A thread to discuss naming threads, board policy, new thread suggestions, and anything else that has to do with board administration and maintenance. Guaranteed to include lively debate and polls. Natter discouraged, but not deleted.
Current Stompy Feet: ita, Jon B, DXMachina, P.M. Marcontell, Liese S., amych
FWIW on the dedicated server/Buffistaffiliates question --
Powell's pays its "partners" (their term) 7.5% of the purchase price and does not charge for partnership. There were 180 unique posters during the first 10 months of August.
Assuming these numbers are typical, an average of $20 spent per poster per month through affiliate links would lead to $270 per month. (7.5% of $20 = $1.50 per poster, x 180 = $270) At that rate, within 9 months we'd have the $2000-2500 that's been mentioned for a dedicated server. And have ongoing income for upkeep, a cushion for down months, and maybe a little extra for charitable contributions to honor ME-related births.
$20 per month is a little more than one full-price CD, or one fairly modest-priced DVD, or alternating one hardback book with one trade paperback each month.
Is this doable (as an average -- some will spend more, and some can't afford that much)? Is this something we want to consider?
(ETA, based on xposts -- Obviously, Monique has answered one of my questions -- $20 per poster would give us minimal service. And I'm tossing this out in the spirit of let's-play-around-with-ideas, not we-should-do-this-now.)
Semidedicated. There are other clients, but I have no idea how many others.
Ok. (I wondered how close we are to effectively having a dedicated server already, in terms of MySQL usage. But if we're sharing with other clients, there's really no way to tell.)
Really just curious, though.
$20 spent per poster per month through affiliate links
I think that's wildly optimistic, although I have no data to back that up.
Xposted:
I keep my downloads set at 100, FWIW.
I think quickposts, timelies and numbersluts contribute to the overall hominess of the borad.
If mandating 50 to 100 posts per and jumping autorefresh to 30 minutes will let us keep the little sillynesses, I'm all for it.
If the code can be tweaked to make it even less a problem, wooo!
But I like us. I like the little posts, the long posts, the weird posts and even the nitpicky posts, the long arguments and the quick birthdays.
Anything that can be done to keep the flavor of the Buffistas without bashing away the nuances would make my day.
$20 spent per poster per month through affiliate links
I think that's wildly optimistic, although I have no data to back that up.
If posters are anything like yours truly it's actually a very conservative estimate. I spend at least 200 dollars a month online, at Buffiliate potential sites, between personal and business expenditures.
If posters are anything like yours truly it's actually a very conservative estimate.
But that doesn't account for people like me who spend zero in online purchases a month.
I think it's the assumption that every single poster will spend anything through Amazon. Sure, some of us have expensive habits, but others of us buy nothing at all.
Anyway, if we put an Amazon link in the left sidebar, I'll use it, and whatever flows into the kitty you're welcome to. But I expect to donate directly as well.
Why not attach a small optional rider to the latest ballot to poll people on approximately how much they spend online in a typical month? That might give us a better figure rather than just speculating. And I repeat, the poll would be optional.
If posters are anything like yours truly it's actually a very conservative estimate. I spend at least 200 dollars a month online, at Buffiliate potential sites, between personal and business expenditures
I'm with Sean, I'm afraid. Online purchases limited to coach tickets and suchlike, for the most part. Average online monthly spending likely to be less than $ 5.00 for me.
Online purchases are a big part of life for me because I hate shopping in real stores. I don't have a clue what the monthly figure would be.
