Alpha-II has possibly done its job and with different API’s then it continues to depart from the Fleming and beyond API. The costs to keep this running are some Qa time and about $3k [edit, not £ but $] per month. So the questions is kill this now or wait for Fleming?
0 voters
3K? that seems like a lot to little old me, must have missed something.
Any way for anyone on the fence here’s my thoughts.
Yes, taking it down may look bad to some, but we don’t really need and probably don’t use it anymore.
Instead they can get an extra month of runtime for every ~20 months, or possibly one more developer, which may be more usefull then leaving it running.
How many are using it? And is it helping with development of apps for people down the track? Kinda feels like they should weigh in here a bit before cutting the cord. … lol … I guess that’s the point of a poll though … duh!
I’m using it, but it’s time to move on and cut on costs to be honest.
This might sound crazy (probably is), but
@dirvine
Maybe we can also have a loan to code scheme
You pay 100K MAID get 0%, but Maidsafe code up a request (if it’s beneficial to the project) and within 5 years you receive the 100K MAID again (of course with the risk to loose it if the company fails). I’m tired of talk, I would rather put my money where my mouth is, if I believe that something is beneficial to the project. I asked family and friends and they are ready to back me.
Maidsafe just having MAID can still be extremely dangerous to this project, because haters/traders don’t care to suppress it’s price, just for their profit and lulz. The only way we can fight is by giving SAFEcoin a feature where price manipulation is impossible. I don’t mean storage/computing/buying publicids…
The final network will be greatly different with:
So, I think that maintaining Alpha 2 isn’t useful anymore.
And there is still the shared vault to play with in the interim before Fleming.
My only concern with taking it down is that safenetwork.tech needs to be changed so it doesn’t direct people to the old alpha2 browser. No need for it to have anything about Fleming - we can handle helping people try that out in the community.
So I haven’t voted, but no problem if we take it down - I’m only using Fleming now and anyone wanting to play with the old APIs can continue with mock.
We should of course edit the topics that point to alpha2 sites to say it is no longer running.
Agreed, it’s not easy to take down. We will need to make the invite server a holding page with a notice etc. Nice to hear all the concerns and ideas. I have a feeling we need to force folk off it and onto fleming really. To me it now gives a false impression of SAFE, invites, codes, whitelist IP addresses etc. were required for security when safe did not exist. I just have a feeling neither maidsafe or community should spend any time on Alpha II, code or support etc.
Agree, since the network will be very different from the alpha II and that the alpha currently costs that much, it doesn’t have sense for me to keep it online
Out of curiosity, what is the main cost? Data center?
£3k per month is 5% of the total planned monthly expenditure. Too much for the service that alpha2 currently gives.
From an economic point of view should be stopped ASAP.
Data center, but the manpower costs are harder to quantify, also marketing handing out invite tokens and so on. Cost is a big part of this, but I am thinking getting folk on Fleming may be more important.
I briefly slipped in to the old world thought “oh no, what about the price of keeping the Fleming network up on launch” then I remembered I am an idiot and we will be donating hard disk space from home. 
The alpha network has been very useful while demonstrating the network to new recruits, and has generated a few thousand euros back in to the market - hopefully back in to the maidsafe funding. I didn’t know maidsafe where being sold to fund the project.
I think, that 5% of monthly operating costs is quite large… 3K could be a salary or two.
With Fleming just around the corner, why spend that extra few 3K payments.
I may suffer withdrawal symptoms, but considering the above, yea. Let’s close it in preparation for Fleming. Reduce as much financial pressure as possible.
So operating costs down to 57K per month.
Do it.
Is there anyone out there with a hosting company that can donate resources? But again, if alpha 2 is diverging away from what Fleming will be, it probably isn’t worth keeping it alive.
Sorry it is $ not £, not much difference these days, but just to be clear.
Alpha 2 served it’s purpose. As long as enough information has been recorded,( screenshots, examples and such for historical/nostalgia/marketing) then IMO you might as well pull the plug and lay it to rest.
Fond memories of my first time surphing alpha 2. It offered a eureka like experience and made one think, “wow, these folks really can replace the www”…
Shared vault is superior, IMO. It has the new API, perpetual web and CLI stuff, etc. No need for alpha 2 now.
I would suggest migrating maidsafe stuff to the shared vault instead.
Kill it, better time looking ahead, not tending towards the tech debt legacy stuff that also costs you. I think the 100% vote currently justifies the removal of all things alpha || right now. Spend 1-2 days taking it offline and fixing docs/pages accordingly and move on.
Yea, definitely take it offline. I’m impatient and wanna see Fleming out ASAP. And taking it down would cut costs, which means more money for new devs, which means Fleming be out faster
One of the most voted on polls and 100% vote. @dirvine, David I think you have a clear message from the community.
The only reason I have not voted is the concern about if enginers needs alpha 2 for testning. For the users I don’t see a need to keep it running. If the enginers don’t need it then I would vote to close alpha 2.
My estimation is that the software being worked on has gone past anything alpha 2 could give valid information for.