Well, there’s quite the deal regarding a server we could choose. AMD 64X2 4800, 2GB Ram, 120GB Hard Drive, those specs beat the pants off of the deal offered by our current host (120GB HD, AMD Sempron 3GHz, 1GB RAM). Without a control panel, they are essentially the same price. But, our current host would manage the server and do backups in the included price, while the host with the nice server would make those added costs.
Of course, we could build a server, host it at someone’s house and hope for the best.
It’d be a ridiculously slow connection, though. Power goes out, so does the site. Internet goes out, ditto.
What do we do, what do we do? Frustrating times, indeed.
“Of course, we could build a server, host it at someone’s house and hope for the best.
It’d be a ridiculously slow connection, though. Power goes out, so does the site. Internet goes out, ditto.”
Uhh… no? I’m pretty sure DreamHost’s $120/year plan would be better than that.
I think you should take the best route even if it’s more expensive, say it’s $200 a month and people donated $5 a month you would only need 40 of the members of the site to get that $200. Of course with more members donating it would be even less for them. 1$ for 200 members, ect.
I personally don’t know of any other site like this that offers many nice features and benefit with a staff that cares about the site like what I seen here.
I think pepsi drinker has the right idea. You guys should definatly ’solicit’ the fact that a monthly or quarterly donation of about $2.50 on everyone’s part would keep the site alive and well.
I dont see any easy solution. That doesnt say anything you dont already know though. Expecting donations, I just dont see it as being reasonable let alone realistic. We’d all love it if everyone chipped in when the money was needed but then again we all know there are times when money is tight. These days, it’s tight all around for everyone. We can scale the site down some but would that realy help THAT much? How could we do it? Get rid of the arcade? Get rid of certain portions of the database? What parts? The optional stuff? The images? The whole thing? Remove the database, it removes a vital part of what makes RFG the special place that it is. How about the board? What do we get rid of on that? Threads that are years old? Maybe disable images in the database for the time being. Not deleate, just disable. Atleast untill we find a way to find a more pemenint solution.
I don’t know, I still think a little donation would be best and easiest. In the servers and cost they said the server they was looking at was $102 a month. How many members do we have here? It’s over a couple of thousand right? I think the moderators should put up a poll or something and see who is willing to donate. If we can get atleast 408 members to donate a month they would only have to donate a quarter monthly.
I think the ego should be stroked and give people a small amount of glory for keeping the site alive by having all the donated s/n listed in a side bar or something. Like they do over at bluetack (B.I.S.S.)
I guess it comes down to if the members think there is any value to the site because really for that small monetary donation there shouldn’t be any reason not to but it has no value to them, then we don’t really need them here do we?
Like said if we could get atleast 408 members to donate a quarter that would pay for the cost, one really only needs to look in the couch cushions to find it.
I don’t know, that’s just my opinion.
I personally think everything will work out in the end.
Have you thought about establishing some sort of partnership with some online stores / other similar sites? I’ve seen a lot of sites try the donation to stay afloat plan and have it fall through after a few months, but if you offered either very controlled advertising the way Penny Arcade does (they individually approve every single advertiser, and only pick ones that like), or teamed up with an online retailer that sells collection oriented gaming stuff (either old school games and systems, or imports, or something), it could work better in the long term.
It seems that the eventual goal for this site is something like http://boardgamegeek.com/ , but for video games. The advertising on that site is a lot of online retailers that the user base shops at, as well as the board game publishers advertising their latest games. I think BGG also has some sort of yearly donation drive or something? I see “Year XXXX BGG Supporter” micro badges or whatever all the time. By isolating it to one time of the year, people are less likely to put off donating, no “I’ll donate a few bucks next month…”, and a semi-tangible award (the micro badge) gives more incentive.
Ideally whoever runs RFGeneration should really give BGG a good look over. The content for the site is entirely community contributed, and they have a slick rewards system for it. The site runs on “Geek Gold”. Various contributions give various levels of Geek Gold. Submitting a new game gives so much gold, a new, approved picture adds some gold, et cetera. Then, the Geek Gold is used to buy avatars, micro badges, geek badges, et cetera for user accounts.
Is this broken? I just tried submitting something and nothing showed up. Obviously this post is a test to see if it is or not.
I would be willing to donate. I enjoy the forum, but if we get rid of the database, there will be little reason for me to keep coming back. Also, I would have to type all my shit up. That’s why I love the database so much!
@Chainclaw:
WordPress Moderates new members. It’s like Kotaku, where we have to approve new commenters before they appear. Keeps spam down, I suppose.
@chainclaw:
Partnering / Sponsorship places RF Generation where we are no longer running the site for fun, and it becomes a business. We do not want that.
Traderjake:
Partnering / Sponsorship places RF Generation where we are no longer running the site for fun, and it becomes a business. We do not want that.
I dont really understand what this above means, I know that RF Generation may have started as a fun site and idea but really why cant it become a business? Why cant if become THE database website for games?
If it did become the de facto site to track your games on then things like asking for money would nevr happen again.
On that note unless ive missed a topic or post, why is the site down? was it useing too much bandwidth or is it a crappy companey that hosts it?