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by iambvk 540 days ago
> The total hosting cost for the conference was USD 42.92 + tax and the BBB testing in the lead-up to the conference was USD 3.11 + tax, so a total of USD 46.03+tax. The web node and the livestreaming node are kept as 1GB nanodes the rest of the year (USD 5 x 2 servers + tax, so USD 110). Very manageable.

How does this compared to all other conf costs?
2 comments
zelphirkalt 539 days ago
Though this does not contain the cost in invested time. Try setting up BBB with Docker. It is not easy, unless you have done it before and are somehow an expert. I tried and gave up. Month or years later people still post in issues I opened. Since a docker deployment is also not the official deployment, there is little help from maintainers, understandably. It is also a huge setup, with many running parts.

Very cool though, that they managed to pull it off.

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sachac 538 days ago
Oh yeah, I briefly tried to get BBB working in Docker and ran into lots of issues before deciding it was worth just paying for another server instance where I could run it all by itself.

Time-wise, I did Emacs-related things for 36 hours in Sept, 40 hours in Oct, and 52 hours in Nov. That included about an hour a week for Emacs News. To be fair, it's really more like hobby/fun time... :)

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zelphirkalt 536 days ago
Nevertheless, thanks for all the work you put into making it happen!
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sachac 539 days ago
Oh, do you mean like the domain name registration? That's also pretty small. I think it was, like, 12 USD, but I don't have the exact cost handy at the moment.

We've been experimenting with sending tokens of appreciation (evil plan: stickers/pins might get other people to talk to speakers about Emacs), but Corwin's treating that as a personal experiment and not including it in the conference budgeting.

And of course, there's a lot of stuff that isn't counted in monetary costs, like the time that speakers put into their talks or the servers that people have shared with us.

But yeah, it's surprising what you can do on a shoestring budget and with casual volunteers. Definitely worth considering if people have been thinking about running their own conference. :)

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sachac 537 days ago
Final Linode invoice came in, so it's USD 62.54+tax for December, so a total of USD 175.65+tax for the hosting costs for the year. Worth it!
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