Endowing hawkdawg?

[low_grade]

I just left a comment where I said something about when I check back here in 30 years as I'm still playing RT3 (I'm a young'un, 43, so maybe even in 50 years if I can quit smoking and drinking!) And that reminded me of something that's been worrying me, but I didn't know how or want to say it... But here it is, Hawk isn't going to live forever, and I would like to see this forum remain even after he's no longer paying the domain fees. I wouldn't be surprised if the tough old bastard outlives us all, but there may be future players of old games who would enjoy the archives even after we're all gone.

So, I don't know what it would take, and I'm not sure if any other little groups of enthusiasts have done anything similar to preserve the legacy of their work for future generations, but mostly RT3 is not so many people, but I feel like if we each put in maybe a hundred bucks or two, that would cover domain fees for a long time, and if Hawk shares his domain login with somebody who's interested and he trusts, well, we could right now ensure that hawkdawg stays on line for a long time to come. I would sleep better at night knowing this website will always be here when I need it...

What say ye all?

[RulerofRails]

Yeah, there's literally thousands of hours spent by many individuals here. It's staggering to think how much people have gotten from this game. An example that comes to mind of an author who spent literally months fussing over every detail would be South Central British Columbia, if you haven't take a look sometime. The concept for the game is somewhat limited by trying to make RT3 play like RTII, but IMO it's worth just looking to admire the amount of effort put in.

I'm a bit old-school with not using the online services when I can avoid it.
If there's a way to send via snail mail a hundred or two is no problem for me.

[Gumboots]

Must admit the same thought had been kicking around in the back of my mind. Not sure how Hawk feels about it at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if he'd like to retire at some point if he thought the place would be in good hands.

[low_grade]

I nominate Gumboots then, because I'm sure he can handle website management, but let's hear what Hawk thinks he needs to ensure the survival of hawkdawg. I'm happy to support. And though I feel like I've played SCBC, I didn't see any comment there from myself, so I'll have to play it and see if I recall, but yes, the amazing amount of collaborative development that this platform has inspired. I'm still waiting on the final loco pack with balanced fuel consumption...

[Gumboots]

Blackhawk is already an admin here, IIRC. I don't know how he's placed. Anyway, wait and see what Hawk thinks.

I'm still waiting on the final loco pack with balanced fuel consumption...

Yeah, I should do something about that. I've been balancing some as I go, depending on which maps I'm playing at the time, but with the spreadsheets we have know it would probably to possible to get all of them in the ballpark with a few nights of work.

I was also thinking about the remaining cargo cars. I can sort the rest of the express cars pretty easily if I use the same model for the last three eras (they were at maximum physical dimensions by the 1950's anyway). I have some reefers ready to rumble. The big hold-up will be the flatcar cargoes.

What occurred to me yesterday is that I should just set up the flatcars to use the existing models but with the extra weight change eras. That way it'd be fast and easy to get it to a workable stage, even though there would be no visual change between some eras (but other car types would give the visual indication anyway).

[Sugus]

Oh yes-it would be extremely desirable if this forum would stay alive for a very long time. With my over 68 years, of course, it makes no sense to compete for this job and so I hope that a younger RT3 enthusiat will sign up and - to out delight - is ready and allowed to tread in hawks footsteps.

[Hawk]

I'm definitely open to this. As a matter of fact, this very idea has been on my mind lately. As Sugus mentioned being 68, I'm 67 so it's possible the lease on this old worn out body could expire soon.

Domain registration is $12.98 a year plus 18 cents ICANN fee. The longest the domain can be renewed for is 9 years.
A point of concern in this is that my registrar account is for 4 domains that I own. It is possible for whoever might be interested in this friendly take-over to create an account (either where I have mine or somewhere else) and I could transfer ownership over to him/her.
I use namechep.com as my registrar.

Hosting is another issue that isn't as simple as one would think. I have what is known as a reseller account. I not only host this site but 6 other sites. The guy I have my reseller account through is not interested in taking on any new clients.
It is possible to move this site to another hosting company. That would ensure a long term life for this site. The biggest problem with that idea is moving the database. It's my understanding that moving a database of 10 or 20 MB or more to another hosting server can be a bit of a problem. The database for this forum is 153 MB. There is a utility called BigDump that is supposed to make a job like this easier. I've never tried it.
Here's a couple links about it.

Where to download - https://www.ozerov.de/bigdump/

How to at phpBB - https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... ase-dumps/

This site averages about 25 to 30 GB of bandwidth a month, and requires a minimum of 5 GB of storage.

So there ya' have my thoughts on the matter. I'm more than willing to work with anyone on this idea.

Oh yea! Don' forget, all the files are hosted at MediaFire, but that shouldn't be a problem.

[Gumboots]

As long as the host's servers are set up properly, and their crew is competent, and they are prepared to allow the required access to whatever, moving a db of that size shouldn't present major issues. I've been involved with moving a vBulletin db of several gig, although I wasn't up to doing that one all by myself (it required some special voodoo to fix a huge crashed table). A couple of hundred meg should be fine. If you have a reseller account I assume you would also have root access, CLI, etc, so making a dump at any given time should be easy.

It probably would be necessary to move this domain to a different host, but again that is not usually a problem as long as you choose a good one. I already have a mental list of several to be seriously avoided, and also of several good ones that I trust. Since we know what's required for bandwidth and storage it should be easy enough to select an appropriate package. I can start asking around for options.

Edit: A quick check of two good ones indicates that one of their standard packages at around $10US/month would more than cover this site's requirements. They have smaller ones, but there is a big jump between the lowest package and the second one in terms of storage and bandwidth, while the difference in cost is only a few dollars per month. The lowest level packages wouldn't be quite enough, but the next level up would provide heaps of margin for storage and bandwidth (like 15 gig of storage and 150 gig of bandwidth per month).

[low_grade]

Just let me know where to send my money, lol! I thought Gumboots could do it, and I'm happy to support.

[Hawk]

As it says at the phpBB site describing how to use BigDump:

Both the phpbb ACP and phpMyAdmin have difficulty restoring databases over 2 MiB due to PHP-imposed limitations. This application can get around this by breaking the restore into chunks.

That kind'a tells me that the issue isn't necessarily the crew but the install of php. It seems that's where the problem lies due to time limitations built into php.
Also, I just read that BigDump has been abandoned and no longer works on phpBB 3.2 and php 7 or higher. This version of the forum software is 3.2, and it's a little out of date. I just haven't felt like updating it.
The database here is MySQL. I can make a database dump too, either through the forum software (which probably isn't the best way) or through PHPMyAdmin, which I understand is the preferred way. I can also download the database through DirectAdmin, the hosting account software.

As for moving this site to another host, I'm of the mind that I would not be involved with that - other than any help I may be able to offer. It's my thought to just turn this site over to someone else.

I will say that $10. a month seems a bit steep, but then I haven't checked prices for hosting in quite a while.