EISPIRATEN

PackerGreg wrote:It came up #17 for me!?...

wow, it definitely didn't show up at all before. before searching "san gabriel mountains forum", it wouldn't even show up. now it's 3rd

Finally the stimulus plan worked!

I just noticed that my stale old blog is right behind at #18 in the screenshot - maybe Google is getting too smart?

I mean cookies or something, not about my stale old blog.

Zé wrote:

TacoDelRio wrote:If someone can find this forum on Google, for example, by looking for info on Mount Wilson or Chantry Flats, then it's a success.

pretty sure they can't

I know, I meant in the future.

I don't spam anything, homo.

Question: Where does a forum go when it dies?

Zach wrote:Question: Where does a forum go when it dies?

Does Taco dream of electric sheep?

There's a pun in there somewhere about replicants and replication.

I don't think the forum is going down. It seems to go in waves. I bet once the first big snow comes activity will be back up. Towards the end of summer and fall people get tired of posting/reading about a walk up Mt. Baldy in Sunny and clear weather........

I like the idea of creating a better url, but keeping the forum here. I am sure its a lot cheaper that way. $86 a month seems like a lot to spend.... A more generic name and maybe some new topics or even permanent content like info on different areas in "stickys."

Just to clarify:

(because I keep seeing the $86/month being repeated)

That number ($86/month) is what I pay for a dedicated virtual server and it was given as an example of what you get at Amazon Web Services. This doesn't mean it will cost this much to run this particular forum.

For instance, I host a number of websites on that same box so a cost per site is much lower. It all depends on traffic, storage requirements and the type of applications that will run there.

And another thing -- realize that all the advertising you see on this forum -- that goes towards paying for the hardware that it runs on. When you move off of myfreeforum.org, all that revenue is yours to keep, obviously it must first pay for the hardware hosting but if there's enough left it can pay for a pair of climbing boots every now and then

Obviously, when you run your own site you are all of a sudden responsible for a slew of additional things that you never even think about when operating a site on myfreeforum.org. At the same time, having it on your own terms gives you maximum amount of flexibility to do the things otherwise not possible on a shared site like myfreeforum.org.

I 2nd what V just said. That's if you had a server to yourself.

Depending on things later on, I might end up hosting something myself on my own server (as in a "badass" super nerd HVAC'ed server room in my own house).

hvydrt, I'd like it to be just like what you said, BUT, I want to be able to have some pages up, kinda-sorta like summitpost and similar sites. So, there would be a page for Baldy for example, with basic info on the trails and seasons and whatnot, and some more in-depth info if you read into it. That kinda thing. Simple, yet incredibly informative.

Buying shared hosting services gives you everything you'd get from owning and managing the hardware yourself, plus security and backups, without the headaches associated with maintaining a box and a high speed network link.

I don't recommend putting a community resource like this forum on a personally owned server.

I do like your idea of putting up some other pages and resources regarding SoCal mountains. Maybe an application like peakbagger.com. And getting rid of the freaking ads would be great. One of them started playing really loud music yesterday when I opened the forum. That's unacceptable.

All this could easily be done with shared hosting services.

Funding wouldn't be a problem, not with the (mostly) high-earning users here. You could also look into Google AdWords for additional revenue, which is easy to use and a lot less obtrusive that the banners and singing telegrams and crap this site has.

However, I sense that most people commenting aren't really interested in any changes at this point.

simonov wrote:I sense that most people commenting aren't really interested in any changes at this point.

Speaking for myself, I would love to see some of the changes that have been suggested. I would love to see this conversation continue and actually lead somewhere. My first priority would be small steps that would make this forum easier to find. But I am not suggesting specific jobs for others to do. I am also not suggesting ways for people to spend their money, although I would be willing to contribute to maintaining this forum.

This may be a small point re: future configurations, but my method of accessing this website is via the bookmark "sangabrielmnts.myfreeforum.org/index.php" and then click on "View New Posts Since Last Visit". What frequently happens is an error msg to the effect "You Can't Make a Second Search So Soon". Now, the next time I click on "View New Posts Since Last Visit" the flag on new posts (for me) has been tripped, and no threads appear. I can only speak for myself, but when I visit hiking forums I don't wish to scan each forum looking for threads of possible interest. Rather, I let the software make selections.

As result of this "feature", I don't visit this site as often as I might.

Kevin wrote:This may be a small point re: future configurations, but my method of accessing this website is via the bookmark "sangabrielmnts.myfreeforum.org/index.php" and then click on "View New Posts Since Last Visit". What frequently happens is an error msg to the effect "You Can't Make a Second Search So Soon". Now, the next time I click on "View New Posts Since Last Visit" the flag on new posts (for me) has been tripped, and no threads appear. I can only speak for myself, but when I visit hiking forums I don't wish to scan each forum looking for threads of possible interest. Rather, I let the software make selections.

As result of this "feature", I don't visit this site as often as I might.

This is a PHPBB configuration issue -- nothing to do with myfreeforum.org. There's a setting there to limit the number of searches a user can make in a period of time.

However, I haven't seen this error myself. Are you logged in when you do this, or are you searching as a guest? I think there's a different setting for a guest user searches (which makes sense to keep low in order to prevent a DOS attack on the server) and a separate setting (more liberal) for the registered users.

simonov wrote:Buying shared hosting services gives you everything you'd get from owning and managing the hardware yourself, plus security and backups, without the headaches associated with maintaining a box and a high speed network link.

I don't recommend putting a community resource like this forum on a personally owned server.

Ditto above -- you really don't want to go there.

Throughout my consulting engagements since 1998, I've had long term experience operating very large, distributed installations in state of the art data centers both here in US and in Europe, which gave me good exposure to what works and what doesn't work.

And I can tell you with certainty that running your own hardware in this day and age, especially in your own house is a sure way to kill any on-line endeavour really quickly even if you are not planning to charge for it's service. People get tired of downtime and slow response times even if it's free.

mve wrote:Are you logged in when you do this, or are you searching as a guest? I think there's a different setting for a guest user searches (which makes sense to keep low in order to prevent a DOS attack on the server) and a separate setting (more liberal) for the registered users.

Yes -

Well, nevermind then. Figured if that's going to be my line of work I'd give it a shot for something. I probably will, just not for this site.

Maybe we should come up with some possible domain names?

I know zero about web pages and all that but SteveC on the whitneyzone page has done basically what is proposed here. He started that forum, and took some of the permanent info type threads from the portal store page over to the new site. He might be able to answer questions about that. I like the side bar thing they have that has permanent information threads and web cams on it.

They are running ubbthreads (this board is PHPBB) and it seems they have some very good SEO plugins, for instance here's an example of a URL on that board:
which results in very good, SEO optimized, index tokens in google: whitney, Current, Conditions, Mt, Whitney

and obviously it's on the first page of search engine results for that search term:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Current+ ... Mt+Whitney

(it's listed #7 from where I am searching)

I've been a lot less active in the forum for these reasons:

- I hike a lot less now. I used to hike about once a week but in the past year I've probably only hiked 5 or 6 times.
- I hike less now not because of the closures (I also rarely went into those areas anyway), but due to personal and life reasons. I feel like I'm on the down slope of a new hobby. All hobbies have a life cycle and when things fade it's hard to recapture the same motivation and enthusiasm you had before.
- I use to write a lot of detailed TRs. This was during the heydays of the forum when a lot of people wrote TRs on big routes every weekend. All of this activity encouraged more activity. But as it slowed down, posting TRs felt self conscious, at least for me.

I've been following this forum since it started (was just a lurker at first). I liked that it was just a small band of highly experienced people doing really interesting and technical things in a very specialized mountain range. In contrast, the other hiking forums had a sort of transient feel with random people passing through and asking an occasional question. This forum instead really had a personality and I fear if it gets too big, it'll become another faceless forum.

So this sounds selfish, but I actually like that the forum is hard to find and it's still small/unnoticed. It reminds me of the obscure places we all love to hike and climb. Anyone can access the information here. They just have to make the effort...just like our mountains!

Thanks for your input, Tim. I'm sorry you aren't feeling as into hiking and everything nowadays. Perhaps you just need to do different routes... I don't mean to speak for you or say "what-ifs"... cheers mate.

No worries Taco, I'll be back eventually. Hopefully it'll be a good winter