Hosting for astrosafarivans.com

[justice]

new domain names - which to use for site poll results
http://www.astrosafariclub.com 18% [ 7 ]
http://www.astrosafarivans.com 81% [ 30 ]

Total Votes : 37

Ok, it looks to me like there is interest in making this site more than just a "backup" for astrosafari.com, as evidenced by the requests for a "name" for the site. Well, a name has been chosen as you can see, so thats step number 1.

I personally would like to do other things to expand the site, such as addng a member gallery, a Wiki for archiving Astro/Safari history and knowledge and maybe some other things. I would also like to add a better chat (the upgraded version of BlaB. I mentioned in a post back during the AS.com downtime that I felt that if this site were to grow to be its "own" site that I would like it to have its own hosting and be moved off my current server.

There would be several benefits to moving the site to its own hosting account.
1) easier use of the astrosafarivans.com domain name
2) easier to move the site to new owner should something occur where I was no longer available to administer the site
3) more features could be easily added (chat, galleries, wiki, ect)
4) astrosafarivans.com email addresses
5) the ability to sell advertising on the site to make it self sufficient (pay for itself)


So see the new poll.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Definately!

Something to consider is giving those who donate money a star or small astro van next to their name to show they are a supporting member. This is done on the http://www.pirate4x4.com forum that I frequent. It give access to addidtional features such as search and allows us to enter into vendor giveaways.

[astrozam]

Count me in

[86astro]

yeah, count me in too

shawn

[jakepatch]

As much as I would love to see this site continue to grow, at this point I would have to say I'm not able to help, but when I can I will!

[ryanhettenbach]

I would donate as long as the board gets a significant update and continues to get updated when voted by it's members.

I also agree that paying members should get something for their contribution whether it be an icon next to their name or a free sticker.

I personally wouldn't be interested in an email account since I already have Gmail, Hotmail and a work email address. Not to mention ryanhettenbach@astrosafarivans.com is a little too long for my liking

Advertising is usually how these boards make money, (and they make the owner BUTTLOADS of money in some instances) but we're a pretty small group of enthusiasts when compared to the other automobile message boards out there. As a company it's hard to justifying paying for advertising on a message board when it has less than 200 members.

Like I've said before, I'm more than willing to help out the evolution of the board in any way possible.

Keep up the good work!

[skippy]

yeah , I can cough up some cash to help out , it won't be a whole lot but every little bit helps right ?
just let us know where to send it .

thanx skippy

[SafariRob]

Count me in on contributing, too. I helped out on the other board way back when and now this is home for me.

[trybe13]

I'm in.

[mdmead]

Yes, depending on how much we are talking here...

And another concern I have is how much use is this site really going to get. So many have quickly run back to AS.com and nearly abandoned this site. (And AS.com still has many of the same old problems it always had and nobody seems to mind........)

[astrozam]

I was talking to Justice and I'll have some costs a little later, its really not as much as what some may think.

As to A.S I have a few things to say about that later as well, but I've got to
go see my kids so I'll be back on later, cya

[PharmAstrocist]

I just hope you're not getting the "business stars" in your eyes...

Are you looking to sustain or make a living maintaining the site? The needs of this site with its current traffic on its own host ranges from about $4 to $6 a month. You could make that in profit on a single bumper sticker a month probably until it takes off... needs may go as high as $15 a month for increased space and bandwidth if it were insanely popular.

Anyway, I only say this so its remembered that one of the great things about the old site is a total absence of blinking banners telling me what I won, pop-ups, pop-unders, malware exploits etc. Just hope it doesn't go in that direction!

Generating content for a site and keeping it appealing is a lot of hard work, so fair contribution has a good deal of wiggle room.

I've seen the potential of the old site and often wondered why Bill never seemed interested in selling any of the things we are all interested in buying for these vans somehow in a +/- 10% range of the average of all the other sites we use, and we'd buy here/there just for loyalty and convenience... something like that could be cool, but I'd be sad to see the site become a prostitution of itself.

Those concerns aside... you can of course count on me for some support.

Rob

[astrozam]

O.k, here is what it would cost to be on our own as told to me by Justice...

"Currently the host i'm using has a discounted rate for 1 yr of hosting at $70 (usually $100) or we could get 2 years for $140.

Alternatively, we could buy a year and use excess to purchase the upgraded chat software.

Anything left over would be held until they next time renewal came around"

Pretty resonable if you ask me, I don't think anyone is trying to make any living off this site, nobody wants any banners or drop down this or that.

We've had 13 people so far say that they would be willing to contribute, I can't see it being that difficult for any of us to donate between $10-20 U.S depending on if its gonna be for 1 or two yrs, remember this would also include the cost of getting decent software for our chat, there may be some minimal costs to upgrade the chat software but anything excess that we collect will go to pay that kind of expense.

Justice is looking into opening a paypal account for this site, where all donated money would be sent. Also, for those who do not use Paypal, there is the option of sending a U.S postal Money order.

Lets get some feedback on this from the members, does this seem a resonable amount of money that you would be willing to donate??

[astrozam]

Yes, depending on how much we are talking here...

And another concern I have is how much use is this site really going to get. So many have quickly run back to AS.com and nearly abandoned this site. (And AS.com still has many of the same old problems it always had and nobody seems to mind........)

Just a few things to say,

First is this, There is still a very real need for this site, its true that we don't have the traffic we were getting when A.S was at its worst, but the problems at A.S have not been eliminated, personally speaking I don't think we will ever be able to get things working 100%, its certainly not for a lack of trying,
both James and Dave and other mods have worked very hard at trying to resolve the chopped posts problem but it is still there.

Second, We have had good success with stopping all spam and cleaning up the member data base, but we have not been able to get back the posts that have been lost and I don't think we ever will.

Third, It may have even seemed as tho I had forgotten about this place, but that simply isn't true, We all had asked WILL to make certain changes to A.S and although the changes came very late in the game, he did make the changes, because of this it was important to at least try to save A.S which I think has been accomplished to a resonable extent, I don't believe there is much more to do other than the day to day stuff.

Personally speaking, I think it is time for me to spend more time here now
and help this place develop and grow into it's own little part of cyberspace

[justice]