Nathan et al,
I like the albums feature. Is that for all users or just invited uploaders? Is it free or a paid service? I currently have a picturetrail album, but would rather give my money to an organization like this than to picturetrail.
Last edited by Chad Arnow on Mon 18 Aug, 2003 2:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
| Chad Arnow wrote: |
| Nathan et al,
I like the labums feature. Is that for all users or just invited uploaders? Is it free or a paid service? I currently have a picturetrail album, but would rather give my money to an organization like this than to picturetrail. |
Hum. Good questions. It gets me thinking.
Being a photo junkie, myself, I absolutely love the photo album section. This section will be available to all users when we go live with these new features. Currently there are over 3,000 photos in the public database with more to come.
I'm considering offering extended myArmoury.com accounts to those users wishing to create their own albums. These personal albums will allow users to upload their own images for sharing with the community and will serve as a hosting service as well. In many ways, this functionality is similar to what places like PictureTrail offers. Unlike these other services, this will really be community-specific, made available directly to the on-line sword community and getting more targeted exposure.
In terms of pricing, I'm thinking I may need to find some methods to offset the annual cost for this server. As the features of myArmoury.com grow, the need for disk space and bandwidth are increased. The new features debuting this week have increased my annual host fees 4x. Maybe a small annual fee for these additional services, and others, could be collected. Any feedback on pricing and whatnot is greatly welcome.
My initial plan was to offer two levels of extended accounts:
Upgraded Members
These members would have the ability to host their own photo album and will have an increase in their forum "attachment quota" too.
Premium Members
These members would have have the above benefits with additional space allocated to them as well as have a myArmoury.com email address and a sub-domain (ex: chad_a.myArmoury.com) pointing directly to their album
Lots of new features to myArmoury.com are planned and these new accounts could be made to offer various levels of services available.
All this is just brainstorm. It's far from conceptual vapor-ware, though, as the infrastructure is already completed to allow for this to happen. I just have to decide if it's a good idea :)
Thoughts? Anyone?
I like the idea of charging for special uses - I want to make sure this webpage is available for years to come. As we had discussed, I would love to have Mike be able to go in and send out birthday cards and whatnot, with photos of an Albion Mark sword. If we had a particular subscription rate that allowed him to do this, it would allow us a unique CS asset, and the customers who received the cards could become myArmoury fans as well.
Amy
Amy
Just a fwiw...
I see no problem whatsoever in the host of a site like this allowing "donations" to the site. Just a simple paypal link for donating a little bit to help offset operational costs. No guilt, no nag screens, just a small spot to allow those of us who can afford it to help if we can.
I have my own server and can host my own images so I wouldn't have any need to upgrade to a paid membership. But a site like this is something that I wouldn't mind donating a small amount to just to help offset the cost in terms of hosting fees, time, etc. for administration. Personally as long as a forum like this can happen and remain focused on the academic aspect of western arms and armor, heck, even if it ain't my area of interest ("go East young man...") I'd be happy to help support it.
There is so much out there on the internet that tries to be too much to too many people. And with the overwhelming popularity of mass produced materials (which I have nothing against actually) the focus of too many discussion forums ends up being more, well, immature I suppose. I come from an academic background and I rather enjoy focused, academic, and details discussions and articles. Heck, I've been reading your site and stuff for a long time even though its really not my area. What can I say, I'm a lifetime student at heart...
Anyway, I'm all for supporting anyone who is trying to keep a strong, historic focus on these areas.
Just a suggestion.
I see no problem whatsoever in the host of a site like this allowing "donations" to the site. Just a simple paypal link for donating a little bit to help offset operational costs. No guilt, no nag screens, just a small spot to allow those of us who can afford it to help if we can.
I have my own server and can host my own images so I wouldn't have any need to upgrade to a paid membership. But a site like this is something that I wouldn't mind donating a small amount to just to help offset the cost in terms of hosting fees, time, etc. for administration. Personally as long as a forum like this can happen and remain focused on the academic aspect of western arms and armor, heck, even if it ain't my area of interest ("go East young man...") I'd be happy to help support it.
There is so much out there on the internet that tries to be too much to too many people. And with the overwhelming popularity of mass produced materials (which I have nothing against actually) the focus of too many discussion forums ends up being more, well, immature I suppose. I come from an academic background and I rather enjoy focused, academic, and details discussions and articles. Heck, I've been reading your site and stuff for a long time even though its really not my area. What can I say, I'm a lifetime student at heart...
Anyway, I'm all for supporting anyone who is trying to keep a strong, historic focus on these areas.
Just a suggestion.
Hi Nathan,
I agree with Keith. I would not be opposed to an annual membership, nor do I feel it would be out of line for the host to ask everyone to ante up. A site such as this provides us all with invaluable information, new contacts world wide, and a forum to share our love of edged weapons.
Ron
I agree with Keith. I would not be opposed to an annual membership, nor do I feel it would be out of line for the host to ask everyone to ante up. A site such as this provides us all with invaluable information, new contacts world wide, and a forum to share our love of edged weapons.
Ron
that sounds good to me, a volentary donation, but one that everyone participating would be allowed to pay
| Keith Larman wrote: |
|
There is so much out there on the internet that tries to be too much to too many people. And with the overwhelming popularity of mass produced materials (which I have nothing against actually) the focus of too many discussion forums ends up being more, well, immature I suppose. I come from an academic background and I rather enjoy focused, academic, and details discussions and articles. Heck, I've been reading your site and stuff for a long time even though its really not my area. What can I say, I'm a lifetime student at heart. |
Nathan:
I'd like to second Keith's comments. I think a small yearly fee would separate the wheat from the chaff and serve as a tool for focusing the discussion on these boards. I've enjoyed other sword boards, but it takes a great deal of time to sift through the repetitive questions and idle banter to find the nugget of new information. I'm all in favor of charging for this board -- besides it probably takes time to maintain the boards, money to support the server, and time to generate this site's great content. That information and access, as a commodity, is worth something. I don't know if you're interested in this, but I'd charge everybody who wants to post some fee. I would also keep your idea of two "extra" levels for further privileges and services. I have a growing collection, a digital camera, and a little experience taking pictures of my own swords -- I love the idea of having my own location where I can post new photos to share with the community. And I’m willing to pay for this privilege.
So far, everything looks fantastic. Thanks for the opportunity to preview the boards. I'm looking forward to spending much more time here!
--Steve
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