Moving Server to USA?

I have considered moving the Real Kinky forum over to the Erotica forums but there is a lot of interesting information there that should be available to everyone.

We just need to stay on top of ppl posting porn in the wrong place. There should be none visible to the general public in the Love and Sex forum.

As you can see there really isn't even a need to alter our Guidelines if we move the server to the US because our guidelines already state that nothing illegal should be posted on the site.

I will say the one noticeable difference between Dutch & US laws does concern the age of consent. I believe it is still set at 12 yrs old in the Netherlands (under specific circumstances). While it varies from state to state in the US. Plus the Dutch are just far more tolerant when it comes to sex, but things HAVE CHANGED a lot in Holland in the last few years since I moved from there. It's got way more conservative with a Christian MINISTER as the head of gov't. And the Dutch cooperate far more with US authorities than they did before, kowtowing to anything the US asks of them...

So don't be so sure the Dutch will shield you. It will probably depend upon which US agency does the asking...

 

Well like others have said, IF anything illegal IS being done here, people doing it will be slightly more at risk.

More than likely it's the same risk as before, except we all might have to monitor things more closely so that we comply with the law.

But really the onus is on every member to know what is legal and illegal where they live and to comply with their local laws.

 

Floydianslip that hosting company doesn't even offer what we need in terms of dedicated server power.

Well folks this doesn't look good. Although a lot of you want us to stay in Europe and I want to stay too, there doesn't seem to be enough financial support to pay for it.

So unless someone puts a crowbar in an overstuffed wallet, all our sites will be moved to the USA to save on hosting fees...

The difference in price between the Amsterdam and US servers is around $350 a month (which I would have to shell out of my own pocket in addition to what I do already). So unless we find a benefactor who can come up with that amount we will move soon.

Let me know if you want to donate so I hold off on this move!

 

I've already explained that this is the best deal I can find with a company that allows free speech. Servers and bandwidth costs lots more in other countries.

We need the top of the line server (twin quad core xeons), 400 gigs a month at least (the one we're looking at offers 2000 gigs a month). I am sooooo damn tired of having to watch our bandwidth use every fucking day so we don't go over.

 

Thanks for the offer, but the $350 difference must be paid EVERY month, as the shortfall from donations always comes out of my pocket EVERY month now. So it's not like a one time shot in the arm is going to cover our costs... That's not how it works.

Deep pockets are needed on an ongoing basis. I was hoping our new MJ Guide would help cover costs (via advertising), but that's apparently not going to happen in time.

As far as H.R. 1955 here's a summary:
Please note what I bolded.
10/23/2007--Passed House amended.
Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 - Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to add a new section concerning the prevention of violent radicalization (an extremist belief system for facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change) and homegrown terrorism (violence by a group or individual within the United States to coerce the U.S. government, the civilian population, or a segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives).
Establishes within the legislative branch the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism to: (1) examine and report on facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States; and (2) build upon, bring together, and avoid unnecessary duplication of related work done by other entities toward such goal. Requires: (1) interim reports and a final report from the Commission to the President and Congress on its findings and recommendations; (2) the public availability of such reports; and (3) Commission termination 30 days after its final report.
Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish or designate a university-based Center of Excellence for the Study of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States to assist federal, state, local, and tribal homeland security officials, through training, education, and research, in preventing violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism in the United States. Requires the Secretary to: (1) conduct a survey of methodologies implemented by foreign nations to prevent violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism; and (2) report to Congress on lessons learned from survey results.
Prohibits Department of Homeland Security (DHS) efforts to prevent ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism from violating the constitutional and civil rights or civil liberties of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. Directs the: (1) Secretary to ensure that activities and operations are in compliance with DHS's commitment to racial neutrality; and (2) DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer to develop and implement an auditing system to ensure that compliance does not violate the constitutional and civil rights or civil liberties of any racial, ethnic, or religious group, and to include audit results in its annual report to Congress.

So this bill only creates a STUDY of the matter. It does not set into law anything new restricting our freedoms that I can see in this summary. In fact it does PROHIBIT DHS from infringing upon civil rights & liberties, so that is a GOOD thing to have in the law.

I don't see anything here that references the Internet, Freedom of Speech, etc. I really doubt this site could be viewed as encouraging violent terrorism. That would be more like a skinhead site.

Of course this bill would need to be worked out with the Senate who might change some of the provisions. If there is more to this bill, please let me know.

 

Ooops, I did see this line:
`(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.

That would definitely concern us!

But that is simply a "finding" that led them to create this bill, which again is simply to STUDY the issue, and does not create new law or infringe further upon our current rights.

 

This site and the galleries take up most of the bandwidth. Most of our slower sites that don't need to be overseas have already been moved off this server onto a cheap one in the states to allow more bandwidth for these two.

In case you haven't noticed, HipForums traffic doubled in the last year. We now get way more than 1,000 simultaneous users during peak hours every day on just this site. Most sites with that kind of traffic with databases usually require two or more servers to do what ours does now. Fortunately the top-of-the-line servers can now handle that load, but ours hasn't been top-of-the-line for 4 years.