Official how to keep AO alive thread

[Mango]

$10 a year will NOT be enough to pay the $1000.00 a month operating fee tom says there is.

[Muzikman]

CPR is the answer....

Mago, you do mouth to monitor and I'll start the keyboard compressions!

We need a defibulator STAT!

[Lohman446]

$10 a year will NOT be enough to pay the $1000.00 a month operating fee tom says there is.

Mango's right on this - it sounds like Thordic is already working on putting together a backup group that can come up with the fundage if needed. Thordic, if more help is needed in that contact me. As I pointed out, getting 100 people to donate $10 a month might be a problem as it requires more people to commit, but I expect we could find 20 people to donate $50 a month. I agree with Thordic also on this one though, if we do get it caugth by a small group, that everything we know should be kept the same as much as possible - same mods etc..

PS - there are a few of us, or more, that can right off any contribution to AO as a business expense.

[v_3Sterns]

co-lo

I need some numbers, what kind of hosting is this site on, is it a co-lo machine or just using space on someone else's, a monthly traffic report would also help, how much are you paying each month.

Also if it is your own machine, what size is it? 1u? 4u? or some sun Ultra 2 that will require its own tray.

Seriously get me this info in a pm or whatnot, I work at a local isp and have alot of friends who are sysadmins at a couple different CO-LO and line providers around town.

Couldn't hurt to see if I could find you a lower price.

- Ken

[Chronobreak]

cyb sounds GREAT but am i one of the few who still thinks agd should pick up a sizeable portion of the tab? after all the help section alone must save them thousands a year if not more? without AO..good luck getting good help with the one tech guy working

[v_3Sterns]

$10 a year will NOT be enough to pay the $1000.00 a month operating fee tom says there is.

Wonder how much they are charging him per GB of traffic.

[BD_Paintball]

if you do get this group of people that are willing to pay per month for ao and something happens where some poeple cant pay. who will pick up the extra money?

[luke]

I have always questioned whether AO was worth it financially to AGD. I actually got the chance to question Tom about it. He said that is was more than worth it because members did things like his marketing design work (slogans, graphics, etc), provided good feed back on new products and helped with market research (kind of like how I get custom products designed for me at a minimal cost ). Since none of that is going on right now, it would seem to me that AO isn't worth it financially to AGD. However, I know nothing of the future...

For ALL the reasons you stated is why I think it needs to stay in the hands of "AGD" regardless of who the owner is. I've been here for years because it was a direct link to the owner.

On a side note, I've had plans for the last 3 years (which I spent every day working towards) to start a business that had some kind of tie to AGD. It's only been underway for 6 months or so and as of yesterday I'm not sure where it's going to go.

There are allot of things I'm capable of doing in my shop weather it involves cars, motorcycles, iron work, sheet metal, machining, etc, etc. But what I REALLY want to do is what I started out to do originally, and that was to start a line of customs for Mags.

One thing I'm sure of is if AO changes much I'll have to move on and I really don't want to. I've always believed in AGD (Tom) and now with the changes it's really shaken things up.

I guess my view point is purely selfish, but I really wonder if AO will loose it's luster without a direct link to AGD?????

[Muzikman]

To many AO is an asset, but all in all it is still just an owners group and for that matter the only owners group that was owned by the company making the product. AO will still be here people will still help with problems, it will just be owned by a person rather than a company. I do not see this a bad thing and for AGD it's a good thing.

[WARPED1]

Webby should buy it back!

[Muzikman]

It was never Webby's to start with...so he can't really buy it back.

[Thordic]

Webby should buy it back!

Webby never owned it.

AGD bought it from Flamebo.

[WARPED1]

I thought AGD bought it from him originally? I could've sworn he was the original owner.

[Thordic]

Nope, it was Flamebo and maybe one other guy.

[luke]

To many AO is an asset, but all in all it is still just an owners group and for that matter the only owners group that was owned by the company making the product. AO will still be here people will still help with problems, it will just be owned by a person rather than a company. I do not see this a bad thing and for AGD it's a good thing.

Yes, I agree completely.

Just to clarify, AO is an asset for me but really only an asset for a labor of love. I don't really make any money in terms of what I spent in order to make the things I do. It does keep me off the couch, which is why I do it. (Besides being an AGD fan) Actually I have to have a full time job just to run my business, so, it's more of a hobby if anything...

It's definitely an owners group first, but personally I think it's biggest success was because owners had the ear of AGD. I don't know if I would have visited 5-7 days a week for the past 4 years if it were different. How much will change when (if) that's gone?