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    #1

    Infrastructure / Transparency

    As mentioned several times before, this forum is not MINE, it´s OURS :beer:

    But since I´m behind the initial setup, there are things registered in my name, and unless we decide to actually found an official organization, it´s probably just gonna stay that way.

    However, a userforum like this, should not be run by just one individual (it´s WAY to vulnerable) so, I´ve handpicked a few known Revit enthusiastic that I trust, to be administrators of this forum (meaning 100% access to everything) – The admins so far are:

    Admins: Updated - March 16th 2011
    As of january 2011 the admins are: (in no specific order)
    Twiceroadsfool (United States)
    Alfredo Medina (United States)
    Gordon Price (United States)
    Ian Kidston (Australia)
    Klaus Munkholm (Denmark/Europe)

    We´re planning to keep the number of admins to five at all times - so if one chooses to resign, a new admin will be picked.
    When this place grows really huge, we may need some more help with daily moderating, but for now the five admins can handle the work that needs to be done around here.

    And FYI the location of the admins, also reflects the location of the users on this forum. (United States 60% - Australia & New Zealand 20% and Europe 20%)

    Hosting: Updated - March 16th 2011
    The forum is hosted with a professional webhosting company in London, who´s specialiced in hosting vBulletin forums (globalgold.co.uk)
    We now have 0.5 GB webspace and 5.0 GB databasespate available. There´s a 20 GB bandwidth limit (which we´ll exceed this month)
    We have almost full access to the server settings and DB´s with phpMyAdmim.
    All the email accounts that we want
    Total cost for the above is about $200/Year
    Uhh, and did I mention that the Host does NOT own the content/db - We do

    Domain:
    Revitforum.org is registered thru gigahost.dk (the old hosting company), and is registered in my name – detailed info HERE
    If/when I for one reason or another is no longer a part of this community, the domain will be transferred to one of the other admins (Free of charge of course) I´ll cover the yearly fee until that happens.
    (revitforums.org and revitforums.com are also registered, but just redirects to here)

    Forum script:
    I´ve personally acquired a license for vBulletin ($200) which is now installed.
    There will be no more expenses, unless we choose to update to a future version in the years to come.

    Backup: Updated - March 16th 2011
    Automated backups of the RFO Database and File System are done on a daily basis. RFO currently uses custom backup scripts to perform this task.
    Backups are stored on the host server, as well as being copied daily to three different FTP servers, presently located in Denmark, Australia, and the United States.


    Security:
    Just in case, that something should happened to me, I´m going to provide the admins with detailed information on how to logon to the hosting company, so they can choose to take over the account, or move the data to another host. My wife will be instructed to transfer the domain to one of the admins, and admins will also be provided with customer nr. and password to vBulletin.com


    This post is to ensure 100% transparency, and to provide the users with a possibility to suggest changes.
    It´s also a reply to Twiceroadsfool´s post HERE (#12)

    Klaus Munkholm
    Fjordvang 2a
    6950 Ringkøbing
    Denmark
    +45 22135141
    klaus (a) a-munkholm.dk
    Last edited by Munkholm; March 16, 2011, 10:19 PM. Reason: Updated (Admin and Hosting)
    Klaus Munkholm
    "Do. Or do not. There is no try."
    Tags: None
    #2
    Thanks for that. It just feels like the right thing to do, you know?

    Having said that: Its great that you set it all up so fast, and if the site has needs that create financial dependancies, count me in. Regarding data: If you have the data backed up currently, awesome. If the time comes where we need more storage (or more space), feel free to let me know. Im more than willing to contribute. Either in physical media for old school off site storage, or for places we can upload the databases too for redundancies sake. ive got domains with file storage capacities that i use for random things now, id be happy to give the admins the password to them, so we could shift data around for redundancies sake, should the need arise. (BTW, thats not to step on your toes. If youve got it all handled now, so much the better. Just letting you know, all of the above are available to you as well, to ease the hardships.)

    Should any debacles with the ISP occur, ive got web hosting and a small ton of data transfer allowance from my old sites. The database can always get rehosted anywhere, should the need arise. Good job, loving that we have a home again.
    Aaron "selfish AND petulant" Maller |P A R A L L A X T E A M | Practice Technology Implementation
    @Web | @Twitter | @LinkedIn | @Email

    Comment

      #3
      Its pretty interesting that with people asking for this same sort of plan for the future (i.e. Jeffrey McGrew) over at the bomb zone. Before anyone really asked, you guys both have volutarily addressed this issue with a real plan of action to assure everyone that a disaster won't happen on your sites. Back at the old house, they haven't come up with anything close to reassuring that it won't burn down again. Instead its just attempts to defend themselves and ask us to rebuild.
      Many :beer: to you

      Comment

        #4
        Thank you Munkholm for being so open and transparent about all of this. I was planning on inquiring about some of those details as well. Similar to Aaron, I can help out (web sites, off-site storage space) if it's ever needed. Maybe once the site is established after the first year (or sooner if traffic really explodes), there can be some sort of paypal "donate" button where members can chip in a few bucks... wouldn't take very many members to help cover expenses at this point. I can understand you probably don't want to rush into, let's just take it one day at a time, but I'm sure you'll get support if the need arises.

        Comment

          #5
          Aaron, thank you for all the support, and you can´t even imagine how it makes me feel when you allready mention this place as a new home ! Let´s see how the traffic load will be in the comming weeks or months, and then, if needed, I´d be more than happy to take you up on the offer with more storage space for backups etc.

          Eric, thank you for the :beer: ! Can only agree that it´s a mess over at the "bomb zone" (very accurate term BTW)

          Iru, as of now, I’m not concerned about the expenses.
          When/if it becomes necessary, it sounds like a great idea with a paypal donation system. The vBulletin software is also capable of handling ad-campaigns, and/or paid subscriptions via CcBill.
          When/if it becomes necessary we´ll let the users decide how it should be funded ! But I would sure hate the last two options.
          Last edited by Munkholm; December 8, 2010, 10:21 PM. Reason: To cover Iru´s post.
          Klaus Munkholm
          "Do. Or do not. There is no try."

          Comment

            #6
            Originally posted by eric.piotrowicz View Post
            Its pretty interesting that with people asking for this same sort of plan for the future (i.e. Jeffrey McGrew) over at the bomb zone. Before anyone really asked, you guys both have volutarily addressed this issue with a real plan of action to assure everyone that a disaster won't happen on your sites. Back at the old house, they haven't come up with anything close to reassuring that it won't burn down again. Instead its just attempts to defend themselves and ask us to rebuild.
            Many :beer: to you
            I want to be fair to all of the people that work hard on AUGI, so a few things DO need to be said in that regard:

            1. Everything that happened over there, happened for a reason. Its MUCH EASIER for *us* to have a plan of attack. We are less than 100 people, much less site management, much less data management, much less overall. If this forum blew up to 200,000 people, i ASSURE you, we would need help. Whether or not that help could all be volunteer or what, remains to be seen. I guess all im saying is: Remember, AUGI is a much bigger animal.

            2. Transparancy: Im not going to comment specifically on if its right or wrong that theyre ARENT so forthcoming on that other site... but also remember: As it relates to item 1: Munkholm and i have NO ONE to answer to. It SOUNDS like a good (great) thing, and im NOT saying it isnt. But it is that way because were small. There ARE people involved with AUGI who HAVE been asking (begging) the board, or the director, to be more forthcoming with us. But, as a corporate entity, they DO have corporate suits (lawyers) to deal with and listen to as well. Its not right, but its reality.

            3. Infrastructure and backup: Make no mistake, AUGI has a backup. The data is there. So its not like were providing anything they arent. They just outsourced theirs, then picked a fight (or had a fight picked from) with the outsourcees. It obviously wont happen here or at BIMExpert, since were all singular entities. If this site balooned to 200,000 users? Thats suddenly a MOUNTAIN of data. Heck, in reality, they only outsourced data storage and management. But they signed a **** deal and tried to get out of it. Im not defending them, but keep in mind... Its easy to be great when youre less than 1000 people.

            Overall, im glad were here. Im sad were not there. But- while i cant speak for Munkholm, and these opinions are ONLY my own, lets remember: A lot of the AUGI organization INHERITED problems. Some of this stuff happened before most of us were users, and we DONT have all the details. Im not an AUGI apologist, but having heard a LOT from both sides, its not like they didnt MEAN to do well. The whole situation sucks.

            Having said that... Were small, so its easy. But imVho, transparancy should ALWAYS be forthcoming, and IMMEDIATE.
            Aaron "selfish AND petulant" Maller |P A R A L L A X T E A M | Practice Technology Implementation
            @Web | @Twitter | @LinkedIn | @Email

            Comment

              #7
              Just stumbled over this information in the vBulletin FAQ:

              For example, an installation that has 5,800+ members, 40,000 threads, 662,000 posts, 70,000 private messages and 8,000 attachments has approx. a total MySQL database size of 940MB - which comes to around 140MB per 100,000 posts. Please note that it does vary from forum to forum, so your mileage may vary.

              Sounds like the 7.5 GB will be more than sufficient for a long time
              Klaus Munkholm
              "Do. Or do not. There is no try."

              Comment

                #8
                yeah... the thing that will effect the forum the most is the CPU and RAM load on the domain hosting the DB. We wont have to worry about this untill the usergroup gets into the 5 digits, posts get over 500k and number of active at one time is over 200-400ish
                -Alex Cunningham

                Comment

                  #9
                  Yes, hats off and thanks a ton! Really to everyone who is here, but most especially to Klaus and Aaron for getting the ball rolling so fast and so well. The second there is a place to chip in and help with expenses, I am in. And I am happy to help in any other way I can. (guessing moderator isn't my natural role however

                  I do think Aaron makes a good point about the complexities that AUGI has to deal with, and this experience is really making me think that AUGI is just too big and unwieldy, and a group that is focused purely on Revit and the other tools that become part of that tool chain (Autodesk tools or not) is going to make for a smaller, easier to maintain, and easier to turn, group. As well as a group that is probably more useful to each other.

                  Woot to all!
                  Gordon
                  Pragmatic Praxis

                  Comment

                    #10
                    If AUGI ever did/does get the posting history data back I will use it only as a search engine. I already like it here, it's comfortable. Maybe because it is small and that may change drastically as more people hear about who's here and what's going on. I'll just deal with that in the future. For now, this is my "Revit Place". Kudos to Klaus and the other Administrators! And, along with some others, I have no problem with a US$ to Euro conversion to help keep this going whenever, if ever, that is required...
                    I'm retired, if you don't like it, go around!

                    Comment

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