What Runnng A Large Site Really Costs!

[timmyc]

$1

I watched too much The Price is Right, growing up

[PArms]

$1

I watched too much The Price is Right, growing up

Someone already guessed $1. You'll have to guess again.

[AutieAB]

Hmmm... A dedicated server (I'm assuming), high bandwidth cap, forum software support, I reckon that would be about $8200 before any bandwidth overages so my guess is $8,750. Yikes.

[edit to add] before any advertising/sponsorship income, that is

[EQIIFreak]

I will guess $14,000.00. Did I win?

[Mary-Ann]

5500$??

I Don't Know

[sidc92]

my guess $29000.00 Dollars

[rockrat]

Since this is a php site and DD is old school html (non-dynamic), using essentially a free forum - this is licensed though $149.95 - you should only, at most, be paying $7.95 a month (unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, multiple sites included). http://www.site5.com/hosting/

28 months x $7.95 = $222.60 + $149.95 = $372.55

So based off of that, I would say: $372.55

If you are paying more than that, your getting screwed.

[AutieAB]

If you are paying more than that, your getting screwed.

Bit of a tangent but no, not at all.

For a small site, yes, (cheap) shared hosting is great but this is not a small site. While the forum software probably doesn't eat a vast amount of bandwidth & resources (comparative to the volume of users), I'll wager the gallery eats loads. While shared hosting providers typically don't tend to limit bandwidth or storage these days, they do limit process counts, memory, CPU usage and things like that. They also suspend sites who violate those limits because other sites on the same server would suffer under the strain of a large, heavy traffic site. There's not a snowball's chance in hell that a site like DD would be able to operate on a $10/month shared hosting account.

For the host you mentioned, have a looksie at these restrictions (which include an adult content ban )

When it comes to hosting, the golden rule 'You get what you pay for' is the truest of the true

[Syne]

$999.99

[Guest Katharsys]

Well, since the site is on a dedicated server hosting facility (as per the registered domain IP), and that site doesn't post any pricing.

But I am thinking that DI has gone with the optional unmetered and unlimited hosting solution, better to cover all the various websites he is running...

So the initial guess considers 51 months of service, around $250 per month, plus extras to round it to $300 a month...

I would say around $15,000

I would recommend that DI look at a rackspace hosing solution - which is the one we (at work) finally went with...

[babyfett]

$14,000

[Knuxie Fawks]

Considering the fact that nobody has said this yet, my answer is 42!

[DailyDi]

Cheap hosts would NEVER touch us, and if they did the site would be so slow you'd all have my head!

Rackspace only comes with 2000 gigs of bandwidth, we used 8000 last month. We are billed not on how much bandwidth we use a month, but on how much we use per second, which currently runs about 15mbps but has peacked as high as 60 when the Tube was running.

There is also more to consider than price. Service is also a key. We have a managed server, which means someone available 24/7 to quickly fix problems, check for security issues and do server updates.

Some very kind donations today, thank you!

[rockrat]

Well, that is true - depends on if you call this site adult content or not. Either way, if you want to go full blown dedicated server - which you can still run this site and LARGER sites on shared hosting (its done consistently) - you are still only looking at a max of $250 for a smoking server with unmetered bandwidth and will allow adult content. The biggest issue is storage. If DD has over a TB of media, then its going to cost a bit more. Either way, paying for bandwidth/sec is not the smartest way to go. Sounds like a cloud solution that could possibly be better. Lastly with donations and ad revenue, the site is running a profit. So if thats the case then there is no cost. Not raining on the parade, I love DD. Great site, but I oversee several large sites as well and its not that cost prohibitive. Especially, if you can code, understand DB's, dynamic language, etc. This will reduce some of the overhead on the server - hint, leverage caching! This would cut down on bandwidth a lot.

Lastly, I would say if its that costly, run your own server and put it in a datafarm. Its what we do and it saves a ton of money!

http://www.hosting.com/colocation/

For the record, I have donated multiple times, so I am not here bashing on DD at all. Just providing insite that could maybe save money in the future as I want DD to stay around for a long time.

[DailyDi]

I've looked into co-locating, but my skill limitations really call for managed hosting. I like having the support and backup.

This is what we recently upgraded to, to be able to handle the high-use scripts we host:

Dell PowerEdge 860

Quad-Core XEON 3220 2.4Ghz

4G DDR2 RAM

2x500GB 7200rpm SATA Drives (RAID 1)

Dual Gigabit Ports

6 usable IP's

30Mbps bandwidth allowance on an 100Mbps Uplink.

[Guest MunchKitten]

LOL my new website reduced a server just like that to a crawl processing media.. good luck.

[Repaid1]

LOL my new website reduced a server just like that to a crawl processing media.. good luck.

Probably the reason the DDTube is on the chopping block if the donations don't meet goals. So anyway back to the topic at hand. Once this question is answered, do we get the breakdown of what cost what? And when? That way the people that feel the need to hack at "your" choices for service can really have something to complain about for "your" site. Which you offer "Free" and for the most part the Biggest and best site out there.

[BoTox]

A suitable random number with the decimal moved around comes to $19,620.49.

Would it help if you auction off a never-before seen DL (maybe AB, not as good at that) story written by me with the main character named after the winner? Special content, such as diaper choice and theme (forced diapers, F/m, enemas, wet only, medical, etc) picked by the top bidder? Top bidder would also get the whole story first while others would have to wait for sections to be posted.

All proceeds to be donated to DD's support fund with absolutely no funds going to me personally!

[boy ricky]

I keep waiting for Drew to pull the price outta the envelope, and have you people come up on stage to play Plinko. As I have no clue other than some old references I will throw a guess out at $10,225:closedeyes:

I have no idea. I do think however that the site costs more than the hosting. All the time and effort of DD and the moderators, its huge. Its a large volunteer effort. I expect there maybe some reward financially but considering the time and effort, DD is making a buck and hour.

[wetvinyl]

I cannot even begin to think of what it costs to run this site. I just know this site is fucking amazing.

So here's my guess:

Ok, I may be off by a little bit.

But, srsly... I have no clue. I'll guess (throws dart) $28,123.

Whatever it is-- thanks for everything!

wv

[DailyDi]

11011 sounds like about a large amount so I will go with that...

You are the closest!

We have spent $10,221.01 JUST on hosting in the time period in question.

[babyvr6]

I'm Gonna guess $10,221.01

[DailyDi]

lol

[Honu]

I thought his guess was binary but you took it to be digital! Shucks, I still wasn't the closest anyway...

[Repaid1]

I thought his guess was binary but you took it to be digital! Shucks, I still wasn't the closest anyway...

Binary and Digital are actually the same thing in functionality both work in 1-0 or on-off, I did however go back and looked ..and At least edited my post! So I win! So anyway JEEEZE that's a crap load (Wrong section for the post?)