Next month, the rv.gl domain will expire. This domain was bought by Kiwi 1-2 years ago and we have been using it since then to create convenient hostnames for people (for instance, players could memorize and connect to "u.rv.gl" when joining my sessions, instead of having to copy-paste my own IP). It's a small thing, but it's very nice to have, as it gives the event information a slightly more professional flair and it's less of a privacy concern than directly posting our IPs.
Kiwi is no longer willing to maintain this domain, and the plan is for me to take ownership of the domain before it expires. Unfortunately, the bad news is that it would cost
54 euro per year to maintain. I do not consider this a worthwhile investment for me to handle alone, and so I would like to ask how many people within the community would be willing to donate money for this website. In exchange, I have a couple of ideas on how we could extend the purpose of the website so the rest of the community could make use of it:
► Access to rv.gl hostnames
This was already allowed before, but with me as an owner, I will promote the option for anyone in the community to get their own rv.gl hostname, which you can post instead of your IP when hosting sessions. In the beginning, you would have to contact me directly for a hostname, but it will be possible in the future to register a hostname and manage it just like through
noip.com.
The only rule is that you may not choose a name shorter than 3 letters, as I would like to reserve those for official I/O events (at least until we switch to using dedicated servers). So, for instance,
u.rv.gl and
ur.rv.gl would not be allowed, but
urv.rv.gl would be okay.
► RVGL Café - personal websites
This is an idea that I had for a long time for Re-Volt I/O, but I think it might work better on the rv.gl domain than on re-volt.io, and I would also make it a priority if we are to maintain the rv.gl domain for another year.
RVGL Café would be a website on cafe.rv.gl that would provide Re-Volters with an easy way to create personal page dedicated to Re-Volt content, which could be used to list all your custom content in one place (and we all know we need that ever since the RVZ search system broke). If there is enough demand, we can even implement other features akin to social media, which would allow users to share and comment on screenshots, artworks, videos, blogs and so on.
An example of what I have in mind as the main goal would be Kiwi's Re-Volt website, which used to be hosted on the rv.gl domain itself. Unfortunately, it has since been taken down and I cannot provide any screenshots. Kiwi, if you're reading this and have transferred your website to a new domain, please post it here so we can check it out.
For the time being, I just want to hear some feedback and to see if there's enough interest in donating towards this domain.
If you wish to help out with the site costs, send me a message in this thread, through a private message, or on Discord (URV#9830) along with how much money you would be willing to donate. Once I know for sure there is enough interest to cover the costs, I will contact everyone and provide a PayPal link. I'm also open to any ideas about how to make use of this domain.
Update: The goal has been reached (enough to cover it for two years!) and the domain has been successfully transferred to my name. Many thanks to everyone who donated! Keep an eye on this thread for any future updates.