I am curious to find out when would my community need its own dedicated server.

Or should I start a dedicated server on 3gigs on transfer and less than 100MB of storage?

Why not? Being on a dedi, you can start also some community-supporting services, as APF affiliates stores which, if mod_rewritten, will require a dedicated server for your store only.

If you could just elaborate a bit more on that... please.

Do you need money for supporting your community project? Most probably yes. The best way of managing a self-subsistent community site is an Amazon affiliate store. There are many scripts out there for Amazon affiliates, but the simplest and the best one to my knowledge is the Mr.Rat APF script. There is a mod_rewrite version of it which makes the Google indexing real and "refundable". The attack on the server however will be great. So no VDS or shared account will allow for such Google bombing. You will simply need a dedi. That's all.

Originally posted by someuser
I am curious to find out when would my community need its own dedicated server.

Or should I start a dedicated server on 3gigs on transfer and less than 100MB of storage?

It would depend on how many members you have, how many are active at the same time on average, how many queries are preformed, etc., etc. If you're just started out, go with shared for now.

I would recommend that you go with a dedicated if you can afford it now and you expect your community to grow. It cuts down on the hassle of moving later on and it also gives you much more freedom to push for faster growth without worrying about capacity.

Or should I start a dedicated server on 3gigs on transfer and less than 100MB of storage?
I don't think there's a dedicated server with these specs. Do you mean VPS? If so, it might be just as well.

:)

HeadBuilder:

Yes, this is important. If you can sustain about 6 months without substantial income, then you may go for a dedi. Because it needs just about 6 monts for an Amazon affiliate to start bring money back for your server.

The data are present need of that community, not dedi specs.

Well, I think I will wait more to get a dedi server...

I barely have 150 registered members with posts of 3,000 so it can still hold.

At least until I find myself couple of sponsors.

Well with just 3 GB datatransfer and only 150 registered members with 3000 posts your site should do just nicely on a $25 a year shared hosting account.

I can't do that... because those members are increasing, so by the end of the year I might be using extra storage/bandwidth that's why I'd tend to purchase 3-month's plans.

I dunno man, if your website is www.Lebforum.com

It might be a while before you need a dedicated server, its a big hassle to manage one. I would suggest maybe a semi dedicated server or VPS.

Your 3 month ranking on Alexa shows: 576,667

although it looks like you're climbing fast, its really up to you.

Climbing fast? really?

I needed those words!

We swapped our community to a dedicated server just over a year ago. We only swapped because we were overloading the shared space we were renting (CPU usages).

To be fair, the photo album app was the killer because it redraws the images on the fly to the best size for your screen.

The swap has allowed us to start offering some things that were difficult on the shared space. But we had to go a slightly different route to pay for the server (see http://www.t595.net/member/premier.asp).

So, don't worry about your bandwidth and space; as you can usually get away with high values on virtual servers. But if your CPU requirements goes up or you want something slightly out of the ordinary; thats when to make the leap.

IF you want to get a server of your own, i would recommend a VDS before a dedicated :)

No one mentioned security. Depending on how shared hosting is setup you never know who's reading your member's PMs etc.

-Joe

Could you just give me a fast example please?

thanks.