NSXCB Finances and web server costs

[forumadmin]

Hello everyone,

I want to let you all know, that this forum site relies on contributions to pay for the web hosting. It's run non profit, all the contribution money goes into the hosting costs. In the past there was more contributions coming in each year, than the annual costs. However, for the past few years, practically nothing has been coming in contributions, and so the savings have been used to pay the costs. We are in a situation where there are a few months left in the account, to pay for the hosting.

I don't own an NSX anymore. Haven't done so since 2009. It matters to me not one bit, if this site continues to operate or not. When the finances have run out, the site will close.

Regards,
Forumadmin

[mutley]

What are the annual running costs in total?

[NSX 2000]

Hello everyone,

I want to let you all know, that this forum site relies on contributions to pay for the web hosting. It's run non profit, all the contribution money goes into the hosting costs. In the past there was more contributions coming in each year, than the annual costs. However, for the past few years, practically nothing has been coming in contributions, and so the savings have been used to pay the costs. We are in a situation where there are a few months left in the account, to pay for the hosting.

I don't own an NSX anymore. Haven't done so since 2009. It matters to me not one bit, if this site continues to operate or not. When the finances have run out, the site will close.

Regards,
Forumadmin

Hi Forumadmin, hope Switzerland is treating you well, a few of us drove back through Switzerland on Friday after we had been in Imola. I think some of the locals might of found our exhausts a bit annoying.
Main question is how much does it cost to host this website per month or per year.
Is it possible to move it to another host with out losing all the data, as there is so much information on this website//forum.
Regards
Paul

[forumadmin]

The site costs $55 per month. There is basic hosting plus backup service. The costs do seem to have gone up over the years.

This year so far there has been $110 in contributions, last year there was $160 in total. There is $240 on the account.

[forumadmin]

The site can be moved somewhere else, but it still needs paying for. I actually would not mind at all, if someone else were to host it, and I can transfer the site, and database to someone else to run, as I have no interest in doing so anymore.

[goldtop]

I didn't know this. Sadly, I think the lack of traffic here means that there's not a lot of point in saving the site as an on-going forum. :( I hate Facebook for info-rich resources, too.

Is it feasible to put the database into some other searchable form? Even if it's read-only? This, of course, requires a motivated and savvy person.

(I'm out of my depth on SQL and PHP.)

[NSXGB]

I prefer the forum as a usable database for info. FB & WhatsApp groups don't do it for me.
What you say maybe makes sense, are we flogging a dead horse in trying to keep the forum alive?
Just throwing an idea out there, but is there any mileage in joining / merging the forum with another JDM platform, like S2k or even Prime for instance?

[sorepaws]

Do we have figures on the bandwidth usage? If it is low usage then a cloud based service would be a viable option, this would also have the benefit of always using the latest version and any enhancements.
Last years income would indicate there are only 10 people interested in the forum, the original agreement with the OC was that every member would contribute to the forum, after the "break away" of the OC, they have retained the money that would have gone to maintain the forum.

[sorepaws]

@Forumadmin is there a method to contact you in a more interactive way?

[PeterW]

I would be very sad to see this forum go. It's a fantastic resource for information and is far superior to FB.
What about drumming up support from the owners' club to get some new paying members? There's a good case to be made that the forum provides a particular function which no other medium provides.

.... having said that I realise I haven't paid this year and am now trying to figure out how to do it..... Done it now .... It took me quite a lot of searching to find out how to pay - maybe more people would pay if it could be made easier!

[sorepaws]

As I understand it, the Owners Club have their own forum which is only available to them. I can't see them being interested given the original setup of the OC and NSXCB was that they should co-exist. - However there are plans :-D

[britlude]

the OC do indeed have their own forum now within the members area of their site.... alas, i think being behind the membership paywall, it's not getting much traffic....

[britlude]

.... having said that I realise I haven't paid this year and am now trying to figure out how to do it..... Done it now .... It took me quite a lot of searching to find out how to pay - maybe more people would pay if it could be made easier!

moving forward, there should be a 'contributions' sticky post put somewhere....

[NSXGB]

moving forward, there should be a 'contributions' sticky post put somewhere....

Maybe with an easy access button for contributions, as requested above. I'll look into that when I get a second.

[NSXGB]

I've put something together by way of an article. Feedback appreciated...
Link will only work for registered members.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Thank you for doing this, NSXGB.

Many people would visit this site through their own bookmark.
I only visit this site through ‘What’s New?’ page and not the top ‘Home’page where the ‘Articles’ exist.

I’ll look into creating ‘Notice’ – the top yellow banner although I’m aware eventually people gets used to it and no longer pay much attention.

In the future, I'll post the feedback I got from NSX Prime and some cost comparison of few options.
Prime went through the same thing awhile ago.

Kaz

[britlude]

articles linky works, yellow banner on the forum linky works...

[goldtop]

Done - it seems you can only make one of the default payment amounts.

(FWIW, I never see the articles section as my bookmark is to the forum(dot)php page.)

[Kippers]

Rather late to the party as I only occasionally read the forum now.

However, I hadn't realised that we were in danger of losing it so have followed Kaz's very helpful yellow banner and contributed. Maybe that's the answer, a permanent easy to use link to encourage contributions....

Thank you for everyone that keeps this site going, even us "quiet" owners appreciate all of your efforts over the years.

[NSXGB]

Maybe we could also set up a donation 'button' for non members to use.

[UnhuZ]

Hi all,

well... i followed the yellow banner, but i got a "NSXCB Forums does not have any paid subscriptions available to which you can subscribe."

Does this mean i already contributed?? don't remember doing it for a while...

[mutley]

Hi all,

well... i followed the yellow banner, but i got a "NSXCB Forums does not have any paid subscriptions available to which you can subscribe."

Does this mean i already contributed?? don't remember doing it for a while...

Same for me, my "platinum" status has expired and i would usually top it up. I think this may be due to looking at relocating to a different Admin team / Server

Cheers,
Jim

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi all,

well... i followed the yellow banner, but i got a "NSXCB Forums does not have any paid subscriptions available to which you can subscribe."

Does this mean i already contributed?? don't remember doing it for a while...
Due to Forum server going down frequently, making some changes in the background.

Disabled the Platinum contribution temporarily for now so to answer your question, no, you haven't.

Will be posting something to discuss the future of the Forum later.

Kaz

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Same for me, my "platinum" status has expired and i would usually top it up. I think this may be due to looking at relocating to a different Admin team / Server

Cheers,
Jim
Hi, Jim.
As you guessed, forumadmin handed the 'key' to some of us on here and will post something related to it later.
Sent thank you message to him but would like to mention our gratitude properly on here later.

Because of this, the Platinum contribution feature is disabled for now until we setup the new account.


Will be posting his wish and also what we found last week in the background later.

NSXGB spent quite sometime housekeeping several aspects of the site and already making some progress.
At one point, we had to reboot the server like 10 times per day but we haven't done so for several days now.

Will also post something to discuss the future of the Forum with members on here.

Basically, AI crawlers, facebook crawling bots (nothing wrong), etc were making frequent visits.

There is a module to limit and slowdown these bots for self hosting like our Forum.
Probably one of the reason to consider cloud hosting through well known companies as they will take care of these.

Kaz

[UnhuZ]

Hi,

thanks Kaz for the news... i want to contribute to help keep this up.

does the new forum "reality" go in the same direction that Prime did??
i mean, they switched platforms from vbulletin, and doing that they
knowingly lost all the member photo gallery, and with it lot's of threads
are now useless because only the test remained.

I always hosted my photos directly in the forum so the image links would
never be broken, never imagining that the admins would be the source
of that damage.

Thanks,
Nuno

[PeterW]

Thanks for people's efforts to sort this out, NSXGB and I'm sure there are others.

The article on the home page with the link is great. Super photo as well. As the behavioural scientists say, if you want somebody to do something, make it Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely (EAST). You ticked all four boxes.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Thank you NSXGB for setting up the payment account.

So, the Platinum contribution is once again open to everyone.


Kaz

[mutley]

Brilliant Kaz,

Done now.

Jim

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi,

thanks Kaz for the news... i want to contribute to help keep this up.

does the new forum "reality" go in the same direction that Prime did??
i mean, they switched platforms from vbulletin, and doing that they
knowingly lost all the member photo gallery, and with it lot's of threads
are now useless because only the test remained.

I always hosted my photos directly in the forum so the image links would
never be broken, never imagining that the admins would be the source
of that damage.

Thanks,
Nuno
Hi, Nuno.

The Platinum contribution is now re-opened so please feel free to make donation.

Regarding the future of this site, prefer posting all of my personal view in a single post and not part of it out of context over multiples threads but since you asked, going to share some of it.


At the moment, my understanding is that we have about 12 – 18 months worth of funding.

So, we still have some time but not cost effective paying £500/year when only around 20 - 25 users making Platinum contribution.

And the existing configuration can’t cope with the frequent and increased visit of bots.
Had to re-boot the server every few hours just this week.

NSX Prime went through similar process recently and while thinking about my own view, it was natural asking them for their feedback.
I wanted to know what they went through, background, pros, cons, IT skill level, future proof, etc.
Knew Honcho for years so good to be able to share the view each other.


Mentioned this somewhere but when making changes, ideally you want making everyone happy.
But in real world, one must make difficult decision even if that means losing something.


Obviously, at Prime, the number of members, vendors, traffic, etc are completely different from ours and they can generate healthy amount of funds.
So, can’t do direct comparison but without going into the detail, I think they made the right decision.

Went for the cloud-hosting, moved away from vBulletin and entered the XenForo world.

On-going great support from XenForo team even before moving the database to their platform.
Pricey but Prime can afford it.

From your point of view, probably moving to vBulletin Cloud would be the minimum risk and I believe they have trial period.


Already spoke with Heineken about the Blog posts.
We are the only ones using it.
There is a chance that we may lose all of the threads in there regardless of staying with vBulletin or moving away from it.

We both agreed that while it would be nice if we can save them but if it helps the migration to whatever the future platform, we are OK losing them.

I already mentioned this somewhere but I actually don’t mind losing about 2,700 of my blog posts if it helps the database conversion.

Once started using the blog, never liked the limited ability for customisation and the template format.
Prefer making it like organised ‘FAQ’ page, something you can find on modern forum software and mobile App.

Some blog posts contain very old info and no longer reflects my latest view.

Never shared the know-how so even someone referenced my posts, will never get the same result.

For example, the engine would sound differently even if using the same parts/procedures.

May improve but will never fully resolve the slow window operation by just replacing the regulator or by installing the aftermarket friction reducer.

Etc, etc, ....


There are lots to discuss with everyone.

No one owns this Forum.

All the contribution goes towards the running of the site.

NSXGB, Senninha and myself are just volunteers helping the site.

Probably fair to place priority on the view from those who made Platinum contribution but again, it’s just my view.

forumadmin forwarded his view on several points and to be discussed.


Kaz

[PeterW]

Kaz, you are too modest about the value of your blog posts. Any information one gets off the internet has to be viewed with caution. Typically maybe 10% of the stuff one finds is useful and reliable. The information in your blog posts scores >99%.
Regarding the other information shared on here in threads by people like Jonathan and Heineken to mention just two, it’s an invaluable repository.
There’s a discussion going on in the NSX Club Facebook group at the moment about a fuel leak. There’s some useful information being shared. I think that discussion would be better held on here where it’s better archived and more easily searchable.
... and I should have mentioned also the WhatsApp group NSX Tech Talk. I'm sure it's a well intentioned initiative but I can't help feeling the discussions on there would be better held on here.

Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned and need to catch up with social media ....?

[sorepaws]

Peter,
I share much of what you have said here, the Forum is a great reference for all things NSX, the challenge over the past 4 or so years has been the level of activity across all Forum platforms. The addition of Facebook and WhatsApp are there to improve the interactivity and response, that is to say they should suppliment the Forum not replace it. Since 2020 the move away from the NSXCB Forum by THNOC (NSX Owners Club) has accelerated the decline in Forum traffic here, the NSX Owners Club have their own "closed" forum.
Going forward I think the plan is to transfer the current NSXCB Forum to an updated platform and link it with social media/messaging services to provide a comprehensive and open resource for all NSX owners.

[duncan]

+1 on Mike and PeteW’s last posts.
Not so sure about the impact that the THNOC forum has.
From Kaz’s post . . “So, we still have some time but not cost effective paying £500/year when only around 20 - 25 users making Platinum contribution.” . .
In the alternative: as one of 20-25 Platinum members, if £25 pa makes this forum happen then that’s cheap for the wealth of information and contact the forum provides. I’m happy to pay that (as other financial contributors may also be).

If this forum continues, migrates, it’s down to the efforts of the Administrators, contributors etc, and my continued thanks to them.

Personally I’d ask is that forum remains open to all to view and use whether contributors, longtermers, first time owners or just casual interest.
However it’s success depends on use and that’s down to the owner and users. Perhaps for technical queries, meeting suggestions, group involvement we should see the benefit of using the forum over more instant social media.
Use it or lose it?
Duncan

[sorepaws]

+1 on Mike and PeteW’s last posts.
Not so sure about the impact that the THNOC forum has.



My point about the THNOC and the Forum is that when being a Platinum member of NSXCB Forum was a pre-requisite to membership of the Club then simply there was more revenue. It was not that the OC Forum had any impact on the NSXCB Forum.

[amritsingh]

Thanks for all the time and effort ... The yellow banner is good, just reminded me I haven't paid for some time.. just paid for another year

[NSX 2000]

Another company that hosts forums. This seems a bit cheaper than most.

https://www.createaforum.com/

[sorepaws]

Another company that hosts forums. This seems a bit cheaper than most.

https://www.createaforum.com/

In some respects it is not just about the cost - the transfer of data from the exisiting to the new maybe a more significant issue.

[Papalazarou]

+1 on Mike and PeteW’s last posts.
Not so sure about the impact that the THNOC forum has.
From Kaz’s post . . “So, we still have some time but not cost effective paying £500/year when only around 20 - 25 users making Platinum contribution.” . .
In the alternative: as one of 20-25 Platinum members, if £25 pa makes this forum happen then that’s cheap for the wealth of information and contact the forum provides. I’m happy to pay that (as other financial contributors may also be).

If this forum continues, migrates, it’s down to the efforts of the Administrators, contributors etc, and my continued thanks to them.

Personally I’d ask is that forum remains open to all to view and use whether contributors, longtermers, first time owners or just casual interest.
However it’s success depends on use and that’s down to the owner and users. Perhaps for technical queries, meeting suggestions, group involvement we should see the benefit of using the forum over more instant social media.
Use it or lose it?
Duncan




Agree Duncan. Use it and contribute. I am also happy to pay £25.00 a year. Besides the social, the information and help we have received over the years has saved many of us a huge amount of money and hassle.

Cheers.

[britlude]

The knowledge base in this forum is the important part... So, although there are a multitude of different forum suppliers/hosts/etc, that would be fine for a new forum, but there is a wealth of data contained here.. So migrating to a new server is the biggest risk.... As aways the cheapest may not be the most appopriate for longevity, cheap forum may be hosted on some spotty teens computer, set up as a server in the back room (smiley face!)

So my vote would be to stick with vbulletin, with the latest version, cloud based, as that means it's their servers and their engineers that can give it a kick when necessary as that's their full time job (one would hope) leaving the current admin to moderate, rather than firefighter issues that may well be over their paygrade (not dissing the admin here, you are awesome volunteers)

The next advantage would be vbulletin will have all the tools to migrate the data from the current forum to it's new home, they WILL have done it before, whereas the current admin quite probably haven't!!!

In addition to the platinum subs, we could have some simple merch to add to nsxcb funds if necessary...


I literally used a link to a thread in here 2 days ago on Facebook, as someone had a broken mirror, and a DIY fix is in this forum!!!

[mutley]

I'd happily go to a £25 per year subscription, that's still less that 50p per day

Cheers,
Jim