Forums for aspfaq.com

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

What do you think about having discussion forums on aspfaq.com?

(a) Would you use them? Not as an alternative to these groups, but as
another place to discuss issues?

(b) Would your answer to (a) change if you had to register (for maintenance
and lock-out/abuse purposes)?

(c) Do you have any preference as to how the site could be self-sufficient?
e.g. would you be willing to pay a lifetime membership fee, or put up with
banners, or ... other ideas ...? I know there are free venues out there,
and nobody likes to pay for anything, but I also know that people will pay
(or put up with advertising) for useful information and/or a more usable
interface.

I'm building a forums module for another project, and it has been an
often-requested feature for my own site. However, the bandwidth and
database usage comes at a price, and I don't think I could justify footing
the bill out-of-pocket (since the site itself derives $0 in revenue). I
would certainly consider making the service cost- and banner-free if I can
get any suggestions on how to make the site support itself.

Thanks for any input,
Aaron

 

[Steven Burn]

Aaron,
I know this is probably of no help but, I'd be more than happy to host a
forum for you........?

As for registering, with my experience of forums over the past couple of
years I'd have to say, registration is a must as otherwise, it's left way
too wide open to abuse.

--

Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

 

[Jeff Cochran]

What do you think about having discussion forums on aspfaq.com?

(a) Would you use them? Not as an alternative to these groups, but as
another place to discuss issues?

Unlikely. Too many groups to keep track of, I'd use one, and I hate
online forum interfaces. Of course, if you designed a better forum...

(b) Would your answer to (a) change if you had to register (for maintenance
and lock-out/abuse purposes)?

No. But I wouldn't mind registering if I had chosen the opposite of
my answer.

(c) Do you have any preference as to how the site could be self-sufficient?
e.g. would you be willing to pay a lifetime membership fee, or put up with
banners, or ... other ideas ...? I know there are free venues out there,
and nobody likes to pay for anything, but I also know that people will pay
(or put up with advertising) for useful information and/or a more usable
interface.

Strapped for cash huh? Okay, I just PayPal'd a donation. That should
keep the site going for another, oh, about 18 minutes.

Seriously, thanks for the kick in the pants, I keep forgetting to
donate. And I'm sure many of the rest of us forget as well (Right
Guys?)

I'm building a forums module for another project, and it has been an
often-requested feature for my own site. However, the bandwidth and
database usage comes at a price, and I don't think I could justify footing
the bill out-of-pocket (since the site itself derives $0 in revenue). I
would certainly consider making the service cost- and banner-free if I can
get any suggestions on how to make the site support itself.

ASPFAQ.COM branded merchandise...

Actually it's a valid question. And I don't really mind banners if
they're not obtrusive, Chris Crowe had to start accepting banner ads
to pay for IISFAQ.com, might want to ping him and see how he's been
doing with them.

Jeff

 

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

Thanks Jeff!

Not strapped for cash, but if the forums are even marginally useful, the
bandwidth and storage space required would far exceed my current plan (which
is an exceptional deal, I might add).

Even if I host somewhere for free, it would also be nice to recover some of
the development costs, as I swallowed some of that due to a customer's
constantly changing requirements.

No, I won't be working for them in the future. And yes, they're aware that
I'll be re-using the work they paid me (scantily) for.

Maybe I could sell the source code. I've always hated the thought of doing
that though, because I hate charging for instructional/tutorial code --
since much of my life revolves around giving it away. It is also
conceivable that I would sell one copy and that'd be it... people will share
it, publish it, etc. Not that I'm a genius. But I'm hoping to make the
performance and the feature set a step above anything I've experienced to
date. If I'm going to set up a merchant account and start accepting credit
cards, well, I'd have to have some way of ensuring that it'll all be for
more than one copy. The barriers for a merchant account is one of the
reasons perfhound is free, and also why that domain is disappearing (you can
download the code from aspfaq.com). ;-)

Donations were a big part of the aspfaq.com re-launch many moons back. But
after the initial push, it tapers off quite heavily. So as much as I'd like
to think the site could survive on donations alone, my mortgage and car
payments are tapping me on the shoulder, suggesting otherwise.

 

[Tom Kaminski [MVP]]

What do you think about having discussion forums on aspfaq.com?

(a) Would you use them? Not as an alternative to these groups, but as
another place to discuss issues?

I personally think it would dilute this newsgroup. Do we really need/want
yet another place to answer FAQs? : )

 

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

I personally think it would dilute this newsgroup. Do we really need/want

yet another place to answer FAQs? : )

Well, I was planning on dividing it up a little better, since it is so tough
to get new ASP newsgroups added. e-mail, sessions, forms, .... Also new
article suggestions, an advanced group, a private group, etc...

A

 

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

Oh, and no post-dating, and ability for admins to remove spam / off-topic.

 

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

be careful there..... postdating sure, auto-correct these

There won't be any such thing. Unlike Microsoft's NNTP servers, which for
some reason take the client's system clock as gospel, posts will be
timestamped with the server time.

Make sure it's only removed if it's truely "junk"

"Junk" is anything that is off-topic (spam, .net questions in the .general
group, etc). If someone says "Aaron sucks!" in the database forum, it gets
hosed. If someone says "Aaron rocks!" in the database forum, it gets hosed.
If someone says either in the .aaron forum, it stays.

Clear? ;-)

 

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

Hey, you werent at the summit were you......slacker.....

Oh, forgot to reply to this part. YES I WAS!

 

[Jeff Cochran]

Well, I was planning on dividing it up a little better, since it is so tough
to get new ASP newsgroups added. e-mail, sessions, forms, .... Also new
article suggestions, an advanced group, a private group, etc...

Then instead of one resource with a couple dozen posts a day, you'd
have to check a dozen resources with few to no posts a day, and no
Google Groups to query for answers.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Cochran]

Dang.......must have missed ya.

I missed him to, and even had several other MVP's tell me he didn't
show. Maybe if he'd worn some distinctive clothing...

Jeff

 

[Aaron [SQL Server MVP]]

I missed him to, and even had several other MVP's tell me he didn't

show. Maybe if he'd worn some distinctive clothing...

Hey, I talked to Manohar, so I have proof I was there!

I mostly hung out with Bryant, oj and the other SQL folks... including a
$140 steak on the last night. Oops!