# Update on new server and monthly costs



## dreamtime (Oct 23, 2021)

Hello everyone,

As written previously, we had to move to a new server setup due to performance issues: Announcement regarding server issues

We have finally moved to a professional setup of two fast and dedicated servers - thanks to @luddite for all the hard work, and also to @pushamaku for helping with organizing it. We now have 2 servers with 32GB ram, fast SSD storage, and 4 CPUs each.

Comparing Page Load Time​Before the move, our self-hosted analytics software (that doesn't collect any personal data btw) reported an average load time of 6.5 seconds on stolenhistory:




​This was because our previous hoster was overselling their servers which means we didn't even get 10% of the performance they had promised us. This can't happen with dedicated servers, that's why we have now moved to a dedicated setup.

Now that we have moved the forum as well as the s3 image service, the page load time (as measured by tools.pingdom.com) has decreased significantly:


_


Accessing the forum from North America, Washington D.C._​
From Europe it's even faster, since our new servers are located in Eastern Europe:




_Accessing the forum from Germany, Frankfurt_​Pingdom was previously measuring our page load time at *more than 7 seconds.*

If you browse the forum now, it should feel snappy again and load instantly, no matter where you are in the world. Please report your experiences.

Updated Forum Costs​More powerful servers come with more costs. Previously, we paid around $60 per month. Our monthly expenses have now increased to almost $200:

*Server 1*: $85
*Server 2*: $80
*Mail Send*: $10
*Domains*: $5
*Deepl Pro*: $10
*Total*: $190

Dedicated servers are expensive. To keep all forums, self-hosted chat, document collaboration tool and analytics software running smoothly long-term, we need two servers. With this future-proof setup, the forum will stay fast, no matter how much traffic we get. We can also add more resource-intensive services in the future like a new chat service without having to think about performance implications.

We are one of the few forums that offer high-resolution image download for everyone, including unregistered guests.

$190 is currently above the average monthly donation amount - during the last 3 months we have received $100 in average per month.

Luckily we also got a one-time $1000 donation from a generous supporter earlier this year, so we are currently in the green.

But to meet our monthly costs, we need some additional support. If you are able to donate, please do so. Even small amounts add up and help. Of course, the forum will stay online, even if we can't cover the costs with the donations.

Note that all the money we receive via Patreon goes directly to the video project (most of the money goes to the guy who does the postproduction/video editing), and is not used for anything related to the forum costs. If you donate via Patreon, the money will not be spend on anything related to the forums. If you want it to count towards forum costs, you have to explicitly inform us.

Go to the donation page to read more about different options to support us. Liberapay (credit cart) and Paypal are the easiest ways to send us money.

Soon we will also have a P.O. Box for Americans to send money via mail, but setting this up will probably take a couple more weeks.

We expect we can run the forum on the new servers for many years - as they are extremely powerful. This means that our forum costs have now reached a stable level and won't increase any further than this $200.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us financially or in other ways during the last 12 months.

Next Steps​There are a couple more things planned for the near future. We want to switch to a better, more reliable chat system. This will also take care of the annoying problems where you can't automatically reset your password.

We will also start a new, separate health-related forum and maybe we can also complete the automated archive we promised last year.

On a side note, we are finishing up work on the next video of the "Stolen History" series about the World's Fairs, and the english version will be published next month.

Thanks for making the forum the great place it is! This is such a friendly, curious and vibrant community, I am thankful for being part of something like this.


----------



## feralimal (Oct 23, 2021)

Its blazing fast now!  Cheers!


----------



## madroona (Oct 23, 2021)

To help funding, please consider setting up for EGLD (crypto). Get the Maiar app, setup your herotag, and have somebody nearby that can help you occasionally convert to fiat to cover costs (or better yet, find a server provider that does crypto). Cut out the middleman completely in this process.  EGLD is the future of crypto (having solved the crypto trilemma).  Then drop your maiar referral here, and let others discovery this not-yet-well known dark-horse about to change crypto forever.  It is like buying bitcoin in 2012.  Seek out #Mission10 on twitter for proof of my words. (disclosure: i am part of the actual blockchain, involved since the early days, and we have not had 1 second of downtime, ever).

I won't drop my referral link so as to not break rules, and i do not seek business from anyone.  People around the world, groups, organizations and business are all starting to wake up to Elrond's EGLD, even Audi is incorporating it into their cars!


----------



## Borec (Oct 23, 2021)

I am not definitely an IT expert but I am participating as a user on the forum Bastyon (former POCKETNET) ,,social blockchain platform´´. They are earning and even sharing crypto PKOIN  among the users.  Pkoin price today, PKOIN to USD live, marketcap and chart | CoinMarketCap . It seems to be working. Just saying.


----------



## Referent (Oct 23, 2021)

dreamtime said:


> Soon we will also have a P.O. Box for Americans to send money via mail, but setting this up will probably take a couple more weeks.



Thanks for planning to have a P.O. Box.  Speaking for myself, this will be the easiest and preferred way to donate.


----------



## dreamtime (Oct 23, 2021)

Referent said:


> Thanks for planning to have a P.O. Box. Speaking for myself, this will be the easiest and preferred way to donate.



credits go to @trismegistus, who agreed to set one up.



madroona said:


> Get the Maiar app,



Interesting... But they want my phone number and put it onto the blockchain (albeit in an encrypted way). I need to look into the implications first. Generally, I don't like referral/afilliate systems and won't support polluting the forum with such links (thats why we won't use amazon afilliate links or similar things), but I haven't looked into the details yet.


----------



## madroona (Oct 23, 2021)

dreamtime said:


> credits go to @trismegistus, who agreed to set one up.
> 
> 
> 
> Interesting... But they want my phone number and put it onto the blockchain (albeit in an encrypted way). I need to look into the implications first. Generally, I don't like referral/afilliate systems and won't support polluting the forum with such links (thats why we won't use amazon afilliate links or similar things), but I haven't looked into the details yet.


The referral thing is not the focus of the app nor the chain, just a social courtesy thing. The number is never part of any data mining and only stored in encrypted format.   The tech behind Elrond is a massive upgrade to crypto in general.  256k tps in testnet, over 15k tps right now.


----------



## Will Scarlet (Oct 24, 2021)

Crypto currency, like crypto anything, isn't real, it's just pretending to be something it's not. That at least should have been learned from this forum's extensive topics.



madroona said:


> Cut out the middleman completely in this process.



So what are you then?



madroona said:


> I won't drop my referral link so as to not break rules, and i do not seek business from anyone.



...right, of course you don't. 


I think the previous Hosting Service should be named and shamed.

If you want to start a list, then I can add 1984.is to it.


----------



## dreamtime (Oct 24, 2021)

Short update: Since writing this post, we have received $150 in total, from 5 users. Big thanks!


----------



## enthusiast (Oct 24, 2021)

dreamtime said:


> *Deepl Pro*: $10


Could you please tell us more about this expense item?


----------



## dreamtime (Oct 24, 2021)

enthusiast said:


> Could you please tell us more about this expense item?



It is used for translation, mostly from german into english and from english into german.


----------



## enthusiast (Oct 24, 2021)

dreamtime said:


> It is used for translation from german into english and from english into german.


There are other translation languages available in DeepL. I understand that it costs more than $10 to use this translation tool for forum posts or automatic translation of articles?


----------



## dreamtime (Oct 24, 2021)

enthusiast said:


> There are other translation languages available in DeepL. I understand that it costs more than $10 to use this translation tool for forum posts or automatic translation of articles?



It can't be used for auto-translation. What I mean is that I use it to translate interesting articles. Sometimes also from other languages like russian, but mostly between english and german.


----------



## enthusiast (Oct 24, 2021)

Thank you for the clarification.


----------



## luddite (Oct 24, 2021)

Will Scarlet said:


> I think the previous Hosting Service should be named and shamed.


To their credit they started well but ended horribly. ssdnodes.com


----------



## Citezenship (Oct 24, 2021)

luddite said:


> To their credit they started well but ended horribly. ssdnodes.com


To be fair it is just as much the software as the hardware, the code keep getting longer and more elaborate and the processor speeds have stalled, Moore's law made like the flu and just left the room a few years ago.

Anyways the forum is much much better than a couple of weeks ago where even hitting the notification icon would cripple the page so thanks to all involved.

A donation will be in the (virtual) post shortly.

As for crypto I know we can use ETH, Monero or BTC but they are insanely expensive to move small amounts due to gas fees and the like so if you already have a crypto wallet that can handle it the Binance Smart Chain(BSC) is the cheapest option as gas fees are a few penny's instead of multiple pounds.


----------



## madroona (Oct 25, 2021)

Will Scarlet said:


> Crypto currency, like crypto anything, isn't real, it's just pretending to be something it's not. That at least should have been learned from this forum's extensive topics.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Dude, seriously, stolenhistory.net, like it’s former iteration was and such be free of such commentary as one would expect from Facebook and Twitter. Your comments are entirely uncalled for.


----------



## dreamtime (Oct 25, 2021)

madroona said:


> Dude, seriously, stolenhistory.net, like it’s former iteration was and such be free of such commentary as one would expect from Facebook and Twitter. Your comments are entirely uncalled for.



There's certainly a scammy element to many cryptocurrencies.

But its as real as anything else that's digital (and even more so, since it's distributed and thus can't easily be shut down like a central website), and it's most likely what the PTB have planned for the future of the entire financial system, so it shouldn't be ignored.

I am thankful for all suggestions including yours.

Right now there are hundreds of different blockchains competing with each other and users pushing their "favourite team".

When it comes to donations, it's extremely easy for anyone into crypto to swap coins, and even sending BTC costs only $0.30 currently. It's way too much effort for me to create dozens of wallets, and in the end have something like $5 on each.


----------



## dreamtime (Oct 25, 2021)

Will Scarlet said:


> If you want to start a list, then I can add 1984.is to it.



1984.is only offers shared hosting (VPS), which can be really bad perfomance-wise. You never know what you get.

I came across others providing Iceland servers:

- Flokinet
- Orange Website

Although something doesn't seem right with flokinet, they are way too cheap for a privacy-centric hoster in Iceland/Romania. The prices barely cover the hardware they offer. They say they protect free speech but actively take down websites criticizing the covid-agenda: FlokiNET.is Reviews by 21 Users & Expert Opinion - Oct 2021

Orange Website on the other hand seems to be reasonably priced for a privacy-centric hoster, but of course it's really expensive. What we get for $80/m would be $370/m there.


----------



## Bald Eagle (Oct 28, 2021)

Borec said:


> I am not definitely an IT expert but I am participating as a user on the forum Bastyon (former POCKETNET) ,,social blockchain platform´´. They are earning and even sharing crypto PKOIN  among the users.  [snipped links] . It seems to be working. Just saying.



Nice - I frequent Pocketnet from time to time.  I hit New World Order overload and had to take a break from all the stressful World Bad News - but I am thinking that soon I will probably be checking more regularly.     Nice to see some other Bastyon users here as well.


----------



## Will Scarlet (Oct 28, 2021)

dreamtime said:


> 1984.is only offers shared hosting (VPS), which can be really bad perfomance-wise. You never know what you get.



1984 are totally incompetent. Their support is hopeless. We invoked the 14 day refund policy and did actually get our money back.

Flokinet are not operating within the freedom of speech laws in Iceland.

We went with Orange who tell people if they find a website they don't like then just avoid it (although they draw the line at child porn, drugs etc.) For the size of website we have and the dribble of traffic it will get, it should cope just fine. The annual cost is about the same as your $80 monthly one quoted above.


----------



## dreamtime (Oct 28, 2021)

Will Scarlet said:


> 1984 are totally incompetent. Their support is hopeless. We invoked the 14 day refund policy and did actually get our money back.
> 
> Flokinet are not operating within the freedom of speech laws in Iceland.
> 
> We went with Orange who tell people if they find a website they don't like then just avoid it (although they draw the line at child porn, drugs etc.) For the size of website we have and the dribble of traffic it will get, it should cope just fine. The annual cost is about the same as your $80 monthly one quoted above.



Thanks for sharing your experiences. 

Mirrors the impressions I had.


----------



## luddite (Oct 28, 2021)

Will Scarlet said:


> The annual cost is about the same as your $80 monthly one quoted above.


I've been so dissatisfied with hosting quality in the last few years. It seems that everyone is ripping off their customers. The best advice I can give for starting out like you are is that it is wise to have a system that can be backed up and moved with as little stress as possible. 

SH is large in size. 40GG roughly. So transferring that takes time even with big pipes. Backups are slow also. If you need any advice then I'd be happy to help. Just PM me.


----------



## Will Scarlet (Oct 29, 2021)

luddite said:


> If you need any advice then I'd be happy to help. Just PM me.



Excellent, many thanks.


----------



## dreamtime (Nov 6, 2021)

We now have a PO box for money orders, cheques and cash. Send to the order of "CASH":

*PO Box 1798 Springdale Arkansas 72764*
It's a small box, so we can't receive larger physical items.


_View: https://youtu.be/ibMf68i4rz8_​


----------



## Oracle (Nov 10, 2021)

Citezenship said:


> it is just as much the software as the hardware, the code keep getting longer and more elaborate and the processor speeds have stalled, Moore's law made like the flu and just left the room a few years ago.


Sounds like windows 10


----------



## dreamtime (Nov 14, 2021)

Sorry for the downtime. We had expected 30 minutes, so I only put up a notice shortly beforehand. Most of you probably didn't see it before the forum disappeared. Luckily the hoster reacted quickly and took care of the problem.

A hoster misconfiguration has put the server into a loop where it couldn't restart.

We have a telegram channel at stolenhistory.net for  communicating events like this, which stays online even if our servers aren't available. Though we plan to not be dependent on this in the future.

We are working on implementing a synced, redundant setup from two different hosters so that the forum stays online even if one server shuts down.


----------



## 6079SmithW (Nov 14, 2021)

dreamtime said:


> Sorry for the downtime. We had expected 30 minutes, so I only put up a notice shortly beforehand. Most of you probably didn't see it before the forum disappeared. Luckily the hoster reacted quickly and took care of the problem.
> 
> A hoster misconfiguration has put the server into a loop where it couldn't restart.
> 
> We are working on implementing a synced, redundant setup from two different hosters so that the forum stays online even if one server shuts down.


Thankyou for sorting this DT.


----------



## dreamtime (Dec 27, 2021)

Just wanted to give an update on this.

We have received around $2500 since starting this thread, and thus have around $3,000 in reserves now, so the next 2 years should be good. For a small forum, this is an exceptional amount of money - thank you so much for all the support!

In the last months, we have successfully implemented the Archive and the stolenmedicine forum.

In the coming weeks we will switch to the self-hosted new chat system based on matrix.org. We will create an announcement when it's ready.


----------



## luddite (Dec 27, 2021)

From my personal perspective it is amazing to see such generosity go directly towards the new dedicated servers which are absolute beasts, and backup servers. We are not fully redundant in the live set up but we are fully backing up the entire system every hour to an off-server location. I don't have to worry about having to pay for anything out of my own pocket which removes at least one argument point with the wife .


----------



## 6079SmithW (Dec 27, 2021)

Amazing work everybody


----------



## dreamtime (Dec 29, 2021)

​Looking at daily active logged-in users in our forum, the move to the new server in October made a big difference - up from average 140 to 160 again. The slower the site got, the fewer people were actively using it.


----------



## NPC#0 (Mar 2, 2022)

> Interesting... But they want my phone number and put it onto the blockchain (albeit in an encrypted way). I need to look into the implications first. Generally, I don't like referral/afilliate systems and won't support polluting the forum with such links (thats why we won't use amazon afilliate links or similar things), but I haven't looked into the details yet.



I would suggest setting up crypto for donations only if you have someone knowledgeable.
I see people using vendors who have their keys (so they dont even own their wallets), or not storing the blockchain locally.

If you accept crypto for donations, it would be more choice for others. After all, it still rises as there can be no bitcoin or monero printed out of nowhere, unlike fiat currency. The further the trust in the dollar drops, the further the crypto rises. Especially so when a central digital currency is planned by TPTB, and they also plan to kill the purchasing power of the dollar.

As for accepting crypto, don't convert it to cash, just keep it there, and you shouldn't have to give any private/personal details. Currently, it can even be used to host servers, many services accept crypto nowadays for this.


----------

