Plainview's doing an AMA*!
- Thread starter Plainview
- Start date
I've been thinking what I can ask about you, and this came into my mind:
What does it take to run UnionVGF? Without going into too much specifics, are you using paid softwares to design and maintain the website, and how much do they cost? Anybody you know helping running the website? Are you working on both backend and frontend?
I am asking this because earlier this year me and my friends pulled out our own UVGF out of a dying place with people eager to move on, but because of my lack of expertise in both programming and design I am always at the backseat as a spectator. That, and my friends would like to hear how others are holding up running their own community.
What does it take to run UnionVGF? Without going into too much specifics, are you using paid softwares to design and maintain the website, and how much do they cost? Anybody you know helping running the website? Are you working on both backend and frontend?
I am asking this because earlier this year me and my friends pulled out our own UVGF out of a dying place with people eager to move on, but because of my lack of expertise in both programming and design I am always at the backseat as a spectator. That, and my friends would like to hear how others are holding up running their own community.
I'm doing everything besides modding. I handle all of the front-end stuff and the back-end stuff. The forum software if bought as well as the styles. The styles are pretty heavily customized by me.
In order for a forum to run smoothly you need at least a VPS server, no matter how many users you have. Being on a shared you'll get dragged down a LOT. Union was on shared until we got our feet up and have been on two VPS's since. There's no need for dedicated.
When you get things situated, which, I'd say, took a good year for Union, it runs pretty smooth. I'm always looking for ways to optimize the site to make it run even better. Also, I'm always looking for ways to improve the user experience on the front end, like the additions of the classified section. I'd never add something to the site to drag down performance. Performance is number one priority. If performance sucks, members will leave. When E3 rolls around I'll increase the VPS size to probably double for at least a week to make sure everything continues to run smooth.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
Ah, a whitey. As for getting mistaken for black, I'll just say (since no one else seems to know) that I got the impression (or I should say, the sense that you might possibly be black) from two things. First, sometimes you talk in a way that reminds me of the way some black people talk. You know, that kind of street venacular? And then second, you really love Biggie Smalls and have talked about how his songs spoke to your experience, growing up. So that made me wonder if you might be black.
That's cool. I grew up catholic, was agnostic/atheist for about 20 years, but now consider myself spiritual (belief in God, afterlife), Christian even, but not religious -- that is, I don't follow any strict dogma. I've considered it an important question, and so I did a lot of reading, introspecting, etc., to get somewhat clear in my head about it.
Ah. Your aversion to marriage is making more sense.
Yeah, I don't see you participate much in gaming discussions. As you say, it's not really a big interest of yours anymore. I have much less interest than I did 10 years ago, but I still enjoy the hobby.
lol, same here. My family is full of lessons on what not to do.
That's pretty cool.
Thanks for the answers. Interesting.
I grew up with a diverse set of friends in a diverse catholic school. When high school came along, most of us went there from middle school. High school was even more diverse. I originally hated music. I really despised MTV and that culture. It sucked. It was nothing like my early days of Motown and even the cheesy 80's music. When I started to get back into music was when I first heard Biggie. I had always listened to 80's rap on and off, but, it wasn't until hearing Big when I really got into it. It's difficult to put into words why as I'm not really sure, still. The music memorized me. I could listen to it over and over again. That was really only reserved for motivation music prior, i.e. Karate Kid, Rocky, Teen Wolf
music. Til this day I can go weeks at a time only listening to Big. As far as people thinking I'm black, what you said is interesting. Sometimes I joke around and post in a more street tone but I do have some common street terms I use often that I've used forever and sometimes they may show up in a post here and there.
That's awesome, thanks so much for your great answer. I always love to hear stories like these, sharing in the joyous nostalgia. Those are some retro titles! Absolute classics too, no question. Street Fighter 2 is easily one of my personal favourites as well. The first time I remember witnessing the glory of SF2 was in a neighbourhood convenience store, watching my older brother as he played round-robin against his friends after school (I was quite young). Eventually, my best friend got a copy on his Super Nintendo and I swear I would play it at least once every time I visited his house, whether he wanted to or not. However, my fondest recollection of Street Fighter involves a night of Alpha 2 on the PS1 (my second fav SF after SF2), when I was dominating my older brother so handily that he ragequit and one-punched a hole in our basement drywall. Hahah, good times!
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I worked out the Dragon Punch against my brother on the SNES and he got so pissed trying to hit me and getting knocked back.
Where do Babies come from?
Please explain with pictures and hints, I am making notes.
(What he did say ask me anything
).
1. As we discussed a while back, am I still on schedule to be a mod if one of the other guys drops out?
2. Is the revenue from the site and cornerstone stuff enough to keep you in the black? Would stink if you are in the red
3. What's the deal with needing to shut down threads when they get to about 20 pages? A limitation of the forum template? Other forums can have 100s of pages. Not a big deal at all.... I'm just asking
2. Is the revenue from the site and cornerstone stuff enough to keep you in the black? Would stink if you are in the red
3. What's the deal with needing to shut down threads when they get to about 20 pages? A limitation of the forum template? Other forums can have 100s of pages. Not a big deal at all.... I'm just asking
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Yes! Thank you for keeping that hilarious video entrenched on the internet forever. Please never delete that video from your YT account ever.
1. As we discussed a while back, am I still on schedule to be a mod if one of the other guys drops out?
2. Is the revenue from the site and cornerstone stuff enough to keep you in the black? Would stink if you are in the red
3. What's the deal with needing to shut down threads when they get to about 20 pages? A limitation of the forum template? Other forums can have 100s of pages. Not a big deal at all.... I'm just asking
Revenue is pretty minimal with ads. It's below what it costs to run the site. The donations helped make it pretty even. Every year you have to renew license and any purchased add-ons I have in addition to what I add to the site through out the year.
Closing threads when they reach 1000 posts helps ease stress on the DB because the site remembers where everyone last left off. So, every time someone goes into a thread it has to determine where the person left off. When you have a bunch of people doing it at the same time it stresses it even more. The performance of the site is the main focus. Anything I can do to keep it speedy I do.
I've been to Detroit twice, but didn't get a chance to really check out the city since my buddies and I just focus on the hockey or NFL games. Then we hop back over to Windsor.
Any recos on good sports bars walking distance from Joe Louis or Ford Field. Checking Google, there's many eateries, but I might go only once every few years with some guys so we'd want to make sure any place we relax in before or after the game is worth it.
We've done Cheli's. And we met him too.
Any recos on good sports bars walking distance from Joe Louis or Ford Field. Checking Google, there's many eateries, but I might go only once every few years with some guys so we'd want to make sure any place we relax in before or after the game is worth it.
We've done Cheli's. And we met him too.
Who put the Bomp in the Rama Lama Ding Dong?
Which would you rather, to watch Rosanne as your president, or in porn?
Which would you rather, to watch Rosanne as your president, or in porn?