-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

hi,

as you are no doubt aware, the Toolserver is perennially short of money, and often cannot afford to buy hardware/software which would greatly improve the reliability of the service. after much internal discussion, we have decided upon a solution to this problem, which we will be trialling shortly: paid accounts.

this works as follows: basic Toolserver accounts remain free. however, the functionality of these accounts will be limited; free users cannot use more than 64MB RAM, or 256MB of disk space, and cannot use more than 1 CPU-hour of CPU time per day. (this means CPU use is limited to, for example, 1 process using 100% of a single CPU for 1 hour, per day.) we will allow disallow some additional features for free accounts: cron; screen; email forwarding; phpMyAdmin and Subversion hosting. web hosting will still be available.

because one of the main uses of the Toolserver is the replicated Wikimedia databases, we will be allowing this even to free users. however, each account will be limited to 25 queries per day. this should be fine for occasional queries.

for users who need more than these basic resources, it will be possible to purchase additional resources. instead of having a single "paid account" price, we decided to allow the purchase of individual resources. this means you can pay for only what you need. the initial pricing structure (which is subject to change) is:

* phpMyAdmin: EUR1/month * cron: EUR5/month * screen: EUR5/month * unlimited SQL queries on *one* cluster: EUR2.50/month * 'upgrade package' (includes phpMyAdmin, cron, screen and unlimited queries for all clusters): EUR15/month

* additional 64MB of RAM: EUR5/month * additional 256MB of disk space: EUR5/month * one Subversion repository: EUR2.50/month * 'upgrade plus' package (includes upgrade package, plus the above): EUR25/month

other features: * premium support: EUR5/month (gives priority to your ts-admins@ requests), as well as telephone support (subject to fair usage limits) * one stable server project: EUR5/month * dedicated virtual machine (Solaris zone), including root access: EUR10/month.

for users who need to buy more upgrades, for example a large amount of disk space, bulk purchase discounts will be available; please contact ts-admins@ for details on this.

we will wait a few weeks before implementing this change, to give users a chance to decide what resources they need. you can purchase your paid account in advance, and it won't take effect until we make the change. please mail ts-admins@ for instructions on how to pay.

we hope this change will improve the Toolserver experience for all users, and provide the much-needed funding we need to continue growing. if you have any comments or suggestions about this proposal, please discuss them on the list.

thanks for understanding, - river.