Money Grubbing Ideas

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xyster
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Money Grubbing Ideas

Since the new V is need of another shot of green, how about some money making ideas in case advertising doesn't fully foot the bill?

1) Trademark "V is for Voltage", from the new site sell t-shirts, hats and such emblazed with the name, and cool designs of some kind.
2) Use donations to raise initial capital necessary to purchase said cool products.

Leeps
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I never knew

I had no idea that a forum was something that was expensive to run, just how much does it cost to get something like this up and running? If we get the whole family from the old site im sure a hat a peace will get us going, if not then we might be in trouble. Well only time will tell.
Joe

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There are two expenses

One is the server rental. The other is my time and opportunity cost for doing other activities. I suppose there are potential legal expenses in case a legal turmoil pops up as well.

Server rental is gonna be $150 / month to move to the next higher server. It would be shared with my other sites. It would be an increase of almost $100 / month in server rental cost.

Paying for my time swamps that, which is why I'm being insistent the community help out.

- David Herron, http://www.7gen.com/

- David Herron, http://longtailpipe.com/

xyster
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The other is my time and

The other is my time and opportunity cost for doing other activities....Paying for my time swamps that, which is why I'm being insistent the community help out.

David, how much do you propose paying those who help out for their opportunity cost of time lost?

-- Sitting on this many batteries is a sex crime in some states.
My rides

Lessss
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Yeah this is going to go

Yeah this is going to go south fast.

Server costs money. Then use your own machine. It doesn't take a top of the line machine. Just one with a second hard drive to back up the data on the first. I'm sure there are members here with a machine or two to spare.
http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/freedns.shtml
http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/creating/hostmyown.html

Volunteering to host a forum then demanding to be paid for your time means you're trying to run a business, not volunteering.

Do me a fav, use referral # 2724 If you order anything from e-ride (Greenwit). I want to see if they actually honour their referral program. Let me know as well please.

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Um... that's a bad idea

Okay, yeah, I have a machine that I already own that I could host the site on. I have a speedy DSL line. My DSL provider specifically allows their users to host web sites. I could use that instead of renting a server.

BUT that's a bad idea.

The DSL line doesn't have gauranteed uptime .. the DSL line has much less bandwidth availability than my rented server does .. if/when I move again, the DSL line would have to be redone, which will mean several days of downtime .. my house doesn't have gauranteed power ..

- David Herron, http://www.7gen.com/

- David Herron, http://longtailpipe.com/

v_tach
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Is this forum software susceptible

Just curious, what forum software is this running? Its not familiar to me. Just don't want a good effort to end in a similar mess.

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Drupal

This is running Drupal - http://drupal.org/

Drupal has many more features beyond "forums". They call it a "content management system" and also use the moniker of "Community Plumbing". A couple years ago I did an extensive review of all the software systems I could find which support developing online community. I installed and kicked the tires of probably two dozen systems. The two top contenders were Mambo and Drupal, and something didn't seem right with Mambo so I chose Drupal. I use Drupal to drive several web sites.

One of the critical features to me was/is the software be supported by a strong community who are actively improving it. This is true for Drupal, and you can see for yourself by going to the above site. Drupal is used for many sites including some high visibility sites such as The Onion and MTV UK.

- David Herron, http://www.7gen.com/

- David Herron, http://longtailpipe.com/

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Susceptible?

Well, any software has bugs. There's a computer science theorem I learned about that back in college. That means Drupal surely has its fair share of bugs. And it means that Drupal probably has a security hole or two.

This is true of all software.

My experience with nearly 2 yrs of using Drupal is I've not had my sites hacked or broken into, nor have I seen any discussion on the Drupal forums of sites being broken into.

The other experience is that the Drupal community regularly sends out security patches for holes they find in reviewing the software or otherwise discovered. This tells me they're very proactive in fixing holes. And I do watch the Drupal site and apply patches as they come out.

That doesn't gaurantee there will never be a problem. It does make it unlikely.

- David Herron, http://www.7gen.com/

- David Herron, http://longtailpipe.com/

davew
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Donations

At the very least you could post a paypal account to give those of us who want to a way to contribute.

Thanks for stepping up guys and reincarnating the forum. This is an amazing and valuable resource.
--
Full time ebiker
BionX and Wilderness Energy

"we must be the change we wish to see in the world"

Buzz
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Re: Donations

xyster on Fri, 11/17/2006 -

Since the new V is need of another shot of green, how about some money making ideas in case advertising doesn't fully foot the bill?

1) Trademark "V is for Voltage", from the new site sell t-shirts, hats and such emblazed with the name, and cool designs of some kind.
2) Use donations to raise initial capital necessary to purchase said cool products.

This was a very good suggestion, we've already got some quotes. Now everything is on hold for some strange reason.

Brooks,
Community Development Specialist

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