> 1. You own and rack the server yourself.
Or lease a dedicated server... More expensive long run, but comes with maintenance. Over the years I've gotten the occasional e-mail like "You had a drive failure in your RAID stack last night, we hot swapped a new one in last night."

> 2. You lease fractional ownership of a server already in a rack.
> - Learn server maintenance

Most (not all) leased servers come with maintenance, especially those where you're only leasing a portion of the server. They don't want you taking the server down while you learn what's up. That also means some restrictions, for example limitations on scripts, cgi and php.

> 3. You use an online web service.
> - Sign up for an account ($25/year)

Many are now at $100 per year, but it's still cheap.

> - Upload pictures
> - Many volunteers submit because it's easy

All of whom use different keywords and organization...

> - You give passwords to a different volunteer.

Online service pulls the plug, your photos go away. You have no backup (too complicated) and all your stuff is GONE. This has happened to quite a few of the photo sharing sites.

> So, um, your call...

Yes, and like most projects, there are a variety of ways to do it. Often those fall into "The easy way" and "The right way".

If you simply want a place to post pictures from your operation, it's easy. Go set up a Facebook page and be done with it. Simple, easy to use, accessible, and free.

If you want an actual online photo archive, as the title implies, it gets more complicated.

There are a lot of options, and a lot will depend on your budget and how many photos you have. Sharepoint is a good option if you want intensive index and search options.

I use Photopost, it's got reasonable index options, and it's easy for non-techs to use. But it's not nearly as flexible as Sharepoint.

As for somebody who knows how to do this stuff? Well, Robert, apparently you're part of the "older generation" (as am I). Things have changed a lot since you and I were young bucks. These days finding a volunteer that knows HTML, PHP, CGI, Sharepoint, and Microsoft exchange is a helluva lot easier than finding somebody who knows what "tail stock" means, and doesn't think "Lathe" is a auto-correct fail for what you get at Starbucks! Plus it's a great way for young guys to get involved.

Oh, and if you're doing it right, you won't have lone wolf handling it. He'll be sharing the load and training his replacement, so if he gets sick, quits, or simply goes on vacation, things will still be working.

On the subject of cost, do you know about TechSoup.org?

They supply software for non-profits, the last NPRHA Microsoft purchase had a retail value of something like $16,000, we paid something like $300, and a part of that was because I like to have the distribution DVD/CDs in my files.

-Hudson

Depends. Everything complex runs on stacks of services.
If you're Amtrak, your stack is subgrade - ties - rail / trucks - carbody - trim - customer service..
A typical forum stack is Linux - Apache - Mysql - PHP / phpBB - admin - moderation - users.

There's a line of demarcation where everything above it is your responsibility. That can include a lot of server software such as phpBB in this example. Are backups included? That varies by provider. If you're doing something complex or unusual, the stuff on your side of the line can get real big real fast.


There's no free lunch. You have to backup. If a fellow can't handle backing up an online repository, he's sure got no chance setting up a local one.


That would certainly be nice. I have not found such folks in any quantity I'd be confident of.

This too: it makes no sense whatsoever for 200 railroad museums to each redundantly "brew their own" solutions individually.

Well, you might call that "server software" but typically it's called a script or simply a program. Server software, and server maintenance, at least the way I've heard the terms used, involves things like Linux, MySQL, the "back end" of CGI and PHP. These would be handled by the sysadmin, and on a shared server, that's typically that's the hosting company.



That's true, the more complicated it is, the more difficult it is to maintain. (Also see "Locomotive, Steam" "Regulations, FRA" and "Inspections, Boiler")



I agree, but many of the free servers like Facebook, make backups difficult at best.


If a fellow can't handle backing up an online repository, he's sure got no chance setting up a local one.



How hard have you looked, and where? You probably won't find many of them among a group of old timers. What have you done to encourage there participation, or even let them know the opportunity exists?



So you just got done telling me how difficult and complicated this is to do for ONE operation, and now you're suggesting that we should integrate 200 individual operations, with skill sets and needs ranging from "We need some photos on our website" to "We have 10,000 photos of the PRR and want to be able to sort them by engine number, type, class, division, date built and what the fireman liked to eat for lunch"? OK, well good luck on that...