[RESOLVED] Forum server hosting

az · December 9th, 2005

Hosting of the forums.

If the forums are sustainable (can make money), that's great. It is a fine example of making money from the FLOSS ecosystem.

However, does this affect the forum policies and has this been the reason for censorship and harsh reactions to controversial topics?

Ubuntugeek mentioned a new hosting plan starting in April. Does the kind of hosting of the forums affect the editorial direction of the moderator or user guidelines?

Can you elaborate on the plan a little? Is it still going to cost you something. Why that plan instead of having Canonical pay? What are Canonical's directives on the matter?

I am asking because of the above reasons (how does it affect the user?), and not to try to tarnish you. This is a controversial topic to some.

I take a strong stance that it is good to make money from free software. So does Canonical. I am sure many people would encourage you to pull in a profit, if you had the chance to.

Please feel free to answer in as much or as little detail as you feel is appropriate. I realise that the ads that were displayed to non-registered users were a bug in the template system and has been fixed. (Happy to help!)

**jdong** · December 9th, 2005

I don't have the information to answer detailed questions on the financial state or hosting plans for the server, but I can assure you that regardless of the financial situation, our moderator policies will not be affected.

Once in a while, we do make mistakes (like some of the incidents you and others recently raised) and want to correct them. It has nothing to do with money.

**ubuntu-geek** · December 9th, 2005

Correct the forums will be moved to a local facility to me and will allow me to better support and upgrade the hardware without relying on a thrid party to do so.

As I stated earlier I do not need an income from the forums and don't plan to.

The end user will see no change in anything it will be a minor 1 hour of downtime while the dns propagates to the new IP address.

Thanks for pointing out that template flaw.

az · December 9th, 2005

Before we close this, because it is an intersting topic, what are Canonical's view of any of it's official forums (french, dutch, german, english) making a profit? Have you ever discussed this with them?

Other than the question out-of-interest, I consider this closed.