Note: Collection efforts are now documented on the PledgeDrive page.
TheFutureOfSpack has been decided, details below:
GeneMerrill, JohnWojtacha, MikeMessick and myself will form the administrative cabal. I will donate the hardware that maus.spack.org currently runs on and the domain name spack.org. Mike, John and myself will contribute towards the administration of the box and Gene will handle the money.
All the data will need to be transferred from the existing maus.spack.org to ronin.spack.org which is hosted with PdxColo. At some point maus will get shipped back upto Alaska where Mike or John will look after the hardware and keep a hotspare of the server and data sync'd up in case something happens.
You all will pay the monthly costs (the cabal will help out as necessary but their primary contribution is managing this all for everyone else). So long as there is enough money to keep things running spack.org will continue to exist.
I'm beginning the transfer of server data now and will be keeping you updated via email to the "news@lists.spack.org" alias (so make sure you're checking your spack email or have it forwarded somewhere that you check). Transfer of your personal data (mail and home directory) will be your own responsibility, if you need help let one of us know.
Sadly all this means the free ride is over, if you wish to continue to use your spack.org address or have DNS/mail/web/shell hosting you gotta contribute, a monthly donation of $5-$15 is roughly what's expected. We do understand that some of you are underemployed and less able to contribute then others, but it's still expected that you contribute what you can, and that when your circumstances change you let us know and help out those that are in a worse situation. Money will be collected in six month chunks, a month or two before the six months is up Gene will solicite the next round of funds. If we meet our quota the service will continue, if we exceed our quota any extra will be contributed towards the next six months (in case there is any question, none of us are making any money from this).
Finally, in recent months I've said "no" to a couple of your requests for hosting of web, mail, dns etc because I've been too busy. If you decide to stick around you will of course be welcome to host whatever you want on the server (within reasonable bounds of resource constraint and administrative time).
Adam.