[Jake]

Well, there was a small discussion in the DoA forums about the new homepages for our factions. I believe Cspace had some wacky idea that having all the important information condensed into one location would be helpful or something.

Well, that quickly turned into a topic about activity, sort of, and I brought up the idea of having a Cspacezone Vent server for events. Shortly thereafter I did a little looking around at how much it costs to actually rent a ventrilo server and found out that... it's actually quite reasonable.

As funding goes, we're looking at about $5-$10 a month depending on the size we order and whether or not we buy monthly, quarterly, every 6 months, or every year. Now, I am willing to set this up, and contribute some money into it for you guys, but please understand me on this. I will need donations to keep this thing running, especially if we end up with a large server. The website I found (http://www.instantventrilo.com/) seems pretty good. It even has an option that allows you all to donate directly to the server itself instead of me. So that cuts out any issue of not wanting to give me your personal information.


So, is anyone interested? Do I have some potential donators? Just a dollar or two would be appreciated .
Also, any suggestions as to what size server we should go for/ payment plans? Keep in mind I'll handle all issues through my paypal, and you can donate via paypal as well.

Edit: If we need to change server size we can do so at any time.

[Master Of Stuff]

I could be a potential donator... but only if I know that it'll be used
My laptop has an onboard mic, somewhere around it, so I could use it.

[Troll]

Hmm, I could donate about £5 or so, might be less.

[Jake]

Thanks, and as I said anything donated goes to the account with that website and not me because of that group pay thing.


Anyway, it looks like we have finances covered. Any idea as to what size we should buy?

[Aaron]

I can donate as well. A 20 slot server paid for quarterly seems like the best plan right now.

[Troll]

I wouldn't be able to donate strait away, but I promise I would donate before its renewal date.

And anything around 20-30 slots for 3 months is the best.

[Jake]

So, I'm guessing the general consensus is a 20 slot server, billed quarterly, with the option to upgrade if it's ever needed?

Any more input?

[Darkness]

... What exactly is this vent server thing?

... And yes, I -could- click on one of those links and do a bit of investigating, but you see.. I'm doing things So if you'll kindly... explain...

[Jake]

Ok vent is short for Ventrilo. Ventrilo is a program that lets you talk to people on the internet using VoIP (Voice over IP or something like that). But the catch is that to talk with a large group you need a server for ventrilo to run on.

So I figured that getting a vent server would be a good idea for DoA events. Then about 3 seconds later I figured a curvedspace vent server for all factions would be even better.

Thus, this topic was born.

Tl;Dr
I figured it would be a good idea to be able to talk during events. So I'm checking to make sure I'm not an idiot.

[Aaron]

We could make even more use of it by using it as the "new" chat.

[Jake]

Maybe, but if we were going to use it as an alternate chat we would need cspace to include a server status/link to server page somewhere on the site.

Apparently that instantventrilo place has a way to embed a server status report on your website if you want to.

[Darkness]

... Why don't you just use Skype or something...?

[Jake]

Vent is like... IRC with voice from my understanding. Think (mIRC*2) + (Skype+1) = Ventrilo

And it's much easier for newbies to just download ventrilo and join a vent server then to download skype, add everyone, and wait until people get online.

[Neraphym]

The only thing I've used vent for are elite area runs, and its been a great boon. Increases efficiency by a lot.

[Jake]

Alright, well since I have a little time today I'm thinking about setting up a small server in about an hour.