perthbus.info's future

[retzlaff]

In the last week the hosting provider that http://www.perthbus.info uses closed, since it was paid up until late next year, it was looking like the perthbus.info was going to close due to the costs of re-hosting and rewriting the code to support the new host.

To help, a crowd funding campaign has been setup, to allow the continued operation of www.perthbus.info and have it transferred to a new fast server for at least the next two years. Please help us raise what we need to keep this wonderful website online. Please provide name on second screen so your donation can be acknowledged

The Link to the donations page is https://ozcrowd.com/campaign/4224 *** OzFunding No Longer Operational ***

Support so far has been amazing, donations need not stop once the goal has been achieved as all funds will be used to support the continued operation of the site for even longer, and allow for development of new functionality

If you don't feel comfortable donating using the above system, PM me and we can arrange an alternative method.

Many Thanks for your support

[retzlaff]

Just an update, we are now running on the new hosting platform, any problems or feedback, please let us know.

The performance appears to be a bit better now, than the old site.

Many Thanks for all your donations and support to make this happen.

It is not too late to make a donation, all moneys will be used to update the site and keep Perthbus.info the premier WA bus site

[Pinza]

Hi. I’m new to this Forum and firstly want to thank you for the effort involved with the superb perth infobus website.
Secondly I was wondering if there would be any updates to the fleetlists anytime soon regarding withdrawn/sold buses and allocations as there appears to have been many changes in the recent past.

[panther998]

I would like to contribute a few dollars, but the link to the donations page does not work.

[panther998]

. . . a crowd funding campaign has been setup, to allow the continued operation of www.perthbus.info and have it transferred to a new fast server for at least the next two years. Please help us raise what we need to keep this wonderful website online. Please provide name on second screen so your donation can be acknowledged
The Link to the donations page is https://ozcrowd.com/campaign/4224
Support so far has been amazing, donations need not stop once the goal has been achieved as all funds will be used to support the continued operation of the site for even longer, and allow for development of new functionality
If you don't feel comfortable donating using the above system, PM me and we can arrange an alternative method.

The donations page link is STILL not working some 6 months later.
Tried to send a PM, but was somehow 'blocked'.

I've heard a rumour that BPSWA will be taking over the perthbus info website fairly soon - wondering what the situation REALLY is now.

[retzlaff]

Sorry the donations page was put up to rescue https://perthbus.info in late 2017, due to the sudden failure of the hosting provider, once sufficient funds were achieved, buy some very generous people. We left the site up to capture any other donations that anyone, like yourself felt to give, to allow for future upgrades and renewals, etc

Most people are unaware of what goes on behind the scenes with such websites as Kickstarter, GoFundMe, etc there are percentages taken out of the donations, surcharges and credit card fee's, which can add up to a large percentage of what should, in my opinion go to the cause, not the crowd funding site coffers. That is why OzCrowd was chosen, besides being an Australian site, it also had the lowest fee's. Credit card services were donated and all fees were carried by that donor to help the cause. Unfortunately OzFund closed it's doors a little while ago, I will edit the above post to reflect this.

The OzCrowd campaign allowed us to relocate to a faster server with more capacity and pay for hosting and domain services for 2 years, which was achieved. Once again, there is millions of lines of code, pictures and other infrastructure behind the scenes that make https://perthbus.info tick, as well as the amazing database administrator

Time permitting I will see if we can find another Crowd Funding provider to allow for ad-hoc donations, but the amount of time it took to setup the OzFund, that time needs to be found to make it happen.

I'm not aware of any BPSWA involvement, but then again, I am not the site owner. I just stepped in to ensure that such a wonderful asset was saved from extinction.

Hope that give you an update to what is happening.

[panther998]

Many thanks for the update and detail, retzlaff.
Beyond doubt, perthbus.info is a much respected online resource, referred to by a great many enthusiasts / bus historians. myself included.