About LowEndSpirit

MasonMason AdministratorOG
edited January 7 in General

Last updated 07 Jan 2024

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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. We are joined by @bikegremlin, & @FrankZ, who have been appointed moderators of LES.


Donations

NOTE: LES' donation campaign has been temporarily suspended to re-assess our expenditure strategy and fund-management. Existing balance will continue to be used for current and future operating/investment costs.

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: [removed temporarily]

Our monthly donation target is $35 (see expenditure breakdown below).


Funds & Expenditures

Public Ledger:
Current balance: +$912.38

Monthly breakdown

2024
- January
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 912.38



2023
- December
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 875.25
Donations via Donorbox +73.69 978.94
Amazon SES (email) -0.24 948.70
Hetzner VMs -14.47 934.23
Porkbun (domain renewals) -21.85 912.38


- November
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 1001.75
Donations via Donorbox +38.69 1040.44
Amazon SES (email) -0.85 1039.59
Hetzner VMs -14.34 1025.25
Runcloud -150.00 875.25


- October
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 981.03
Donations via Donorbox +35.00 1016.03
Amazon SES (email) -0.20 1015.83
Hetzner VMs -14.08 1001.75


- September
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 988.67
Donations via Donorbox +7.00 995.67
Amazon SES (email) -0.23 995.44
Hetzner VMs -14.41 981.03


- August
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 899.75
Donations via Donorbox +103.69 1003.44
Amazon SES (email) -0.04 1003.40
Hetzner VMs -14.73 988.67


- July
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 906.58
Donations via Donorbox +8.00 914.58
Amazon SES (email) - 0.28 914.30
Hetzner VMs -14.55 899.75


- June
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 881.18
Donations via Donorbox +40.00 921.18
Amazon SES (email) -0.29 920.89
Hetzner VMs -14.31 906.58


- May
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 883.84
Donations via Donorbox +13.00 896.34
Amazon SES (email) -0.42 895.92
Hetzner VMs -14.74 881.18


- April
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 895.80
Donations via Donorbox +3.00 898.80
Amazon SES (email) -0.32 898.48
Hetzner VMs -14.64 883.84


- March
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 882.33
Donations via Donorbox +28.00 910.33
Amazon SES (email) -0.33 910.00
Hetzner VMs -14.20 895.80


- February
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 879.36
Donations via Donorbox +18.00 897.36
Amazon SES (email) -0.43 896.93
Hetzner VMs -14.60 882.33


- January
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 890.62
Donations via Donorbox +38.00 928.62
Mailcheap (Yearly) -35.88 892.74
Amazon SES (email) -0.32 892.42
Hetzner VMs -13.06 879.36



2022
- December
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 1053.46
Donations via Donorbox +3.00 1056.46
Amazon SES (email) -2.85 1053.61
Hetzner VMs -12.99 1040.62
Runcloud (Yearly) -150.00 890.62


- November
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 974.82
Donations via Donorbox +108.00 1082.82
Amazon SES (email) -2.14 1080.68
Hetzner VMs -12.22 1068.46
Runcloud -15.00 1053.46


- October
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 1077.96
Donations via Donorbox +53.00 1130.96
Amazon SES (email) -3.78 1127.18
Hetzner VMs -12.26 1114.92
Runcloud -15.00 1099.92
Content Writer (LES Talk) Payout -125.00 974.82


- September
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 1043.62
Donations via Donorbox +63.00 1106.62
Amazon SES (email) -1.26 1105.36
Hetzner VMs -12.40 1092.96
Runcloud -15.00 1077.96


- August
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 1078.22
Donations via Donorbox +3.00 1081.22
Amazon SES (email) -0.90 1080.32
Hetzner VMs -12.57 1067.75
Runcloud -15.00 1052.75
Porkbun (domain transfer) -9.13 1043.62


- July
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 1078.65
Donations via Donorbox +28.00 1106.65
Amazon SES (email) -0.62 1106.03
Hetzner VMs -12.81 1093.22
Runcloud -15.00 1078.22


- June
Note Net $ (+/-) Balance
Previous Balance 1104.14
Donations via Donorbox +3.00 1107.14
Amazon SES (email) -0.31 1106.83
Hetzner VMs -13.18 1093.65
Runcloud -15.00 1078.65


- 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. 13/mo VMs for Forum & Assoc. Sites
Amazon SES Email ~2/mo Outbound forum email
Mailcheap Email 36/yr Admin, support, & wordpress email
Runcloud Subscription 150/yr Server/config management + Backups
Domain Renewal 22/yr lowendspirit.com/lowendspirit.net

Planned/Under-Dev Changes

  • Vanilla Upgrade - Upgrade forum software from Vanilla v3.3 to latest. Currently in progress.
  • More TBD

Head Janitor @ LES • AboutRulesSupport

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