LocostUSA.com
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/

Site donations
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=14906
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Author:  Driven5 [ February 7, 2017, 1:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

"New" home page? Secret message? My computer operator system must be broken, as I was able to find none of this. :oops:

Author:  rx7locost [ April 6, 2017, 8:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

Well Dave? Is it time yet?

Author:  Evlshnngns [ April 6, 2017, 3:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

Giving the guests a belly full of ads seems like a fantastic idea.

Thanks for a great forum.

Author:  NoCost [ August 30, 2017, 12:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

I'd love to have a LocostUSA.com Banner to hang in the garage!

Author:  Lonnie-S [ November 16, 2019, 11:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

** - - - Cross Posted from Dave Hempy's Build log - Discuss Here - - - **


Yes, thank you for your efforts restoring the website, Dave (Hempy).

I'm with Bill (BHRmotorsport). Now is an excellent time to see if we can offload this responsibility from you to the staff of a web hosting organization. You shouldn't have to worry about backups & restoring the site or solving day to day issues of hosting.

I'd like to suggest that those of us who use the site frequently, voluntarily pay a yearly fee to get the site hosted by a suitable hosting/management organization. Let the less frequent users pay what they can and wish to pay, if anything. If there is a shortfall, then we can do a fundraising to make up the difference.

Thoughts? I'm going to cross post this to the site donations thread (The one you're reading now- Lonnie) too. That's a better place to discuss this as not everyone will see things in this build log.

Cheers,

Lonnie

Author:  rx7locost [ November 16, 2019, 12:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

Lonnie, I totally agree. I would suggest some alternative to your payment scheme. I would give free access to all new members for 1 year. Let people get familiar and comfortable with the site. There is a lot to digest. Not only the information available, but the character of the place. Perhaps they will already have started a build log by then. Then after 1 year, ask them to subscribe at whatever level they feel is comfortable. Make a few suggested levels. And include an option to auto-renew at the same level. After a few years, we can decide if that scheme works or if we need to modify it. Certainly if it doesn't work, Dave, or someone else can request further emergency operating expenses from the group. As of today, we have had a total of 7715 registered members over the years. I have no idea how many of them have logged in during the last year. Perhaps Dave can figure out if that is a workable financial plan.

This is one of the few sites that I frequent where there is no bickering or putting down of others ideas. That is saying something. Especially when we have grown from discussing traditional book Locost's to virtually every type of homemade vehicle. And even some resto-mods. That is a wide variety of goals to be covering without getting someone's undies in a bunch. Well done group!

Dave, we are not trying to run you out of town. Really. If there is a way to learn from this recent problem and prevent further errors without having to make big changes, then by all means, let's do so. :cheers: :cheers:

I am also cross posting this to David Hempy's build log

Author:  ngpmike [ November 16, 2019, 12:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

Quote:
Dave, we are not trying to run you out of town. Really. If there is a way to learn from this recent problem and prevent further errors without having to make big changes, then by all means, let's do so.


AGREED!!! :thmbsup:

Author:  BostonWill [ November 16, 2019, 1:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

I am in agreement, and more than willing to pay an annual fee. DO we have any idea what it would cost for an outside company to host & maintain this for us? That would help decide how much to charge. Dave, is the metadata easily available to mine average user access and activity?

Thom

Author:  KB58 [ November 16, 2019, 3:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

Six years and six pages later, this continues to be a reoccurring theme, where after each outage, we discuss—and agree to pay—membership fees, which are politely refused, and the whole thing dies down until the next time. What's the reasoning to continue down the same path?

Author:  nick47 [ November 16, 2019, 7:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

Hosting a website is relatively cheap. A hundred people contributing a buck or two a year would cover the payments to the hosting company. They don't do much more than keep the server running. The big outfits are pretty good about continuity and backups, although I did have trouble with Yahoo a few years back when they spun off Aabaco. With the smaller companies you can expect an occasional outage. I had a site on Dreamhost for a while with no problems, but their website IDE wasn't the best. GoDaddy is very good and their cPanel is great.

The real expense for a site like this is development and maintenance. That's a little harder to price since the work is volunteered by people like Dave. If he were in it for the money, he'd easily be getting $50-$100/hr.

I belong to a MG forum (MG Experience) that has both advertising and memberships. There are three membership levels, the highest ($40/yr) gets you minimal ads. Membership is strictly voluntary, but if you sign up, you get a little star by your name in your posts to show everyone you're contributing. The site has about 10K visitors and about one in twenty is a member. There are occasional posts by members attempting to shame non-members, but that doesn't seem to change the ratio. The guy who runs the site isn't making a living off it, but at least he's compensated for the time he puts in.

I like the no-ad environment myself, but they're so ubiquitous these days, you hardly even notice them anymore unless they're really overdone.

Author:  Cardot60 [ November 16, 2019, 10:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

I'm a member of a sonerai (experimental airplane) group that does a membership. It's $12 a year, and it seems to work well for them. However they have it set up so unless you pay there's no posting and you can't view attatchments. That doesn't make sense to those investigating home building anything. Not to me at least.

I wouldn't expect people to fork over money before knowing if this project suits them.

Anyway, simply sharing my experience. I would be happy to donate to this site. I donate to project binky and this site has provided at least as much inspiration and entertainment as those guys.

Author:  Cardot60 [ November 16, 2019, 10:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

Edit

Author:  DatL24 [ November 16, 2019, 11:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

I've never been a member but as soon as the site went down I about had a panic attack, so glad it's back up, and I'd love to help keep this place afloat as much as possible, be that either with a membership fee or a donation option. Although I will say, websites that *require* membership to access or view tend to stray out of existence, so handling it would require some tact.

Author:  Lonnie-S [ November 20, 2019, 7:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

I'm very open as to the specifics of the plan arrived at, but mostly concerned about keeping the site up, responsive and restorable if a failure occurs. I guess we just need some input from Dave?

Cheers,

Author:  DaveM [ November 21, 2019, 1:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Site donations

Is there an easy way to fund the hosting with ads?

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