I've seen them on other boards and they're always popular. Might be something to consider unless you're really trying to conserve space on the server. You don't have to clutter the on-topic forums with these OT posts and it's a place for things like the MP3 debate and the religion thing.
I say yes. Because every board like this one should have an Off-Topic forum. You see how many topics there are in here that are OT, they could all go in there, and this forum would only have Rachael stuff. Would be easier to look for stuff.
This is a good idea
--------------------- To Hotrage people: *cough*As long as it doesn't turn out the way the natportman Off-Topic board did...*cough*
[Edited by T.D on July 18, 2001]
Posts: 94 | Location: Schiedam, Holland | Registered: September 12, 2000
Plus, the whole point should be to get people to stay on this site as long as possible, right? I think average time anyone spends on a given site is like 7 minutes. You get people to stay on longer and they click more ad banners, bringing more money to keep the site going.
How much damage do extraneous posts do? Can you break the cost down by the number of posts? I'm just thinking my existence on this forum may not be worth the cost of my 50 posts!!... What if you delete me, then can we afford an OT category?...
Seriously, anything you want to tell us to keep the costs down? I could work on keeping my posts down to five words each, I guess...
...(going to click an ad right now)
Posts: 70 | Location: Los Angeles | Registered: July 14, 2001
quote:Originally posted by Priest: ...(going to click an ad right now)
That's about as much as you can do to help. The ads don't bring in much revenue at all, but what it does bring it helps deter the cost of hosting, so every little bit helps.
Funny part is, I actually think the Auto Club insurance thing is something I'm going to do! I just moved to LA, and they're about half of what I was quoted by 21st Century... LOL Whaddya know.
As for the cost of my other 50 posts, the check is in the mail, Chaos; you still at your Florida address??? lol
Posts: 70 | Location: Los Angeles | Registered: July 14, 2001
I was wondering... I've heard lots of people talk about the cost of hosting etc etc... but what does it really cost? I host my own website on my own machine in my bedroom (a little $325 e-machine loaded with Linux Mandrake 8.0 and apache). Costs me all of 0 dollars a month (not counting the 80 bucks a month I pay for high speed DSL, which I would still have regardless). Now, granted this isn't a redundant web cluster with guaranteed five nines reliablility, but it's pretty darn good for not costing me a thing.
Just wondering... I guess if you want serious quality webhosting you can't really do it yourself, but it seems to me that unless you're doing something commercial, where a couple hours downtime once a month will cost you millions, then you ought to be able to do it yourself.
Please don't take this as a personal insult, I'm really just curious, because I know several people who also run websites and have them hosted elsewhere, and since I've never had a truly serious website, I wouldn't really know.
-Nate
Posts: 428 | Location: Somerville, MA USA | Registered: May 09, 2001
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! (Sorry, Chaos, it's just an expression ). Somebody is shelling out a little cash to make a premo, reliable fan site, and we get the benefit. There are some payoffs: it's not every fansite on the net that gets named on the celebrity's home page right under the words "With sites as good as these, who needs 'official'?" I doubt that'd still be true if the site was grinding to a halt every time Chaos decided to download some new caps (assuming he didn't put up for a dedicated box).
In the end, 30/month for hosting probably works out to being cheaper than 400 bucks for the server and the additional 40-60/month for better broadband.
Kudos on running the Linux/apache box, though, Nate. I bet you liked Anti-Trust: open-source wins the day!! Now if Bill Gates would just hurry up and whack somebody....
Posts: 70 | Location: Los Angeles | Registered: July 14, 2001
Thats in the works actually, it costs nothing to do, but I am waiting for 6.1 for a few new features, and most of all, reduced server load. 6.0 has some load issues due to all the file I/O.
) on the OT forum if it were created...