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Connecticut, USA

I am doing some research into moving BigPumpkins.com to the cloud. I will likely be closing my office at some point in 2022, so I need to figure out where to move the site to before then. With cloud hosting I don't have to buy and maintain server and networking hardware. However, they charge and meter everything from CPU utilization, network bandwidth and storage space.

I will have to decide how much of the BP data and images to move into the cloud. To give you an idea, right now there are over 1.5 million image files related to Grower Diaries alone. How far back do you all think is reasonable? Five years? Ten years? All of it back to 1999?

Maybe I will even auction off the old BP servers so someone can make them into a coffee table or something.

1/12/2022 8:05:52 AM

On a cliff in the desert

If you move to a cloud and get nickled and dimed for everything, you might want to think about changing what site features a free account gets and what premium membership gets. Free should be able to browse everything and bid in auctions but not be able have a diary and to post on message boards. Premium should get all features on the site.

1/12/2022 11:27:00 AM

Connecticut, USA

Yes, I have been giving that some thought too. I recently updated the "Change User Settings" page to include Premium Membership status and expiration date.

It is certainly possible that I will have to start doing that. I am not sure how much the monthly charges will be for a site this size yet. I have lots to learn this year.

1/12/2022 11:38:08 AM

Massillon, Ohio

Ken, Thank you for adding the Premium Membership status with expiration date. I see that I was behind on my payment, and just took care of that! I'm suggesting that all growers check their status also.

1/12/2022 1:57:07 PM

Anderson, IN

I would say go all the way back and keep all those old photos, never know when you may need one. I've used Godaddy in the past and it did everything I needed. Would be worth a call to them to get more details. Looks like currently unlimited storage and bandwidth is $8.00mo and up. I had a photography site and never needed anything additional.

1/12/2022 6:00:38 PM

How much extra to do the whole thing(maybe a few dollars per member would cover the extra).
It(IMO) would be a shame to lose the history of giant pumpkin growing but maybe that is unavoidable. And yes sometimes those old diaries are useful when looking for background info.
Good luck on making a hard decision.

1/16/2022 6:10:26 AM

Connecticut, USA

Once I get a better handle on the costs per month, I will see if anything needs to be cut out. I will try and keep all the grower diaries and possibly trim somewhere else.

1/16/2022 7:52:45 AM

Georgia

I think there is more useful information in the message boards than the diaries. I just finished reading the long gourd forum from start to finish.

Maybe make diary entries a ten year rolling cutoff unless you are a premium member. Diaries are hard to search for useful information. Basically, you just have to figure out which ones are really worth clicking on every entry.

Given the change in equipment and chemicals, ten years seems like a decent cutoff. Plus, it would pick up the 2009 Wallace 2012 which I think is the beginning of the modern era, imo.

1/16/2022 9:10:17 AM

Oak Grove, Mn

I have one of the larger grower diary storage debt in the last few years. Coming back to growing, I am finding that my writing is helping me remember more than the pictures. I have the pictures still on my phone.

I have tried to print off the webpages,but the result was not very good

I also have tried to save the diary pages as web archive. It would take a bit more time to rename each entry, because they want to overwrite each other.

Ken D...how much storage does this whole site take?

1/16/2022 9:12:45 AM

Connecticut, USA

I would estimate the whole site being around 350 GB of disk space. Most of that (319 GB) are the image files for Grower Diaries. All of the databases add up to around 1.5 GB. I have over 25 GB of compressed/archived web logs too. Those won't be migrated.

1/16/2022 1:57:36 PM

Syracuse, NY

No cutoffs - keep everything that CAN be kept and all upstanding members regardless of status up until now will pay a membership fee for any and all access. Millions of hours went into everything contributed, free or not, and to give 'land developers' the freedom to hack and wipe out all that THEY see fit would be a tragedy for all inhabitants, just like deforestation of the planet, and that is very bad. - eg

1/16/2022 2:05:16 PM

Grittyville, WA

I dont think 300 gigs is a lot nowadays. I'd try Microsoft their cloud business is booming and they competent and not as political as Amazon.

1/16/2022 2:58:19 PM

Grittyville, WA

Delete the non pumpkin section if the host doesnt like politics... save the pumpkin photos. Imho.

1/16/2022 3:00:22 PM

Colorado

When I was doing my genetics research to decide which tomato seeds to grow I used the grower diaries quite a bit. This was especially true as things got older than 2012. The message board, older GPC weigh off results, and diaries were invaluable. Some of this info only exists on BP. I agree with Pumpkinpal if at all possible keep everything you can. If you need to make paywalls or do a yearly fund raiser I have no doubt the community will support whatever needs to be done.

1/16/2022 3:14:03 PM

Connecticut, USA

I agree. The approach is to keep everything possible. I have wiped the non-pumpkin related board a couple of times already. Gritty, I generally like Microsoft better too. I have worked in their cloud environment with my "day job". I am going to send a reminder email to Premium members who are past due soon.

1/25/2022 2:51:08 PM