Kubuntuforums is asking for your help
Posted by dohbuoy on April 17, 2011
If you are a frequent visitor to kubuntuforums , you probably have noticed the increasing amount of downtime lately. Unfortunately, this is exacerbated by the fact that the site’s owner, Zack Brantley, is often away due to his military service, and my own work schedule keeps me away from my online home for long periods of time. We often don’t even notice until the downtime has been around for a while. The forum is also hosted either for free or at low cost, and getting in touch with the server’s admin isn’t always a quick thing.
So we have finally decided to procure our own hosting – either a vps or, if costs are affordable, a dedicated server. We also plan to migrate KFN to vbulletin – an anonymous donation of a license for this makes that cost a non-issue 
many thanks, whoever you are – it is greatly appreciated! While there is little wrong with our current software – SMF, vb seems like it will fit our needs and wants quite well.
We have placed a paypal donations button on the site, and I hope that a few of us KDE and Kubuntu fans will chip in a little bit here and there so we can move this forward.
And yes, the server we are currently hosted on is a Windows server, and always have been. So it is NOT a rumor. ‘Nuff said.
Also note that KFN is a completely independent outfit with no ties to Canonical, Ubuntu, or even Kubuntu outside of forum memberships.
Any suggestions, comments or ideas are gratefully accepted.
=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Blogilo
mark said
If you are up for migrating to a Linux VPS, I would suggest looking at Quickweb or Linode for unmanaged services. Both of them are unmatched in my experience when it comes to uptime, disk io and overall performance. Also, both of them offer Xen packages, which is what you will probably want for virtualization.
My VPSs at Quickweb are currently outperforming those on Linode, though both are the most stable providers I have used. You can get much better performance out of those VPS plans than you can get from a cheap dedi. However, if you are going for a dedi, I would suggest spending more and picking one up at Softlayer or Gigenet.
Quickweb also offers Windows 2008 Server as a special, which you can find here, along with some other special offers: http://quickweb.co.nz/wht
Lirodon said
vBulletin 4 is an awful regression btw.
dohbuoy said
Regression from what? We currently use smf 1.1.x.
Lirodon said
Regression from previous versions of vB, vB guys got acquired between 3.0 and 4 – the new developers are using agile development processes, and they have had so many bugs, they had to switch to JIRA to handle it all!
Michael Reich said
Hey! I found someone remotely connected to Kubuntu. I recently joined the Kubuntu forums in the hope of getting some community technical help.
“Also note that KFN is a completely independent outfit with no ties to Canonical, Ubuntu, or even Kubuntu outside of forum memberships. Any suggestions, comments or ideas are gratefully accepted.”
Here’s a suggestion. How about putting the webmaster’s mail address on the site so I can find out if my account has been blown away or not. After reading about the difficult time you are having maintaining your website, the aformentioned quote begs the question, what exactly are your motivations for maintaining the website?
After two posts describing a hardware compatibility problem, my account username has mysteriously vanished. The last response that I got was someone saying that I should check for a burnt pin on a DVD drive. Apparently they didn’t read the part about the drive working on the Windows XP and Vista partitions. And I’ll just bet that they put the metal pail over their head and beat it with a ladle when I described how the drive worked just fine with Fedora.
Next thing I know, no account access. Don’t bother replying, don’t bother restoring the account, and don’t think that this won’t get around. You guys are Strictly Amateur Hour.
dohbuoy said
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3117108
Unfortunately there was a database problem and we lost user login accounts
so I do offer my apologies.
This is the main reason we are wishing to move to a server where WE have control and access. This is the first such calamity since KFN was born in 2006.
Your comment was a bit harsh, but I agree we need to have a Contact Us button somewhere.
User-to-user help forums have people with all levels of experiences trying to give their assistance. Sure, some may have missed a bit of info, but heck it still could still be a possibility worth eliminating, whether you do so or not is up to you.
Michael Reich said
Ah….timing, timing, timing. So important. Don’t believe me? Go ask your friendly neighborhood multi-core processor.
On first blush it appeared that because I gave a less than glowing account of my experience with the new Kubuntu, I was summarily excommunicated. And I can assure you that would not have been the first time I’ve seen that happen. Ooo baby I was fit to be tied. So yeah, I let you have it in a public forum. Sorry ’bout that. I guess it’s a good thing that you didn’t see the first two drafts before I posted. And no, you do not get a long stemmed rose and a box of chocolates. Dropping 400 new user records doesn’t instill confidence.
I spent good deal of time testing and formulating my post. All done with the intention of improving Kubuntu. So now that I know that miscommunication has resulted from a technical problem (…what are the odds?) I will do what I said I was going to do and install current Kubuntu on a (hopefully) more receptive platform and continue testing.
Well, damn. In a fit of spite, I done installed Debian (I’ll show you corporate douchebags). Wow, what a stroll down memory lane. It was the first Linux I ever used (or was it Slackware…?). I’m getting kinda tired of all this corporate mucking about with Linux. Especially since SuSE broke my heart.
Really like your blog, mister. I can see that there is much that I can learn from you. I’ll be back!
Sincerely,
Winston Churchill