Re: New? LIT site.

["Kevin 'Tex' Houston" <hous0042@maroon.tc.umn.edu>]

Kelly Starks x7066 MS 10-39 wrote:

> 4) Piggy back on Kevins start up busness.
> 
> As Kevin listed
> 
> SSD pay part of the $30.00 / month (and $40.00 start-up) and gets part of
> 30 Megs of fast! storage space from a company called tabnet.
> http://www.tabnet.com/
> 
> Good
> -  FTP Access to the main site.  No need to have two sites going.
> -  E-mail and Majordomo.  We can get the mailing list started again!
>    and auto-foreward mail addresses like KevinH@urly-bird, or TimV@urly-bird
>    which would send the mail on to our normal addresses.
> -  A SysAdmin (Kevin) who is committed to supporting us.
> 
> Also SSD could start geting comercial sponcers from space related groups
> (Magazines and interest groups for example) I'm making some inquires.  We
> don't get a ton of traffic (thou that could improve if we could keep the
> site active and updated) but we should be able to defray some of these
> costs.
> 
> We also get to help Kevin in his new busness.  (And I get to start showing
> off my web skills on My resume!)
> 
> Bad
> On the other hand start up busnesses usually fail.  We could wind up
> looking for a new home.  (we definately would want to get a InterNIC Domain
> Registration name so people could link to us with a name we could transfer
> quickly to a new site.  But that would add another $100 start up cost.)
> And of course we are cheap sorts and don't want to pay.

URLY-bird.com is an InterNIC domain name, and if my business fails, I'd be glad to
donate the name to the group.  It'll be paid for two years.  (I will pay for this 
wether or not you guys chip in)  the question in my mind is wether to go for the 
server options, or just point urly-bird to my school account.

> 5)  AOL might host us

> Bad
> 
> If they don't want to  support us for free their rates are high.  For a basic (
> Domain) account.
> 
>     $  99 - Onetime Startup Fee (for current AOL members!)
>     $ 100 - Initial InterNIC Domain Registration (2 year registration)
>     $  99 - Per month
>     ____
>     $298 - Total to be launched

Ouch.  If we're going to pay that much, then let's just get our own server space and 
InterNIC Domain name.  forgot about urly-bird, let's just get a real site.

from Tabnet we could get the same thing for:

	$ 50.00 Tabnet's Domain name registration fee.
	$100.00 InterNIC Registration fee (2 years)
	$ 50.00 for 50 megs
	_______
	$200.00 To launch, and only $50.00 /mo.



> I'm also concerned over accepting Kevin's offer, and even more reluctant to

I understand these concerns all of you have expressed.  I just want to say that I 
won't be hurt if you guys decide to go with some other option.  please do not base
your decisions on our friendship.

> accept my friend in D.C's offer.  Eiather could run into problems and fold
> out from under us or just lose.  Kevin isn't likly to lose interest, and I
> doubt he'll just dump us without warning (I just got Dave's horror story),
> but he could run into problems.  If so we might be forced to pitch in some
> money for a while.  On the other hand we might attract enough sponsership

I suppose this could happen, if so, the overhead would amount to $30.00/mo.

> from space related groups to by the overhead.  (I talked to the guy at the
> Interstelar propulsion group and he said they have gotten far more interest
> and input then they expected. This suprised me since they seem like a dead
> site and even the admin addreses are dead, but if the can do it and get a
> bit of sponcership we should be able to get a bit.)
> 
> I guess my thought would be that a major sponcer like AOL (whos rich enough
> write us off as a novelty forever) could provide us with a stable high

Or until they see enough activity at the site that they think we can pay for it.
I see real potential "blackmail" problems.  ie. It would be such a hassel to look 
for a new site that we would be unwilling to move.  I would prefer to stay at 
Sunsite than go to AOL.

> quality site.  Which sounds ideal, if they are interested.  Kevin would be
> a good secound.  He's motivated and VERY unlikly to casually burn us, and
> moving to a comercial site could be self supporting and more stable.  But
> the cost could become a problem; and he could go broke or be overwelmed by
> his new busness.  Which brings us back to staying at Sunsite.  (I'ld reject
> the other two options as undesirable unless SunSite bails.)

As for time constraints, having multiple access codes to the site, would allow
us all to take over Sysadmin duties if needed.

Kevin