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Tulpa.info Donation Drive!


Pleeb

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Funds Raised: $555/$500

 

Hi everyone,

 

You might have noticed some SQL errors in the past few months, and even time offline and setbacks on the forums. Unfortunately, we seemed to have outgrown our current host. In the past 30 days alone, we've had almost 30GB of bandwidth (network transfer) and about 4 million requests. These numbers increase every month, and as tulpas become more popular, they're bound to continue. Hostlatte has already suspended one of our mysql databases for having too many concurrent connections (with no further support with "limiting the connections"), and it wouldn't be the first issue we've had on this hosting plan (we're still having problems with sending emails and people having the same IP address).

 

After much thought, we've decided to have a one-time donation drive to purchase a new web hosting solution.

 

Ultimately (and if we raise enough funds), I'd like to have a dedicated server. I have gotten access to the data center that tulpa.info's old host used through a friend of the old host's owner. This data center is hooked into one of the fastest networks with a dedicated CDN, lots of backups and all that. However, that's very expensive, and it's unlikely we'd get that sort of money (over $3500/year).

 

However, I have found a very nice plan, it has more bandwidth than we'll ever need, plenty of hard drive space, a dedicated IP address, and it even offers SSL (that is, "https"), which is something that's been requested for quite a while. We'd be the ones in charge, as we wouldn't be going through one of these shared hosting companies like we currently are (we should also see an increase in speed). This will run us about $500/year.

 

Since this plan we're getting will allow us to be our own web host, we can offer some neat benefits for the members who donate, and even offer our own web/blog hosting to members. You see, the reason I'm getting a plan that allows us to be our own web host is because I'll be starting my own web hosting company to host tulpa.info. This way, I'll know just how many resources I have available to run tulpa.info, and any extra space can be leased out to host others' websites. I began dwelling on this after AdSense dropped us on the forums, leading to donations being the only things going towards paying the hosting costs while I found myself sinking further into debt (unemployed college-student reporting in!). I figure, if we can get enough income to break even, it'll pay for tulpa.info for years to come.

 

With that being said, this will be much more than just a donation drive: we're having our very own Kickstarter-type fundraiser! In exchange for any donation amount, we'll grant you one month of web hosting (domain name not included, but if you don't want to purchase one or don't already own one, I can even give you a tulpa.info subdomain). This will be a full-fledged hosting plan, which will include:

  • Unlimited Diskspace
  • Unlimited Bandwidth
  • Unlimited Addon Domains (websites)
  • Unlimited MySQL Databases
  • Unlimited Email Accounts
  • Unlimited Subdomains
  • Cpanel with Softaculous Auto Installer & Site Builder
  • Priority support (though support tickets)

 

For any amount that you donate (even $1, though it'd be awesome if you could donate more than that!), you'll get one month of the above hosting package. After that, the price will be $5/month if you chose to continue with the service. If you'd like to outright preorder (for example, for $60, you'll have one year of hosting), just donate that amount and then shoot me a PM (or I'll send a message to the email attached to the paypal donation). Grab this service now and it'll always stay that way for you.

 

Once this fundraiser is complete, I'll keep you posted through PMs on the status of the new web servers, and I'll work to get it all up and running within a month. You won't start your month until everything is finished and set up and you've already been given your stuff. Donations can just be ran through PayPal as always.

 

Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to talk about what will happen to any future donations to tulpa.info after this fund raiser is over. Well, any donations after this will go into a dedicated account just for tulpa.info (unless otherwise specified in the notes, e.g. "I want this to go to Pleeb's credit card payment this month!"). I know some members have been calling for transparency before they'd feel comfortable donating, so that's just what they're going to get, and they'll get it to the highest degree. Every month we'll publish a report stating exactly what the donations for that month went to. For instance, "We got $30 this month, it went into advertising tulpa.info through banner ads" or "we used the donation to buy a MyBB Blog Plugin." How does that sound?

 

Anyway, this donation drive will run until July 1st. If you can afford to donate, please click here. Otherwise, you can always send me a PM to pledge a donation and follow up later.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

 

Sincerely,

Pleeb.

 

P.S. I should note, while there's no official "Terms of Service" yet, they'll essentially be what most web hosting companies would request in their ToS: Don't use this for illegal things (as defined in the USA), don't eat ridiculous amounts of CPU, RAM, or disk space (which is meant for hosting space, not storing backups or excess multimedia files -- don't put a bunch of pictures up for others to download as a file hosting service).

 

P.P.S. We now support bitcoin! The address is: 1CrENmqx12Zi4uvqnzGVxY77KKhc284dRR

And here's a neat QR code I made myself:

4hsThck.png

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An image in a signature behind a hidden tag! 

image.png.4b4fd4a211261c307de1fb4de85312d6.png

 

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Not really interested in any of the incentives besides just helping out the site! It's awesome that out community has grown like this, and the cost is worth it. I can try to do what I can as soon as I get some extra cash, but until then, and afterwards, good luck raising the money!

[align=center]Even though my username is that of my tulpa, Quilten, my name is Phaneron, the host, who does all of the actual posting.

Tulpas: Quilten, Jira

[/align]

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I want to donate, and I have the money, but my job does not provide a steady income. Unless things really turn over for me, I'll need the money back in a few months to cover rent. I wish I could figure out some way to turn the web hosting back into money, but it's outside my skill set.

 

If there were some way to loan or invest rather than donate, I could give a few hundred.

"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson

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Not really interested in any of the incentives besides just helping out the site! It's awesome that out community has grown like this, and the cost is worth it. I can try to do what I can as soon as I get some extra cash, but until then, and afterwards, good luck raising the money!

If you'd like to donate without wanting any of the incentives, that's totally fine and we'd be very thankful; just let me know, and you'll still be very much helping out the site.

 

I want to donate, and I have the money, but my job does not provide a steady income. Unless things really turn over for me, I'll need the money back in a few months to cover rent. I wish I could figure out some way to turn the web hosting back into money, but it's outside my skill set.

 

If there were some way to loan or invest rather than donate, I could give a few hundred.

That's understandable. I'm not sure if we'll be able to take loans/investments right now, I'll let you know if that becomes a possibility.

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I'll toss some in when I get a chance. It won't be much, but I wouldn't have Sarah without this site so I'm so grateful for its existence!

Host: Sakura

Tulpa: Sarah (began June 5th, 2014), Alyx (Began July 23rd, 2014)

Our shared tumblr

note: usually browsing on mobile, so cannot quote properly

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We're almost at $300, this is awesome... Thank you to everyone who's donated or pledged so far, it really means a great deal.

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I donated $5, sorry I couldn't give more.. I'm really poor. This site is real important to me though so you deserve it.

Looks like I'm not getting my fursuit anyway...

 

I just realised though, how will you get the perks to us? Email? Also, I panicked because it gave my address. And also my real name. Uggggg

Oracle, the host

Vamphir, the catboy

Spirit, the dragon

 

Previously Synful

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I donated $5, sorry I couldn't give more.. I'm really poor. This site is real important to me though so you deserve it.

Looks like I'm not getting my fursuit anyway...

 

I just realised though, how will you get the perks to us? Email? Also, I panicked because it gave my address. And also my real name. Uggggg

Hi, thanks for the $5, every bit really does help!

 

All donations are confidential, I'm not going to be giving emails or names out to anyone- I'm not even looking at them. I'll contact you via email unless you'd like me to contact you through PMs instead, in which case, let me know.

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Hi, thanks for the $5, every bit really does help!

 

All donations are confidential, I'm not going to be giving emails or names out to anyone- I'm not even looking at them. I'll contact you via email unless you'd like me to contact you through PMs instead, in which case, let me know.

 

I'm glad!

 

And no stress, I'm just a super anxious person so my heart stopped when I realised. I trust you, thanks :)

Email is fine!

Oracle, the host

Vamphir, the catboy

Spirit, the dragon

 

Previously Synful

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Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to talk about what will happen to any future donations to tulpa.info after this fund raiser is over. Well, any donations after this will go into a dedicated account just for tulpa.info (unless otherwise specified in the notes, e.g. "I want this to go to Pleeb's credit card payment this month!"). I know some members have been calling for transparency before they'd feel comfortable donating, so that's just what they're going to get, and they'll get it to the highest degree. Every month we'll publish a report stating exactly what the donations for that month went to. For instance, "We got $30 this month, it went into advertising tulpa.info through banner ads" or "we used the donation to buy a MyBB Blog Plugin." How does that sound?

 

I feel that repaying you the expenditure (and interest!) that you've put into the site should be a priority too. I've always thought it unreasonable for you to pay the bulk of the costs out of your own pocket, and it is a legitimate expense for any enterprise to repay its seed loan.

 

'Just my feelings on the matter.

Please consider supporting Tulpa.info.


 

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