Hi all.
With the success of the last week it looks like this place will be around for a while longer. To that end, I’ve created a Ko-fi profile where you can contribute to covering the ongoing costs associated with running Aussie.Zone, if you feel inclined.
There is no pressure to do this right now. Some have asked, and for me if the costs are covered its one less thing to think about. I’m ok covering the current costs associated with the site. However there will come a point I’ll need to ask for contributions or shut the site down.
Read on if you’re interested in my thoughts on where additional costs will arise for the operation of the site, otherwise… have a nice day :)
Immediate
Current costs for running Aussie.Zone are:
- OVH VPS ~$66 AUD per month
- Wasabi object storage for images ~$11 AUD ($5.99 USD per month)
- OVH VPS automated backups $11 AUD per month
Medium term
Based on what I’ve seen so far, I expect the next pain point on the server will be needing either more CPU, or storage for the database. CPU usage is driven by local instance user count, storage more so by volume of posts across the wider fediverse.
Either of these is addressed by the current OVH VPS - “Comfort”. RAM and storage can be upgraded independently for different prices.
Longer term…
Domain renewal with Porkbun ~$35 AUD ($24 USD)
Database storage… is going to be the killer of instances. OVH VPSs can be scaled up to 640GB for $160 AUD per month. But at that price we’re into dedicated server territory.
Any questions, feel free to ask.
Ledger
This will detail cashflows associated with aussie.zone. Initial costs including domain registration (ends June 8 2024) and 1st month hosting (ends July 8th 2023) paid by me.
June 15 2023: $0 starting figure
June 15 2023: +$150 in donations 🎉
June 17 2023: -$8 enabled OVH VPS backups, pro-rata fee
June 23 2023: +$70 in donations (~$210 balance) 🎉
THANK YOU
to everyone that has contributed! We’re covered for the next few months at the current costs :)
Small update
Again, a big thank you to everyone that has donated, so far I’ve received ~$140 AUD, which is incredible!
With this support I’ve enabled OVH’s automated backup service for $11pm. Bringing total expenditure to $42 AUD per month. Should something catastrophic happen on the server, this provides a full restore mechanism.
At the current burn rate of $42 per month, on hand funds covers all hosting costs until early September.
I’ll be sure to post here with any updates and remain as transparent as possible.
What are domain costs?
Domain renewal with Porkbun ~$35 AUD ($24 USD)
hows your balance, need some topup action?
All good, I’ll continue posting updates like this each month to let everyone know where we stand.
We still cool for cash to run this joint?
Yep still good, I’ve just been too busy/lazy to post an update recently.
so what’s the full specs of the machine? would building one of them and then running it at home from an NBN connection be viable, or would it lag to hell more than lemmy’s world about 12 hours ago?
btw when it’s time for money, i’ll put one hand up and the other into my pocket. this is the sort of thing that i would be happy to fund.
Current VPS specs:
An NBN connection likely has the bandwidth, but latency to object storage will be higher and cause delays with image loads. Also increased downtime due to power, NBN outages, kids pulling power cables etc. But yes, technically possible.
