Membership cost questionnaire

[Mike Olbinski]

I think we need to look into a cheaper host...Deru has been amazing, and have great customer service, but I feel like $500 a month could be pushing it...

Most of the time, our traffic is normal and fine, it's just the burst traffic where we have issues.

 

[abomb]

I think we need to look into a cheaper host...Deru has been amazing, and have great customer service, but I feel like $500 a month could be pushing it...

Most of the time, our traffic is normal and fine, it's just the burst traffic where we have issues.

It is a very tough decision, especially when you talk about migrating the dbs and such to the new host.

 

[Lloydian]

Again, I say just call on your negotiating skills. So you've found an alternative that will provide the service for $320 per month, and it's probably worth something to you to avoid a move. So maybe they drop you to $330 or $340 a month and understand that they need to do that to keep your business.

It's a win-win. You get to save some money, and they get to keep your business to the tune of $4K per year.

All that said. You have a valuable site that should be earning you serious cash with the amount of traffic coming in. Add some premium content, charge the more tragic of us to use it (me included), and make enough to retire on.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Again, I say just call on your negotiating skills. So you've found an alternative that will provide the service for $320 per month, and it's probably worth something to you to avoid a move. So maybe they drop you to $330 or $340 a month and understand that they need to do that to keep your business.

It's a win-win. You get to save some money, and they get to keep your business to the tune of $4K per year.

All that said. You have a valuable site that should be earning you serious cash with the amount of traffic coming in. Add some premium content, charge the more tragic of us to use it (me included), and make enough to retire on.

Actually, I've tried very hard in the past to negotiate and they wont have any of it. We almost moved this site and they wouldn't budge at all.

They feel they have good customer service that sets them above...which it does, but it's hard to justify $500 a month sometimes.

 

[Lloydian]

And when you talk the relatively small number of $500, it sounds reasonable. But is that customer service worth an extra $2000 a year? Besides, GoDaddy has nice customer service, and to top it off, they're a local company. Your server will probably be physically closer to your home than it is with Deru.

And start looking at premium content. Enough among us will pay.

 

[Zebes]

I know the owners at Deru, good guys.

 

[jw7]

I think that people here concerned about the cost are missing a couple of things that Mike mentioned briefly.

It is not the server space or the bandwidth that has been the limiting factor, it has been the amount of simultaneous connections (100-200+ simulateous users) and server load (everyone hitting refresh every minute) that especially shows up during important AZ sporting events (suns playoffs, NFL draft, Cards games on Sunday, trades, etc...)

It's not like Mike/Skkorp went for the most expensive dedicated server, they have upgraded constantly each time the load would freeze this site for an hour or more and needed more dedicated power that could handle the load. They went for cheaper dedicated servers first, and upgraded as needed. Now it is very expensive.

Nothing wrong with shopping around, in fact it should be encouraged, but we have a server that works now and can handle the load. Maybe there are cheaper ISPs but there is no guarantee that a dedicated server from another ISP can handle the load until they see it.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

I think that people here concerned about the cost are missing a couple of things that Mike mentioned briefly.

It is not the server space or the bandwidth that has been the limiting factor, it has been the amount of simultaneous connections (100-200+ simulateous users) and server load (everyone hitting refresh every minute) that especially shows up during important AZ sporting events (suns playoffs, NFL draft, Cards games on Sunday, trades, etc...)

It's not like Mike/Skkorp went for the most expensive dedicated server, they have upgraded constantly each time the load would freeze this site for an hour or more and needed more dedicated power that could handle the load. They went for cheaper dedicated servers first, and upgraded as needed. Now it is very expensive.

Nothing wrong with shopping around, in fact it should be encouraged, but we have a server that works now and can handle the load. Maybe there are cheaper ISPs but there is no guarantee that a dedicated server from another ISP can handle the load until they see it.

That is a good point.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

While I wouldn't mind paying to help keep the site going, I really wish we could raise enough to support it as is - without all the extra work created by having memberships, special areas, etc.

No ads, a special area, etc don't really matter to me. With my job, I can't check the site during the day anymore so my time is already limited to nights and weekends for the most part. Sucks, but that's life.

I wish the Amazon link, a donation icon (via paypal), fund raisers, tournaments, auctions, etc. could sustain the site. Some fund-raising events would be great for getting posters together for a few hours and bringing in new people...

Just my .02.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

While I wouldn't mind paying to help keep the site going, I really wish we could raise enough to support it as is - without all the extra work created by having memberships, special areas, etc.

No ads, a special area, etc don't really matter to me. With my job, I can't check the site during the day anymore so my time is already limited to nights and weekends for the most part. Sucks, but that's life.

I wish the Amazon link, a donation icon (via paypal), fund raisers, tournaments, auctions, etc. could sustain the site. Some fund-raising events would be great for getting posters together for a few hours and bringing in new people...

Just my .02.

Both sound like A LOT of work

 

[AZZenny]

I'm probably about to go on a research-book spree at Amazon, so you should be covered for awhile. ;-) btw, how much do you get of what's spent there?

Hey -- how hard would it be to set up a button so WE could link something in our posts to Amazon? Someone mentions a book, CD, DVD, gadget, they hit a special link icon? Have to make it a special color, so people know what they're clicking. That was one of the nuisances about the ebay ones -- sheer randomness -- besides all the stray underlines ruining the tone of a post (at least on P&R where us paranoids are always reading between the lines for subtle meaning).

 

[Linderbee]

I'm probably about to go on a research-book spree at Amazon, so you should be covered for awhile. ;-) btw, how much do you get of what's spent there?

Hey -- how hard would it be to set up a button so WE could link something in our posts to Amazon? Someone mentions a book, CD, DVD, gadget, they hit a special link icon? Have to make it a special color, so people know what they're clicking. That was one of the nuisances about the ebay ones -- sheer randomness -- besides all the stray underlines ruining the tone of a post (at least on P&R where us paranoids are always reading between the lines for subtle meaning).

I've decided that I'm going to do this in my posts (see below) but there are others on here that would have far more to contribute than I would.

Which one?

TheAudacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

or

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance ?

I let my ex borrow Dreams from My Father before I read it; I'll be getting that back soon, and dcr & I both have a copy of The Audacity of Hope coming (thank you, dcr! ). I'm looking forward to both. My ex said he liked Dreams from My Father.

 

[AZZenny]

How'd you do that??! I mean, is there a simple way other than getting the URL manually, etc.?

 

[Linderbee]

How'd you do that??! I mean, is there a simple way other than getting the URL manually, etc.?

I got the url manually, and then used the: book title here [\url] except a backslash instead of forward slash.

It's not too hard, but not overly quick either. I just figured if we all did it, especially for books we really liked/recommend, people would be far more likely to use asfn amazon if the link was in our post.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I'm with BIM.

I truly think that if you put a sticky on each section of the board asking people to help offset the cost of running the board, you'd be surprised at the support you'd get.

Money is something I don't have a lot of these days, so membership fees don't appeal to me (that's not to say I wouldn't pay, lol); but, I'd be more than willing to donate my time/expertise in the areas of fundraising, working with vendors and stuff like that. What about selling ASFN t-shirts and charging $5 above cost? I know that's not a big money-making scheme or anything, but it brings in some dough and it also gets the ASFN name out there.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

I got the url manually, and then used the: book title here [\url] except a backslash instead of forward slash.

It's not too hard, but not overly quick either. I just figured if we all did it, especially for books we really liked/recommend, people would be far more likely to use asfn amazon if the link was in our post.

You guys can only link to things like this:

Find a product:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VWE5OY/ref=s9_asin_image_1_subs_81_11_3_2_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1WG9WZ1XWNKX3R70702X&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240301&pf_rd_i=507846

Add THIS at the end of the URL:

&tag=arispofannet-20

 

[Gaddabout]

That's it. Just open an ASFN internet pub and sell good draught beer.

Problem solved.

 

[NightHawk11and81]

I would certainly be out if money was charged or if non-members had to deal with much more headaches such as limited posts, slower servers, etc. I won't pay to talk about the Cardinals on one site when I can do it for free on another one. I like the football talk on this site, but if most of the good posters would be on a members-only site, I'd go elsewhere.