[IMC-Tech] Re: "crow" email list.

[Zachary C. Miller]

> Is that what WEFT pays? I actually wasn't aware that WEFT paid anything. I never
> saw any mention of it when I was on the WEFT Board, for instance, but that
> actually isn't saying  much. What are the terms of WEFT's arrangement?

WEFT's involvement with the server began before chambana.net even
existed, back when the server was my personal server on my personal
DSL line. I put WEFT on the server because I was doing all the
listadmin work anyway and there were problems with prairienet. WEFT
stayed on the server because it was useful to them. Arrangements were
made with WEFT in the past whereby they didn't need to pay for
service, despite this a few different WEFTies over the years have
issued personal checks to chambana.net to support the service that
WEFT uses.

WEFT has a package at the $160/year level of service.

Right now, with the change of operation of the server there will
eventually be a reevaluation of all the users of the service. Users
who have not been paying will be expected to work out an arrangement
to support the service. Many of our users operate on an honor system
and send checks made out to UC-IMC with "chambana.net hosting" in the
memo line when they remember that it is neccessary. Many of our
members forget because we haven't been sending invoices. This will
change soon.

Right now we're more focused on keeping the server running and
improving it's performance than on billing but, like WEFT, the service
won't be sustainable if people don't support it, so there will likely
be a "fund drive" soon wherein we ask long time users to send us some
money if they can and then we'll start sending invoices regularly.

After 6 years of providing fairly smooth and consistent service, we're
at a rough time of transition. It'll all settle out in time. In some
ways this crisis is good as it has forced me to sit down and write out
this status and plan for all to see.