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Post by Tiana, eh? on Sept 13, 2006 21:02:31 GMT -5
Okay, come on, admit it, we'd all like to have a domain name and a pretty, fancy site to go alongside the forum. And, admit it, with the end of the crazes for fandoms, we NEED it. MEI can't survive while being a simple forum fandom RP/blather blog. We need... to be real.
And considering that Jandalf and I are putting forth a pretty reasonable attempt to write a novel out, and... stuff... and all of that, it'd almost be good if we already had a site.
Hey, I love MEI. I'm not leaving. It's just a matter of getting ourselves a domain name, like we had once plotted. Which brings us to another point, a possibility...
cafepress.
It's an online store. I talked to mommy Celebrian, and Jandalf about this, and they both think the idea is all right. MEI could sell tee-shirts. See, there's no way the two of us can pay for a domain name and hosting (more importantly, the hosting) right now. She's in collage, my dad JUST started working again and our family's so far in the hole it isn't funny, not to mention that I'm not working as it is. Any money I get is saved up for the concerts we attend with youth group, if. And I don't get money often. And it's sure not easy to make money designing graphics when you don't have contacts or anything better than a town of 1000 to work with.
So basically, we'd have to ask members for donations, and... even though a good deal of us know I exist, you couldn't know that I was HONEST. It just... wouldn't... work. I mean, yes, a good chunk of the frequent members will trust Jandalf and I, simply because some of you have talked to me aloud and stuff. But... money? Money's a big thing, here. And we're all kids. And... you know how it is.
But we could make a store. You guys would get a nice shirt or something, we'd get the money to buy a domain name, and it would all work out. It's a better idea than donating, because you guys would get something in the end. And it IS possible to convince parents to buy things over the internet. Mommy endorses the idea, anyway. And we have graphics designers who CAN do original art, that wouldn't be copywrited, to get a few nice Middle-earthian shirts or whatnot out there.
It's just if anyone would spring for it. It costs around 10 dollars a month to host a webpage if you can get a good, cheaper deal. Usually hosting comes with a domain name if you get the slightly more expensive. With, say, 15 dollars a month hosting we could even get Middle-earthian email addresses. It's just the matter of money. I don't MAKE 15 dollars a month yet! -_- If I did, I'd pay for it myself without talking to the rest of the members.
But, you know.
Here's an option. Extending the option... WOULD you BUY the pickle shirt (I don't even remember what was suppose to go on the pickle shirt)? The Darth Vader in the bus shirt if we were able to originalify it? Or something else distinctively Middle-earthian? It's POD. (Print on Demand) It probably wouldn't cost us anything to make the store and have merchandise. It's just a matter of the fine points. HELP!
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Post by jackerwen on Sept 15, 2006 7:25:48 GMT -5
I believe that if you paid $10 a month you'd be getting ripped off, deary. I know someone who hosts for less than $100 for a whole year. That's domain, emails, and support. I have a domain via this guy and he's brilliant. He accepts through paypal, even. But yeah, I'd donate. I don't want a T, I have too many as it is. But yeah, check him out: www.dravu.com
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Post by MFB - That One Guy on Sept 15, 2006 16:36:25 GMT -5
Tiana, have you looked into canaca.com or hostmonster.com? They both are priced at about 4.00 a month, and have really good plans. I'm on Canaca right now, but I've heard horror stories about their service...I'm gonna switch to Host Monster once this one expires.
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Post by Dûncariel is Dead. on Sept 15, 2006 22:40:04 GMT -5
I'll buy a t-shirt when I turn eighteen... which is February, so yeah.
My braindead self has absolutely nothing else to say...
Tito out.
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Post by Ali Blue on Sept 16, 2006 14:31:06 GMT -5
I think I could buy a t-shirt. probably.
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Post by Morgana Le Fay on Sept 16, 2006 14:40:26 GMT -5
The online store would support the domain. The members would have to keep buying products to fund the site and keep it going. ... It's a conspiracy.
Love a T, but college comes first.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Sept 21, 2006 23:41:29 GMT -5
XD. I can offer more than tees... really.
Anyway.
Host Monster is good. The cheapest I had found before that point was one that was 7 dollars a month, and didn't offer as much space. I'll probably go with them. That's a 2 year plan, though, so it's 120 dollarsish up front. Understand that I'm Canadian and my money is worth less. Heh. So when I say ten dollars, I'm rounding up due to my dollar being worth 75 cents American as a general adverage.
Also, I'm adding 7% general sales tax.
Yeah.
So, let's guess around 120 dollars. TECHNICALLY I think Jandalf and I would be able to pool together for 70 dollars each and pay for hosting right now. It'd be awkward, but we could PROBABLY pull it off, as a guess. Note that probably. However, it'd be really cruel of our members to make us do this, because she's in collage and I can't work yet due to mommy forcing me to stay at home and babysit for chocolate, books and shirts. (hey, it's not that bad of a deal...)
So, let's just suggest that J and I came up with 40 dollars each... that's 80 dollars... we'd still need another 40 dollars from our members, which isn't so bad from you guys, and it'd cover us for 2 years. Fortunately we have coders, graphic artists, etc, and wouldn't need professionals to set up a site.
So, you know, this means if four people donated us 10 dollars, we'd be able to get hosting. If 8 people donated us 10 dollars, that means we could get it even faster. ;D
So, Commander, you wouldn't have to keep buying teeshirts and other products to fund us. In fact, all we expect of people is to buy one shirt, to post a lot, and buy our book when it comes out. Duh. ;D
Snrk.
Jack, would you donate for a mug? Or a hat? Or ART?!!?! Seriously. J and I are both arteeeeeeeeeests. If we get into the whole domain thing (which feels more likely now), we could sell art to fund MEI!!!!
Lawl.
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Post by Jandalf on Toast on Sept 22, 2006 21:07:37 GMT -5
Heck, don't even necessarily need to sell stuff to the members themselves either, or in a few years they'd have more mugs, t-shirts, and mousepads than they'd know what to do with... Even just coming up with a few less site-specific amusing tee designs and putting them up for sale somewhere might help contribute, if the interest is there.
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Post by Cy Otauna on Sept 23, 2006 8:08:00 GMT -5
I'd very much like a t-shirt/art. Online store, hmm--that'd certainly work better than we have it on ESPS.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Sept 23, 2006 14:13:06 GMT -5
Yeah, we do need to sell stuff to the members. Understand that I have to buy a 2 year plan with the hostmonster one anyway. I can get, I think it was 20 gigs of space for one year for 4 a month from theimagehosting too, but yeah. Less space. Not as many email addresses. Hostmonter's better. Not HOST-MONSTER, though, because they're one of the 16 dollars for the expensiver plans, cheapest being something like 8 for not very much space at all.
But, yeah, if even 10 members bought something... we'd probably be set for the couple of years... maybe I should offer the ESPS Aurebesh shirt. Snrk.
Yup.
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Post by SilverSergyon13 on Sept 26, 2006 9:43:18 GMT -5
If the stuff is good I'll definitely buy. Just let me know when the stuff is on the site.
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Post by SilverSergyon13 on Sept 26, 2006 9:45:59 GMT -5
Double post and another question - Do we definitely need to get a web domain? I'm perfectly happy with the way the site is now. Do you think a domain name will increase membership? If you don't think it will, I would say just keep the site as it is. It would be a $120 less dollars that you would have to spend.
BYC, another site I am on, has a community chest to pay for their site. That way people can donate money and it goes right to a certain account that can only be used for renewing and paying for the site. Also, people run auctions and sell stuff to donate the money to the site. That may be an idea also.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Sept 26, 2006 17:44:50 GMT -5
Which is why my next thread should probably be "what do you guys want, anyway?"
Okay. Here's the thing. We do not NEED a domain name, however...
As pretty as our proboards site is, it gets us no traffic and... well, proboards sites are just a bit unprofessional and stuff. Not to mention phpBB forums load faster. I'd like to host my own rather than having to be worrying about Proboard's TOSes (not like we'd be breaking them anyway, but I'd rather like to not freak out every time someone said something in another language). I'd rather not have to worry about PB going down. I'll be honest. I'm not going to delete or remove this forum, at least for a very long time; it'll be direct linked from the domain. Once everything's been moved over from this site, from all the skins to the essential threads, then I'll disallow membership to this site without approval and it'll be the oldbie's forum. However, I have a few ulterior motives for wanting the domain name, the prime one being that for a while, I've been considering the idea of a webcomic and would like a host for that. Another one being that I know a few of us might like art sites that aren't Freewebs or something limited like that, something we can display what we can do and direct people to. And, really? I'd like like to give MEI a bit more of a wider atmosphere... to give us a proper .html type of a site with movie reviews, parodies, and other basic amusement for people who might chance by and don't want to get involved into a big forum. I personally like the idea of having a Wordpress type blog at the start that the staff members of MEI can rave on randomly in or something. I'd LIKE to have a page for quizzes with the snazzy "Are you a Dark Jedi" type quizzes and other things related to our site... "Should you join the light, dark, or gre/ay side?" sort of things. We don't need it, and I definately don't plan on eradicating this forum. Yeah, it'd be 120 less dollars, but it'd be fun, and if it doesn't work out... well, maybe we just weren't meant to be anyway.
A community chest... like set up a bank account, connect a paypal to it, and that money can only be used for the site and accessed for the site?
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Post by SilverSergyon13 on Sept 28, 2006 22:55:37 GMT -5
Yep, that's the exact thing that they do at BYC. However, the one down thing is that you would probably have to have paypal to donate money. The one thing you could do though is have people send the money to you or your mom and then you could enter it into the account. I'm sure there's ways to allow members to see how much is in the account, that way they know their donations got entered.
Another idea is holding a sort of raffle. Have everyone pay a few dollars towards the site. Then pick a name out of a hat and give them a percentage of the money. The rest goes towards a new site.
Another thing you could start here is a buy/sell/trade forum. People could start buying and selling video games, cds, movies, books, etc. It may take a long time to get very busy, but I think that would be a fun idea. Then you could also allow people to hold mini auctions on the site and donate part of the winning bid money to the site if they want. That's what people on BYC began doing, and the bill for the site is over $1000. We are able to make it by the time the money has to be paid. Mind you, BYC is not a domain website, the reason we have to pay is to keep the ads away.
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Post by Tiana, eh? on Oct 1, 2006 22:28:57 GMT -5
Community chest still would involve trusting us as your admins that we're honest, and stuff like that means we have to be even more careful-like. Fortunately, I've talked to nearly everyone of the admins live... Dun's the only one I haven't, isn't it? Yeah. Woo.
Raffles are fun, though, yeah. Anyway, on that topic... I've had a couple people offer to donate money straight off, a few people agree to buy shirts, and a couple agree to buy art. If they all hold to it, donating 10 dollars each, we're pretty well covered for a while. I'm working on making a site template. Bloody <tr><td> tags, making no sense on me.
People would have to trust each other to hold actions, but it might be a good idea. Even a trade forum would be fun, really... "I'll send you this for that".
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Post by Dûncariel is Dead. on Oct 2, 2006 21:14:36 GMT -5
Yeah. *rolls eyes* Aren't I the mysterious one. So, do I exist? Or am I the same figment of all of your imaginations? Just something to think about.
I think once I'm settled at college in the next year and have a steady job I would donate. Not a whole lot, because... well, college. But some. Yep.
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