Hey everyone.
So, this is basically an update on what the plans are for RCN, both present and in the future. It's hard to believe we've already been up for over 6 months now and even in that time there have been some ups and down but overall, I really feel like we have grown as a community. So, that being said, I feel like I should take the time to let everyone know what my plans are for the site and I want to open it up for discussion.
The biggest thing right now is money. I won't get into a ton of details because they aren't really important in the end but it basically boils down too the site isn't paying for itself like it was before. I was making enough in donations and banner sales (at $10 each basically...not a huge amount but it was something) to cover the monthly hosting fees and put a tiny bit towards recouping some of the money I spent building it. Over the last few months, donations dropped which was expected but alas, service fees went up and there ended up being a few more costs involved I hadn't planned for. I knew that I was going to have that "rcn debt" for a while and that it would get paid back very slowly which is fine. I consider it part of my contribution to the scene and responsibility when I started this site. Thing is in the last 3 months, I have only 2 donations. Instead of recouping some of my costs, I getting deeper in debt which given my current money situation, I simply can't afford. I'm not saying this as a threat that if I don't get money from people, I'm gonna shut down the site. I'm just asking people who use this site and enjoy it so consider helping me out but contributing to the hosting costs and I figure that I'll get the "rcn debt" recouped eventually over time. Just as long as I'm not getting more in debt, it's all good. Check the link at top for more info about donations. Remember, $10 gets you a star so everyone will know you are supporter.
So what about those all those ads you all saw for a while? We'll here is the deal with those. I originally had Google Ads on here and was doing fairly well for the 3 weeks the account was active. I was basically on my way to having the ads pay for the monthly hosting fees and thus basically self sustaining. I was never doing this for profit. The problem is google very unceremoniously canceled my ad account due to "potentially harmful content". I only just recently found out what that meant. Basically, the fact that their is drug, alcohol and tobacco references on the site, we violated the Terms Of Agreement (it was a really weird clause) and the money that WAS accumulated got refunded to the advertisers. In the end, I didn't get a dime. I then tried out two other ad systems. A different banner ad system that only last about 2-3 days before I figured out they were a giant rip off ($0.02 for 3 days of clicking is retarded...) and the green text link ads which I had on for a while longer but only accumulated a grand total of $0.14 in earnings. Not worth the hassle... SO, unless it was google ads, I wasn't making make very much. The RCN specific banner ads at the top have been been helping with some of the costs but please remember that I only charge a flat rate of $10 for each banner. That's not a ton of money considering that half the banners up there are my own
So, I'm considering setting a goal and putting up one of those donation thermometers off the side of the page
I'm hoping that will encourage people to help achieve the goal.
I'm also looking into other ways members can help out the site if direct paypal donations are not available (which is a lot of people). The idea of t-shirts gets tossed around and I like the idea and was waiting for Lushys to hook me up with that. He assures me its coming but I might go with a cafepress type store in the meantime.
What I'm really counting on for the immediate future is hopefully at Euphoria, people will come and make direct donations at the table I want to setup. I would like to offer something like mix cds in exchange for a small donation. If any djs are interested in donating some cds to this cause, it would be much appreciated.
So what else can be done? Well, something else that would be great is I would like to see more people joining the site
Surprisingly, the drama from last weekend actually brought us some new members. Now, I'm not saying let's create drama to attract members. I am saying it would be great if everyone took the time to invite 5 friends onto here who haven't already joined. I think thats pretty easy. I also would like to see some of the older regulars back on here or at least find out why they stopped coming and if its something that I can try to fix.
The last 2 things I wanna mention is that I have been talking about starting an up an articles section that I hope people will enjoy. I think these can be both informative and fun.
The other big change I'm most likely going to do is allow djs to upload and store there mixes on the site. This means people won't have to use annoying file sharing sites that involve typing in numbers or waiting for a link to show up. Why am I now doing this? Cause I have the space and bandwidth to spare and having ravecanada.net in all the link will go towards getting the name of the site out there. I suppose it also adds more value to RCN which I hope will mean people will feel like they are making a donation to a worthwhile cause.
Ok I lied, there is still one more thing. I know I keep talking about V2 fixing all sorts of things. Well, I still plan on doing that but I have run into many delays. I WAS going to switch to a totally different system that would be much closer to a facebook style interface. The problem I ran into is that there is no simple ( way of just transferring all the current user data and pics over to the new system. In essence, people would be starting from scratch with new accounts, have to reupload pictures and there was very little guarantee that i would be able to convert over the forum system. So, I have been searching for a new system that's somewhere in the middle ground. Able to keep as much of the current data as possible while correcting a bunch of the problems AND adding new awesome features (like a mobile version of the site). After a long time, I think I've come across the right platform but right now, until I get at least of the debts paid and the hosting fees looked after, I'm going to be working on other projects that will actually earn me some income. Honestly, I think that's pretty fair. I still get the day to day things fixed up and do the admin work so I'm in no way abandoning the site.
Ok that's enough from me. I hope you all took the time to read this, think about if the site is valuable resource for you and consider making a small donation
And spread the word about this site. There are so many people in the scene who SHOULD be on here!!
Thank you to all the people who have been constantly supporting and donating. You have been simply amazing!
Cheers!
Corey (and Andrea vicariously through me
)
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