literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

http://www.myfreeforum.org/index....task=view&id=13&Itemid=32

A friend in India just now commented that their prices seem most reasonable.

$9/month for an ad free site and $18/month for a full blown site with FTP backup! That's less than $1 (USD) per day! Often we spend more than that on luxuries that we should not be indulging in.

FTP backup is important to me, so that I can backup and safeguard the time and energy I have invested in creative writing.

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Sitaram wrote:

Let me know the exact US dollar amount for a year, to have you host
the forum, and what is involved with pay pal, and down time.

I am perfectly happy to pay a yearly fee, and continue to use
literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org since part of my forum's agenda
is to promote free forums such as yours, and help people to have their
own. My greatest motive in paying for hosting is to have the security
of FTP backup, so that I may protect my writing activity.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Reply from admin:

We are fully backed up, with off site backups to ensure safety.
If you pay by paypal and keep the same domain name, there is no
downtime, you simply find the adverts are longer there.

The yearly charge is $100 payable to paypal@marsjupiter.com

We want to help, so feel free to request things.

+++++++++++++++

I worked 20 hours over this weekend, posting interesting articles
worth saving from my egroup. I am most anxious not to lose all this
hard work.

Which is why I would appreciate your reviewing my site, to assure me
that I have totally complied with TOS and Conditions.

It would have been better for me to SAVE each egroup post to my hard
drive before posting to my forum this weekend, but I was in a rush,
and I wanted to see how much I could get done, and also, get some
reactions.

I do see some potential for a site such as mine, and such search
engines, to get into the search engines and draw some traffic for you.
And as you perhaps alread sense, I am a gung-ho crusader about
encouraging others to get a site, if only to learn administrative skills.

So perhaps these recruiting efforts of mine will also benefit.

Please be candid in your comments regarding my site, regarding its
conformity to your requirements, as I do not want to invest countless
hours only to find out that such a forum cannot be a long term thing
for me. I have one member in Kuala Lumpur, a woman, and a young
man in Singapore, who have been devoted readers for a few years,
and they may elect to become admins, to keep some of my writings
alive after my death. I am interested in the possibility of memorial
sites. I asked my web site host, but they do not accept any payments
of years in advance, but only for the current year. But I imagine there
is a market for memorial sites, especially for peole who write a lot.

Thanks in advance for your time and assistance.

=======================
Admin replied:

I have taken at look at your site, and it seems quite wonderful. In their
free forum we intend to keep all our sites going for as ever as ever
can be. e.g. if you paid to remove advertising and the payment lapsed,
the site would simply revert to being a free site with advertising.

We are happy to accept any instructions on what should happen to
the administration of a site after death.

As for terms and conditions, we are really not heavy on these. A forum
has to work pretty hard to break the conditions, apart from the one on
guest readability which is an easy trap to fall into.

++++++++++++++++++

Sitaram wrote:

Sounds good. And, how shall you know that the payment is from me.
Is there a message space for me to specify what it is... I have never
used paypal...

++++++++++++++++++++++

Admin replies:

There is message space with paypal for you to say what it is about.
Hacking is not an impossiblity, but by using a free service like us, in
some ways you are better protected.

Hacking tends to occur when a vulnerability is found, and someone
has developed an "exploit" for that vulnerability.

The forums that get hacked on the ones maintained by individuals or
sloppy companies that fail to upgrade their forums when an update is
available.

You have one forum! I have 5000 to worry about, but I am not losing
sleep, we have backups, we apply forum security fixes immediately,
we use "managed" servers, with server level security therefore being
proactively dealt with. The forum servers have no 3rd parties with a
potentially dangerous level of access.

In short we are as secure as we practically can be.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My main concern regarding my personal backup, is if I as admin slip
up.... and someone deletes my work...

I notice that in the screen to moderate members, there is a box which
might easily be clicked accdentally, which makes them admin,... I am
realizing the wisdom of doing everything via hidden groups, and just
adding members to the appropriate group with the appropriate
permissions.

Paying for my hosting will give me the luxury if having some hidden
forums, visible only to members, for the sake of uncluttering the main
forum screen. But I certainly want as much as possible exposed to
guests and search engines. And I will try to frequently encourage
participation in and donations to myfreeforum.org because I believe in
what you are doing.

It is very comforting to know that my forum would simply revert to a
free forum, if I could no longer pay. But I should be able to pay that
modest sum for the forseeable years.

I am hoping to fine one or two people to be co admin... having
quarterly backups is an insurance policy for me against loss from a co
admins errors or malice. Of course, if the day comes that you can
implement something with regard to a superadmin... then that
problem/risk shall be lessened.

I am going to discuss arrangements for a will/testament, to provide a
certain sum to myfreeforum.org to so that the forum may live on for a
few years after my death. If I can find a few young people who are
interested in co-admin, then they may help in carrying on. This is not
a big issue for me. If it works, it works. If not, thats ok. But it is an
idea which interests me. I feel I have a few things worth saying
to/(being read by) the next generation. Perhaps I am mistaken. But
as Joseph Cambell said, "Follow your dream" or something to that
effect. My memory is not always the best some times, and I depend
upon google for such quotes. Aha... no, "FOLLOW YOUR BLISS", that is
what he said, I think.

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

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