I apologize for the cross-post (posted first to off-topic). But I think this affects enough Elysiun members to be on-topic.
I am writing this because I would like to get some feedback from the community on this issue. I have been offered a job down in Atlanta, Ga, and am pretty sure I am going to be accepting it here soon. It is a wonderful position working with Linux projects and due to the state of the economy and my college education level (or lack of), it is rare that this comes along. With me being almost 21 years old, and still living in my parent’s basement, also having just been released from a 3 year relationship (I know it sounds harsh icon_wink.gif ), I feel that I have been given an opportunity to start a new chapter in my life, and seriously look towards the future.
Now the issues with Iptic and the free sites, there are a few. The first, and least serious, is simply admin time. I need to be able to focus on work as needed, but then also have a life when not working. As I said though, this is not a very serious issue and I could probably write some scripts and things to handle a majority of the workload as I go. The second issue is the implications of a second major project besides work. My employers would like me to be able to concentrate on the projects there, and I am intending to let Iptic (the business) go in order to do this. However the community part I am possibly trying to work out. This is also not as serious as I have explained the that point of me taking a job is to get rid of the headaches of having my own company, so that there will be no loyalty issues involved. The third, and probably the biggest issue, is cost. The server and bandwidth is currently $173/month, although that is not a whole lot, living on your own in the city, with an exsisting car payment can be very tough. It is probably not an option for me to continue paying that much per month in the near future, so this is where I need suggestions and comments. I have come up with a few ideas.
1.) Donations (and I will find a way to do the admin)
2.) Someone else with space take over the mysite community (I could point the mysite.iptic.com IP address wherever is needed)
3.) Or the community just dissipate and peopel go back to other free services icon_frown.gif
I was planning on offering options for a small cost to help support it. This however will require quite a bit of work to track payments, and funds, and admin the many different permissions and services, and technical support. Also getting a few commercial sites would be difficult as running a hosting company is almost a job in itself, as there is much competition out there. So it is hard to get business without having extremely cheap prices, which sort of defeats the purpose. As I was designing Iptic, my intentions of having cheap and free things, was to be supported by the volume of traffic passing through Iptic and offering Linux based products from Iptic. So that it would be like a form of passive advertising through a transparent and non-aggressive approach.
If anyone has any suggestions or comments, please post them. If nothing comes around, and Iptic can not be continued, I will notify people so that things can be backed up. At first I wanted to continue Iptic at all costs, even if I had to work at a McDonalds to keep it going. But then I realized that I must think about the lessons I learned from the past, such as with my ex-girlfriend. I’ve experienced what happens when you give up opportunities for something in which your true future does not lie, and the cost of such can be much greater than the enjoyment of the moments caused by the impulsive decision based on emotion.[/b]
If everyone pays a little then you could pay for your server. {wonder if NaN would help out? prolly not :-/ }
