About LowEndSpirit
Last updated 08 Jun 2022
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Purpose & Vision
LowEndSpirit exists to bring together customers, providers, enthusiasts, and industry professionals to a welcoming marketplace and discussion forum for hosting-related topics. Our main focus here is low end servers and services, preferably self-hosted. "Low end" can be summed up as doing more with less -- maximizing the utility of minimal resources.
History of LES
LowEndSpirit was founded by Anthony Smith of Inception Hosting in 2013 as home for very low-resource, NAT-based VMs. Over the years LowEndSpirit.com has seen many iterations from sales page to support forum. By 2019, LES had evolved into its current form.
The current iteration of LES had Anthony as sole admin of the forum with the intention to build the community to critical mass and then have the community elect members from within to take over in his absence when he felt the time was right.
In February 2021, @Mason and @mikho became co-admins of LES upon Anthony's departure. Ant is still around on occasion under his new moniker @InceptionHosting and always in spirit. More can be read about the backstory of LES in Anthony's lengthy post below:
A year in LES - Reflections, Thoughts, My history and the future for LowEndSpirit.
Staff
@Mason & @mikho are co-owners and co-admins of LowEndSpirit. Until now, LES has not needed additional staff, however volunteer moderators may be appointed in the future as need arises.
Donations
LES remains an ad-free experience. Our monthly costs are low enough to be self-sustaining. While donations are not at any time expected, they are always welcome and go directly towards the cost to maintain the community. Any excess funds are put towards funding development efforts to add additional functionality and improve the user experience at LES.
Donations link: https://donorbox.org/lowendspirit-donations
Our monthly donation target is $35 (see expenditure breakdown below).
Funds & Expenditures
Public Ledger:
Current balance: +$1090.96
Monthly breakdown
2022
- June
| Note | Net $ (+/-) | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Previous Balance | 1104.14 | |
| Hetzner VMs | -13.37 | 1090.96 |
- May
| Note | Net $ (+/-) | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Previous Balance | 1125.03 | |
| Donations via Donorbox | +8.00 | 1133.03 |
| Amazon SES (email) | -0.52 | 1132.51 |
| Hetzner VMs | -13.37 | 1119.14 |
| Runcloud | -15.00 | 1104.14 |
- April
| Note | Net $ (+/-) | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Previous Balance | 1101.93 | |
| Donations via Donorbox | +128.00 | 1229.93 |
| Amazon SES (email) | -1.00 | 1228.93 |
| Hetzner VMs | -13.90 | 1215.03 |
| Runcloud | -15.00 | 1200.03 |
| LES Talk Payouts | -75.00 | 1125.03 |
- March
| Note | Net $ (+/-) | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Previous Balance | 0.00 | |
| Donations via Donorbox | +1109.22 | 1109.22 |
| Donations via PayPal | +22.00 | 1131.22 |
| Amazon SES (email) | -0.29 | 1130.93 |
| Hetzner VMs | -14.00 | 1116.93 |
| Runcloud | -15.00 | 1101.93 |
- February
| Note | Net $ (+/-) | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Previous Balance | 0.00 | |
| Donations via PayPal | +25.00 | 25.00 |
| Amazon SES (email) | -0.16 | 24.84 |
| Hetzner VMs | -14.00 | 10.84 |
| Runcloud | -15.00 | -4.16 |
| Self Funded | +4.16 | 0.00 |
- January
| Note | Net $ (+/-) | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Previous Balance | 0.00 | |
| Mailcheap Yearly Renewal (email) | -24.00 | -24.00 |
| Amazon SES (email) | -0.19 | -24.19 |
| Hetzner VMs | -14.00 | -38.19 |
| Runcloud | -15.00 | -53.19 |
| Self Funded | +53.19 | 0.00 |
Note: If balance at the end of the month is negative, it gets reset back to zero with funds from my pocket. No transaction or platform fees (Donorbox/Stripe/PayPay/etc.) are included, which I also am taking care of.
Recurring expenditure breakdown:
| Product | est. $ | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 3x Hetzner CPX11 VMs w/ Backups inc. | 15/mo | VMs for Forum, Blog, and Dev |
| Amazon SES Email | <1/mo | Outbound forum email |
| Mailcheap Email | 20/yr | Admin, support, & wordpress email |
| Runcloud Subscription | 15/mo | Server/config management + Backups |
| Domain Renewal | 10/yr | lowendspirit.com |
Planned/Under-Dev Changes
TBD
Humble janitor of LES
Proud papa of YABS
Comments
I think Ko-fi could be a better choice for one of donations.
https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002506494-Does-Ko-fi-Take-a-Fee-
It's turning out to be one of the most organized and transparent ways of administrating the forums and managing donations/funds contributed by the community and the administrators themselves.
Just to let people know, whenever you make a donation, 0% goes to Nigh sect.
♻ Amitz day is October 21.
♻ Join Nigh sect by adopting my avatar. Let us spread the joys of the end.
More than enough to keep the cult alive.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll probably go through all the popular donation platforms at some point and see if switching is worth the hassle. Right now donorbox fees are 1.5%, which won't ever be a huge amount in the end when it comes to LES donations.
Humble janitor of LES
Proud papa of YABS
Team push-ups will take a small fee, but only if you select push-ups payment method.
Really nice to see the transparency of operations cost.
In my time here I have not had even one of those "That is kind of shady" thoughts that I frequently have in other places. Kudos @Mason & @mikho for running things in Bristol fashion.
Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde, est en droit de vous rendre injuste - Voltaire
https://clients.mrvm.net