What is Exorsus?

Exorsus has been several things in its now nearly 5 year history. In the begining it was simply a toy for me, then it became a toy for me and a couple of my friends.

Pretty rapidly, my friends wanted a fair bit done with the toy which only I could do. This began its second evolution, with the production of the control interface we use today and Exorsus became a potential web hosting company.

However, what I discovered is that the hardest part about web hosting, is charging for it. Everything else is easy, control panels, systems admin etc. In addition, the majority of the people hosted already were in no position to pay for the service and they hosted good sites that I thought deserved to be on the 'net.

At times through its history, some people have contributed money towards the operating costs, notably (but not only) Andrew, Adam, Thomas, Ian and Stewart. Others have contributed money equivalents like caffine-beverage (thanks Don :). However I have, and continue to be the person paying the majority of the Exorsus costs. Thankfully it is significantly lower today than when I started originally.

It has, thus, become in effect an unregistered non-profit. At some point I may try and get it officially sanctioned but for now this is the status.

Why do I do it?

For two reasons. On a good day, I do it because I love to see the stuff that people set up here, and I believe that some of them simply wouldn't exist without Exorsus.

On a bad day, I do it because I know that many, if not most of my friends have some services on Exorsus and they'd all cry if I closed :). Whether this is a better or worse motivation than "I get paid for it", I'll let you decide.

Most days I do it because the whole thing is automated and requires almost no effort on my part :)

What does this mean for you as a user?

It means the same as it always meant, there are no guarrantees. Exorsus has lasted 5 years, and with luck and friendly contribution we will last another 5 years, however we still run month-to-month so existance is reliant on me getting enough money to survive each month :)

It also means that things tend to be run a little more for the greater good, and a little less for the customer. System software such as PHP is regularly upgrade without warning and users may find their software modified or disabled if it presents a security threat to the system.

Users are held responsible for their conduct on the system, and are expected to do their part in keeping disk space usage within reasonable limits, avoiding needlessly burning processor time and generally behaving well.

And finally, some sites have been prevented from linking to Exorsus for resource reasons, such as slashdot.org.

How can you become a user?

Preferably, you will already know someone on the Exorsus system. This gives me someone who is probably within reach who I can hold accountable for your behaviour. In some circumstances, I am willing to sponsor people onto the system without any prior connection so long as they present a reasonably coherent argument (via email) as to why their site/service is worth having.