But I do think it's fair question to wonder why anyone would spend tens of thousands of their own money, and 12 hour days to support something for free.
I just want to briefly address this comment.
As for money, the data center we are hosted at I've worked with for years. They're very helpful. Most of the hardware we have is donated, however I have been able to score some upgrades and additional items from donations and such and by sweet talking the data center owner. There are actually a few techs there who have their own mining hardware mining on Eligius from inside the same data center. (How's that for low latency?) So, we have a good deal of support from various aspects of the community, and it is much appreciated.
When I contacted the data center this afternoon and was going over the issue they were all for getting it resolved and went to work seeing what they could come up with to help without breaking the bank. Turns out we were able to get a very nice upgrade to the main database server for pennies on the dollar.
I put in my personal time and effort because I believe Eligius is successful, I believe it is the best mining pool, and I believe a legitimate and transparent no-fee pool needs to exist for miners to use to lower their variance without giving up huge amounts of their earnings to do so in pool fees. I personally want such a service to exist, and I use Eligius myself with my own hardware.
Hopefully this helps. Thank you everyone for your support.
-wk
What you are doing is fantastic, and I feel badly that your whole weekend is being consumed by this significant downtime and upgrade to the pool. This is Theron H. with the Life On Bitcoin team. When KnCMiner donated a Jupiter to our film project, they set us up on Eligius. This was in early October. Every time the pool has had difficulties, or the coins have gone to the offline wallet, you have always made good. The bitcoin world needs as many honest souls like yourself as it can get.
tip for your dedication and hard work. Thank you for all you do.
Theron H.