It's just another day

[Mike]

During the month of May, I:

• upgraded the PHP script on the server
• upgraded MySQL to the latest version
• upgraded Tapatalk to the latest version
• upgraded Xen Media Gallery to the latest versio
• Added RAM to our server plan
• Changed the database system from MySQL to MariaDB
• Upgraded Xen Media Gallery to the latest version, again
• Upgraded Xen Media Gallery to the latest version, again
• Upgraded Xen Media Gallery to the latest version, again
• Upgraded Xen Media Gallery to the latest version, again
• upgraded the DXF forum style to the latest version
• upgraded the DXF-Red forum style to the latest version
• upgraded the NodesAsTabs script to the latest version
• blocked 10,037 spam registration attempts
• fielded 87 tech questions on the Contact Us form
• fielded 1 tech question on the Help Desk

And thus far, during the month of June, I've already pulled $152.50 out of my own pocket, to add to the $135.00 received in donations, to cover June's hosting expenses.

I want to thank everyone for granting me the opportunity to not only maintain this forum for all of you, but also for giving the me chance to cover 53% of the hosting costs out of my own pocket. I thrill in the delight of paying for the opportunity to have a place to add to my personal workload and to provide a place for you to pass the time. (Gee, did that sound sarcastic?)

People, I give up. And before some smartarse without half a clue suggests I am giving up because I don't care about this site, let me point out that just SIX members donated to this site, during the month of May. So it is certainly not a case of my not caring about the site, it is a case of the majority of you not caring about this site.

I've tried everything I know to grow this site. I've stayed abreast of technology and have tested ways of both making and keeping this site stable, secure and fast. I've added scripts to provide features members have asked for. I've promoted this place on other sites. I've spent hundreds (thousands?) of hours, trying to improve on-page search engine optimization for this site. And nearly all of it has worked, and worked well.

Yet it still seems like six or seven times, each year, I have to remind everyone this site is donation-driven. And that without your donations, this place cannot move forward. It gets everyone all excited and community-minded. For about 3 minutes. And then I am once again left in the position of begging you to let me provide you with a place to pass your time away. I had to sell my gaberlunzie license to help cover this morning's unexpected expense, which means I am finished with playing the part of beggar. If you've not figured it out by now, nothing I can do or say will help at this late date.

Sorry people, but paying for the right to sort out people's technical problems, paying for the right to be bitched at when things don't work the way others want and paying for the right to take care of all the maintenance on this place have finally worn me out. I'll check the donations on 30 June and if there is enough money on hand to cover July's expenses, I will pay the bill. If the money falls short.... I think you are all bright enough to sort that out for yourselves.

 

[jimbo01]

..

 

[jimbo01]

..

Mike,

Since the doors are going to be closing, why not try the last resort and make it a pay site? This too has been suggested by members correct?

 

[old round fart]

Can't get the donate thing to work.....again.

 

[Dino]

Mike I have to agree with them.

 

[old round fart]

Got it to work that time. I didn't page down far enough to see the right donate button. John

 

[Telman2]

You need $3240.00 a year to run this place and we have 3261 members, if everyone kicked in $1.00 a year you'd have enough to pay the bills and buy yourself a lunch at Mickey D's. We all know that isn't going to happen but if you charged $5.00 a year to belong and one fifth or 650 members of those 3261 stuck with you you'd still get the annual bill paid. You never mention what the forum sponsors contribution is but if the membership were cut to a fifth of what it is they might drop their sponsorship. I'm a retired blue collar worker living on a fixed income and considering what I manage to contribute annually if we went to a $5.00 a year membership fee I'd save enough money to fill the tank on my bucket .

Seriously I know you like to run balls out but do we really need to be on the cutting edge with the latest and greatest on the forum? Which ever way you decide to go I'll stick with you, I don't post much but I enjoy logging in to read the threads twice a day.

 

[Telman2]

Everyone is always saying what a great place this is and how they've learned so much here but at the mention of money everyone goes silent. I'm not building a bucket, I built mine in 1967 and I've been enjoying it for 45 years now so I don't come here for advice. I come here for the entertainment, I enjoy reading about your builds and how you're solving the problems your running into. If Mike has to close the doors here I have other forums and interests I explore, I'm also interested in photography, Labrador retrievers, kites and Kimber 1911's, you know those things that go bang and spit big hunks of lead. I contribute annually to help keep the doors open so all you new guys will have access to something you can't buy, that's the real time collective experience of a hardcore group of old timers that has been there and done that. Anybody that's accessing the forum that's building or just thinking about building a bucket that can honestly say he can't afford to kick in a couple of bucks a year to keep this place running should just forget about building a car because believe me you really can't afford that either.

Well I see it's just after 5:00PM my time so I'll get down off my soapbox and go pour a couple of fingers of my avatar.

T2 out.

 

[jimbo01]

Everyone is always saying what a great place this is and how they've learned so much here but at the mention of money everyone goes silent. I'm not building a bucket, I built mine in 1967 and I've been enjoying it for 45 years now so I don't come here for advice. I come here for the entertainment, I enjoy reading about your builds and how you're solving the problems your running into. If Mike has to close the doors here I have other forums and interests I explore, I'm also interested in photography, Labrador retrievers, kites and Kimber 1911's, you know those things that go bang and spit big hunks of lead. I contribute annually to help keep the doors open so all you new guys will have access to something you can't buy, that's the real time collective experience of a hardcore group of old timers that has been there and done that. Anybody that's accessing the forum that's building or just thinking about building a bucket that can honestly say he can't afford to kick in a couple of bucks a year to keep this place running should just forget about building a car because believe me you really can't afford that either.

Well I see it's just after 5:00PM my time so I'll get down off my soapbox and go pour a couple of fingers of my avatar.

T2 out.

But then again, why buy the cow if the milk is free?

 

[old round fart]

But then again, why buy the cow if the milk is free?"
Because I don't want to be a leach! I come here several times a day and want it to be here when I come! Mike runs the safest and cleanest site I go to so I give to keep him here.

 

[PotvinGuy]

Mike, I pledge to donate $5 /month. And if you want to make it a paid site, that is a great idea.

 

[cptn60]

Ok, I'm new here but have been reading and learning. No one wants to see the site go down, but at the same time the way it is right now isn't working. The idea of a pay site is a darn good one, especially considering the wealth of experience, BIG 4 vendor involvement, and the fact that there just ain't many bucket sites at all. And as was written earlier; if the milk is free..ain't paying for the cow.Mr. Mike, don't want to tick you off or cause trouble; however threatening to close it every few months to scare enough folks into contributing ain't right either. If you're burnt out, can't take it anymore, fed up; what ever then that's a decision you gotta make. You have identified the problem, and a workable solution has been suggested. All comes down to what you really, really want to do.

 

[cptn60]

And I'm in at $20 a year.

 

[Mike]

<sigh> Let me try to explain this, one more time. And please don't think I am trying to be rude or sarcastic, I am merely laying out some facts.

1. I've run the math, time and again. And whilst it all looks good on paper, this is real-world. I've tallied the numbers before and simply cannot be arsed to do it again, just the now, but there are only around 65 or 70 members who donate to the future of the site. And I want to point out that of that number, nearly all of them are regular and repeat supporters.

2. I agree, if every member kicked in $1/year, then things would work out just fine. However, of the 3,264 total members, well over 2/3's of them are inactive, have never posted so much as once and have not revisited the site since they registered. <shrug> Nothing unusual about that, it is just how forums work. People have some innate desire to belong and forums allow them to do it anonymously, so they join without having any real intention of ever participating.

3. Converting the site to a subscription site and expecting 650 members to stick around and pay for a subscription is pie in the sky. Sorry, I know that sounds harsh, but it is what it is. Again, when we only have 65 people who care enough to donate now, are we going to be fortunate enough to have even 100 subscribers? I don't think so.

4. Since the site opened in October 2006, I have poured countless hours into optimizing the site for search engine bots, so we can rank as highly on the search engine results pages as possible. Because that is where we are getting potential new members. 36.7% of our daily traffic is direct traffic, that is people who either visited this site from a browser bookmark or typed the address into their browser. Barely 1/3 of the overall traffic. On the other hand, 56.4% of our daily traffic comes from the search engines.

If I close the site down to subscribers only, that means the search engine bots cannot 'see' the site and will not be able to index the site. And that, ladies and gentleman, shoots down well over half of our traffic. If those people can no longer find us via the search engines, then how do you propose we get them in here?



There are the registration statistics for the past month. The registrations were soft for the month, but I'm not looking to cherry-pick an outstanding month. Twenty-two registrations. Now, let's eliminate 56.4% of that number and we're suddenly down to twelve new members, in a month. Of that twelve, how many would have registered, had they arrived here and been greeted by a pay-to-play notice? People, I am sorry, but I don't pay for something I cannot see and I really don't know anyone who would. It comes back to the bridge in Brooklyn that is always coming up for sale.

I know, I know, everyone thinks pay-per-view is the simple solution, but if you will take the time to look at the real numbers, I think you will see it is folly.

cptn60, you make a very valid point. But it rubs my fur the wrong way, the way you have stated it. I am not 'threatening' to close the site every few months, simply because I am trying to extort money from anyone. Let me quite clear on something - this site is but one of several that I own and operate. I do not need this site, rather I have tried to grow it because it seemed the members need it. And the site has grown to a point where I CANNOT AFFORD TO FUND IT. Read that again. And again. And as many times as it takes to understand, if no one wants to support the site, closing it is NOT a threat, it is a reality. If this site were to close, tomorrow will just be another day for me. A site this size should be paying its own bills and producing $400 - $500 in monthly income, and trust me, that is certainly not happening. So you tell me, who loses if this site goes broke? You look at this place as a source of entertainment. I look at this place as a business that must earn enough to support itself. See the difference?

Anyone who thinks I like holding this place hostage has lost the plot. I absolutely do not want to be playing the beggar every third or fourth month. But if I don't do that, where does this place end up? cptn60, please don't think I am trying to single you out, because I am not. But you are an excellent example of the problem. I certainly appreciate the faith you demonstrate in this place, by offering to subscribe, but where were you, a week ago, when we were not even at 50% of the monthly donation quota? You're in for a double sawbuck? That's wonderful, but this place cost me $152.50, this month.

Again, cptn60, I am not trying to single you out, or be sarcastic, I'm just trying to get the point across. I'm not threatening anything, I'm just reminding everyone that if we cannot afford to pay our expenses, we cannot remain here. There's a big difference between uttering threats and stating simple facts. So I certainly appreciate people dropping the 'threat' accusations, because that isn't happening. And frankly, I am sick to death of having to remind everyone of the simple facts all the time. How is that I have smaller sites that generate more funds each month than this one, without my having to say a word?

What I really, really want to do is to continue offering T-Bucket enthusiasts a discussion forum they can enjoy. I like being able to do that, but I simply cannot afford to do it at this level. I also get a kick out of being a thorn in the side of the wannabes, who were going to 'show me a thing or two', so I want the place to survive. But I have also come to the conclusion that I cannot continue to serve steak and lobster in a soup kitchen. The majority of our members want something for nothing, so I have to find ways to provide just that. If I cannot accomplish the task, then maybe someone can tell me how to grow a money tree, because I cannot afford to pay for the place. Full stop.

I am looking to get this place onto a much leaner budget. Some of you are going to raise all manner of Hell about it, but I am trying (rather unsuccessfully, at present ) to write a conversion script, to convert this site to a free and open source platform. It will mean giving up all of our add-ons (photo gallery, member map, help desk, etc.), but we cannot afford to remain where we are. I will strip out all the add-ons, then cull out all of the zero-posting and inactive members, to get this place down to as small a size as possible. From there, I will then be able to move the site over to some cheapie hosting and get away from this expensive server.

Yes, it means losing a lot of features and going back to a straight discussion forum. Yes, it means the site will run considerably slower and we will likely start suffering some unexpected downtime. Yes, we will lose all of our anti-spam tools, but I figure anyone who frequents forums is used to putting up with spam, anyway. If that is what it takes to ensure a future for this site, then we'll all just have to get used to it. I figure a no-frills forum is better than no forum at all.

The new Hot Rod Refuge site has just 31 members, but we have days when we are getting over twice as many posts over there, that we see here. We're feeling pretty positive about that one and are already starting to build on the site. I already have in hand a Xen Media Gallery license for that site and will be deploying it as soon as we see one more update. And we are really excited, because XenForo is about to release a really fantastic upgrade, that will provide a lot more features for everyone. The user interface is going to improve, my admin tools are going to improve and our anti-spam measures are going to add another layer of security. We've already set up a test site, so we can upgrade it as soon as the Beta becomes available, in order to help get the package ready for the live site. You can read the news about the new package, here. Actually, that test site is running a newer version of the gallery than what is running here, simply because I can't be bothered to upgrade this one. It's hard to believe a forum that is not even a month old, with almost no members and no posts, can be showing me a lot more promise than this place, but there you have it.

Here is why my own priorities are shifting, as they are. We are setting new traffic records on this site, nearly every day. And if more people are showing up here, that means we should be converting those people to new members and seeing our post counts increase. But that is not happening. I think we have reached a saturation point, because registrations are cooling off and post submission numbers are declining. I will do my best to continue to offer the members here a place to get together and talk about T-Buckets, but I'm not going to flog a dead horse. If worse comes to worst, the Hot Rod Refuge is open to discussions about T-Buckets. And you know, maybe that is as good as it is going to get.