FFXIclopedia:Site support/2007
From FFXIclopedia, the free Final Fantasy XI encyclopedia
 FFXIclopedia has far exceeded anyone's expectations of becoming such an incredible resource for Final Fantasy XI. When we started this project, we never would have imagined the level of use this site would get. In the last 24 hours we have consumed well over 60gb of bandwidth, which is amazing. When I monitor the network interface on the server, it is using over 5mbit/sec of bandwidth - that's a T3. You may have noticed some slow down with the site lately. According to Google Analytics, there have been 238,534 absolute unique visitors to FFXIclopedia and over 17.8 million page views between January 5, 2007 and February 5, 2007. That's a lot of traffic and the server is having a hard time keeping up with the load. Current server specs include an Intel Pentium D CPU 3.40GHz with 2mb of cache and 4gb of RAM. The sad truth is, this is just not enough power to meet the demand of the FFXI community. In order to keep FFXIclopedia running, we need to do some big time upgrading. Without new hardware to run the site on, FFXIclopedia will be unable to meet the demands of the community and will become a thing of the past. When I look at the amount of people who use this site, I don't think anyone wants that to happen. We need your help to keep FFXIclopedia running. FFXIclopedia needs to be run on multiple servers - it has gotten that big! Our goal is to have 2 web servers and 1 database server. This would give us a good amount of room to grow and allow for the site to expand in new ways and offer new features to the community. The cost of the new servers plus set up fees, and some buffer funds to pay for extra support should an emergency arise would be $12,000 a year. That will get us 2 dedicated web servers, 1 dedicated database server and hardware load balancing. This is a huge improvement and will do a lot for site performance. While this might sound like a lot, consider that there are over 225,000 people who use this website every month. If all of those 225,000 people each donated just $1, we would be able to keep FFXIclopedia running, and growing, for the forseeable future. Now, it's not likely that every single FFXIclopedia user is going to give us $1, so we need your help. But we're gonna make it up you! Starting February 6th, 2007 any donation of $5 or more will get a new forum rank and new rank image. Any donation of $25 or more will get you an FFXIclopedia mousepad. Any donation of $50 or more will get you an FFXIclopedia t-shirt. Please understand that no matter what amount you donate, every dollar will help to keep this site going and all donations will be used solely for the benefit of FFXIclopedia. Once the goal has been reached, this offer will no longer be available. All of the admins at FFXIclopedia really appreciate everything the community has done to make this site grow into what it has become. FFXIclopedia is arguably the number one resource for Final Fantasy XI information and we are able to do so in a pop-up ad and RMT free environment. We hope to be able to continue to grow and serve the community in this fashion for a long time to come. Thanks, Ganiman and the FFXIclopedia Administrators Note: To receive the forum bonuses, you must provide your forum account name when you donate through paypal. To receive the mousepad or t-shirt, you must also include shipping information when you donate through paypal. Mousepads and t-shirts will be shipped via regular mail in April/May, 2007, and thereafter on an as needed basis. How to DonateWe accept donations through Paypal. If you choose to help keep FFXIclopedia running, you have the option of being recognized on this page.
Note: You do not need a paypal account to donate. All major credit cards / debit cards are accepted. Donate: Paypal Please direct all questions to donations@ffxiclopedia.org. |
