I don't really mind the ads.... if they are small and help pay for the site.

However, is there anyway to control what is advertised.

I saw a link up there "Supercharge any Pontiac for $59.95"
.... it was an ad for the "turbonator".... ugh
http://www.turbonator.com/index.html?id=adWordsPontiac

I'd hate for new members to think that a product like this is OK because it'* advertised on our site. :?

Im sure if anyone was to look at anything up there, they would at least post up in the threads and ask about it if not then its on them and im sure they will post about their experience good or bad.

I think someone said firefox may be able to rid the ad, but then everyone would have to use firefox.

I understand Jeff, normally I wouldn't have even offered. However, this site is too important to me not to make sure anything I can do to ensure it'* continued survival is done.

In fact, there is. In theory, turbonator.com ads should no longer appear.*

*it will take a few hours for Google to propagate the change

I currently manage around a dozen websites, all on one server (rented) which costs roughly $40 a month including bandwidth costs...

At one point I managed a forum of roughly 3000 members, ~200k posts a year was on what is known as "shared hosting", it was not on a dedicated server but set up in a way bonneville club is. It has one server hosting multiple sites and domains. On this I was allocated roughly 100GB a month in bandwidth and had around 10GB of storage, this ran $11 a month, $100 a year on top of the domain costs of $20 a year or so.

On that forum I mentioned there was roughly 20GB of transfer each month, which included the ability to upload photos under 100kb, some bandwidth from that was also stolen even with the protection I had in place.

My point is that (from what I understand) bonnevilleclub could easily run on $200 a year for server costs, including everything.

There are about 200 members at any given time that ABUSE the site lol...so I say 1/10th of them would donate.... that is $10 a member for 20 members, it seems reasonable. Hell, I'd chip in $20 a year.

In other words I know most would not donate (I had the same problem with that forum) however I did receive around $100 a year in donations, not quite enough to cover it but enough to leave me out of pocket just a few bucks and dozens of hours developing the template.

This is easily my most visited place online, I spend several hours on here each week. I dont like looking at 2006 bonneville ads.


My Point is all I do all day is work with servers and network crap and have a laundry list of contacts and companys if you need to lower the costs.

Advertising is NOT the way to do it as you will find out, How much does a click receive? 5 cents? Thats several hundred if not thousands of clicks a month? I doubt it will happen and if anyone tries to game the system - google will hold and keep the funds as per the user agreement that was put into place.

I say we take the funds generated by advertising, multiply that number by 3 and I dont see how we would have any problems raising that kind of money



Furthermore I just bought the Turbonator, its being overnighted.

Yes, it could be run on a cheaper server; in fact, until recently, it was. I am familiar with a variety of hosting alternatives, including shared hosting. I too have extensive IT and engineering experience. I respect your opinion and experience; however, I will run the site as I feel best befits it. If the advertising route doesn't work out, I'll take a different path.

Sorry if this sounds insolent; I don't mean it that way. I appreciate the concern, and I'll keep you in mind if I chose to change the hosting situation in the future.

Hans, if this site cost $200 a year, I highly doubt Jeff would be going to the lengths of setting up 2 banner ads.

I bought one of these $200 a year sites you mention below, through www.canaca.com advertising great bandwidth, lotsa storage and tons of email capability. Our Aurora Club site crashed daily. Why? Resources, provider hardware resources, it had nothing to do with bandwidth or any of the advertised feature. My tiny little 50 post a day ACNA site drained way more of the allocated resources reserved for our site. I was offered a ridicously high price offer to take the premium package that reserved enough hardware resources to support my forum.

I dont know much about web site hosting, and SQL and all this other nonsense. But if he (Jeff) had to resort to banner ads after 4 years....he had good reason.

I'm not sure who locked this, but I'll reply (while supporting the lock) for this reason:

It'* unfortunate that this had to turn into a "I know more about hosting than you" topic. This isn't and wasn't the intent of the topic at all.

Jeff Keacher has been shouldering the burden of hosting since our Fabulous Forum resided i a box in his CLOSET in his dorm room. I recall a couple minor crashes while he was at home (away from the dorm on vacation for holidays) and couldn't get back to reset the server.

Jeff has continually moved and upgraded for our benefit, despite the fact that he no longer owns a Bonneville. His dedication to this community is unquestionable.

I personally (granted I have a little clearer inside view of the situation behind the scenes) trust Jeff'* instincts, skills, experience, and decisions 100%.

Jeff has chosen our hosting over the years for a few reasons:
1. Bandwidth. This is critical.
2. Storage. Most Forums use 'pruning'. We do not. Every single topic in every single section from the beginning of time still exists in the DB.
3. RELIABILITY.

Cost be damned. Jeff chose the hosting for the right reasons. The cost grew over the years. Thankfully it peaked after he finished college and actually got a paying job. But he shouldered the burden through those tough college years, while working his way through TWO Bonnevilles (both red......which is slower than green).

Despite our pride in our own web-smarts and hosting prowess, this is NOT the topic being discussed here.

We have VERY good hosting now. And Jeff has put in place a very capable backup server in the process, while increasing our speed, storage, and bandwidth. It costs HIM dearly. Let'* recoup some of this.

Jeff has contributed to this site more than any single member, and gets nothing from it but a sense of satisfaction from helping so many members. Let'* rally behind the Site Owner, respect his decisions, understand why they were made, and move on.

When the voluntary donation phase begins, take some time to seriously consider how much money the existence of this Forum has saved you in repairs, cost, and time (don't forget entertainment).

:soapbox mode off: