XWeb - State of the Forums

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A quick update as of December 31, 2018:

The operating fund contains $1,210 thanks to many generous donations this year. Thanks!
In order to support the increased usage, I've stepped our hosting tier up. This should slightly improve performance, but also adds needed storage for the forum and backups, as well as enhanced technical support assistance.
  • VPS hosting, support $410
  • CPanel license $120
  • Xenforo forum software maintenance $40
  • Domain registration fees (.com/.net/.org) ~$50
  • XWeb 1.0 (archives - N54 now at Tapatalk) these are now free-tier hosting since Tapatalk took over Network54
With an annual cost of about $600, we have funds to cover expenses for a couple years :)
Our forum software will need to migrate to a new version sometime in 2019. This is important to maintain product support and compatibility. It will take some effort, but this shouldn't incur any financial outlay.
Please let me know if you have questions. My goal is full transparency around the forum operational budget!

Here's a snapshot of the YTD forums stats. Note that the user session count shows logged-in users only. With our typical read-only guest usage, the count is about 3x what is shown.
Also attached, a list of posting stats by user. Congrats to @Dr.Jeff

Screenshot from 2018-12-31 09-54-02.png
 

Attachments

  • xf_post_2018.pdf
    125.5 KB · Views: 278
A quick update as of December 31, 2018:

The operating fund contains $1,210 thanks to many generous donations this year. Thanks!
In order to support the increased usage, I've stepped our hosting tier up. This should slightly improve performance, but also adds needed storage for the forum and backups, as well as enhanced technical support assistance.
  • VPS hosting, support $410
  • CPanel license $120
  • Xenforo forum software maintenance $40
  • Domain registration fees (.com/.net/.org) ~$50
  • XWeb 1.0 (archives - N54 now at Tapatalk) these are now free-tier hosting since Tapatalk took over Network54
With an annual cost of about $600, we have funds to cover expenses for a couple years :)
Our forum software will need to migrate to a new version sometime in 2019. This is important to maintain product support and compatibility. It will take some effort, but this shouldn't incur any financial outlay.
Please let me know if you have questions. My goal is full transparency around the forum operational budget!

Here's a snapshot of the YTD forums stats. Note that the user session count shows logged-in users only. With our typical read-only guest usage, the count is about 3x what is shown.
Also attached, a list of posting stats by user. Congrats to @Dr.Jeff

View attachment 18159

Dr. Jeff made the rest of us look like wallflowers! LOL :)
 
Mark:

I have been away for a while and just saw your 2018 update. I made a donation this morning.

I might need help with Tapatalk. My username isn't recognized. Is only xweb 1.0 there?
 
Last edited:
A quick update as of December 31, 2018:

The operating fund contains $1,210 thanks to many generous donations this year. Thanks!
In order to support the increased usage, I've stepped our hosting tier up. This should slightly improve performance, but also adds needed storage for the forum and backups, as well as enhanced technical support assistance.
  • VPS hosting, support $410
  • CPanel license $120
  • Xenforo forum software maintenance $40
  • Domain registration fees (.com/.net/.org) ~$50
  • XWeb 1.0 (archives - N54 now at Tapatalk) these are now free-tier hosting since Tapatalk took over Network54
With an annual cost of about $600, we have funds to cover expenses for a couple years :)
Our forum software will need to migrate to a new version sometime in 2019. This is important to maintain product support and compatibility. It will take some effort, but this shouldn't incur any financial outlay.
Please let me know if you have questions. My goal is full transparency around the forum operational budget!

Here's a snapshot of the YTD forums stats. Note that the user session count shows logged-in users only. With our typical read-only guest usage, the count is about 3x what is shown.
Also attached, a list of posting stats by user. Congrats to @Dr.Jeff

View attachment 18159

Please keep us aware of the fund level. We don’t want to run low (out).

Thank you for all you and others do.

Karl
 
Update as of March 1, 2020:

The operating fund contains $1,711 as of this morning. Thank You to all!
  • VPS hosting, support ~$35 /6 months = $70/year. This has decreased substantially this year and is great value.
  • CPanel license - pricing has changed to $14.50/month = $174/year
  • Xenforo forum software maintenance $40/year
  • Domain registration fees (.com/.net/.org) ~$50/year
  • XWeb 1.0 (archives - N54 now at Tapatalk) these are now free-tier hosting since Tapatalk took over Network54

Our current hosting tier seems to be coping well with the load for the forum. The increased use of image storage, and organic forum growth does mean we'll need to add storage either onsite or archival in 2020, primarily to maintain backups.

Annual cost of about $350, we have ample funds to cover expenses for the foreseeable future. As always, my goal is full transparency around the forum operations budget.

I made some recent OS and back-end upgrades in December to freshen and optimize what we currently use. The Xenforo 1.5 forum platform reaches end of support in May 2020 - we've had a good run on this major version release for 3+ years, but a migration to version 2.x needs to occur in 2020. This is not a trivial operation since some aspects have significant changes and some customizations may work differently, so testing will be needed.

Here's a snapshot of the YTD forums stats. Note that the user session count shows logged-in users only. With our typical read-only guest usage, the count is about 3x what is shown.

Also attached, a list of top 100 posting stats by user. Congrats to @Dr.Jeff (again!)
 

Attachments

  • upload_2020-3-1_12-1-30.png
    upload_2020-3-1_12-1-30.png
    198.6 KB · Views: 170
  • XWeb2019 Post counts.txt
    1.7 KB · Views: 204
Mark:

I have been away for a while and just saw your 2018 update. I made a donation this morning.

I might need help with Tapatalk. My username isn't recognized. Is only xweb 1.0 there?


Hi Jeff - when we moved XWeb to this platform in 2016, the decision was made at that time to not include Tapatalk support.
Reasons in this thread https://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/tapatalk.31434/ but basically some serious security and stability issues, along with the new platform already being more mobile-friendly.
 
Mark, thanks once again for all of your wonderful support and effort. We are immensely indebted to you for everything you do here. Although we may not say it enough, it stands to reason that this forum would not be the fantastic experience it is without all the hard work and time put in by you and the other members of the administration. I've said it before but it warrants repeating, this is by far the best forum in existence. Thank you.
 
Indeed thank you for the hard work on all our behalf in making this a great place for us all.

In regards to Tapatalk, there are few programs I dislike more. It constantly asks to be used (and doesn’t take no for an answer) and is buggy. I have no trouble with the formatting on my iPhone or iPad which use mobile browsers (I know thats me).

If there is anything non technical users like me can do to assist with the testing I would be pleased to assist.
 
XWeb Update as of January 1, 2021:

The operating fund contains $1508.57 as of this morning. Thank You to all for your donations.

Here are the current expenses:

  • VPS hosting, support ~$35 /6 months = $70/year. This remains good value.
  • CPanel management license - pricing has changed to $14.50/month = $174/year
  • Xenforo forum software maintenance $40/year
  • Forum software add-on $10/ one-off
  • Domain registration fees (.com/.net/.org) ~$45/year
  • XWeb 1.0 (archives - N54 now at Tapatalk) these are now free-tier hosting since Tapatalk took over Network54
  • Amazon S3 backup hosting - I'm covering these as part of my contribution to the Forum
With annual expenses of about $340, we have ample funds to cover operations for the foreseeable future. Our hosting tier seems to be coping fine with the load. The increased use of image storage, and organic forum growth needed a new solution for backups, and this has been achieved by dropping periodic backups offsite to Amazon S3. The migration to Xenforo 2.0 forum platform happened mid-year. This helped with maintaining+improving functionality and security, and allowed us to remain on recent, supported software.

With all the changes that have come about in 2020, it's reassuring that XWeb remains stable and healthy. For the first time in 35 years, I no longer have a Fiat in the garage, and so my forum visits have become less frequent beyond addressing technical issues. Thanks to the moderation team who keep an eye on things! 👍

Here's a snapshot of the 2020 forums stats. Note that the user session count shows logged-in users only.
Also attached, a list of top 50 posting stats by user. Congrats to @Dr.Jeff (again!)
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot from 2021-01-01 15-19-56.png
    Screenshot from 2021-01-01 15-19-56.png
    136.6 KB · Views: 162
  • XWeb2020 Post counts.txt
    979 bytes · Views: 181
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XWeb Update as of January 30, 2023:
I guess I missed doing this update last year. Sorry!

The operating fund contains $599.67 as of today.

Here are the current expenses:

  • VPS hosting, support ~$51 /6 months = $102/year. This remains a really good value.
  • CPanel management license - pricing has changed to $22/month = $264/year
  • Xenforo forum software maintenance $55/year
  • Forum software add-on $10/ one-off
  • Domain registration fees (.com/.net/.org) ~$60/year
  • XWeb 1.0 (archives - N54 now at Tapatalk) these are now free-tier hosting since Tapatalk took over Network54
  • Amazon S3 backup hosting - These average $10-15 /month. I've covered these as part of my contribution to the Forum for the last two years but will be paid from the forum fund going forward.
With annual expenses of about $640, we have enough to cover operations for another 12 months. Our hosting tier was upgraded last year for more storage headroom.

Xenforo - who supplies the forum software - began offering a cloud hosted version of their platform in 2021. This would eliminate most but not all of the line items above, and include access to some of their additional features along with automatic upgrades. The base tier is a similar cost ($60/month) to what we pay now. What this would not solve for though is the Wiki, which is also hosted on our server but is entirely separate from the forum software. I'm going to explore solutions further this year since I'd like this to be more turn-key sustainable.

Here's a snapshot of the 2022 forums stats. Note that the user session count shows logged-in users only.
Also attached, a list of top 50 posting stats by user. Congrats to @Dr.Jeff (once again!)
Finally, a 5 year average of users and postings.


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1675106864912.png

1675108669345.png
 
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XWeb Update as of January 02, 2024:

It's that time again...

Here are the current expenses:
  • VPS hosting, support ~still $51 /6 months = $102/year.
  • CPanel management license - $22/month = $264/year
  • Xenforo forum software maintenance $55/year
  • Domain registration fees (.com/.net/.org) ~$60/year
  • XWeb 1.0 (archives - N54 now at Tapatalk) these are now free-tier hosting since Tapatalk took over Network54
  • Amazon S3 backup hosting - These average $10-15 /month.
The operating fund contains $1097.24 as of today. With annual expenses of about $625, we have solid funding. Thanks to those who have donated toward operations!
  • Top 50 posting stats by user. @Dr.Jeff in the lead again!
  • 2023 forums stats.
  • Finally, a 5 year average of users and postings.

SELECT username, COUNT(username) from xf_post WHERE post_date BETWEEN 1672531201 AND 1704067201 GROUP BY username ORDER BY 2 DESC
usernameCOUNT(username)
Dr.Jeff1577
kmead1362
carl1035
tvmaster874
Steve Thomas721
lookforjoe605
dllubin577
JimD545
fiatfactory455
JKIDD455
KBabcock388
Rupunzell377
Dan Sarandrea (Phila)280
bruinbro280
MikeHynes267
Lowtechprime245
ng_randolph245
Alex(Tenerife)237
twincam69233
Jeff Stich213
EricH198
Bjorn Nilson190
SuperTopo187
dherr185
Nurburgringer182
Steve Hoelscher181
86X178
rx1900176
Chris Obert171
jimmyx166
Larry162
DanielForest161
autox19153
Bobkat153
Jonohhh153
Jefco153
lanciahf152
NigelProdrive152
LarryC143
johnph141
Tom Ginefra138
dnudelman137
Ics19130
LoveX1/9s127
Serhiy Luchkey122
BEEK119
Russe11114
Yves113
Michael Oxman108
myronx19108


1704232953940.png


1704233046697.png
 
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