Hashtalk ran on the NodeBB forum software, cloud-hosted and managed by nodebb.org (hence the invoices we saw)
PayCoin Talk runs Vanilla, and is likely cloud-hosted and managed by vanillaforums.com (loosely assumed by the lack of branding... a "perk" Hashtalk also enjoyed by opting for paid hosting)
you can see an example of a
self-hosted* (branded) Vanilla installation at
http://forum.hashtalk.org, although it doesn't take a rocket scientist to remove the branding from a self-hosted installation
both are open-source forums whose developers offer managed cloud hosting services
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Hashtalk point to 184.168.221.32
that's a GoDaddy load balancer handling parking pages like the one for hashtalk
.com (184.168.221.32)
these are not the droids you're looking for
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Cloudflare isn't a cloud hosting service, it's a ddos protection proxy service.
You still need your own hosting.
Makes sense but if this was the case would you not just change the dns to point at the new forum?
I believe the DNS was changed to a "cloud" host of some sort. Maybe they didnt pay them either
Cloudflare was/is their DNS provider (it also acts as a DDoS protection proxy as mentioned above, and CDN)
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His forum does have the same layout as hashtalk though which is odd. Wonder if that means anything or if its a coincidence and GAW and this guy paid the same third party to design and launch their forums?
default NodeBB theme
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(
http://pastebin.com/4ZFbTv3c)
community.nodebb.org (104.131.182.59) is also running on DigitalOcean
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* [edit: looks like forum.hashtalk.org aka gawminers.vanillaforums.org is not "self-hosted", but could be the "starter" plan for $99/mo.. is that bill really still being paid when so many other things aren't?]