Sovietwarplanes

Hi all,
as many of you already know, JP Myers is the owner of this site and he pays about 50 US$ a year for mantaining it. To give my contribution, I've sent 20 ? to his paypal account at the address
iltridente1 -at- gmail.com
If someone wants to give freely any other contributions to JP, I think that it will be well accepted.
Regards
Massimo

(Correct the email address by replacing the -at- with an @)

Massimo, I have a question.  20 Euros equals $29USD, which leaves a residuum of $21USD to meet Mr. Myers maintenance costs.  I can see the members of this forum (including myself) contributing an aggregate amount much in excess of this.  How would this excess be used?

Regards,

Jason

Hi Jason,
well, it's not necessary that anyone sends 29 US$, one can send much less, what he wants if he wants.
I've taken into account that JP has paid for years the domain without any contribution, so I was large in my offer.
Regards
Massimo

hello massimo,
i understand perfectely the probleme because i have also a website and i know how it cost to me every year.
it's also a website about planes and kits (in french of course) http://www.desavionsetdesmaquettes.com (http://www.desavionsetdesmaquettes.com)
the firsts years, i didn't ask to anyone a contribution and i paid but recently (because i lost my job)i put a donation paypal kit in the website but didnt work sufficientely then  i'had to start ads on the website to pay the hosting.
fortunately i found goods partenaires (french web kit shops) and now it's ok for the future of the site.
but i understand it could be unpleasant to have ads on an associative website.

Hi Francis,
I have just had a look to your site and it looks nice. I have seen the sprues of MiG-31 of Zvezda, and looks better than I expected.
Regards
Massimo

Contributions are not required for the running of the site.  If you don't feel like it, it generally won't affect anything, and my feelings will not be hurt over it.  What happened most recently was a mis-communication between between the domain registrar and the site host.  (Working to get them with the same company now).

What this represented was an opportunity for those so inclined to help out if they felt this site/forum was of value to them.  I had not considered strict accounting of the funds (mostly from not expecting any), as this site is not in the business of making money (definitely!).  The last several years' fees were taken directly from my beer/model fund.  If I suddenly got $5, it would probably be converted back to beer/cafe money, and the site funding would continue as normal - from my own funds.   8)

But to address the concern raised here - If I should suddenly find myself with significantly more than replacement beer money, I would immediately hire a professional web designer to re-design the site entry portal and all my badly organized files, since I lack the time/skills to do so anymore.  Or perhaps extend the registration of the domain/hosting as increments of those costs were reached.  It really all depends.

There is a case where the site Modeling Madness solicits $5,000 annually to keep the site running!   :o  Frankly, I find that very suspicious.  He clearly intends to live off some of that money, and I wonder if he reports that as income for tax purposes . . . anyway, I can assure you nothing of the sort is going on here.

Rest assured, I do not plan on making a haul of donated money and funding a Caribbean vacation.

Thank you for the clarification, JP!  I'm sure the people who use and enjoy this site will do what we can to make it a better site, even if that means coming up with a bit of bob.  However, it sounds like that's not strictly necessary right now so you may have to put your Caribbean vacation on hold. :)  However, I might have a bit of spare change somewhere...

Regards,

Jason

Ok team, here is an update.  Massimo and I are talking about how to revamp the site and forum now that I have more time for this kind of thing again.  What this basically means is me getting off my ass and doing something about the entry page and other content of the site, blending it with Massimo's work, and customizing the forum away from this generic looking thing we have.

This place is really about the community here, so I open it up to you for suggestions/consideration.  Here's is the idea so far:

The web page -
1. Blog style.  Instead of having to create a web page every time I want to post something, I simply enter an article like a forum post with images, etc.  By blog, I simply mean an easier way for me to post things.  Massimo would have access and be able to "blog" post and link updates, giving the entry portal relevance it has frankly never had.  (Massimo's portion would remain unchanged.)  An example of what I might use it for  - post a model work-in-progress thread like I'm doing on the forum.  When the aircraft is done, write/publish an article on the finished product, and link back to the forum showing the work in progress and all the discussion leading up to the finished build.
2. Install a robust search feature and delete my useless index style of pages that no one uses anyway.  This way, I can re-edit the articles already on the site and begin re-adding them as blog posts.  (Minus the spam ads that somehow found their way into the pages.)  If anyone wants to find something specific, they should be able to search the entire site and find results.  This is better and easier than trying to establish and maintain a large structure of files with an index for people to click through.

The forum -
1. A custom site banner at the top linking back to the main page.
2. A more obvious message box indicator.  The one we have is hidden among other buttons at the top of the page and is very small.
3. A new template and custom color scheme.  Nothing drastic, but I have always disliked the basic forum package we have.  It is the generic template every basic forum starts with.  Basically, I'd like it to be designed specifically to go with our site.

In light of this, it's rather obvious I need to hire someone with web design skills to do this.  I currently have queries out to hire a legitimate web designer.  I put this post here because now we're talking an outlay of funds that will probably be rather more significant than the annual domain/hosting costs.  Again, strictly voluntary - especially since I reserve the right to blow off any suggestions I don't like.   :D

Hi JP,


I think you are both right, a revamp will be a good thing.

Hmmm...blog style.
Might be a good idea for those you put up the content but I've seen a lot of blogs where it's almost impossible to find rapidly or even to find at all old items.
In a previous life(11 years ago  :P ) as a webmaster the most important thing to keep visitors interested was that they must find items within 3 "clicks" at the most.
So if your suggestion includes these 3 clicks, needing links on the home page, I'll be happy.
For example the in home page there should be the links found in the table in this current page:
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/

If not I'll have to see  ;)

OK, but again the major parts should be seen up front. Search engines are not perfect and visitors not always.
As an example; if someone is looking for informations on La-5 and write Lavotchkin the search will results with nothing if in the site it's writen Lavochkin.

To sum up my toughts let's say that with links and a search engine the content will be easier to reach.
Add a sitemap and it will be better  :D

Way to go !!!

My I suggest AII green over AII dark green. It will, for sure, make for lively discussions.
 ;D

All the best.

Jean

I'd go with a dark reddish brown - AII Brown, and a lime green - AII Green.  After all, we know most of the IL-2's were painted in this scheme.

Regards,

Jason

I can't find the German armor red-brown, but I can hook you up with a green forum.   :P

http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2274

That's it!  That's the green, John!  We've got to use that.

Regards,

Jason

But now we have good matches for AMT-7, AII light blue... it's not bad for me. Eventually, we could replace the lighter blue of the background with AE-9 grey or AMT-16.  ;)
Regards
Massimo

Hello guys,
but is possible to use the green one theme (or other from simplemachines.org site) as user theme?
Ciao.

Marco

We can use any theme we like.  I loaded a couple of different ones here before, but I got only complaints, so I turned it all back to this original light blue. I would be happy to change them to something else.  Personally, my favorite forums to read are dark background ones.  For me, it is easier to read them for longer periods of time.

Any suggestions?  I don't think the bright tractor green would be favorably received.   ;)

Hi JP,
in principle I agree with you, but you could do available saveral themes including the green one  ;) and  let the members choose what they prefer... ;D... If Possible of course... ;)

Regards, ciao!

Marco

Hi all,
time to renew the domain is getting close. JP Myers has always paid for this site and forum, with some limited help from me. Should anyone be willing to give some help, please take contact with him.
Regards
Massimo

Hi Massimo/Jason.
Is it possible to make contributions electronically via PayPal etc.? If so, is there an email address to which we can send the payment?
Pip

Pip, Massimo and the two Johns (JP and John Thompson) are the ones to ask on this.  And good for you for wanting to contribute!

Best Regards,

Jason

Hi Pip,
I've asked JP to give some instructions for a paypal contribution.
Regards
Massimo

Greetings all.  Thanks for sticking with it here!

The address you can use is iltridente1 -at- gmail.com

You know how to fix the anti-spam-bot version above: replace the -at- with an @ and you're good to go.

Massimo, you put the JP's e-mail adress in clear in the first post of the topic...
beware of the spam!
Xan

Good catch.  I took the liberty to fix it.  Hope you don't mind, Massimo. 

Thanks, JP. Incoming.
Pip

Got it, thanks!  We appreciate it very much.

Hi all',
it is time to renew the domain, and JP will do it for 5 years to avoid any problem for a while.
Contributions will be highly welcome. Last year, only two people send some money. I hope that this year things will be better.
Anyone willing to contribute can contact JP on the site mailbox.
Regards
Massimo

Since all we got was crickets, I only renewed for another year.  Maybe next time.

Hi JP,
maybe we could insert some publicity on the forum to cover the expenses for the domain.
Regards
Massimo

It may help to know how much is the cost of hosting the site?

Just if was say $100 per year, then that's 20 members putting in $5 each for example.

I say this as while we must be widely read, there only seem to be 20 or so regular posters at the moment. 

  Perhaps you could put up a paypal address for donations?  Or even have a page with a target amount and post how much is still required?

I don't have much cash, but would put in $5 happily to help.

cheers
T 

I think that's a good idea from Troy.  I'm not exactly flush with cash right now, but I could certainly part with $5USD, for example.

Regards,

Jason

I'm in divorce court, so I get things being tight.  I have a woman who doesn't work and refuses to even look for a job because she's "entitled" to everything I have emptying the bank account every couple of weeks, and I am powerless to stop it - for now.  I should get a few court orders in two weeks that will put a stop to some of that bleeding.

Domain hosting is $55 a year.  It's an annual pain in the ass, so I was hoping to do it for 3-5 and not have to worry about it for a while.  This is in addition to the site hosting, which needs renewal in May, which is $120 a year.  So total annual cost for the site is $175 a year.  Now that I type that out, it seems retarded expensive to essentially host some pages and a forum for ~30 people.  If I get my life back anytime soon, I'll have to look for a more reasonable option.  This was the best deal going when we opened the site.

Hi JP.
I didn't see the appeal for this year until just now. Is it too late to toss in a contribution? Is it the same email address that you posted above?
Pip

If you're referring to this post:


Then yes, this is still correct.

Thanks.

Hi JP

contributions best in US$? 

Might be worth posting up how much to go to $175?   

Got to go out but will send some later
T

Yes, everything is in the almighty US$.

I already paid the $55 for domain.  So, $120 to go for the web hosting. When you break it out to $10 a month, it doesn't sound so obscene.

Okay, I'm sending you a month.   :)

Got it, thanks!

I PM'd you regarding PayPal; I figure if I can blow away money on model kits that never get built, I can certainly donate something to support such a valuable and unique reference source as this site, thanks to you, Massimo, and Konstantin!

John

I'm with John on this, so contribution sent.

cheers
Troy

I'm in - contribution sent!

John

We're up to $40 for accountability purposes here.  If Troy's comes in, I'll add that.

$50.  Thanks Troy.

Just sent 10USD.

Thank you guys for all you do for this website.

Jean

Contribution sent.

      66misos

Got it.  Up to $76.40.  Thanks!

Hosting was renewed today.  We're good for another year.  Thanks to those of you who contributed.