The future of the site is questionable at this time...

[Pylon1_Mark]

I know Will would agree, so I'm going to be as transparent to everyone here about this as much as possible. After looking closely at the server billing fees, the breakdown looks like:

Total monthly costs: $132.00 per month
server fees: $80.00
cPanel; $52.00

Obviously, the server fees are what they are... the costs to lease the physical server that allows us to access aafo.com. cPanel is the control panel (graphic user interface) that allows someone like me or Will to somewhat easily manage all the back-end maintenance of the server and adjust server settings. cPanel is a have-to-have item, so it's not something we can do without. Initially I thought it was on $80/mo, but then I got another bill for $52.00 so I decided to look a little closer (at least they have the server registered to my email address now so it's a lot easier to access info. It will all be put under Will's command after I get everything lined out.). So that's all the cost breakdown to maintain the site. Whatever the donations we get don't cover, Will & I will take care of.

At the end of each year, I will post a breakdown of donations received & dates (names omitted) so everyone can see where we're at and also validate their donation if they so choose. I'll setup the PayPal link for the front page this weekend.

BTW: Will... chime-in if you feel differently...here to serve

[RAD2LTR]

I like it.

Will

[BellCobraIV]

I know Will would agree, so I'm going to be as transparent to everyone here about this as much as possible. After looking closely at the server billing fees, the breakdown looks like:

Total monthly costs: $132.00 per month
server fees: $80.00
cPanel; $52.00

Obviously, the server fees are what they are... the costs to lease the physical server that allows us to access aafo.com. cPanel is the control panel (graphic user interface) that allows someone like me or Will to somewhat easily manage all the back-end maintenance of the server and adjust server settings. cPanel is a have-to-have item, so it's not something we can do without. Initially I thought it was on $80/mo, but then I got another bill for $52.00 so I decided to look a little closer (at least they have the server registered to my email address now so it's a lot easier to access info. It will all be put under Will's command after I get everything lined out.). So that's all the cost breakdown to maintain the site. Whatever the donations we get don't cover, Will & I will take care of.

At the end of each year, I will post a breakdown of donations received & dates (names omitted) so everyone can see where we're at and also validate their donation if they so choose. I'll setup the PayPal link for the front page this weekend.

BTW: Will... chime-in if you feel differently...here to serve

I think that sounds great, thank you for time and energy.

John

[Jim58]

Thanks Guys

[Plane Nuts]

Sounds good. Thanks.

[Pylon1_Mark]

Well, I'm glad I have off work until Dec 1st ... Mr Wayners didn't make it easy to figure out what's going on in the background. He's got like 8 data bases created for aafo, only using one. 3 versions of the forums installed on the server, only using one. Probably 18 sites on the server, and you guessed it, only using one. I've been spending the last few days figuring that out, how to access the website control panel, domain control for aafo.com, Vbulletin account info, & webmail... just making sure we have full control of the website moving forward. Now that those steps are complete, I'll be forwarding all of that to Will soon & start working on getting the database backup done. I also need to start cleaning things up for the forums upgrade (we're on 5.7.4 - current version is 6.0.8... we're way behind).

The PayPal donation link is going to be a pita... can't do that without a business account, can't have a business account without have a separate phone number other that my personal account, and I'm not going to get a new phone. So I was thinking....

Maybe it would be better/easier to do a Go-Fund-Me fundraiser

EDIT: Database back-up done!!! Sorry it's taking so long. I haven't done this kind of stuff in over 15 years, so it's taking me a little longer than I'd like, and I want to be 100% sure that I'm not going to screw the pooch before I hit that "enter" button. This stuff is pretty unforgiving.

So far so good though.... onto the next thing

[BellCobraIV]

Well, I'm glad I have off work until Dec 1st ... Mr Wayners didn't make it easy to figure out what's going on in the background. He's got like 8 data bases created for aafo, only using one. 3 versions of the forums installed on the server, only using one. Probably 18 sites on the server, and you guessed it, only using one. I've been spending the last few days figuring that out, how to access the website control panel, domain control for aafo.com, Vbulletin account info, & webmail... just making sure we have full control of the website moving forward. Now that those steps are complete, I'll be forwarding all of that to Will soon & start working on getting the database backup done. I also need to start cleaning things up for the forums upgrade (we're on 5.7.4 - current version is 6.0.8... we're way behind).

The PayPal donation link is going to be a pita... can't do that without a business account, can't have a business account without have a separate phone number other that my personal account, and I'm not going to get a new phone. So I was thinking....

Maybe it would be better/easier to do a Go-Fund-Me fundraiser

EDIT: Database back-up done!!! Sorry it's taking so long. I haven't done this kind of stuff in over 15 years, so it's taking me a little longer than I'd like, and I want to be 100% sure that I'm not going to screw the pooch before I hit that "enter" button. This stuff is pretty unforgiving.

So far so good though.... onto the next thing

Mark, still appreciate your time and work.

[marada mx3]

Well, I'm glad I have off work until Dec 1st ... Mr Wayners didn't make it easy to figure out what's going on in the background. He's got like 8 data bases created for aafo, only using one. 3 versions of the forums installed on the server, only using one. Probably 18 sites on the server, and you guessed it, only using one. I've been spending the last few days figuring that out, how to access the website control panel, domain control for aafo.com, Vbulletin account info, & webmail... just making sure we have full control of the website moving forward. Now that those steps are complete, I'll be forwarding all of that to Will soon & start working on getting the database backup done. I also need to start cleaning things up for the forums upgrade (we're on 5.7.4 - current version is 6.0.8... we're way behind).

The PayPal donation link is going to be a pita... can't do that without a business account, can't have a business account without have a separate phone number other that my personal account, and I'm not going to get a new phone. So I was thinking....

Maybe it would be better/easier to do a Go-Fund-Me fundraiser

EDIT: Database back-up done!!! Sorry it's taking so long. I haven't done this kind of stuff in over 15 years, so it's taking me a little longer than I'd like, and I want to be 100% sure that I'm not going to screw the pooch before I hit that "enter" button. This stuff is pretty unforgiving.

So far so good though.... onto the next thing

I'm sure you'll figure it out and the site will be better than ever. Pylon1 was the site that hooked me on air racing 20-ish years ago, so I know it's in good hands. Thanks for all of your efforts.
Tommy

[Pylon1_Mark]

First, I wanted to say thanks for all your support & kind words of encouragement everyone. It's been a challenge for sure, and who would have thought that after 15 years I'd be back to doing webmaster stuff again. It's kinda like riding a bike though... it's coming back slowly but surely, despite my old age.

On the news front, I did go ahead and setup a GoFundMe page for the aafo.com Hangar Talk Forums for FY 2025. The goal for this year will be funding the server & paying for the upgraded forums software. The aafo URL won't be needing to be re-registered until 2026 - so that pretty much accounts for all anticipated expenditures for the website. The donate button on the front page takes you to the donate page with the GoFundMe page link, so that's been updated with the below link as well..

[Pylon1_Mark]

Well, I found out something interesting today... Wayne has another separate vBulletin forums on this server that uses the same database we're using here. The interesting thing is that is also runs a debug script to see if there are any errors with the database/forums. I'm happy to report that the debug script shows everything working 100%, so everything looks good for the forum's software upgrade to begin.

Right now, I'm working on getting vBulletin to change the user/email address, so notifications come directly to Will & I instead of going to Wayne's email and to make upgrading easier in the future. After that change is made, I'll go ahead and start working on the forums upgrade. Although I will have to take the forums down for this, the downtime should be minimal. I've already talked with the vBulletin guys and the upgrade should go smoothly - everything is pretty automatic once the upgrade script starts running. I'll be sure to do a lot of reading and preparing before I hit that "enter" button .