Sponsor Group IUOMA

In the previous years I also kept lists of sponsors, I only didn't publish them. So the list of sponsors is quite large. They keep IUOMA alive and free for all. I am now working on the list for the next year. When new donations come in they will fill the list for next year.

Thanks for the update Ruud. Glad we've received enough for 2017.

Also with a few returning monthly donations, it seems the IUOMA will stay online for a longer time indeed.

In October also some donations came in and the year 2017-2018 is now also almost paid for. We will stay here for quite some time...!

Hoorah through 2018! Thank you deeply, Ruud, for all the efforts you put in to making IUOMA what it is. And thanks to all who participate and donate.

Thank you Ruud! I hope my little donation helps keeping IUOMA great as it is.....

Here is an update on the news. Sponsors brough enough for another year of hosting, and IUOMA is now online till Oct 1st 2018 without any problems. Thanks to you sponsors out there!

Some more donations for 2018-2019 came in, so that is going well indeed. Thanks for all of you out there to keep this platform alive and well.

the bill for hosting IUOMA on NING has just been paid, so we'll be online for another year for sure. Thanks to kind donations from some members we have many more years to come. Thank you for your help!

Someone is on the Greek island of Limnos?

"Ενωσης"..."Union", like good wine, like IUOMA :-)

It wonderful to know that members are supporting IUOMA. I'll be back to my regular donation schedule as soon as I feel I don't have to give so much to help my progressive political candidates here in the U.S. It's an uncertain time. So I donate and write postcards to get out the vote.

IUOMA is the happy place to escape the disgusting politics.

a few more donations arrived from kind members, so a few more months are paid for to keep our network alive and well.

Some more donations came in by members, so the number of months that are paid for has increased

Thanks to some kind donations the next bill for hosting this social network site kan be paid. Thanks for that!

The world is changing and people are all over the internet. Not sure if a platform like IUOMA, with no advertisings at all, will survive the commercial times.

Also sometime books are bought at:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/iuoma

which gives some money to the IUOMA as well and brings you a book on mail-art at home!

Olá. Ainda não fiz minha doação deste ano, porque estou a ter problemas com o PayPal, na atualização do cartão multibanco

Hoping that IUOMA.ning will continue for many years,

as there are those amongst us who refuse to go to FaceBook, you see :-)

Time to donate!!!

Stay well, stay safe xxx

Another kind donation arrived and lets IUOMA live longer online again! Thank you!

Some more donations came in, so IUOMA lives longer.
Thank you IUOMA network!

Some more lovely donations arrived and I want to thank all those who believe in this IUOMA platform and keep it alive and well!

Some more donations came in the last months, so 2021 is completely covered for paying hosting IUOMA now. Thank you so much!

This NING group has been growing a lot, and now the volume is about 150 Gbyte.

With the current pricing of NING networks we are above the allowed limits and that means we would need a higher subscription with a much higher price. So I am confronted with the fact I have to clean up the archives or look for more money to pay a higher bill.

Currently donations keep it possible to keep thins hosted for the current pricing. The new pricing is just too high to keep things working with donations.

So there is a problem to solve, and I need to know the ideas of the IUOMA members on NING what the next step should be.

When you say looks at archives, would this be inactive members, inactive groups? What needs to be reduced in terms of size? Would an annual subscription be possible but with “sponsored” subscriptions where those who can’t afford it would get help?

Well, it was just over 500 Euros/year so what is the new rate?

It depends on how much more it will cost (what will be the >150GB price?) and if it indeed is far too high, it will depend on what we all want to keep for future generations.
A question which might help us choosing whether (and if yes, what) to clean up is 'why would we keep things, and when/why not?'.

Personally I see this IUOMA site as both a social network and a museum / mail art archive.

To my opinion themed groups should stay, as they are archives in themselves (thinking of the Brain Cell group, Mail Art history, rubber stamps, blue roads, and of course this group, which will be part of mail art history, too). And member's photo albums and blogs about received / sent mail. Also the accounts of dear fellow mail artists who passed away, to my opinion must be cherished. 

But what to delete? It would be hard to choose. Accounts of people who once registered but since then never showed up? Small talk (short 'thank you' notes and so) on our own pages? Though I guess deleting some text won't help that much: most MB's and GB's might exist of photos of mail art work, which, well, must stay alive in the IUOMA archives..

I just got a quote for 1TB of storage for $500 US / month.  That's more than 12 times as much as we're paying now.  Don't know if there's enough in donations to support that level although I'd be willing to contribute monthly.

with 100 Gbyte they will ask 82 US$ a month.

The current archive is 321 Gbyte. SO quite expensive still.

Deleting inactive groups (no activity for years) is an option, but it is also deleting our history.

I do know that this website is indexed by www.archive.org, so the complete data is there too some way.

you can check the pricing at:

https://www.ning.com/pricing/

Yes, I did that, but they only show pricing up to 100GB.  I started a chat and was told that the next level was 1TB for $500 US / month.  If they had a 500GB level we'd be set for quite awhile and it'd have to be cheaper than the 1TB quote.

Is it possible to transfer the "heavy" Gbyte old groups and the old video postings to IUOMA at Facebook before deleting them here at ning? That way we will keep the historic postings for future generations to see.

Or...perhaps, Ruud, you could save all the "old" stuff to a Tbyte hard disc and keep it in your TAM archive, to post to ning if ever there is a need. Hoping there is a way to reduce the "bytes" at ning so as not to pay a high price, but still have an archive somewhere to save IUOMA history.

The complete network is archived by the Internet Archive. So that is accesible for everyone.

The bill for another year on NING has just been paid. Thanks for all the sponsors that helped IUOMA to keep it a free and advertising free place.

Today is a great day to support the IUOMA with a donation!

The International Union of Mail Artists was created 33 years ago today.

some very generous donations arrived last months, so IUOMA stays alive and well!

ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΠΟΛΛΑ!

As we say in Greece, 

for many "more years" to come!

Happy New Year 2022!

Thanks for the new donation from Greece!

Thanks to all kind donations the hosting for another year has been paid for. Let's keep this platform alive and well

today this IUOMA on NING website is 333.94 GB large.

That explains why the hosting is expensive

The Website on NING crashes and was restored. That happened on March 2nd.

Now slowly all functions are being restored. Also the datacapacity of the website was enlarged: 335.92 GB (67%) of 500 GB is now used.

new donation from KN in G added some more time. Thanks so much

November 2008 this platform was created for the IUOMA. Soon we reach the 15 years online. Who ever thought we would stay alive that long without commercial adds on the platform.

Hosting for another year has been paid for.

Lets keep this platform alive. Donationa are always welcome.

That is good news! Yes, and with thousands of members on this platform I thought it would be easy to keep the IUOMA online network alive. But possibly not everyone sees this group neither the 'donate' part... So, to all IUOMA members: hear! hear! Help by contributing!

Additional a question to Ruud: how much does it cost to add a 's' to the 'http', so that this site will be https?

It does feel a bit (or much) more safe, so possibly it is worht it?

The site update to the https:// is already made. Both versions should work. Just ty it!

Another lind donation arrived yesterday. Keeps everything alive for a longer time. Great, thank you!