Future of Kiwi Biker

**MSTRS:Me** · 2nd May 2006, 10:02

One suggestion I have is...no direct advertising BUT a 'link' page to motorcycle-related businesses in the form of a directory. $10...$20...? per month to maintain their info.
Only trouble with any form of advert for money is the constant need for admin

**Colapop** · 2nd May 2006, 10:07

I think the money aspect is part of the picture but just as much is the admin side of things. Without getting into the whole administrators/mods arguement - the question is if Spank decides to discontinue this site for any reason then a community gets disbanded (possibly) unless there are others to maintain and uodate the site.

**MSTRS:Me** · 2nd May 2006, 10:12

Mr Pop - I know that is the 'problem'. Thing is, there are not many people out there with the ability, resources and commitment to want to run a site like Spank does. If it was self-funding, that might help.

**Grahameeboy** · 2nd May 2006, 10:14

Originally Posted by MSTRS

Mr Pop - I know that is the 'problem'. Thing is, there are not many people out there with the ability, resources and commitment to want to run a site like Spank does. If it was self-funding, that might help.

I agree MSTRS.....we should not take Spankme for granted and if we really want site to continue we need to look ahead...

**Warren** · 2nd May 2006, 10:18

The image below shows a possible upgrade path for when the site outgrows a single server.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image...2005-04-12.png

**T.I.E** · 2nd May 2006, 11:31

Originally Posted by Warren

The image below shows a possible upgrade path for when the site outgrows a single server.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image...2005-04-12.png

dam i'll stick to riding bikes you I.T boys are totally speaking another language.
but a directory of listings might be a way to go. to help subsidise (spelling?) spank for all the work and to keep the site open.
but that again sounds like a problem for gst returns etc. even donations would be hard to write off for some companies. dam regs

**Badcat** · 2nd May 2006, 11:40

Originally Posted by MSTRS

Mr Pop - I know that is the 'problem'. Thing is, there are not many people out there with the ability, resources and commitment to want to run a site like Spank does. If it was self-funding, that might help.

i donate $5 a month by automatic payment.
if a bunch of us did it.......

k

**GR81** · 2nd May 2006, 11:40

dont wanna have to turn it into an incorporated society... thats an ass, trust me! re: SDU

maybe something like a gold coin donation for rides such as ckchk's thursday night rides?
15-20 bikes/night could go a long way to maintaining a well setup server.

just ideas.

**T.I.E** · 2nd May 2006, 11:44

Originally Posted by GR81

dont wanna have to turn it into an incorporated society... thats an ass, trust me! re: SDU

maybe something like a gold coin donation for rides such as ckchk's thursday night rides?
15-20 bikes/night could go a long way to maintaining a well setup server.

just ideas.

yeah man thats a start. but i guess it's upto spank, money is there but what happens if he wants a break.or how much can we bribe him

spank you ever thought it would get this big?
donations and direct debt are an awesome idea.
think ill set one up too.

**Karma** · 2nd May 2006, 12:21

You wanna save on bandwidth and server space... kill sniper.

Simple, effective.

Failing that, gold coin donations on rides, advertised beforehand, don't just spring it on people.

Next newbie ride (date TBC) will be GCD.

**RantyDave** · 2nd May 2006, 12:43

Sorry, late in but ... what's this thread here for? There doesn't *appear* to be an ongoing problem. However, FWIW:

Is hosting becoming a problem? $90US for 200GB/month of International traffic is a shitload cheaper than buying it in NZ. However, 60% of the traffic appears to come from NZ, some NZ ISP's offer zero marginal cost national traffic to commercial users at least ... including my current employers ... and we get about 4MBit/sec to Auckland. I would have a problem proposing that we use our connection for a bikers website however - I don't think it would go down all that well. There might be mileage in doing a swap of some description however, particularly if there's a shit hot PHP developer involved.

More serious are the implications for KB if Spank gets (say) knocked off his bike. Despite what software vendors might tell you, this shit does not run itself and the cost of time is huge. There's also a red bus scenario around meganet (or whatever they are called) going under, or failing to pay a bill somewhere etc. etc. Has the site now grown large enough and relevant enough that KB disappearing off the face of the earth for a few weeks would be a really big problem? If so, what are we going to do about it?

OTOH I see from the usage logs that the site gets 400k hits/day. That, my friends, is one and a half metric shitloads of traffic. I would be surprised, nay, gobsmacked if Spank couldn't cover his costs and have a non-irrelevant amount left over from even just running google adwords. I imagine there's quite a lot of knowledge in the world about combining adwords with vBulletin as well.

Oh, and as if it were attempting to prove a point we appear to have lost one of the disks from our raid set. Oh well, back to work...

Dave

**Colapop** · 2nd May 2006, 13:18

Originally Posted by RantyDave

"...More serious are the implications for KB if Spank gets (say) knocked off his bike. Despite what software vendors might tell you, this shit does not run itself and the cost of time is huge...."

The rest went straight over my head but the bit quoted is my point. I'm not saying it's just about cash. Everybody should do their bit and I'm not going to parade around here saying how I do or don't do. The point is that the work (Time/effort) it takes to upkeep this site (plus other sites he maintains) take a lot of effort and that can take it's toll. I'm talking about ensuring that whatever the future holds that this site/community can continue. It's a gimme that it's conditional on Spankme's blessing etc but this is not about being selfish (for the site) but making sure of it's longevity by taking the pressure off (mostly Spankme)

**R6_kid:Me** · 2nd May 2006, 13:31

goto www.r6-forum.com and see what we put it up with there. Its great to come here and just post and not have to look at 10 blinking and flashing adverts.

**GR81** · 2nd May 2006, 13:38

you need a balance. nothing wrong with 1 or 2 simple ads if it helps things run smoother.
it aint a porn site remember. we arent talking about popups and flashing boobs everywhere... although nothing wrong with boobs in ya face from time to time