Page 2 of 3

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:08 pm
by 3D-vice
ALScreen.jpg
FYI: Running Firefox 72.0.1 (64-Bit) on a Windows 10 system, the Donation Button shows in the middle of the blue site footer.


Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:45 am
by McTrinsic
Yes I never get that far on the site. πŸ˜€πŸ˜†

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:26 am
by intric8
Hey Guys!

First off, thanks again for everyone's contributions up to this point. While I've been researching what ads might mean for the site, folks have donated 2/3 of what I was seeking for a year's worth of operating revenue. The need for ads for the next year has nearly been taken care of just by having this conversation. You guys are the best!

As for the location of the Donate button, I threw it down there intentionally because I wasn't trying to beat it over everyone's heads. I hear that putting it in the header would give it a lot more visibility. And maybe that should be where it lives. I just didn't want it to be one of the key focuses. It needs to be usable, but not in your face every time you come back. That was my thinking at least.

Thanks again to all. This has been a very heart warming start to the new year.

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:46 am
by McTrinsic
Glad this is going in a direction you like. And do t put too much effort I to my request. You may happily ignore it. Would have been ok if it might have been to just change a parameter I a config file. No extra work for me :).

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 11:06 am
by intric8

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 4:20 pm
by intric8
If any of you experienced ads on the site today, my apologies. I was running an experience where Google automatically can inject them into the pages. And... I shouldn't have been shocked, but I was. The sheer number and size was insane.

I've removed the ad code. No ads for 2020. Screw that!

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 5:12 am
by McTrinsic
Still get them.
It’s... interesting πŸ€”πŸ˜‚

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 5:37 am
by 3D-vice
Just out of curiosity and since I have no clue at all, if I may ask: What are the costs for running and manitaning this site?

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 10:20 am
by intric8
@3D-Vice

I'm all about 100% transparency. I don't mind sharing this kind of info if you're really curious. It's boring but here it is since you asked.

Due to the size and traffic of this site, plus security certificates I must renew each year, I'm on a plan that includes (and charges) for the following:
  • Domain registration: $11.95/yr (that would be such a great business to be in...)
  • SSL security: $15/yr (if you don't do this, you disappear from Google)
  • Hosting: $95.40/yr ($8/mo. I pay two years at a time to get this rate)
  • Dreamshield: $3/mo, which is a marketing term for software that scans for malicious code, out of date software, bad permissions, etc. You'd think this would be part of normal hosting but it isn't.
The whole SSL thing is sort of a double-edged sword. If I don't use it, Google will mark the site as dangerous and we'll lose our traffic from search engines (the #1 source of new visitors). On the other hand, a lot of our old retro gear can't hit sites with https under normal circumstances. So, that kinda sucks.

Anyway, it's about $160/yr or thereabouts, give or take, to keep the lights on and protect our privacy, etc.

In addition, I pay for coding work from a fantastic programmer who helps be build new features when he has availability. Those charges completely depend on the scope of a given project and vary from feature to feature. I'm not going to list those charges here, but they are extremely reasonable and I'm happy to invest in our collective experience to offer fun content offerings and tools. Like, The Games Library was an entirely custom section built into the site with hand-made content management tools. Stuff like that.

Like I said before you guys graciously lent your support and 2020 is looking good. I really appreciate all of the support big time.

Re: A Serious Discussion for a Second

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:52 pm
by 3D-vice
Thanks for the elaborate cost overview. It's intersting to see that site security has to be obtained separately. However, looking at all what crouches through the shadows of interweb, these are necessary measures.