The Ford Maverick Information Site (FMIS) and Maverick Message Board (MMB) have been online since 1996. When I first set up the FMIS, I used Geocities, which at the time offered 1 meg (less than the capacity of a floppy disk) of disk space to develop a homepage for free. Over the years, the website increased in size and outgrew Geocities. In 1998, I purchased the domain name maverick.to and moved the site to paid hosting, and began archiving all the message boards. As the popularity of the MMB grew, the MMB software had to be upgraded as well, as it could no longer handle the increased load. Thanks to the generosity of MMB members, I purchased state-of-the-art forum software, Vbulletin, in 2002. Today, the FMIS and MMB use over 500 megs (the equivalent of 345 floppy disks) of disk space and it keeps growing with each new post on the MMB. For the past couple of years, I have been doing some freelance web development with a friend, and as a perk, I get to host this website for free. Unfortunately, the amount of freelance work has been on the decline and I do not know how much longer I will be able to freely host this site. I am currently unemployed and will be so until I complete my degree, which will be no sooner than December 2004. Therefore, if I can no longer host this site for free; I will not be able to pay for the cost of the site. With the amount of resources that this site requires, plus the cost of the domain name and Vbulletin support, it will cost about $500.00 USD a year to operate this site. A decent hosting package with enough disk space and bandwidth (amount of data transferred from this site to your computer, which will likely be this month a record-breaking 6000 megs) is $35.00 USD a month. The domain name (maverick.to) renewal fee is $50.00 USD (“.to”s are more expensive than “.com”s) a year and Vbulletin support and upgrades are $30.00 USD a year. What I would like to do is make this website financially self-supporting. Over the summer, I thought about several possibilities to generate income, and the best idea that I came up with was to offer webhosting. Selling webhosting would enable me to buy a large hosting package, which I could then subdivide and create smaller packages to sell. I would offer several different packages, with a base package starting at $5.00 USD a month. This would include 25megs of disk space, several e-mails and the ability to run certain scripts like guest books, etc. The only additional cost will be a domain name, which can be had for $5.00 USD a year for a “.com”. A fully functional website with a domain name and emails@yourdomain.com would only cost $65.00 a year. I would provide all the technical support through a help desk system and I would write up tutorials on how to set up e-mail, transfer files, etc. All you would have to do is create the website, which can be done easily through the use of a free webpage program. As an incentive, I will place a rotating banner on the bottom of the MMB, where every site that I would host would get exposure to hundreds of visitors a day. Also, I will help you move any existing sites to my web server. I am serious about this and would like to get some feedback on this idea. Don’t be shy in expressing your thoughts or questions. I have a few days off and would like to know if you will support this idea, so I could get the ball rolling. Thank you.
Stefan, let me be the first to thank you for all you have done here. There can be no doubt that this has become the "Mecca of Maverick" for all of us. With us spread out all over everywhere, this is a valuable means of communication. I, for one, will support this site and I am sure I will have a great deal of company. $65/year for a site is a great rate and I'm there, dude. Figure out what will be the best and most cost effective course of action and let us know. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors and hope the unempolyment becomes just a bad memory very soon.
Stephen, Sucky news. I'm in financial straits muhsef, but I suppose I could do the $5/mo thing - but where does it end? What happens next year? How much more will be needed? I'm not asking these questions expecting you to provide an actual dollar amount - it just sounds like "we", as John Q. Public, don't know what's gonna hit us next and how much it will cost. Would the allowance of sponsor banners or annoying pop-ups (which can be controlled) eliminate the need for a 'paid subscribers-only-board'? How are similar non-paying-subscriber boards surviving? As you can tell, I know little about how this thing Al Gore invented, so my random thoughts may not even apply to your post. Good luck with the job-search. I feel your pain, -Rick
Stefan, First off, thanks for all you do and have done. Secondly, I will follow your good judgement and guidance as to what you need from us to fund this site. Dan
I'm There Dude! Stefan, Let me know when you're ready to begin this hosting deal. I've been toying with the idea for my new chassis fabrication sideline anyway. Let me know when and where. Thanks,
Stefan When I got on the internet some 7 or so years ago.....you were the first Maverick person I ran into. I emailed you and you emailed me back. I was so excited!! I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work and echo everyone else's sentiments. Since I already have numerous websites that I don't already maintain .....I don't need another one. Flat out....I will cut you a check and send you some money...just say the word and it is as good as done. Real simple that way. I am sure others won't have a problem doing the same. Just let us know.
First of all thanks for everything that you have done all these years. Sad to hear it has come to this but we need to do what it takes to keep the best and original Maverick site going. One thought I had was that some mustang forums I have seen around have sponsor banners and such. Even if it may decrease the "purity" of the site or be a little annoying I bet most people wouldn't mind if it meant the site could live on.
Rick, do not feel obliged to contribute financially if you cannot. As long as this site is up, there will be costs involved and hopefully they do not escalate with the increase in popularity. I cannnot predict how much hosting will cost in the comming years, but if it follows the trends of personal computers, you will get more for the same. 5 years ago a good computer was $2000 and with it you could create word docs, spreadsheets and play a few games. Today, a $2000 computer will allow you to do so much more like multimedia editing. During the dot-com boom when pay-per-click rates were good, I ran banner ads at the top of the MMB. Barely anyone clicked on them so I removed the banners after a few months. I never collected a penny from the banner company, as I needed to reach a certain quota before being issued a check. Today the pay-per-click rates are so low, many sites who were able to survive off of banners, no longer can. Another problem is that the MMB serves a small market so sponsors would be hard to find. One thing I will not do is turn the MMB into a 'paid subscribers-only-board'. Im sure the Mustang boards have an easier time getting sponsors as that market is much bigger than the Maverick one.
You could always trasfer your site from your current provider. I will set up donation link or you could snail mail me. Thanks.
The Mustang market is much bigger than the Maverick market. My previous experience with banners was disapointing, as no one clicked on them.
This sure is becoming a sullen post eh? Stefan, thank you for everything you have been doing for the board. It really is a great empire of a maverick site. As for the paid site thing, maybe if you made it so that MCCI members didnt have to pay. The only people that had to pay is the people who are not in the MCCI just looking for information. This would create one of two possible situations, 1. support the boards cost, and encourage more people to join the MCCI or 2.Not support the boards cost, and drive people away from the board/MCCI Maybe if you closed this board and kept it as a smaller based archive site in a link on a new MMB it would cut the costs for operation. What im saying is if you stopped the posts on this board, stopping the growth, making it an information site only, you could have a new board with all the previous posts not bogging it down with their girth in the megabyte world. I dont know if anybody can follow that but maybe it might help??? again, thanks for everything Stefan. -Todd
Stefan, you have a AWESOME board here and I will support in anyway I can. I do not wish to have a website......I don't think :confused: But I would more than glad to send you some money. I think I need this board as much as anyone does....how else would I stay awake at work every night?
Actually this is exactally what I need. I have The Mavaholic.com name for a couple of years but dont have a clue as to where to go from here. Super cool. Even if I didnt, this board is worth investing in. Count me in.
Not much else can be said to complement what a marvelous job you've done maintaining this board! Well done!! I'm all gain to donate to the cost of the board, and/or I would consider moving my website and having you host the site. I'd go either way. Just let me know how much! [Actually, since I've turned to Roadrunner for my ISP last spring, I will have to eventually get away from my old dial-up provider who hosts my site for free with the account. My pictures are at yet another host, which I pay for, so maybe this is the time].
