As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

[AAFO_WSagar]

You guys are generating enough ad traffic, and a generous donation or two, I'll be able to negotiate some sort of deal with the web host for the next few years.. well, at least next year!!

There are a couple of reasons that I insist that we exist on a dedicated server.. One, for years... (since the beginning) we were able to help entities like the Heritage Cup.. We had a dedicated server... they needed reliable space... done!

BIGGEST reason..

When "it" happened, trapped on the press bus at outer 4.. You could not connect anywhere to find out what happened. We all knew someone had gone in visually, blissfully. final moments were blocked by terrain....

I actually was the first one to find out what had happened..... RARA site was down... hangartalk was not! I managed to connect via cell, someone had posted on hangartalk that Jimmy had gone in and it was bad...

ONLY REASON we could connect to AAFO and NOT AIRRACE.ORG was because they are on a piece of a server...

AAFO, thanks to all of you, IS a SERVER!.

I am serious.. this website does not exist on somebody else's box somewhere.. It exists on the box YOU GUYS rent in a data center, all by its reliable self!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

Almost zero traffic here,

Just about everyone who used to use this place to bring attention to their team has migrated to the highly profitable FACEBOOK platform

You guys are keeping it going with donations and ad revenue... Hoping we will collect enough to get a two year contract...

Just floating random thoughts

[Matt58]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

Wayne, I don?t know if you want/can talk about numbers here openly, but what type of costs are we talking about?

[RAD2LTR]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

How do we encourage the photographers to come back. When AAFO was really booming, there were at least a dozen top aviation photographers posting here. Now we are hard pressed to get 3 or 4. Since I still haven't found a place to host my stuff easily other than FB (And I dont like FB since it compresses everything) its tough for me to post quality pics that stay on the site. I wish I had the room on my computer to double save everything in both full size and small size so I could directly load everything here. (Then again, does anyone really want me to post 1000+ pics here?)

With Wayne not going this year, that is one less person posting pics. We need content. That is what is really hampering the site, there isn't enough content throughout the year. I try my best to post updates for racers when I know about them, but I'm largely in the dark for most. I'm not officially part of any team, and I don't really have any inside connections so its hard to come up with content to post.

As far as inviting new photographers to post, heck guys, most people have a cell phone, post away. Does it matter that you aren't shooting top level stuff? Nope. I've followed this site since the mid 90s, it was posts from Victor Archer, Tim Adams (who burned me at the stake one year for being proud of a shot that was not the sharpest, but it was the best I could do with the equipment I had. Ultimately that ticked me off so I forced myself to get better.) Neal, Wayne, the Haskin brothers, and all the others who posted made me want to learn how to shoot, and be able to post high quality stuff. Everyone has to start somewhere. Just because you don't have $5K worth of camera equipment doesn't mean don't post your stuff. Just because you aren't a pro (heck, I'm not) doesn't mean you can't post. Everyone has a different take, and a different view of the races. Its up to us to give content to the site. Sure there will be repetitive stuff. But, odds are if everyone shot it, it was a cool thing to see and for those people who can't see it in person, posting here allows them to see what we see at the Races. Its not as good as being there, but if you can't be there, you just check for updates here and hope you get to see what is going on.

Since not all the usual players will be going this year, lets get some new people stepping up and posting. We can make this site far better than facebook as the posts can be searched and the pics can stay with the posts (assuming the pics are hosted somewhere that doesn't erase older pics.) This site is an amazing resource for those of us who care about the history of the races. Its on us to keep that going.

Will

[Fence Sence]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

Thanks for your comments, Will. I agree 100%. I?ve pledged to myself that I will be a better contributor this year. I don?t have any inside scoops but I?ll be out there most of the week so should at least be able to post some iPhone photos.

One thing that has been a sore spot for a lot of people on this site is the flaming one can receive. Lots of people get butt hurt by someone, seemingly anyone, that might disagree or have a different opinion. They then disappear from the forum. It bugs the **** out of me. It?s at best childish. To take things so personal on an internet forum is completely unnecessary. If you give the entire world a chance to say something about what you said, someone will always say something stupid. To take all of your brilliant content and lock it away because some jackass says something stupid is, IMO, childish. If you?re going to talk about big boy things, bring your big boy pants. The inverse is also true. If you?re going to say stupid ****, try not to. You?re screwing it up for the rest of that are trying to keep the one place we should be able to go to find out about all the good stuff alive. It?s a two way street kids. Look both ways.

[Airrace7]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

Facebook is winning out on the photos posted. But this site wins heads down all the technical information

[glider69]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

Maybe facebook is winning on photos posted. But I?m really supporting the statement about technical information. As this forum is the most important source of information for me I check it almost daily for many years.
So please continnue posting all this stuff!

And as we are not able to be onsite this year, pictueres are also much apprechiated!!!

Looking forward to visit the races again next year

Best regards from Germany

[CubersWrist]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

I have an idea for you "older" folks when it comes to content generation

This is a group I follow for Formula One coverage. Nice mix of technical coverage along with race analysis and silly season. It's a good format.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgZSdXvlvSE

It's hard to do this for a single race week at Reno because it's one week of racing.
But this is where you older folks come in.

There are literal decades of races for you to review. So shoot for 1 hour podcast length. Discuss the planes, the weather, the pilots, and all the other drama. And however many years/planes you get to is however many you get to. Rinse and repeat until you catch up to 2021.
If you include pictures or video then that's a plus.

But I can't do this. I wasn't there.

[PowerByPackard]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

I have an idea for you "older" folks when it comes to content generation

This is a group I follow for Formula One coverage. Nice mix of technical coverage along with race analysis and silly season. It's a good format.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgZSdXvlvSE

It's hard to do this for a single race week at Reno because it's one week of racing.
But this is where you older folks come in.

There are literal decades of races for you to review. So shoot for 1 hour podcast length. Discuss the planes, the weather, the pilots, and all the other drama. And however many years/planes you get to is however many you get to. Rinse and repeat until you catch up to 2021.
If you include pictures or video then that's a plus.

But I can't do this. I wasn't there.

I think this is an AWESOME idea! AAFO has some historians on this site that continuously blow my mind with their recollection of specific events, and the who, what, when, why and how that was behind them. They are truly a historical treasure chest.

I've had the privilege on a couple of occasions of having a smaller audience with the late Bob Hoover and I could have sat for hours upon hours without saying a word, just listening to his stories. Granted, Mr. Hoover is a legend, but there are several people I can think of on this site where I could listen for quite a while and learn about the history of the races. I actually like this idea better than a book because we'd have video of the people who were actually there telling the stories. Wouldn't that be great!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: As Much As It Sucks... FarceBook Wins.... frowney face

Wayne, I don?t know if you want/can talk about numbers here openly, but what type of costs are we talking about?

Sorry Matt, I miss a lot of posts that don't seem to make it to my email post digest sent to me by the message board software...

It's in the $1500. to $2000. range... IF I buy a year in advance.. for many years, $181. per month were paid by me.. FULLY retired, I can't do that any longer. I find that server farms will offer a discounted year to get you there, then bank on the fact that it's a real PITA to move to new DC, (datacenter) so they just about double the fee for the next year..

I think we paid about 15 hundred for the current year on a discounted plan.. next year, they want a lot more! I'll negotiate or, move the box to new place.... ROYAL PITA... let's see what the kitty holds at renewal time!

I think when I could not get the Heritage Cup site back soon enough and they moved, they are paying fifty bucks a year for their limited space, probably on a crowded server... just like what we live on, but many more websites/domains hosted..

I'd have to really limit photo uploads and watch traffic loads..

We've never done it that way and I don't want to go that way...