hikarateboy Posted March 2 Posted March 2 Hey All, You may have noticed that the HFC has been experiencing some performance issues lately. I did make a change today to move attachment storage to amazon s3 to help take some of the load and hopefully that's a good first step. As with many things these days, the hosting provider we’ve used for the past decade was sold, and the new owners are placing more restrictive limits on resources. The goal seems to be pushing customers into higher‑tier, and significantly more expensive, plans to maintain performance. On top of that, the cost of our existing service has increased to the point that I briefly considered returning to the 1990s, when I ran the HFC from a server in my basement on a dedicated line. Invision does offer a hosted option, but it comes with a significant annual cost and doesn’t include the base site. Determining the best path forward has been a challenge. Before jumping to any conclusions, this is simply a plea for understanding as I work through the options, not a request for donations to cover the cost increase. I’m trying to keep expenses low to ensure the long‑term future of the HFC. Many members have generously donated in the past and continue to help, and I’m grateful for that support, but right now I’m focused on exploring alternatives. It may even be that, after nearly 30 years, it’s time to move on, or let one of the existing private Facebook groups take over the discussion. That said, I know many of you are knowledgeable and full of great ideas. I’m an IT manager by day, but my teams do most of the magic now. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on how we might move forward. The HFC is important to me, and I know it is to many of you as well. I’ve known many of you for nearly 30 years, and I’m not giving up, just wanting to be transparent. Let’s work through this together. your friend, Ted Martin 2 22 Quote
kizanski Posted March 2 Posted March 2 17 minutes ago, hikarateboy said: The HFC is important to me, and I know it is to many of you as well. I’ve known many of you for nearly 30 years, and I’m not giving up, just wanting to be transparent. Thank you, Ted. The HFC isn't just important to me. The HFC changed my life. I have made several friendships here, the kind that I know I will have for the rest of my life. I would have never met these guys had there no HFC. I can't imagine there being no HFC, or worse, it moving to Facebook. 18 3 1 Quote
Feynman Posted March 3 Posted March 3 8 hours ago, kizanski said: Thank you, Ted. The HFC isn't just important to me. The HFC changed my life. I have made several friendships here, the kind that I know I will have for the rest of my life. I would have never met these guys had there no HFC. I can't imagine there being no HFC, or worse, it moving to Facebook. I feel exactly the same way. 6 Quote
hamerhead Posted March 3 Posted March 3 Yep. Me, too. You guys are my second family. Even Kiz. 1 5 Quote
Menehune Posted March 3 Posted March 3 Thanks for all you do to keep us entangled, Ted. Don't be shy about soliciting resources. And for God's sake don't even contemplate a move to Facebook. 6 Quote
bruce919 Posted March 3 Posted March 3 The world would be very different without the HFC. I'd pay a subscription fee to help keep the site going. Thank you for putting in the time, effort and expense to keep the site going. 4 1 Quote
Spinaltap Posted March 3 Posted March 3 Thank You for keeping the site up and running, I get a error every once and a while, and clickety click it's aok. I lurked here for a long time before I registered. It's a great site, without the drama often found online. 2 Quote
kizanski Posted March 3 Posted March 3 21 minutes ago, Spinaltap said: It's a great site, without the drama often found online. You missed all of the fun. There used to be so much drama here that we would hand out Oscars every year. 1 8 Quote
JPDIII Posted March 3 Posted March 3 Thank you for what you do. I suspect hosting a site like this is a serious challenge. Sad that social media sites casually use so much bandwidth while folks like us with specific and longstanding interests find increasing limits in this age of mega-data. A conundrum. Pete Davis 2 Quote
DaveH Posted March 3 Posted March 3 22 hours ago, hikarateboy said: Hey All, You may have noticed that the HFC has been experiencing some performance issues lately. I did make a change today to move attachment storage to amazon s3 to help take some of the load and hopefully that's a good first step. As with many things these days, the hosting provider we’ve used for the past decade was sold, and the new owners are placing more restrictive limits on resources. The goal seems to be pushing customers into higher‑tier, and significantly more expensive, plans to maintain performance. On top of that, the cost of our existing service has increased to the point that I briefly considered returning to the 1990s, when I ran the HFC from a server in my basement on a dedicated line. Invision does offer a hosted option, but it comes with a significant annual cost and doesn’t include the base site. Determining the best path forward has been a challenge. Before jumping to any conclusions, this is simply a plea for understanding as I work through the options, not a request for donations to cover the cost increase. I’m trying to keep expenses low to ensure the long‑term future of the HFC. Many members have generously donated in the past and continue to help, and I’m grateful for that support, but right now I’m focused on exploring alternatives. It may even be that, after nearly 30 years, it’s time to move on, or let one of the existing private Facebook groups take over the discussion. That said, I know many of you are knowledgeable and full of great ideas. I’m an IT manager by day, but my teams do most of the magic now. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on how we might move forward. The HFC is important to me, and I know it is to many of you as well. I’ve known many of you for nearly 30 years, and I’m not giving up, just wanting to be transparent. Let’s work through this together. your friend, Ted Martin Ted, Do you have Zelle? I'd be happy to drop some support at you if it would help... Thanks for the best site, DaveH 2 Quote
hikarateboy Posted March 4 Author Posted March 4 14 hours ago, DaveH said: Do you have Zelle? I'd be happy to drop some support at you if it would help... Thanks all for the kind words and encouragement. I've been watching the stats as attachments moved to S3 storage and I am hoping that it will make a difference. Of course the moving of data, while automated, has been very Sloooooooooooow. Day 2 and counting. I've not done the Zelle thing and honestly don't know where to start with that. Quote
DaveH Posted March 4 Posted March 4 8 hours ago, hikarateboy said: I've not done the Zelle thing and honestly don't know where to start with that. PM sent Quote
duncans Posted March 4 Posted March 4 I appreciate you and all you do for this site. HFC is my morning go-to, I'd be lost without it. I've learned all things Hamer here and lots about a lot of other subjects and people. The Fcaebook group is ok but all the true experts are here. 3 1 Quote
Disturber Posted March 4 Posted March 4 Facebook ain't the HFC. It's harder to check up on old posts. Sometimes, even if you sort the answers to "View all comments" it still feels like I don't see everything in the threads there. There are sale ads mixed with photo posts. And there are far less interesting discussions about "whatever" random thing. (And, there is no Outer Circle). It's just not the same. This place is like a sewing circle for old grumpy guitarists that think that anything posted in the For Sale section priced over 350$ is an insult to humanity. Where else on this planet we call earth can you find such a forum? Nowhere. 9 Quote
mathman Posted March 4 Posted March 4 I would gladly play $100 a year to continue the service of this website. Heck even 120. 1 Quote
kizanski Posted March 5 Posted March 5 3 hours ago, Disturber said: This place is like a sewing circle for old grumpy guitarists that think that anything posted in the For Sale section priced over 350$ is an insult to humanity. Where else on this planet we call earth can you find such a forum? Nowhere. Accurate. 2 1 Quote
a.bandini Posted March 6 Posted March 6 Count on my support. Thanks to Ted and everyone else involved. Quote
JohnZ Posted March 6 Posted March 6 I am not an expert! Can we provide ourself by sharing services and space peer tp peer somehow? Quote
Tortious Posted March 7 Posted March 7 I have noticed if you look at 'Online Users', there are often pages and pages of 'Guest' (bots, obviously) all looking at mostly the same thread. Does this site get a constant bot swarm doing shit like that to slow it down and chew bandwidth? 2 Quote
geoff_hartwell Posted March 8 Posted March 8 Fb is the worst please don’t force us to go there instead. This place is too important. What does the budget need to be? No reason we can’t put together whatever you need 6 1 Quote
hamerhead Posted March 10 Posted March 10 On 3/8/2026 at 4:13 PM, geoff_hartwell said: Fb is the worst please don’t force us to go there instead. This place is too important. What does the budget need to be? No reason we can’t put together whatever you need I'm with Geoff on all-of-the-above. We could do a kind of GoFundMe, but HFC-style (except.... you'd have to be willing to give more than $3.50). Or like a PBS-type drive where you get a cheesier prize depending on what tier you give. I think I have some old sharkfin picks here somewhere. Or maybe a 'Best of the HFC' CD....... Seriously though, I think we could/should do this (I mean scrape some cash together). I think most of us here won't starve by ponying up a bit extra to keep the lights on. As Geoff asked - What does the budget need to be? 3 Quote
Spinaltap Posted March 10 Posted March 10 4 minutes ago, hamerhead said: I think I have some old sharkfin picks here somewhere. Or maybe a 'Best of the HFC' CD....... Seriously though, I think we could/should do this (I mean scrape some cash together). I think most of us here won't starve by ponying up a bit extra to keep the lights on. As Geoff asked - What does the budget need to be? Ohhh,I love sharkfin picks, and would be happy to contribute too 1 Quote
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