jul 3, 2008)

Hey, some of us don't have paypal or credit cards . . . any way to send money orders?


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## Shark_the_raptor (Jul 3, 2008)

Awesome, dude!  Definitely great news.  The site will definitely benefit greatly from this.


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## Blue Snowangel (Jul 3, 2008)

Wow, everyone is so generous around here.  *basks in positive glow of the FA'ers generosity*


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## snowmizer (Jul 3, 2008)

*
â™¥ Super cool! Great news indeed, I just hope people keep on given and that this thread doesn't discourage people from donating any more â™¥

Nice work everyone! ^.^
*​


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## Ribbonpaws (Jul 3, 2008)

Wolf_Fox_Guy said:


> you know, if we could do this for porn, imagine what we could do for world hunger? I mean, all those starving folks overseas gotta be skinny, and I'm sure some of them are over 18. Just get em to take of their clothes, slap on some fake ears, we could make Mother Teressa look like Ebinezer Scrooge



okay... i rolled... im sorry


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## ArielMT (Jul 3, 2008)

Wolf_Fox_Guy said:


> you know, if we could do this for porn, imagine what we could do for world hunger? I mean, all those starving folks overseas gotta be skinny, and I'm sure some of them are over 18. Just get em to take of their clothes, slap on some fake ears, we could make Mother Teressa look like Ebinezer Scrooge


That's all kinds of wrong, but the saddest kind of wrong is that it'd work.  XD


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## Drayk (Jul 3, 2008)

It's amazing how quickly people come together for the future of their porn access


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## SilverAutomatic (Jul 3, 2008)

Drayk said:


> It's amazing how quickly people come together for the future of their porn access



And hey, we didn't even need a telethon!


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## LimeyKat (Jul 3, 2008)

I honestly did not see that coming. Thats a lot of spiffiness to happen in such a small amount of time.


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## QT Melon (Jul 3, 2008)

Thank you everyone for your community support. It is wonderful to see the outreach. I did mention I would open commission slots for 3 people who did donations of 150 or more, but I'll open 4 slots, if there are two listed on Amazon and 2 listed on Paypal I'll do a digital Open Canvas commission so you can keep the event file.

However, that isn't the most important part, if not for the support for the new server I'd hate to see FA fade. It was so wonderful to see this. I'd love to do art for everyone who contributed but not possible. I'm also glad for the kind words of support many users had.

I do hope though people can keep donating because it means better hardware in the long run.


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## oCe (Jul 3, 2008)

The people have spoken. :O


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## Wolf_Fox_Guy (Jul 3, 2008)

ArielMT said:


> That's all kinds of wrong, but the saddest kind of wrong is that it'd work.  XD



thank you, I have good ideas like that (if you could call that one good), and the worst part is some of them actully sound like they would work. XP


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## Furthlingam (Jul 3, 2008)

Awesomesauce. You guys who bear the misc burdens to maintain a great site should at least be able to be funded on its hardware.


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## Rhainor (Jul 3, 2008)

Ten.  Thousand.  Dollars.

Holycrapcakes.

Here's to Fur Affinity:  An awesome site with an even awesomer community.



...I wonder what the odds are of it hitting $15k by Monday?  Come on, people, hit the donate button!  _Go for the high score!_


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## TheGreatCrusader (Jul 3, 2008)

Rhainor said:


> ...I wonder what the odds are of it hitting $15k by Monday?  Come on, people, hit the donate button!  _Go for the high score!_


Definitely. More and more furries will hear about it on the grape vine.


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## shirei-demon (Jul 3, 2008)

holy shiza, you furries really like your pr0n xD 

I'd donate, but I'm unfortunately dead broke and borrowing money from my mom just so I dont' get an overdraw on my bank account. and I just moved back to ohio so I have no job or anything right now. So...yeah...

if somebody comissions me I'll send all the proceeds to FA, but, I doubt anyone will, haha :3

Keep em coming, guys! Let's make FA bigger and more badass then ever :3


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## Runefox (Jul 3, 2008)

Bah, FA is more a community and art gallery to me than porn. If I only wanted porn, I'd go to FChan or Yiffstar. I come here for art.

If I happen to find porn, so much the better. =D


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## NornHound (Jul 3, 2008)

W00t!


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## Chaotic (Jul 3, 2008)

wow thats awesome. ^^
Funny how people were freaking out and getting crazy ideas for FA to get funds, but, it seems right now they are getting lots of it without needing extreme forces. ^^;
But yeah, cool, keep them going.


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## DarkTalbain64 (Jul 3, 2008)

Damn, 10K? That's really awesome, this community really comes together in a pinch!


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## Rhari (Jul 3, 2008)

lol WTG FA! 


Here's to community! *dances*


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## rednec0 (Jul 3, 2008)

holy crap that's a lot of moolah! damn straight go for the dedicated server and crap this way we don't have to rely on a shoddy host company too much


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## KemonoDragon (Jul 4, 2008)

gah, Dragoneer, send me some paypal info via a pm so i can donate.


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## Alchemist_Skunk (Jul 4, 2008)

Wheee Cant Wait till FA is back up! It just had to drop rigth as my new Commission's were done xD


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## dmfalk (Jul 4, 2008)

iBurro said:


> Never underestimate the power of an online community. BD I knew you'd be able to get more than $4000 in donations, but it's very impressive that we've managed to get over $10k. o_o



Never underestimate the love and generosity of the furry community. I know THIS from nearly 25 years' experience. 

d.m.f.
(Yes, I'm THAT old...now, where's my Geritol??  )


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## stormhowl (Jul 4, 2008)

That's great to hear! I was wondering what was going on when all I would get were "404's" and server time outs the last few days. Glad to see that even on the internet, there are still communities that are willing to pull together to help out.

(Or maybe I'm just bitter from the World of Warcraft Forums and how vile that place is...)



Drayk said:


> It's amazing how quickly people come together for the future of their porn access



Hey now! Some of us use this as a hub for communication to trade art tips...
....
and for porn >.>


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## SGrayWolf (Jul 4, 2008)

It's certainly awesome of the generosity of FAs communitys members! :} Way to go!


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## Bobskunk (Jul 4, 2008)

Oh what the christ seriously?! Hahahaha awesome, I never thought it would get to be THAT much.

I figure you'll all adjust the proposed system specs to account for the greater than expected windfall?  I mean, for performance and future-proofing purposes, as much as you can spare outside of bandwidth, rent, sex/drug parties, and other miscellaneous operating fees?


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## JAH2000 (Jul 4, 2008)

Wolf_Fox_Guy said:


> you know, if we could do this for porn, imagine what we could do for world hunger? I mean, all those starving folks overseas gotta be skinny, and I'm sure some of them are over 18. Just get em to take of their clothes, slap on some fake ears, we could make Mother Teressa look like Ebinezer Scrooge



wow huh..........That might just work *lamo*


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## Drake_Husky (Jul 4, 2008)

never under estimate peoples will to randomly give away cash.


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## SilverAutomatic (Jul 4, 2008)

Drake_Husky said:


> never under estimate peoples will to randomly give away cash.



Where are these people? Do the live by me? How come no one has ever walked up to me with 10 grand and just said "here, you take it, it's been burning a hole in my pockets". XD

Hmm... That would be kinda awesome...

Aw well, congrats everyone.


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## Fuzzypaws (Jul 4, 2008)

With all this extra money coming in, you should take another look at IBM.


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## Drex150 (Jul 4, 2008)

Wow this is amazing. I am extremely impressed. It just goes to show what a community with a common goal can accomplish. Congrats to all that donated, and lets keep it up! Come on 15k! :lol:


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## thebeast76 (Jul 4, 2008)

What would totally make this better is to acknowledge who donated by how much they give like at places like the YMCA and  organization headquarters, how they have like a 'Wall of Donators' thing showing who donated how much. This in turn could be an incentive to give more, since people, as much as they love anonymous giving, would be stoked to see who can give the most acknowledged by the furry community (unless they state otherwise, of course).


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## Drex150 (Jul 4, 2008)

thebeast76 said:


> What would totally make this better is to acknowledge who donated by how much they give like at places like the YMCA and  organization headquarters, how they have like a 'Wall of Donators' thing showing who donated how much. This in turn could be an incentive to give more, since people, as much as they love anonymous giving, would be stoked to see who can give the most acknowledged by the furry community (unless they state otherwise, of course).



The only issue I have with that is that people should donate what they want to. It is a donation, they shouldn't be made fun of for donating a dollar vs the guy that donated $200. Maybe just posting the names of the people without the dollar amount.


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## SilverAutomatic (Jul 4, 2008)

I have a feeling that come FAU time, someones going to be looking for Dragoneer to give a speech. XD


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## LonelyFox (Jul 4, 2008)

SPEECH! SPEECH SPEECH!


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## Drako (Jul 4, 2008)

Drayk said:


> It's amazing how quickly people come together for the future of their porn access



Never underestimate the power of porn.  After all, it's what the internet is for.


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## SilverAutomatic (Jul 4, 2008)

Drako said:


> Never underestimate the power of porn.  After all, it's what the internet is for.



Google images is proof of that.


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## Hikarishade (Jul 4, 2008)

dmfalk said:


> Never underestimate the love and generosity of the furry community. I know THIS from nearly 25 years' experience.
> 
> d.m.f.
> (Yes, I'm THAT old...now, where's my Geritol??  )



Bah... in our group up here, we call the older furs Greymuzzles.  You dont need geritol.  And Woot for the over 10k!  Id donate, but I have like.. seven bucks to last me all of July. XD


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## KMakato (Jul 4, 2008)

SilverAutomatic said:


> Google images is proof of that.


I lol'd :3
GO FA, GO!


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## Snickers (Jul 4, 2008)

wow..thats..amazing o.0........in such a short time
lots of ..money..


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## SilverAutomatic (Jul 4, 2008)

Hikarishade said:


> Bah... in our group up here, we call the older furs Greymuzzles.  You dont need geritol.  And Woot for the over 10k!  Id donate, but I have like.. seven bucks to last me all of July. XD



Things you can buy now and days for seven dollars:

...
...
...

Seven, very nice, one dollar bills.
2/3 a gallon of gas.
A really cool pen light. XD


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## squeedgemonster (Jul 4, 2008)

SEE, FURRIES AREN'T ALL THAT BAD <3


This is so cool. I hope once I get some mo I can donate at least a leeeetle to my favoritest website besides LJ.


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## Mobius1 (Jul 4, 2008)

yay!!!!!! fa will run more reliably!!!!!!! ^.=.^


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## DJDarkViper (Jul 4, 2008)

just think, if this were to happen to SA, everyone would jsut leave. 
I think even DA's $Spyed would choke on his food/drink at the sight of the amount raised by pure love for a single website, in a matter of 2/3 days. And wish secretly he could have it lol


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## Hikarishade (Jul 4, 2008)

SilverAutomatic said:


> Things you can buy now and days for seven dollars:
> 
> ...
> ...
> ...



Actually its more like... Buy a loaf of bread, milk, and maybe some eggs if our supplies run low... =P


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## Hybrid Project Alpha (Jul 4, 2008)

Furries are a force to be reckoned with

Glad to be a part of the magic


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## dmfalk (Jul 4, 2008)

Hikarishade said:


> Bah... in our group up here, we call the older furs Greymuzzles.  You dont need geritol.  And Woot for the over 10k!  Id donate, but I have like.. seven bucks to last me all of July. XD



Yes, I am a Greymuzzle, and know quite a few.  I was being sarcastic about the Geritol, anyway.  I'm just three months shy of 43 (Greymuzzles are considered 35 or older), and have been actuve in local and online furry communities since '85. I've been furry since I was 2. I have Greymuzzle friends who are already seniors (over 60), and I have a long ways to go- Furry isn't just for the young. 

Even us Greymuzzles need FA- At the very least, we need the community aspect. 

d.m.f.


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## Chaotic (Jul 4, 2008)

DJDarkViper said:


> just think, if this were to happen to SA, everyone would jsut leave.
> I think even DA's $Spyed would choke on his food/drink at the sight of the amount raised by pure love for a single website, in a matter of 2/3 days. And wish secretly he could have it lol



aint that the truth? lol
SA to me is slowly dieing anyways, DA is good but for some reason if DA was down it wouldnt affect me as much. ^^;


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## Tsampikos (Jul 4, 2008)

SomethingAwful will never die!


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## Undying Song (Jul 4, 2008)

Except that SomethingAwful has absolutely nothing to do with this. Way to go!

You're totally on the wrong website.


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## dmfalk (Jul 4, 2008)

Tsampikos said:


> SomethingAwful will never die!



Not SomethingAwful... SheezyArt.

d.m.f.


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## Tsampikos (Jul 4, 2008)

What a perfectly reasonable response to an obvious joke!


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## Rhainor (Jul 4, 2008)

I'm a few pages late with this, but THIS THREAD MOVES SO DAMN FAST.



rednec0 said:


> holy crap that's a lot of moolah! damn straight go for the dedicated server and crap *this way we don't have to rely on a shoddy host company too much*



FA has owned its servers for as long as I can remember, they just don't have their own facility to put them in, so they're run from co-location facilities.



thebeast76 said:


> What would totally make this better is to acknowledge who donated by how much they give like at places like the YMCA and  organization headquarters, how they have like a 'Wall of Donators' thing showing who donated how much. This in turn could be an incentive to give more, since people, as much as they love anonymous giving, would be stoked to see who can give the most acknowledged by the furry community (unless they state otherwise, of course).



Hence my line a few pages back: "Click the donate button! _Go for the high score!_"


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## Wolfbane (Jul 4, 2008)

I'm seeing it I just don't believe it!  Congratulations and thank you to everyone who has helped in the effort to get the site going again, You are great! <3


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## jmynstyx (Jul 4, 2008)

Met: "JMY! what does the scouter say on his power level!"
Jmy: "......ITS OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!!!!!!"

lol sorry couldnt resist XD I would donate but I'm poor right now and trying to get a job X3
awesome though


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## Kender3421 (Jul 4, 2008)

WOOT! Go us! 10K is a ton of money. Imagine if we double that by the end of this weekend? Screw $15K, let's go for $20K. Go big or go home I always say.


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## SDWolf (Jul 4, 2008)

Wow....  This is really fucking awesome!  *wags vigorously*

The community coming together like this has really been something to see, and I'm proud to have been able to contribute to that.  We should all be proud, including those who could only donate a dollar or two.  Every penny counts.  As I said before, we rock.  :-D

One thing that's surprised me is just how much fundraising clout this group has, since raking in about 10k in about 3 days is pretty damn impressive no matter how you look at it.  Makes me wonder if maybe, when we're not facing a crisis, we could pull off something similar for a charity.  Maybe devote a week to raising funds for animal rescue or something else relevant to the fandom.  Could do wonders for our image, and maybe build some good karma to keep the servers stable, too.  

Just something to think about down the road.  Congrats, and take care!


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## Zanzer (Jul 4, 2008)

WOOOOOOOOOO Wow that brillant. 
Yay faster browsing. 

(Loves SD Avitar that rocks aswell)


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## Tachyon (Jul 4, 2008)

With this outpouring of generosity, you'd almost think it'd be a good idea for FA to have catastrophic hardware failure more often. ;-)


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## LizardKing (Jul 4, 2008)

There's one in the face for the 'all furries are basement dwellers with no money and no job' stereotype. 

Either that or they're so desperate for fappage they sold their kidneys.


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## Drakkenlupen (Jul 4, 2008)

The first week is going to be the real challange though, remember, we're talking over a week of art, music, stories, more art, and everything else, just being posted one after another. So to anyone who's reading this, submit with caution, try not to break the new server. XD


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## Ruffyluv (Jul 4, 2008)

i wish amazon would update, i know its higher than it currently says because i just sent in a donation and no change, silly amazon

anyway it'll prolly be higher than it says at this point


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## dmfalk (Jul 4, 2008)

Drakkenlupen said:


> The first week is going to be the real challange though, remember, we're talking over a week of art, music, stories, more art, and everything else, just being posted one after another. So to anyone who's reading this, submit with caution, try not to break the new server. XD



I liked what the old Yerf site did, before it finally crashed & burned- Uploads were limited to to 5 a day per account. I'd put it at 10, for FA, if they ever imposed limits... But yes, brace for upload floods... o.o

d.m.f.


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## dmfalk (Jul 4, 2008)

Ruffyluv said:


> i wish amazon would update, i know its higher than it currently says because i just sent in a donation and no change, silly amazon
> 
> anyway it'll prolly be higher than it says at this point



Oh, you can bet on it being considerably higher. 

d.m.f.


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## Dragoneer (Jul 4, 2008)

Rhainor said:


> ...I wonder what the odds are of it hitting $15k by Monday?  Come on, people, hit the donate button!  _Go for the high score!_


If people continue to donate as they are... I'd say it's a very real possibility.


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## Dragoneer (Jul 4, 2008)

Drex150 said:


> The only issue I have with that is that people should donate what they want to. It is a donation, they shouldn't be made fun of for donating a dollar vs the guy that donated $200. Maybe just posting the names of the people without the dollar amount.


I've said it before, I'll say it again. If everybody who used FA donated a single dollar a year (let alone a month) we could pay for all of FA's services for a full year. And our regular bills are almost $1,100 a month.



SilverAutomatic said:


> I have a feeling that come FAU time, someones going to be looking for Dragoneer to give a speech. XD


I hate giving speechs, but if it comes to that... well, baby, we'll be giving speeches. 



LonelyFox said:


> SPEECH! SPEECH SPEECH!


A'ight, a'ight.


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## Dragoneer (Jul 4, 2008)

Undying Song said:


> Except that SomethingAwful has absolutely nothing to do with this. Way to go!


Sorta. Lots of FA staffers are members of Something Awful, but yeah... =P There's no official relation.



Kender3421 said:


> WOOT! Go us! 10K is a ton of money. Imagine if we double that by the end of this weekend? Screw $15K, let's go for $20K. Go big or go home I always say.


If we got $20K I do believe I would literally shit myself from awe and disbelief.



Tachyon said:


> With this outpouring of generosity, you'd almost think it'd be a good idea for FA to have catastrophic hardware failure more often. ;-)


No comment.


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## Charlie_Kitsune (Jul 4, 2008)

Woohoo, delay will be worthy to wait =^w^=


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## Version4 (Jul 4, 2008)

That's damn awesome guys! 8D

Though one interesting thing is that every time FA goes down the donations sky-rockets in a moment - and goes down the next. 
So maybe, just maybe, FA needs to be put "down for maintenance" more often to get the funds needed 

.......

No.. wait a minute.. 
you..
did you..
could this just be..

Oh goodness :shock:

I hope I won't get any strangers in black suits knocking on my door ;__;
*gets paranoid and hides in a closet*


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## Zanzer (Jul 4, 2008)

IT's over  10 Thousand!!!!!!!!!
wait...


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## Farx (Jul 4, 2008)

I've donated in the past and I gladly donated again last night, especially since I happened to have the extra cash at the moment.

As I was telling a couple of friends last night, that also have accounts on FA, explaining why I would give money : 

"I pay for a LiveJournal subscription so why wouldn't I want to do the same for FurAffinity.
I've used FA as a gallery for my art, gotten to know many awesome folks that I wouldn't have if it didn't exist, found artists there and hired them for some fantastic commission orders, and not to mention looking at the obvious sexually related material that we all love.

The least I can do for the past two and a half years of my membership is throw them a bone."

I think that about sums it up.


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## reigoskeiter (Jul 4, 2008)

great to hear that FA has go over 10.000$!


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## foxystallion (Jul 4, 2008)

tundra_arctic_wolf said:


> That's totally frickin' sweet, Dragoneer.
> 
> I hope the donations keep coming for the next three days.
> 
> I would love to donate to help FA, except, I don't have a credit card, so I can't use Paypal and/or Amazon Honor System.  The only way I could donate is by using a domestic money order from the US Postal Service.



Just PM Dragoneer and I'm sure that he can tell you who to make it out to and where to send it.  Thanks!


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## Sslaxx (Jul 4, 2008)

There's another $20 headed your way...


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## notMordecai (Jul 4, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Sorta. Lots of FA staffers are members of Something Awful, but yeah... =P There's no official relation.



I think she is talking about SheezyArt and not Something Awful, genius. 

And speaking of Something Awful, they are doing about 50,000 dollars worth of upgrades pretty soon.


----------



## reigoskeiter (Jul 4, 2008)

HAHA LOL
LETS CELEBRAIT WHIT THIS SONG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSL9ZrOlFuA
xD


----------



## Drex150 (Jul 4, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> I've said it before, I'll say it again. If everybody who used FA donated a single dollar a year (let alone a month) we could pay for all of FA's services for a full year. And our regular bills are almost $1,100 a month.



Yeah, I am not saying it would be you guys that would be making fun of them. I am sure you are grateful for every dime you can get. Still, showing the dollar amount will bring about just as much grief as it will good. That was all I was saying.


----------



## foxystallion (Jul 4, 2008)

Le_DÃ©mon_Sans_Visage said:


> Hey, some of us don't have paypal or credit cards . . . any way to send money orders?



Just PM Dragoneer and I'm sure that he can tell you who to make it out to and where to send it. Thanks!


----------



## Sslaxx (Jul 4, 2008)

Any update on the PayPal status?


----------



## Shadowpelt The Malamute (Jul 4, 2008)

I am so glad that FA is getting the money it needs to upgrade and purchase it's new server. The second I can make some more money I am going to donate it towards further helping the site!

Go Dragoneer and all the other furs that have made this possible <3


----------



## Undying Song (Jul 4, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Sorta. Lots of FA staffers are members of Something Awful, but yeah... =P There's no official relation.



I am thus informed! *grin*


----------



## Chanticleer (Jul 4, 2008)

Impressive, score for the community...

You know if I was a conspiracy theorist I might say that they deliberately broke or sold the old server because they knew the outcry and donations would be so big.

Or maybe that's just the Machiavelli in me.


----------



## Kata'lina (Jul 4, 2008)

It's wonderful that there are so many users donating. I wonder however, Exactly what will the donations go for?

Will it be a server? IS a server over 10 grand? If there is money left over, what about hiring a professional?

Will there be updates so that people will see exactly Where their money is going? After all, donations ARE tax right offs, and of course they have the right and perhaps the need to know.

Like I said, it's wonderful that people are donating, I just hope that everyone who has will at least have updates for them to see where their money is goind.


----------



## Drex150 (Jul 4, 2008)

Kata'lina said:


> It's wonderful that there are so many users donating. I wonder however, Exactly what will the donations go for?
> 
> Will it be a server? IS a server over 10 grand? If there is money left over, what about hiring a professional?
> 
> ...



There are other posts describing what they plan to do with the money. From what I understand, they are planning to get 2 new servers. If they get enough money they even plan to update the older servers. Also, don't forget that it costs just about $1000 a month to keep this site up and running.


----------



## Undying Song (Jul 4, 2008)

Drex150 said:


> From what I understand, they are planning to get 2 new servers. If they get enough money they even plan to update the older servers. Also, don't forget that it costs just about $1000 a month to keep this site up and running.



Unless I am mistaken, they're planning on three servers now, not two. : )


----------



## selth (Jul 4, 2008)

let's just keep donnate and build FA a new colo too!


----------



## SilverAutomatic (Jul 4, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> I hate giving speechs, but if it comes to that... well, baby, we'll be giving speeches.



I'm so going to drag you onto a stage XD


----------



## Beansprout (Jul 4, 2008)

Broken yet you can still access all the art: http://data.furaffinity.net/art/napkit/1186218068.napkit_pru5-1.jpg


----------



## Drex150 (Jul 4, 2008)

Undying Song said:


> Unless I am mistaken, they're planning on three servers now, not two. : )



Even better.


----------



## Danza (Jul 4, 2008)

How many users does FA have anyway ? O_O


----------



## Daniel Kay (Jul 4, 2008)

Wow just looked again and the amazon page alone is almost over 9000 now, i guess the 15000 aimed are a realisitc goal


----------



## Kender3421 (Jul 4, 2008)

Still say we can get $20K by Monday morning.


----------



## SilverAutomatic (Jul 4, 2008)

Daniel Kay said:


> Wow just looked again and the amazon page alone is almost over 9000 now, i guess the 15000 aimed are a realisitc goal



Kick-Ass!


----------



## Undying Song (Jul 4, 2008)

$15,000? Yes, a very realistic goal. Too realistic, IMHO.

We can aim higher, for sure. : )

_$20,000_ Definitely. My bet goes there.


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 4, 2008)

Drex150 said:


> There are other posts describing what they plan to do with the money. From what I understand, they are planning to get 2 new servers.


We will definitely be getting two new servers -- a dedicated data storage box with between 4 to 6TB of storage (depending on final config) and a high end web server to process every single page on the site. Both will more than likely feature a minimum of eight cores of processing power via dual Xeons (5420 series) and between 4 to 8GB of RAM.



Kata'lina said:


> Will it be a server? IS a server over 10 grand? If there is money left over, what about hiring a professional?


It will be two servers, with tentative specs noted above.



Kata'lina said:


> Will there be updates so that people will see exactly Where their money is going? After all, donations ARE tax right offs, and of course they have the right and perhaps the need to know.


Yes, and I have posted several times that I will do this next week. Donations to Fur Affinity are NOT tax deductable as we are a charity. Even if we were non-profit donations to the site would still not be tax deductable because, again, we are not a charity organization.



Undying Song said:


> Unless I am mistaken, they're planning on three servers now, not two. : )


Right now we know we have enough for two without question. We will also be dropping in another 8GB of RAM (if not more) to our main database server for a total of 16GB of RAM. Should we have enough money left over yet still, we will upgrade the hard drives on the DB server to 146GB 15K RPM SAS drives which should provide further benefit.


----------



## Drex150 (Jul 4, 2008)

Good to know, thanks for the post Dragon. Sounds like it is gunna be an awesome upgrade indeed.


----------



## Occoris (Jul 4, 2008)

tundra_arctic_wolf said:


> That's totally frickin' sweet, Dragoneer.
> 
> I hope the donations keep coming for the next three days.
> 
> I would love to donate to help FA, except, I don't have a credit card, so I can't use Paypal and/or Amazon Honor System.  The only way I could donate is by using a domestic money order from the US Postal Service.



not true :3 I hooked my Paypal straight up to my savings account


----------



## demiwoody (Jul 4, 2008)

lol, shows you what happens when you take away FA from anthro fans, THEY THROW MONEY AT YOU!  woooh!  amazing numbers, keep them coming gang.


----------



## purpledragonbreath (Jul 4, 2008)

wow! this means the servers can be... over 9000... or at least worth more than 9k XD


----------



## oniontrain (Jul 4, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Sorta. Lots of FA staffers are members of Something Awful,... I would literally shit myself ...



If you have an account this means you have to make a GBS thread about it if it happens.


----------



## Rhainor (Jul 4, 2008)

Danza said:


> How many users does FA have anyway ? O_O



Last I heard (and this was several months ago) was that the mainsite had over 80,000 registered user accounts.  Keep in mind, a lot of those are banned accounts, people with multiple accounts, or ones that are just plain abandoned.  Even if we only have 50k active users, that's still a whole lotta furries.



purpledragonbreath said:


> wow! this means the servers can be... over 9000... or at least worth more than 9k XD



If the donations keep rolling in via PayPal they way they've been rolling in via Amazon, we're nearing the oh-so-sweet $15,000 mark (assuming we haven't passed it already).  I checked about 5 minutes ago, and the donation tracker on the Amazon page was reading about $8,800; and 'Neer said yesterday that the PayPal total was over $4k, so it's probably around $6k, quite possibly more.


----------



## ArielMT (Jul 4, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> If we got $20K I do believe I would literally shit myself from awe and disbelief.


Be careful... There's a thread on Fchan just for that.


----------



## TechCat (Jul 4, 2008)

Furries, FTW!1  Awesome job everyone!

We'd better at least get a search bar after this too. XD


----------



## LonelyFox (Jul 4, 2008)

i couldnt resist


----------



## Kata'lina (Jul 4, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Yes, and I have posted several times that I will do this next week. Donations to Fur Affinity are NOT tax deductable *as we are a charity.* Even if we were non-profit donations to the site would still not be tax deductable *because, again, we are not a charity organization.*


 
So, which are you? A charity? Or not?


----------



## ArielMT (Jul 4, 2008)

Kata'lina said:


> Dragoneer said:
> 
> 
> > Yes, and I have posted several times that I will do this next week. Donations to Fur Affinity are NOT tax deductable as we are a charity. Even if we were non-profit donations to the site would still not be tax deductable because, again, we are not a charity organization.
> ...


I suspect a typo, and that FA is clearly not a charity, because no donations to FA are tax deductible.


----------



## joshstory (Jul 4, 2008)

Is there a land line to send donations to?


----------



## GreenReaper (Jul 5, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Donations to Fur Affinity are NOT tax deductable as we are a charity. Even if we were non-profit donations to the site would still not be tax deductable because, again, we are not a charity organization.


Technically, that last bit might not be true. No, it's not a charity in that it does not do charitable things, but the definition of a 501(c)(3) includes several types of organization. It might be argued that FA is providing a literary or educational service to the public (most furry conventions argue precisely that). It certainly seems to be able to raise public support, which would aid its classification as a "pubic charity" for tax purposes . . .

(Not saying that a non-profit organization, 501(c)(3) or otherwise, is necessary or desirable. Most furs don't itemize their deductions anyway, so having their donations be tax-deductible would not help them; and FA does not seem to be designed to make a profit as yet, so tax isn't much of an issue.)


----------



## talakestreal (Jul 5, 2008)

It's so awesome that all the furries have raised this much money. I'm in awe.  With how much people talk about how they can't afford to commission folks, and with how tight the economy is getting to be, it just shows how much we all love FurAffinity, with how much has been donated. 

I'll be glad to see the site back up. This is so awesome. I'm excited at the prospects now, rather than just lackadaisically bored over it all.


----------



## Daniel Kay (Jul 5, 2008)

Hey could we get an update on the current donations level?... the amazon page hasnt moved in a while now... did we break it again


----------



## ZigZag13 (Jul 5, 2008)

Beansprout said:


> Broken yet you can still access all the art: http://data.furaffinity.net/art/napkit/1186218068.napkit_pru5-1.jpg




...But...The server is down...isn't it?... o.o


...Something isn't right here... >.>


----------



## NeoWyverdramon (Jul 5, 2008)

Over $9000 in donations. 

What I wouldn't give to have that much money. EVER.


----------



## Sslaxx (Jul 5, 2008)

ZigZag13 said:


> ...But...The server is down...isn't it?... o.o
> 
> ...Something isn't right here... >.>


There's more than one server. It seems data.furaffinity.net (the DATAbase server, hazarding a guess) is still functioning whereas www.furaffinity.net (the website server) is the one that bit the dust...


----------



## NeoWyverdramon (Jul 5, 2008)

Sslaxx said:


> There's more than one server. It seems data.furaffinity.net (the DATAbase server, hazarding a guess) is still functioning whereas www.furaffinity.net (the website server) is the one that bit the dust...



Though wouldn't you want to eventually put both servers in the same database or whatever you want to call it?


----------



## Sslaxx (Jul 5, 2008)

NeoWyverdramon said:


> Though wouldn't you want to eventually put both servers in the same database or whatever you want to call it?


Not really, no. Less strain on a single machine, for a start. Also, a database has different demands put upon it to a web server. Best to have two machines dedicated to each bit and doing a decent job of it, rather than one machine trying to do both poorly.


----------



## NeoWyverdramon (Jul 5, 2008)

Sslaxx said:


> Not really, no. Less strain on a single machine, for a start. Also, a database has different demands put upon it to a web server. Best to have two machines dedicated to each bit and doing a decent job of it, rather than one machine trying to do both poorly.



I was just thinking that maybe cost-wise, it would be cheaper to have one than just two, but its understandable that you'd want to keep a database and a server separate, just because of what happened here.


----------



## selth (Jul 5, 2008)

hey, maybe FA will be able to buy a SPARC!


----------



## GreenReaper (Jul 5, 2008)

The trend nowadays is to have powerful machines running a lot of different virtual machines, which saves space and power . . . but of course that doesn't help you much if the real machine dies (other than that it's fast to get it up and running, if you have a backup of the virtual machine _and_ another real machine).

For something of FA's level, though, a virtual machine probably would not suffice.


----------



## AgroAntirrhopus (Jul 5, 2008)

Great to see the community come together to help out.


----------



## DJDarkViper (Jul 5, 2008)

Curious, whats the status as of this fine saturday morning?


----------



## Rhainor (Jul 5, 2008)

Daniel Kay said:


> Hey could we get an update on the current donations level?... the amazon page hasnt moved in a while now... did we break it again



No, it just wasn't *completely* broken before.  I think we finally killed it altogether.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if it stays stuck until FA is back online and people stop donating.


----------



## ArielMT (Jul 5, 2008)

NeoWyverdramon said:


> I was just thinking that maybe cost-wise, it would be cheaper to have one than just two, but its understandable that you'd want to keep a database and a server separate, just because of what happened here.


Price-wise, yes, but price savings almost always come at the expense of lost performance.  And it's really not possible to call this situation redundancy either, because the data is still largely inaccessible (one has to already know the full file path).

Although, the admins have assured us that the data has the redundancy provided by sensible RAID configurations, which is good news in its own right.

It's also refreshing to learn that the art isn't stuffed into database blobs.


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 5, 2008)

Daniel Kay said:


> Hey could we get an update on the current donations level?... the amazon page hasnt moved in a while now... did we break it again


Yeah. I still see a lot of donations pending... but it's not moving on the admin/user side of it as well.


----------



## SilverAutomatic (Jul 5, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Yeah. I still see a lot of donations pending... but it's not moving on the admin/user side of it as well.



So not only did we manage to crash our own site, but we managed to crash our donations page as well?

We. Are. Awesome.

XD


----------



## Daniel Kay (Jul 5, 2008)

SilverAutomatic said:


> So not only did we manage to crash our own site, but we managed to crash our donations page as well?
> 
> We. Are. Awesome.
> 
> XD



In fact this is the SECOND time alread we crashed the donations page


----------



## SilverAutomatic (Jul 5, 2008)

Daniel Kay said:


> In fact this is the SECOND time alread we crashed the donations page



(is currently calling the guinness book of world records to see if we qualify)

XD


----------



## StfN (Jul 5, 2008)

Did it ever work again in between? I think it's been saying that same amount of donations and money ever since I donated, and that was like, I dunno, 30 hours ago...


----------



## Artie (Jul 5, 2008)

StfN said:


> Did it ever work again in between? I think it's been saying that same amount of donations and money ever since I donated, and that was like, I dunno, 30 hours ago...



I noticed between the time this thread was first posted, and the next morning, it updated to show roughly an additional $2,000 on the total.  But it hasn't moved from what it's showing now for about the past day and a half.  According to what people are posting, donations are still coming in.  So whenever the total DOES update.... it'll probably be by quite a bit.


----------



## StfN (Jul 5, 2008)

Artie said:


> ...So whenever the total DOES update.... it'll probably be by quite a bit.



Sounds good. *grin*
I really do wonder if we'll break the 20,000. Out of curiosity on this I've been checking this forum more often in the last 2 days than I spent on forums in years. =p


----------



## SilverAutomatic (Jul 5, 2008)

StfN said:


> Sounds good. *grin*
> I really do wonder if we'll break the 20,000. Out of curiosity on this I've been checking this forum more often in the last 2 days than I spent on forums in years. =p



Same here, the only time I ever even looked at the forums was when FA went done. This would be the first 'down time' i've actually started posting. XD


----------



## StfN (Jul 5, 2008)

SilverAutomatic said:


> Same here, the only time I ever even looked at the forums was when FA went done. This would be the first 'down time' i've actually started posting. XD



Yah, me too. I'm usually the one staying in the background, reading some posts here and there, muttering to myself about the stupidity of some of those people that only seem to come here to bitch and complain, and just waiting for things to come online again.
But this time it's different. There's that certain feeling of achieving something as a community.


----------



## Baby Giraffe (Jul 5, 2008)

This is so cool. I have to post this in my forums. THough most of them don't care much for furrys but over 10,000(by this point) in a week is mind blowing. I would gladly pony up a few dollars here and there to keep it running like a race horse. *rockfingers* This is so #%&!ing awsome!!


----------



## SDWolf (Jul 5, 2008)

GreenReaper said:


> The trend nowadays is to have powerful machines running a lot of different virtual machines, which saves space and power . . . but of course that doesn't help you much if the real machine dies (other than that it's fast to get it up and running, if you have a backup of the virtual machine _and_ another real machine).
> 
> For something of FA's level, though, a virtual machine probably would not suffice.


 
I know a couple of the many furs that work for VMWare, and they'll all tell you the same thing: Never, _ever_, run a DB server in a VM. _*EVAR!!!1!!11!one!!!eleven!1*_

Virtual machines are great in a lot of applications that don't involve a lot of disk I/O, and don't involve a large memory footprint. Web servers, mail servers, IRC servers, and the like are prime examples. Each of these tends to be idle most of the time, so running each one on a dedicated box is a huge waste of space, electricity, and ultimately money. This is where VMs shine.

DB servers, on the other paw, require LOTS of memory, and involve LOTS of disk I/O, which tends to be slow in a VM. If you try to run a DB server in a VM, it'll work mostly, but it'll be extremely slow, and it wouldn't take much to overwhelm it and bring it down. DB servers, especially ones that tend to get a lot of traffic like FA's, need to run on dedicated boxes.


----------



## Shadowpelt The Malamute (Jul 5, 2008)

StfN said:


> Sounds good. *grin*
> I really do wonder if we'll break the 20,000. Out of curiosity on this I've been checking this forum more often in the last 2 days than I spent on forums in years. =p



I know what you mean. I go on FA to much for it to be healthy, but I might go on the forums maybe once a month and never post. (
I currently had to make a new account, but sadly I think I have the same amount of posts on my other account.) But now I can't seem to look away from the forums. 

Maybe in hope it might tell me when FA is due to come back. That and the fact I am amazed by how much people care about the site. I mean 10,000 + is a lot of money.


----------



## Artie (Jul 5, 2008)

Shadowpelt The Malamute said:


> That and the fact I am amazed by how much people care about the site. I mean 10,000 + is a lot of money.



The last official post regarding the total raised so far that I know of was from Dragoneer at 7:15 PM (Eastern Time) yesterday.  Which was 15 hours ago.  And at that time he said it was *$13,000+* total raised.

I would expect by now we're probably well over $15,000 total raised.  But that's just a guess.  The last actual update that I know of was 15 hours ago and said $13,000+.


----------



## seaweed (Jul 6, 2008)

I want to go on record as giving Dragoneer a really big *nosesmack* for the ultra-nerdy and silly Dragonball Z reference.



(okay, actually I am just jealous that I didn't think of it first... )


----------



## Wuffpup (Jul 6, 2008)

Rhainor said:


> No, it just wasn't *completely* broken before.  I think we finally killed it altogether.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if it stays stuck until FA is back online and people stop donating.



Thank you my friend, you have just provided me with todays lul.


----------



## Shadowpelt The Malamute (Jul 6, 2008)

Artie said:


> The last official post regarding the total raised so far that I know of was from Dragoneer at 7:15 PM (Eastern Time) yesterday.  Which was 15 hours ago.  And at that time he said it was *$13,000+* total raised.
> 
> I would expect by now we're probably well over $15,000 total raised.  But that's just a guess.  The last actual update that I know of was 15 hours ago and said $13,000+.



Oh I must have missed it. There are so many posts and so much money I have issues keeping up ^w^


----------



## Adelio Altomar (Jul 6, 2008)

I'd gladly donate some money since it turns out I didn't have to give my money away to money hungry vultures for a simple repair on my computer.

But isn't the payment system done through credit card? Aren't there other ways of donating the money?


----------



## SilverAutomatic (Jul 6, 2008)

Adelio Altomar said:


> I'd gladly donate some money since it turns out I didn't have to give my money away to money hungry vultures for a simple repair on my computer.
> 
> But isn't the payment system done through credit card? Aren't there other ways of donating the money?



If you PM Dragoneer, he'll send you a link to donate via paypal.


----------



## Adelio Altomar (Jul 6, 2008)

SilverAutomatic said:


> If you PM Dragoneer, he'll send you a link to donate via paypal.


 
Paypal requires a credit card, something I do not have nor would ever use online. I'm talking about alternative methods of payment such as _mailing_ or _money order_.


----------



## SGrayWolf (Jul 6, 2008)

Yeah, the awesomeness of the community coming together is well, awesome! I joined FA a little while back but never created a forum account until the recent downtime.

I've read the entirety of the 100+ pages on the other thread, that is certainly a lot of reading. Haha. @.@

I think someone should get a Digg story going about the awesomeness and generosity of the community AND that we broke Amazon from all of the donations. *grins* XD

Edit: Adelio, I vaguely recall somewhere about money orders mentioned... Hmm PM Dragoneer about it.


----------



## lumix (Jul 6, 2008)

Adelio Altomar said:


> Paypal requires a credit card, something I do not have nor would ever use online. I'm talking about alternative methods of payment such as _mailing_ or _money order_.


You can link it to your banking account too


----------



## Adelio Altomar (Jul 6, 2008)

lumix said:


> You can link it to your banking account too


 
Two words for you, my friend: Heeell no!  

I'm sorry but what I'm trying to explain here is that I wanna send in money without having to connect my personal information or anything else via the Internet. If I can't do that, then I guess I won't send in the money.


----------



## Artie (Jul 6, 2008)

Adelio Altomar said:


> Paypal requires a credit card, something I do not have nor would ever use online. I'm talking about alternative methods of payment such as _mailing_ or _money order_.



Like lumix said, as far as I know, you can use PayPal with just a bank account to draw money from.

But, I'm sure Dragoneer could tell you where to mail money too, if you wanted to.

I wonder if they'll be accepting any donations at FA:U, or if that's not allowed for some (legal) reason.


----------



## SilverAutomatic (Jul 6, 2008)

Artie said:


> I wonder if they'll be accepting any donations at FA:U, or if that's not allowed for some (legal) reason.



I don't know of any legalities concerning that... I mean, if anything, a check made out to Ferrox LLC (i think that's the company the site runs under...?) and just put 'donation' in the memo would suffice.

Then again, I've been wrong before.


----------



## Artie (Jul 6, 2008)

SilverAutomatic said:


> I don't know of any legalities concerning that... I mean, if anything, a check made out to Ferrox LLC (i think that's the company the site runs under...?) and just put 'donation' in the memo would suffice.
> 
> Then again, I've been wrong before.



I only say if because if I recall, there was some no-no regarding people donating money to 4chan AT Otakon in the past.  Just as an example.  I dunno, though.


----------



## dmfalk (Jul 6, 2008)

lumix said:


> You can link it to your banking account too



Only selected countries- US, Canada, and I think, the UK.

Mine is so linked, and has been for 9 years. 

d.m.f.
( o/~ Living in America... Eye to eye, station to station! o/~ )


----------



## Rhainor (Jul 6, 2008)

Fluffyfur said:


> Thank you my friend, you have just provided me with todays lul.



I aim to please -- or at least get a chuckle or two.



Adelio Altomar said:


> I'd gladly donate some money since it turns out I didn't have to give my money away to money hungry vultures for a simple repair on my computer.
> 
> But isn't the payment system done through credit card? Aren't there other ways of donating the money?



It's possible to link a PayPal account directly to a bank account, and transfer funds from there; it's how I use PayPal.  It takes a few days to process the transfer from bank to PayPal, though.



SilverAutomatic said:


> I mean, if anything, a check made out to Ferrox LLC (i think that's the company the site runs under...?)



It's *Ferrox Art, LLC.*


----------



## dmfalk (Jul 6, 2008)

Rhainor said:


> It's possible to link a PayPal account directly to a bank account, and transfer funds from there; it's how I use PayPal.  It takes a few days to process the transfer from bank to PayPal, though.


Actually, the bank transfers are fast. The verification process PayPal needs once an account using bank transfers is the slow part.

Still, it's moot if you don't live in a country where PayPal can be used for instant bank transfers- Just credit cards. And that's limited to just the US, Canada, and I believe, the UK. I think they are/were planning on adding continental Europe as well, but I'm not sure.

While most of the planet has electronic banking, not all of it is usable for PayPal.

d.m.f.


----------



## Adelio Altomar (Jul 6, 2008)

Bank accounts? *sigh* Nevermind then...

I guess I ain't donatin' monay, then, eh?


----------



## Tachyon (Jul 6, 2008)

dmfalk said:


> Still, it's moot if you don't live in a country where PayPal can be used for instant bank transfers- Just credit cards. And that's limited to just the US, Canada, and I believe, the UK.



FYI, Australians can link their bank account. Not sure how "instant" the transfers are, though - I think they have to pass into the PayPal account itself first, which might take a day or few. It's been a while since I've used it, so I'm half guessing.


----------



## Kyoujin (Jul 6, 2008)

Jesus. ;x That's a lot! Awesomesauce, thanks guys! ;]

Now, if we can only start the "Kyou needs a new car" fund! -Thumbsup!- ;D..

;D?

jkjk. But seriously, this makes me happy. Mm, moar hardware. Can't wait to see what we top out at. ;o


----------



## SilverAutomatic (Jul 6, 2008)

Kyoujin said:


> Now, if we can only start the "Kyou needs a new car" fund!



Ssssuuuurrrreeee. XD

We'll start that one as soon as we finish the "help Silver pay off his credit cards" fund. XD


----------



## dmfalk (Jul 6, 2008)

Adelio Altomar said:


> Bank accounts? *sigh* Nevermind then...
> 
> I guess I ain't donatin' monay, then, eh?



PM Dragoneer aboyt where to send a money order or somesuch.

(Sounds like a broken record.)

d.m.f.


----------



## LimeyKat (Jul 6, 2008)

Adelio Altomar said:


> Bank accounts? *sigh* Nevermind then...
> 
> I guess I ain't donatin' monay, then, eh?


If the scenario is applicable, you could always open a second account to use for paypal purposes. Keep your everyday home/business account separate. You don't have to of course, I was just suggesting a slight alternative that wont risk your normal everyday funds.


----------



## StfN (Jul 6, 2008)

dmfalk said:


> ...
> (Sounds like a broken record.)
> 
> d.m.f.



Heh yeah, reading the past few posts, it seems like most people only read the very last post, disregarding anything that was said before, and reply. =p


----------



## Sslaxx (Jul 6, 2008)

As of the moment, Amazon stands as:

475 payments collected, $10,477.15.


----------



## Delian (Jul 6, 2008)

Now we can say it's over 9,000


----------



## mukichan (Jul 6, 2008)

Delian said:


> Now we can say it's over 9,000



yea, it's over 9K on Amazon, but imagine how much we have altogether with Paypal AND Amazon, and perhaps other methods that I might not have found. xD lol I bet it's like 15K or something like that~


----------



## Zanzer (Jul 6, 2008)

IT'S OVER 15 THOUSAND!!!


----------



## Rhainor (Jul 6, 2008)

03pagea said:


> IT'S OVER 15 THOUSAND!!!



Very probable.


----------



## yak (Jul 6, 2008)

Before I went to sleep, Paypal donations were over $6k


----------



## Sslaxx (Jul 6, 2008)

yak said:


> Before I went to sleep, Paypal donations were over $6k


That's... rather impressive.


----------



## SDWolf (Jul 6, 2008)

yak said:


> Before I went to sleep, Paypal donations were over $6k


 
@.@

In other words.... We're looking at 16 grand before amazon & paypal take their cut.... Twenty grand might actually be doable by Monday after all....

*has run out of superlatives, and can just stare and gape*


----------



## markwhitewolf (Jul 6, 2008)

SDWolf said:


> *has run out of superlatives, and can just stare and gape*




*stares and gapes too*  See folks, all of those "little" donations that you have all been referencing really do add up to something enormous and wonderful.


----------



## Undying Song (Jul 6, 2008)

SDWolf said:


> @.@
> 
> In other words.... We're looking at 16 grand before amazon & paypal take their cut.... Twenty grand might actually be doable by Monday after all....
> 
> *has run out of superlatives, and can just stare and gape*



I don't know about Amazon, but Paypal deducts their amount automatically. Therefore, the amount that they have gotten through Paypal right now is the exact amount that they will be able to use, if I am not mistaken.


----------



## aterphasma (Jul 6, 2008)

Amazon alone over 10,000 . . . I recall hearing vague rumors of 'Neer doing something special upon that condition being met . . . .


----------



## Drakaji (Jul 6, 2008)

aterphasma said:


> Amazon alone over 10,000 . . . I recall hearing vague rumors of 'Neer doing something special upon that condition being met . . . .


Yeah it's in the Server Hardware Failure thread....
I wonder what he's gonna do? He didn't exactly say what he'd do, nor did it seem like he knew what he'd do lol.

*edit* Just in case anyone is wondering, going by Amazon's deduction FA still has $10030.81 for use


----------



## Furthlingam (Jul 6, 2008)

Sslaxx said:


> As of the moment, Amazon stands as:
> 
> 475 payments collected, $10,477.15.


 
Ah, so, my $20 was only slightly under average. Cool. I hate being a complete cheapskate.

EDIT:


Drakaji said:


> I wonder what he's gonna do? He didn't exactly say what he'd do, nor did it seem like he knew what he'd do lol.


 
Buy a really nice bottle of whiskey?


----------



## Artie (Jul 6, 2008)

Drakaji said:


> *edit* Just in case anyone is wondering, going by Amazon's deduction FA still has $10030.81 for use



I have a feeling the total shown on the Amazon donation page is the total AFTER Amazon's deduction.  Every update it's always had some odd change amount at the end ($X.02, $X.15).  I don't know for sure, but I find it more likely that it's because of the percentage Amazon is taking out than people actually donating something like $10.68.  But, I could be wrong.


----------



## Undying Song (Jul 6, 2008)

Yes. That is the case with Paypal, so it could very well be the case for Amazon also. : )


----------



## selth (Jul 6, 2008)

hmm.... so each time we donate to FA, we donate to amazon and paypal?

...

do either of them know that FA allows porn? I believe... paypal would steal the money if they did.


----------



## blade (Jul 6, 2008)

Amazon seems to be much more tolerant about the adult sites considering that there is another site that I know of (Y!gallery) that uses Amazon for donations.


----------



## selth (Jul 6, 2008)

*nods*  amazon... hmm....

really, I wonder, what are the possible means to pay for your commission?
paypal is known to refuse all money once adult art is confirmed... what are others?
western? they charge a lot...


----------



## dmfalk (Jul 6, 2008)

Artie said:


> I have a feeling the total shown on the Amazon donation page is the total AFTER Amazon's deduction.  Every update it's always had some odd change amount at the end ($X.02, $X.15).  I don't know for sure, but I find it more likely that it's because of the percentage Amazon is taking out than people actually donating something like $10.68.  But, I could be wrong.



Don't forget that Amazon, being an international company, with sites for Canada, UK, France, Germany, China and Japan, allows donations IN OTHER CIRRENCIES other than the US dollar...and the exchange rate is NOT even. You can bet there's some Canadian dollars and British pounds in that total. 

d.m.f.
(And need I remind you all- Every dollar/pound/euro counts! DONATE!)


----------



## selth (Jul 6, 2008)

dmfalk said:


> Don't forget that Amazon, being an international company, with sites for Canada, UK, France, Germany, China and Japan, allows donations IN OTHER CIRRENCIES other than the US dollar...and the exchange rate is NOT even. You can bet there's some Canadian dollars and British pounds in that total.



actually, when you donate, the transaction is always in USD, your bank will do the conversion and may or not charge you for having to do so while paypal never does, since they do the conversion themselves.


----------



## Ainoko (Jul 6, 2008)

Welp, the admins finally closed the server hardware fault thread. *goes looking for another thread to lurk*


----------



## selth (Jul 6, 2008)

Ainoko said:


> Welp, the admins finally closed the server hardware fault thread. *goes looking for another thread to lurk*



welcome to this thread!


----------



## dmfalk (Jul 6, 2008)

selth said:


> actually, when you donate, the transaction is always in USD, your bank will do the conversion and may or not charge you for having to do so while paypal never does, since they do the conversion themselves.



Quite true, which is WHY it shows the odd centage- If you donate one UK pound, it's $1.91 or thereabouts on the exchange rate, so instead of nice even numbers, you get the odd cent figures.

d.m.f.
(who has bought WAY too many things over the years from overseas stores online....)


----------



## Ainoko (Jul 6, 2008)

The question that begs to be asked is, what kind of servers will the admins get with the current funds right now?


----------



## selth (Jul 6, 2008)

they got enough money for Sparcs from Sun...
professional servers used in large companies and in hospitals and stuff...


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 6, 2008)

Ainoko said:


> The question that begs to be asked is, what kind of servers will the admins get with the current funds right now?


We are discussing that right now.


----------



## SDWolf (Jul 6, 2008)

Or perhaps a nice IBM BladeCenter.


----------



## Ainoko (Jul 6, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> We are discussing that right now.



Just as long as you get good servers, that is all we ask.


----------



## selth (Jul 6, 2008)

good, quality servers... *drools*


----------



## White Crow (Jul 6, 2008)

Based on observation of the datacenter at a local uni, I would avoid all blade systems, regardless of vendor, out of hardware reliability concerns.  Splitting a powerful, reliable server into multiple VMs is often a better solution overall.


----------



## Steel Froggy (Jul 6, 2008)

Wait did I read dedicated server? =D


----------



## SDWolf (Jul 6, 2008)

White Crow said:


> Based on observation of the datacenter at a local uni, I would avoid all blade systems, regardless of vendor, out of hardware reliability concerns. Splitting a powerful, reliable server into multiple VMs is often a better solution overall.


 
As I've mentioned before, VMs tend to SUCK as database servers, and the folks (and furs) over at VMWare will be among the first to tell you just that.  Web servers?  Sure.  Mail servers?  Great.  DB servers?  Dear Gods, No.  DB servers need to run on bare metal.


----------



## ryokukitsune (Jul 6, 2008)

Vegeta, whats this guys power reading?

Unbelievable! its over seven... eight... NINE THOUSAND! IMPOSSIBLE!!!!

sorry if it hasn't been said I somehow felt obligated =P


----------



## selth (Jul 7, 2008)

SDWolf said:


> As I've mentioned before, VMs tend to SUCK as database servers, and the folks (and furs) over at VMWare will be among the first to tell you just that.  Web servers?  Sure.  Mail servers?  Great.  DB servers?  Dear Gods, No.  DB servers need to run on bare metal.



I would really not recommend to use VMware for anything but tests... or temporary solutions.

In fact, having seen a few things... I would use Linux-based machines for everything but mail... exchange still works really great.
well, there is a software suit that is interesting in the free worlds, Community I believe is its name. Horde is also interesting, though I never had that of a close look at it.

Well, ideally a large, important database shall be ran over several machines...

I would recommend a special server using PostgreSQL or Oracle. but Oracle costs gold and PostgreSQL, the unprepared programmer's mind. PostgreSQL just happens to have as much features as Oracle, just you have to code a few programs to customize that in a few case. it's much more resource-consuming than MySQL but oh so efficient!


----------



## Anepo (Jul 7, 2008)

So does the staff finally get a raise? ^^ lol just kidding. But yea well done!


----------



## GreenReaper (Jul 8, 2008)

Anepo said:


> So does the staff finally get a raise? ^^ lol just kidding. But yea well done!


They don't get paid _at all_ until the severs are back up. 

[and probably not even then...]


----------



## FaySkunk (Jul 8, 2008)

How do I donate to FA? Whats the paypal address?


----------



## Zanzer (Jul 8, 2008)

Jesus christ over $10k In amazon,I wonder how much with paypal.


----------



## Gator3k (Jul 8, 2008)

ive got a commission check im waiting on so i can donate it


----------



## wildrider (Jul 8, 2008)

Wow...I almost feel compelled to donate after seeing how high it's reached lol Though as much as I'd like to, I can't till I get a job or my permanent fund in October.  Which ever comes first.  Once I do I'll feel comfortable donating maybe 20 or 30 bucks.


----------



## Primal Weyland (Jul 8, 2008)

So.... the site went and donated over $15K for a new server to have FA up and running again.

Now, in and of itself, I find that extremely admirable - the fandom is very dedicated to a cause once it's been rallied enough to it. This I like, and if more furs out there were as vocal about things that *mattered* rather than a hunk of chips and PCBs, we'd actually be getting somewhere.

What appals me is what's been done with the money itself.

In essence, what Dragoneer's done is taken the money that was donated, and he's gone out and bought the flashiest, high-end server that he can find, and he's dumped it in everyone's laps for them to go 'oooooooh, lookit thaaaaaaat!'.

It's the technological equivalent of a VST - Very Shiny Thing.

16Gb of RAM? Very nice, but if FA's balanced right it'll never *need* that much power - hell, half of that would be fine. And 12Tb... Jesus Christ. What are we storing on there, a back-catalogue of George Bush's most famous fuck-ups?

The kind of server that's been bought is better for personal use, or if you're running a very large Non-Governmental Organisation and you use this kind of system as one in a cluster - which is how FA should be operating.

I've lost count of the number of times FA has gone down, and yet we still don't have a secondary unit slaved up and kept warm in case the primary server goes down. Something as simple as this would effectively half the number of downtimes we have here - if FA-Primary goes down, FA-Secondary gets slaved in and working while FA-P is getting fixed. It's something even BASIC server systems would consider - heck, my own comupter runs a slave system in case something goes wrong. Triple-check and redundancies are what keep a company going, not flashy hardware.

Besides the point - for what Dragoneer spent on this server, you could have two equal units that balance the load much better and reduce downtime as well as run the site more smoothly. All that's happened here is that people have thrown green at FA, and the staff have jumped into a purchasing decision to shut the masses up. And as you might have guessed from this post - flashy hardware isn't going to solve the problem indefinitely.

If it works, and this server is more stable, then I will eat humble pie. If not, I would seriously start to consider whether your donations were well-spent.


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 8, 2008)

Primal Weyland said:


> It's the technological equivalent of a VST - Very Shiny Thing.


We are doing better load balancing as we will be getting an additional web server to process and handle all requests. While we are down, yak is improving and rewriting many parts of the database to improve our system and efficiency.

We went for the best 2U server we could get because server space is very limited, and we wanted extra redundancy. They server cost a lot, yes, but given FA's growth it will pay off long term. FA has grown fast, incredibly fast, to the point if we don't plan for the future now we'll regret it later.

Besides, we have plans for that extra space. It's not just a "VST". It's a binary battletank.

And 16GB of RAM? Yeah, it's called caching. We cache and store the most commonly accessed files in RAM, thus saving wear and tear on the hard drives over time. I'm upgrading our main DB server to a minimum of 16GB of RAM, too.

This server was not my choice alone, but that of the team. The people who work on the core of the site. I wanted them to have the tools they both want and need for long term, as well as for the rest of the community. Don't forget, I am but one cog of many. I may own the site, but it's the people behind the scenes who keep it alive and running. I am but a small piece of the equation.

We had a rare chance to get generous donations from the community so we could put together an impressive system. In a year from now, when we start to peak at the multi-TB mark, I'm not going to be the guy saying "Uh oh, we have to take the servers down. Again. We're out of space."

FA is getting THAT BIG.

And by the by, if I was purchasing something to "shut the community up" I'd just announce oh, hey, I'm building the server myself myself. It'd be much cheaper and faster that way. Instead, though, I went with the big guns. I said that I'd buy the best we could get for the site if we got the donations, and that money's not sitting by idly.


----------



## foxystallion (Jul 8, 2008)

Primal Weyland said:


> It's the technological equivalent of a VST - Very Shiny Thing.



I have been using HP equipment for over 40 years and have found it to be remarkably reliable.  For example, my 1988 LaserJet II has printed over one million pages and still works like new. FA is among the top 1,000 websites in traffic; I am delighted that FA will now have hardware commensurate with this traffic. I think that Dragoneer, Yak, and the other staffers made a good choice.  For example, that 16 GB can cache a few thousand of the pictures that are most popular at any time, thereby reducing HD reads and hence extending HD life.  Sure, cheaper equipment could be purchased - and rapidly beaten to death by the heavy traffic.  FA isn't like sending men to the moon where an equipment failure would likely be deadly - but the frequent failures certainly have disappointed a lot of FA members.  It is about time that FA gets the right stuff.


----------



## Delian (Jul 8, 2008)

I think we might sooner run out of RAM than hard disk space, considering the search is going to be turned on, and indexes are going to grow fast. At least I think this is the job of database server.

But then, RAM can be extended to 32GB on this box, so that shouldn't be much of a problem either.


----------



## ArielMT (Jul 8, 2008)

foxystallion said:


> I have been using HP equipment for over 40 years and have found it to be remarkably reliable.  For example, my 1988 LaserJet II has printed over one million pages and still works like new. FA is among the top 1,000 websites in traffic; I am delighted that FA will now have hardware commensurate with this traffic. I think that Dragoneer, Yak, and the other staffers made a good choice. ... It is about time that FA gets the right stuff.


Seconded.  For historical perspective, however, ProLiant is a Compaq brand.  Like HP before the merger, Compaq have historically been one of the better brand names in the PC server arena.


> You see far more with your brain than with your eyes.


Your sig couldn't be more apropos.


----------



## stevefarfan (Jul 8, 2008)

Anybody wanna venture a guess on how soon the server will be delivered and set-up?


----------



## Delian (Jul 8, 2008)

No, and let's not go down the road of "assumption".


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 8, 2008)

stevefarfan said:


> Anybody wanna venture a guess on how soon the server will be delivered and set-up?


I could wager a guess, but I'd rather have a more accurate date. We're still waiting on estimates from HP and Sun at this point.


----------



## Arbiter (Jul 8, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> I could wager a guess, but I'd rather have a more accurate date. We're still waiting on estimates from HP and Sun at this point.



i thought we already ordered the server: Trogdor


----------



## foxystallion (Jul 8, 2008)

ArielMT said:


> Your sig couldn't be more apropos.



Thanks!  When FA is back up, take a look at my Scraps for a fascinating "checker square" "illusion" from an MIT psychology prof (posted with his permission) and click on the link to his website in my comments. The post-retinal processing is amazingly dominant in what is perceived.


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 8, 2008)

Arbiter said:


> i thought we already ordered the server: Trogdor


Yes, but we are getting two.


----------



## foxystallion (Jul 8, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Yes, but we are getting two.



Will they be configured so that if one fails the other will automatically keep on truckin even if the colo operators are on vacation?


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 8, 2008)

foxystallion said:


> Will they be configured so that if one fails the other will automatically keep on truckin even if the colo operators are on vacation?


No.

When we fix the currently broken server... yes, it will, but this new server can't. It cant double up as a DB server though.


----------



## ThatBigHorsey (Jul 8, 2008)

Preyfar, and everyone else who has donated, and helps maintain FA, I just wanted to thank you all for everything you do, and continue to do.


----------



## ArielMT (Jul 8, 2008)

foxystallion said:


> Thanks!  When FA is back up, take a look at my Scraps for a fascinating "checker square" "illusion" from an MIT psychology prof (posted with his permission) and click on the link to his website in my comments. The post-retinal processing is amazingly dominant in what is perceived.


You're welcome.  If it's what I think it is, I've seen it elsewhere, and you're absolutely right.  I intend to visit a lot of folks' pages from the pawprint links here when FA comes back online.


----------



## foxystallion (Jul 8, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> No.
> 
> When we fix the currently broken server... yes, it will, but this new server can't. It cant double up as a DB server though.



Thanks!
So one will be the web server and one the DB machine? 
And when the old server is fixed it will be available to replace either one of the others if it goes down?


----------



## Wolf_Fox_Guy (Jul 9, 2008)

so....yeah, just come here to check the news every now and then..........we orderd the servers, but does anyone know how long its going to take to get here?


----------



## Adelio Altomar (Jul 9, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> And by the by, if I was purchasing something to "shut the community up" I'd just announce oh, hey, we've got a much cheaper server that I'm building myself. It'd be much cheaper that way. Instead, though, I went with the big guns. I said that I'd buy the best we could get for the site if we got the donations, and that money's not sitting by idly.


 
Yeah, I'm like that if I can help it. If I have the money for it, I'll buy the better, more expensive version of the equipment because I have expensive tastes like that. *grins and teeth sparkle* :-D


----------



## Rhainor (Jul 9, 2008)

Wolf_Fox_Guy said:


> so....yeah, just come here to check the news every now and then..........we orderd the servers, but does anyone know how long its going to take to get here?



We ordered *a* server, and a couple of backup hard drives.  They're still deciding what to get for the other new server.

How long shipping takes depends on where it's being shipped from.  If it's coming from somewhere on the East Coast, then it'll probably take 2 or 3 days.  In the more likely event that it's coming from the West Coast, probably 4 or 5 -- and remember, they usually don't deliver on weekends, so "4 or 5 days" puts it in early next week.

Then they've got to get it in place, plug everything in, turn it on, get it set up, double-check everything...


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 9, 2008)

Wolf_Fox_Guy said:


> so....yeah, just come here to check the news every now and then..........we orderd the servers, but does anyone know how long its going to take to get here?


We are ordering two servers. The Sun Fire server is being ordered tomorrow morning (good deal on it, too). The HP server is estimated delivery date on the 24th, but I'm trying to work with them to slice off a few days on the build time.



Rhainor said:


> We ordered *a* server, and a couple of backup hard drives. They're still deciding what to get for the other new server.


We actually know exactly what we want on it, we're just waiting on the final quote. The quote we've been offered is almost $2K less than what we were expecting to pay, so... if things are delayed on that server for a $2,000 savings I'm for that. It'd be a day later at most.

Once the order is in and things are confirmed we'll post about it.


----------



## Adelio Altomar (Jul 9, 2008)

What's the longest FA's been offline? Is it _this_ particular outage or has there been longer?


----------



## Wolf_Fox_Guy (Jul 9, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> We are ordering two servers. The Sun Fire server is being ordered tomorrow morning (good deal on it, too). The HP server is estimated delivery date on the 24th, but I'm trying to work with them to slice off a few days on the build time.
> 
> 
> We actually know exactly what we want on it, we're just waiting on the final quote. The quote we've been offered is almost $2K less than what we were expecting to pay, so... if things are delayed on that server for a $2,000 savings I'm for that. It'd be a day later at most.
> ...



but thats like two weeks away. T_T is there some way we can send in hate mail to teh old server for breaking down like this?


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 9, 2008)

Adelio Altomar said:


> What's the longest FA's been offline? Is it _this_ particular outage or has there been longer?


The six month outage of 2005? There was a massive amount of intermittent uptime when we came back early 2006. For the most part, 2007 and early 2008 had fantastic uptime except for a few small issues... which ultimately led to where we are now.


----------



## Fuzzypaws (Jul 9, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> We are ordering two servers. The Sun Fire server is being ordered tomorrow morning (good deal on it, too). The HP server is estimated delivery date on the 24th, but I'm trying to work with them to slice off a few days on the build time.
> 
> We actually know exactly what we want on it, we're just waiting on the final quote. The quote we've been offered is almost $2K less than what we were expecting to pay, so... if things are delayed on that server for a $2,000 savings I'm for that. It'd be a day later at most.
> 
> Once the order is in and things are confirmed we'll post about it.



So is this the one, or was it another version of the Sun Fire?

http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4450/index.xml


----------



## Sean Wolfe (Jul 9, 2008)

You think the new server can play Crysis on high?


----------



## stevefarfan (Jul 9, 2008)

Sean Wolfe said:


> You think the new server can play Crysis on high?



I don't think it has a gpu, soo.... no =P.


----------



## Delian (Jul 9, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> The HP server is estimated delivery date on the 24th, but I'm trying to work with them to slice off a few days on the build time.


Wtf? 24th? That's more than 2 weeks. What kind of shit company needs 2 weeks to assemble a machine? I sincerly hope that's the greatly overestimated maximum delivery time.

It's not like they just started with mining for silicium in the mines.


----------



## Dragoneer (Jul 9, 2008)

Fuzzypaws said:


> So is this the one, or was it another version of the Sun Fire?
> 
> http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4450/index.xml


X4150.


----------



## Primal Weyland (Jul 9, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> Quote went here





foxystallion said:


> Another quote went here



*chuckles*

Poor defenses for the reasons I gave.

Caching? A well balanced cluster system could do the task just as well as this unit, without the risk of any 'catastrophic' downtime (such as FA is experiencing now) - that's before we even get to the point of FA never experiencing such a high server load. As I said - FA, at peak current performance, would only ever use half of this. Dangling extra numbers onto the end is just another way of boosting the stats so the general public can go 'aaaaaah!'. Allow me to quote a small part of an MSN conversation I had last night with my mate, Kradorex MZ Xeron, regarding this:

Kradorex M. Z. Xeron [DNET/UMX01: Remote Command ] 
"See, what Dragoneer  doesn't realise is that one big fat motherfucker server is not as efficient as  having multiple small servers. "
Kradorex M. Z. Xeron [DNET/UMX01: Remote Command ] 
indeed 
Kradorex M. Z. Xeron [DNET/UMX01: Remote Command ] 
Small servers allow  each independant machine to handle requests on their own instead of one big  server handling everything and queues getting quite long 
 Kradorex M. Z. Xeron [DNET/UMX01: Remote Command ] 
If you ever see one  big server with a "Load Average" of anything above 2.0 consistantly, it's a case  of one server handling everything

In short: big machine = good, flashy, but hardly what I'd call efficient. One brain doing all the work of FA = bad. Several brains load balancing for better reliability? Good.

As for the larger drive space? I'll ask again: what the _hell_ are you going to use TWELVE Tb for? We barely use ONE, and how long has FA been around now?
The only way that I can ever see FA using more than even a quarter of the total drive space purchased is if FA's services ran into renting out server space commercially (such as my mate does for Digibase Operations). Two thirds to three quarters of that drive space is automatically redundant and a waste of space and money, no matter how you cut it. It'll do for spares, agreed - but since when should FA ever need it? There are downtimes and hardware failures, to be sure - but again, if the load was balanced correctly, there'd be so much LESS need for hardware maintenance.

I'm glad to hear that another server has been purchased, and hopefully it will do the system a great deal of good.  It's certainly better than the 'quick fix' we were offered originally.


----------



## yak (Jul 9, 2008)

Primal Weyland said:


> *chuckles*
> Poor defenses for the reasons I gave.



If only you would have read and listened instead of jumping to conclusions first.




Primal Weyland said:


> Caching? A well balanced cluster system could do the task just as well as this unit, without the risk of any 'catastrophic' downtime (such as FA is experiencing now) - that's before we even get to the point of FA never experiencing such a high server load. As I said - FA, at peak current performance, would only ever use half of this. Dangling extra numbers onto the end is just another way of boosting the stats so the general public can go 'aaaaaah!'.



A well balanced cluster system doesn't integrate well in a rackspace constrained environment. While we can afford a one time significant purchase using the donated money, we can not afford a monthly increase in operation costs. 

The colo has no problem offering us all the rackspace we need, but with comes the price for paying for each individual rack unit. In addition to the main hardware, say, four lesser powerful servers, we would have to get at the very least a gigabit network switch and a hardware load balancer, and each of those are costing a lot of money. 
What FA raised on donations, while being a significant figure in it's own right, is by far not that much money in the enterprise hardware market. You can find ways to spend it without even blinking an eye twice.

So not only does FA not have the money to go the cluster way _properly_, it will face severe problems paying monthly colocation costs.



Primal Weyland said:


> Allow me to quote a small part of an MSN conversation I had last night with my mate, Kradorex MZ Xeron, regarding this:
> 
> Kradorex M. Z. Xeron [DNET/UMX01: Remote Command ]
> "See, what Dragoneer  doesn't realise is that one big fat motherfucker server is not as efficient as  having multiple small servers. "
> ...




I find it somewhat facetious that you allow yourself to judge our decision without even knowing the deployment plans that we have slated. Theories written in the textbooks are good for ideas, thoughts and idle chatter, but that theory hardly ever accounts for any real world constraints.

FA will have three dedicated servers. Not a single machine will be pulling all the load on it's own. Each server is built and tweaked to perform it's task in the best possible way, but that does not mean it is all the machine will be used for. Each server, for instance, will run it's own copy off the application, and each server will be load balanced to.

Unfortunately, at this time we can not afford to get ourselves a dedicated load balancer and that role would be fullfilled by the front facing dedicated application server, a Sun Fire x4150 built with 8 physical cores. It is the best quality hardware from all that is within FA's possession at the moment and it was chosen to be best for exactly that reason. 

Yes, FA would still be full of single points of failure; whenever an application, database or the file servers go down, FA goes down as well.  But at least now the redundancy would be present on the level of each individual server, which is far more what we used to have.



Primal Weyland said:


> As for the larger drive space? I'll ask again: what the _hell_ are you going to use TWELVE Tb for? We barely use ONE, and how long has FA been around now?
> The only way that I can ever see FA using more than even a quarter of the total drive space purchased is if FA's services ran into renting out server space commercially (such as my mate does for Digibase Operations). Two thirds to three quarters of that drive space is automatically redundant and a waste of space and money, no matter how you cut it. It'll do for spares, agreed - but since when should FA ever need it?


Well, put 8 of them in a RAID10 array for both speed and redundancy for starters. With 4 of them left to store versioned, sharded backups of the entire array 1, 2, 3, 7 and 30 days back in time. 

Secondly, Dragoneer already said that we have plans for that storage capacity. 

And thirdly, that's why it's called a reserve. You way call it a waste of space and money, but given that the hard drives are cheap and the money is not the question since it's not ours and we have to spend it all anyway, I find it hardly an argument. At least I do know that after all the time I will finally be able to organize and maintain a semi-efficient on- and off-site backup system, and that we would not have to worry about running out of free space in the forseable future.



Primal Weyland said:


> There are downtimes and hardware failures, to be sure - but again, if the load was balanced correctly, there'd be so much LESS need for hardware maintenance.
> 
> I'm glad to hear that another server has been purchased, and hopefully it will do the system a great deal of good.  It's certainly better than the 'quick fix' we were offered originally.


My apologies, but you were never offered a quick fix.

Two servers were originally in the plans from the start and it has already been said many times here on the fora.


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## Zanzer (Jul 9, 2008)

But will the server be Shiny? 

Take pictures of it when it arrives!


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## sumdude (Jul 9, 2008)

Good lawd! y'all gonna do liquid cooling as well? And PLEASE tell me you'll show pics of the guts of the server ^^


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## yak (Jul 9, 2008)

sumdude said:


> Good lawd! y'all gonna do liquid cooling as well? And PLEASE tell me you'll show pics of the guts of the server ^^



No, but the 1U server packs sixteen 69dB 15k rpm fans, so it will both cool it good, _and_ sound like a jet engine taking off while doing it.

This page contains the overview, and links to video previews and walkthroughs,
http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4150/

And here is a picture gallery
http://www.sun.com/servers/x64/x4150/gallery/index.xml?t=1&p=1&s=1


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## Arbiter (Jul 9, 2008)

Dragoneer said:


> The six month outage of 2005? There was a massive amount of intermittent uptime when we came back early 2006. For the most part, 2007 and early 2008 had fantastic uptime except for a few small issues... which ultimately led to where we are now.



so will it be a longer outage or a shorter one?>


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## Ainoko (Jul 9, 2008)

Arbiter said:


> so will it be a longer outage or a shorter one?>




From what was stated by Dragoneer in the server thread FA should be back up and running by the end of the month.


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## Steel Froggy (Jul 10, 2008)

Ainoko said:


> From what was stated by Dragoneer in the server thread FA should be back up and running by the end of the month.



So... a longer outage time? >_>

Ah hell, it's worth it. With the new servers it sounds like it'll hardly be down anymore after this.


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## Khim (Jul 11, 2008)

MEME!!!!!


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## Roo Gryphon (Jul 15, 2008)

Daniel Kay said:


> Oh yea and so much for those idiots saying "FA IS FINISHED"... OWNED



pwned bigtime you mean lol i even know a few on secondlife >.<  showes them a thing or two


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## selth (Jul 16, 2008)

Roo Gryphon said:


> pwned bigtime you mean lol i even know a few on secondlife >.<  showes them a thing or two



hmm... let's cross fingers.


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