A recent discussion here on LET gave me an idea. I'm pretty sure most of us have one or two impulse LEB buys that are pretty much sitting idle. But what if one of us (like the person in the linked discussion) needs a temp VPS with certain specs to do something different, just for a few days. With all those unused LEBs hanging around, why can't we share them around? I just registered the domain TempVPS.com, which will be ideal for the purpose. There would be two forms on the site: one for requesting a VPS, with a list of specs that are needed (virtualization type, memory, disk space, network speed, etc.), and one for submitting VPSes for people to request.
People who submit VPSes will retain full control of them. When someone requests a box, people who have submitted matching ones will receive an e-mail asking them if they'd like to help out. Included will be the requester's purpose for the VPS. If they choose to help out, they can send the login details (with or without SolusVM) to the requester. They can login over the period that the requester has applied for to make sure the VPS is not abused.
Would anyone be willing to submit their VPS to such a system? Again, they would retain full control, the system would not have any access to login details, etc. Requesters could report lenders if they failed to provide valid VPS info, or if the VPS did not match the listed specs, but other than that, the lenders would be autonomous.
Edit: After much badgering about the abuse potential, here is an updated list of restrictions to prevent it:
- Borrower has to be an LET user with at least 25 posts and registered for at least a week.
- Borrower must state usage of VPS, which lender can/should check.
- Borrower can only borrow one VPS every 30 days.
- Borrower can request VPS for a max of 5 days.
- Lender retains full control of the VPS (at least through SolusVM).
- Lenders can report borrowers that are misusing loaned VPSes.
I would also integrate a full "review" system, whereby borrowers can review lenders based on how quickly they responded and how helpful they were, and lenders could rate borrowers based on whether they abused or not. Kind of like eBay.