There's an open TS server at this address:
152.111.192.232:9380

I have an extra key, so whoever redeems it first gets it.
68XA-MQQW-AMND-74NC

I've been keen to rent a dedicated server for a while. We'd be able to host our own TeamSpeak server and a bunch of game servers. We'd be able to have our own Chivalry, CS:GO, ArmA 3 and ARK servers, and for any other game that we'd like. We'd also be able to host The Woad website (which I need to start working on again) and databases for various purposes. I would host websites that I develop, as well as related databases (and contribute more to account for my increased usage of the server).
The best dedicated server that I could find is Hetzner's TruServ server[hetzner.co.za]. The basic server is R995 per month, for 2TB of traffic on a 100mbps line (10MB/s download, 10MB/s upload), with an Intel Xeon E3-1230 (4 cores @ 3.2GHz) running 16GB RAM with two 1TB HDDs. The web-dev company I worked for had one of these to host their websites and databases, it was brilliant. Their customer support is also great.

So here's my proposition:
If we all contributed evenly towards the cost of the server, we could each pay as little as R50 per month (split between 20 people, this covers the monthly cost of the server; you would be welcome to contribute more). For contributing, you get admin privileges on all game servers and TS. You also get a say in which servers are hosted (we can host several servers, depending on their resource usage).
I would like to use the server for more than just gaming. The server would be owned by our community, but if acceptable I would host a few websites and several databases. These are very light on resource usage, requiring very little processing and minimal bandwidth (only when accessed). The impact on the hosted servers would be negligible. For this privilege, I would contribute more to the hosting costs, say R200 per month. We could also allow other trusted people to use the server in a similar manner (for example, remiX would also be keen to make use of website and database hosting, and I'm sure would be prepared to contribute accordingly).
I would manage the server itself, and probably end up being the game server admin as well, installing and configuring the various servers. Of course, anyone else who would like to set up servers themselves would be more than welcome to do so.
I would also manage the server account, and be liable to pay the monthly fees. Everyone would send their contributions to me on a monthly (or any other interval, which would be noted) basis, and I would then pay the hosting provider (Hetzner in this case - if you can find a better deal, let us know). I'm unsure whether they support a credit system, where we could all deposit our contributions directly into their account, and carry over credit to the next month/s.
In order to further cover the costs of a dedicated server, we could ask all users of our game servers to pay a once-off joining fee (perhaps after a week's trial of our servers?). This would be say R100, and would allow their Steam account to continue accessing our game servers.

So yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Let me know what you guys think about this, if you agree with how it would be managed or how you would approach it (or if you even think hosting our own servers is a waste of time).

EDIT: So I didn't factor in the cost of a Windows Server 2012 licence, which is R400 pm. I still need to check up on it, but we might be fine running of a legit Windows 10 install instead.

EDIT 2: So Shaun (Solstyce) is keen to get in on the action as well. He will contribute a lot towards the hosting costs, as well as server management experience. This started as an idea just for us though, so if it works out there's no need to rope in Tri-Q. It might be useful to merge though, and get a better server.

Leave an indication of your thoughts on this Strawpoll[www.strawpoll.me]

Forge is the Halo level designer, but included in it is the ability to host and play 16 player online custom games. And its free.

I rate its going to be a pretty sick time. NMMU has called for entries for League of Legends and CS:GO tournaments. I'm pretty keen to head down, play a couple of games.
It seems that there's going to be a Cosplay event as well.
Check out the Facebook page of the Con.ect LAN[www.facebook.com] of the event for more information.