I have been debating and debating what to do with the site. I think I have decided not to go with the home connection for my $4000 superserver because I don't want the responsibility of keeping it up, seeing as I cannot find a qualified server admin to volunteer or help out.
Dr. Halavais
suggested I talk with a woman named Kera
who is a graduate of the UB informatics dept, web designer at Medaille and knows of a good local hosting company. After getting ahold of her I was able to contact buffalo web hosting
They also seem really nice and local which is good but pretty freakin' expensive. I will end up paying $46/month which is really a lot to me considering I pay it all out of pocket.
We also will be losing shell access and with Buffalo web hosting. Because I don't get ssh and I can't compile my own stuff - blah. A dedicated box with them is really expensive. Around $250/month which is pretty crazy freakin's expensive for a site that is totally free.
I wonder what options the future will hold for
(e:strip). Maybe if someone out there is a grant writer, they could help us write for grants. I have no idea where to start on that
(e:terry) said he could get us declared a federal non-profit but that still wouldn't help the server situation but may open up more grant opportunities.
So either a grant writer or people will have to donate. However, the best solution is that someone can offer me a really nice job for $40-50k a year where I will work really hard and just pay for it out of pocket. Here is my portfolio
I seriously have no problem paying for it all to support this local community, I just wish I had a bigger personal budget to pull from or didn't have $70,000 in student loans that I will have to start paying next month.
Kera suggest making estrip merchandise that people can buy. I like the idea but who is going to buy a tee-shirt or a coffee mug? Maybe if we put
(e:matthew) ' s photos on them! Maybe I will just stick with where we are for now. an not care about the whole local thing.
Or poor people like us who have two people on one computer network.
Of course, any one clever enough to network a couple of computers or, heaven forbid, has two or more people sharing the same computer just isn't the Artvoice's target audience I reckon.
I would say more but my dear departed mom taught me that sometimes it is better to say nothing than to say something mean especially if it is true.