Hosting Account Transition

Ok, just to restate:

We need to raise $178.99 by Feb 11, 2020 (a month and a half away).

We need to make payment via credit card.

We need someone to take over account hosting duties.

Is that correct?

:think:

If we got in a bind (can’t find someone that enthusiastically wants to take over) I could probably do it.

I’ve been out of the web server/php business for a little over 15 years now and even then I only had a few toes in the water. I’m sure the tech side of things has changed a lot in that amount of time, but I could probably get back into it.

If I were to do it I’d need a little help:

1) I’d need the mod team (roy, DJ, mom3, Ray, Heber13, etc.) to maintain the spirit of the site.

I’m coming out of a nearly one year long “battle for boundaries” with local leaders. I haven’t talked about that here (or anywhere) but it’s been a super irritating experience that has sapped my desire to remain actively engaged with the church. I’m not the best ambassador for StayLDS right now. I’ve lost a great deal of trust in my own judgment when it comes to church culture, so I’d have to take a more hands off approach and let the mod team be the voice.

2) Finances. Not to be stingy, but things are tight right now. My wife is back in school and we have a kid in band and braces – we’ve operated in the red the last several months.

That said, I could set aside $11/month. It’s just bad timing this year.

.

I can’t deal with the tech side. I thought of you, nibbler, immediately. If you can do that, it would be a major contribution – and one that wouldn’t require any particular level or kind of involvement in the Church itself.

I say we ask for donations again this year. If we can cover the costs that way, great; if not, we can regroup quickly before the contract expires.

Can one of you write the post – perhaps finding Brian’s old post and essentially copying it?

Just getting back into town today. Let me see if I can find Brian’s fundraising post or create a new one. On the tech side – I am no help. My job is to be a shoulder to cry on. If we left the tech to me, the site would be down. I have noon church – ick – I will look for Brian’s previous stuff when I get home.

Thanks Brian for years of effort.

Here’s the post:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8789&p=123159” class=”bbcode_url”>viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8789&p=123159

It directs people to contribute to open stories foundation.

That may get people to contribute to open stories foundation, which is fine, but I I don’t know whether OSF will continue to reimburse us so we may need to come up with an alternate strategy.

Temporarily moved the post to the parking lot until we figure things out.

Hi all. Checking back in again.

I would strongly recommend against having people donate through the Open Stories Foundation. John Dehlin never responded at all to my emails last year asking about reimbursement. I sent two to him directly, if I remember correctly. And he isn’t using the same bookkeeper anymore. That is who I first contacted before trying to reach John. I really don’t think he cares about this project anymore, and it no longer really fits into his “brand” image. I haven’t followed what he’s up to for a couple years, but that’s my impression.

As far as doing the technical work of maintaining the hosting account, it really doesn’t take much time. It’s a very mature and stable set of software packages on the server. The hosting company takes care of all the infrastructure. The biggest headaches I ran into was when it came time to do major required software upgrades. That sometimes breaks a part of the site, and then you have to research solutions to fix it. That maybe happened 4 or 5 times in the past 10 years. I just let the hosting company do automated minor security upgrades. I haven’t had to tinker with anything in probably 2+ years. The more common task is to answer to occasional Admin emails from a users that are having trouble logging into the forums. They forgot their password or username. That’s 95% of the work. I think the activity level has dropped. I only see an email like that once ever month or two.

And nobody outside of StayLDS really has to know who is doing the maintenance/site admin work. You can use the StayLDS email system addresses to correspond with people asking questions and keep your name and personal info private. I bounced those messages to my personal email for convenience because I didn’t really care.

Doing the technical work on the hosting account can be totally separate from the mission of providing emotional and spiritual support to Mormons in faith transition. I stopped participating in the forum conversations several years ago when I realized I was no longer the right person to give support. I am not Mormon at all anymore, not in practice nor in my heart. FWIW, I’m an atheist (“apatheist” more specifically) that practices Core Shamanism and am currently in a training program to become a druid in an organization called Ár nDraíocht Féin (A Druid Fellowship). and no, I am not joking. I don’t take myself too seriously though.

Anyways … I’m the crackpot who has been running your hosting account. I still think it’s a moral “good” to give service helping people through the pain of a faith transition, regardless of which direction they end up going. If people want help staying in the LDS Church on some level, that’s the path and experience they need to explore. I wish them well.