Hi Steve, The Photo Site is about to do a fund raising. Soon, visitors will see a pop up when they first visit. Yes, in the future, that site stays alive only through donations. Sorry folks, my interests, by need are going in a different direction. Here is the rub in a consolidation: 1 - When I conceived the Photo Site I did so simply because I wanted to see larger and higher quality photos of M-Boats. That in itself is a problem for most because larger photos means more bandwidth which equals a greater cost to operate. Would the photos be the same size on the new consolidated site? (redundant question). 2 - I have put in countless hours and dollars creating the Photo Site which gets visited very often from viewers from all over the world. That site could and should be listed for sale as a potential place to put those annoying advertising links that you see pop up or blink all the time. Most of the sites are going that way because voluntary participation is dwindling and limited, what... a bad economy? If someone wants to consolidate the Photo Site, It would have to be purchased (E-mail me off list). In the past six years I have put in a fair amount of money, not mentioning labor, while keeping advertising out of the picture. And, yes that was my decision. I certainly do not fault the group because I have not asked for donations... truly my fault. The Photo Site is just a small piece of the M-Boats Internet presence. Doug King www.MSOG.org has a few years of seniority. I would guess he has dedicated more than I, not mentioning labor to the M-Boats presence. Then there are several other sites that owners have put together. But, for now I'll just do a fund raiser and we'll pay the bills. I like to relate a "good" Website to the movies. If you spend a couple of hours admiring M-Boats, download a few pictures, isn't that worth just as much as the price of movie admission? As my friend from Jersey would say: "Hey, I'm just talkin' here". There's my comments - hope I did not offend or surprise anyone. Bill On 10/11/08, Steve R. <stever707@mail.saabnet.com> wrote:
I think Howard has a good point in discussing consolidation. Unfortunately we may not agree on how to consolidate.
As far as a discussion goes, I would like to raise the following points:
First, we tend to plow the same ground over and over. I have thought about starting a FAQ for the M-15 but just never got around to doing it. Reposting gems from Jerry, Connie and Bob would cover a lot of it. BTW - Jerry, Connie and Bob - think about writing a book.
Second, most of us are mortal(excluding moi and my angelic trophy wife). Is there a succession plan for these web entities? I participate in another group that for one reason or another has lost the moderator, and no one else can join the group. I would hate to see something like that happen to us.
Third, do we need to raise funds to support any on going operations?
I noticed a while back after a google search that I was getting Montgomery hits from this site:
http://www.mail-archive.com/montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com/info.html
Someone has signed the list up to be archived at this web site. You can even search or view messages by thread or by date. There is also a RSS feed at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com/maillist.x...
The last week or so I have not even been reading my e-mails. I just peek at the RSS from time to time and click on what interests me.
There is at least one other "archiver" web site out there that we are on, but this site seems to have a better interface to me.
Comments?
steve
Steve R. M-15 #119 Lexington, KY
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