IotD seeing growth
 

Since the beginning of the year there has been additional attention paid to IotD from the web in general.

The number of unique visitors to Cellar and IotD in February is over 10000 per day. This is up from an average of around 7000 in November/December.

Of those 10000 visitors, I estimate that 7000 are IotD viewers and 3000 are Cellar forum viewers.

In addition, the bandwidth used for Cellar and CellarIotD is now officially insane. More and more threads with attached images become popular. I've been posting larger and more images per IotD and these IotDs are now archived and visited by more people.

The additional traffic to IotD has increased the amount they generate from the Google ads, and so IotD now earns the Cellar like $50/month which goes into the connection bill. In addition, I've put Google ads on the Cellar archives which generates an additional $15/month or so (still early on that figure).

It's not enough offset to discourage the tip mug yet - we still need the mug, especially while I'm unemployed and can't put my own money into it. But things are improving.

Good for you, man. If only you could do this "for a living" ...

When I win the lottery (AFTER SG and Bri and I go on our whirlwind Cellar tour) I will subsidize your endeavors!

Let's see some more pats on the fucking back here, you web lemmings!

Good lord - that thread was an eye-opener.

It clarified for me why I took the plunge in the first place - this really is a community of grown-ups.
AB was rude, personal, insulting and wrong - and was told to stick around and give the other Dwellars a chance....

Hats off to you guys.[/OT]

(Oh and Bruce was a new poster - wow)

arrrgh! no! "pats on the back" for UT regarding the original post here!

Perhaps IotD is rubbing off on COTWP...it is currently the #1 site for "whale penis" on Google. Whoohoo!

I loved that Webscalpel thread so much. I think the whole thread needs to go into the Hall of Fame.

I think we need a yearly webscalpel contest.

.

Damn, Griff! That gave me a chill. :worried:

Webscalpel?

It took me way too long to work that out monster.

It's too bad that L isn't on her forehead...

I still don't get it?


UT, do you think those ads would generate more income on the main pages than the archives? I know you'd like to avoid that, but I'm curious? :confused:

If you could get paid for the spider crawls, you'd be in clover. I can't believe how much resources they chew up.

There will never be ads on the main pages!! NEVAR!!!

For registered users that is.

No I don't see it... even for unregistered visitors... I don't think they pay enough to justify it, for one thing. I see a lot of technical forums doing that, but this is a different sort of place, no?

UT...is there some way that you can provide feedback to us, the users, on income vs operating expense for The Cellar? Without actually quoting the dollars, obviously. Perhaps a bar scale with one axis representing the income from the tip jar and archive ads, and the other showing expense?

I'm trying to think of a way to stimulate people's thinking about helping to pay for this resource we all use and rely on. I know that, for myself, I never seem to think about the tip jar unless someone mentions it. Normally, I know this is a labor of love and part of your life, but goddamn it, you're unemployed, and it behooves us to help.

Just dialoguing here, man. Runnin' it up the flagpole to see who salutes. And other corporate jargon.

It is way overdue.

The colocation/bandwidth costs are about $200/month; the server was about $1200 and I think it will last about two years, so I would amortize it at $50/month; there are other costs like having to drive to Wilmington, which probably add up to $15/month. I do next to no accounting for all this but I think tippers and the text ads do get close to covering it. A bar chart would put it all out there but of course then I would have to write a script to operate it and make new entries with each donation. Not that it wouldn't be a labor of love and not that I don't have anything better to do.

Perhaps you can make some sort of script that would harvest the funding data from the PayPal email and then automatically update the income bar? The all you'd have to do is update the monthly operating expense so that we'd have a realtime comparison, hopefully encouraging tipping to make the bars match, or - even better - the income bar beat out the costs bar.

S'possible

If the amount goes over I would be forced to do something productive with it. What, I have no idea. In the olden days, I actually advertised, but we're kinda past that now IMO.

If the amount goes over I would be forced to do something productive with it.

Like buy a good bottle of scotch ??? ;)

Just kidding dude , I think the bar graph thingee is a good idea ,
I With ALL the lurkers and folks that actualy participate , you might be suprized at how much could be raised .

no, I didn't know that nor do I feel it either thanks to one person so I'll be holding on to my $$$.

I would contribute otherwise. Sorry.

just put him on your ignore list and get on with your life !!!

I did!

I'm sorry,
I'm just saying there might be alot of rich women out there not logged in as yet! It would behoove us that they feel safe to do so.

Then what do you suggest ??

skysidhe, what the fuck are you talking about?
What do you mean by "feel safe to do so"?
You are condemning UT and the Cellar, making accusations about the safety of women logged in here, saying you would have contributed except for another member...... yet you yourself come back here regularly.

That doesn't make sense and is pretty serious slander of the Cellar.
But being a reasonable man, I'll ask you to explain what you're talking about, rather than ripping your throat out immediately.

I'm a little befuddled by that as well. Flames and other drivel are sort of par for the Internet course. That being said, this isn't really a place where people are allowed to be threatening, as far as I've ever been able to observe.

If you mean that someone here is being irritating, well...yeah. Sure. But does that make The Cellar unsafe for women?

I never understand posts from Sky. That is her own personal charm, she's the place's crazy broad.

If people don't trust me, they should not donate, and that's fine. If they don't donate because they don't trust other Dwellars, that's like shoplifting from a store because you don't like the customers.

who is she talking about?

Damifino? :smack:

By the time I think about donating, I don't have anything left in my bank account. Poor excuse, but genuine reason.

I certainly feel I'm here enough to get moneys worth for any amount I manage to scrape together.

So I will transfer some money into my PayPal account at the end of March and donate. You should get the money about the same time I get the next month's salary!

Either way it's as well to remind people, I'm sure many are like me - A+ for intentions, D- for actions.

Oh FWIW, I don't think poorly of anyone who doesn't donate. I really don't.

I just feel like I should make that very clear... anyone can participate at whatever level they like for whatever reason they have.

LJ is on my ignore list. Someone knew who I meant.



Thanks for proving my point. You could have taken my comment seriously. Instead you walk right into it. You have to pick one female to target. You guys ran off Mari. I am sure there have been others. I am just saying if you want females to contribute then you should show a little more restraint. I sure the hell am not donating money to get punched in the face by UT and is watch dog LJ.

If you cant deal with that fact then fuck you:)

Maybe unsafe was the wrong word.


but regardless lost money is lost money. Perhaps I had money to give but won't now.....ever because of LJ and now even UT's comment sucks ass big time.

You want to talk about money and contributors. You want to keep it on a human level then for christ sakes be nice. Make your goddamn graph but include lost sales for those women you've drove off.

I would just like to officially say, as a female, that if anyone around here starts showing restraint I'll get disinterested and stop contributing.


And yet 1,568 posts later, you're still here... :eyebrow:

Sky's PM to me:
We only ran off one woman, and she claimed to be desperately poor. See, it's not the crazy women we run off. Lucky you. It's the ones with no money, who will never afford to donate. THAT'S the REAL system.

Aw crap LJ she has found us out, what are we gonna do about this?

Skysidhe I have never had a problem with you, but I do think you're being very rude here. Of course you are entitled to your opinions of other posters, especially if you feel they have treated you badly. And of course you can keep your money to yourself rather than help UT run the Cellar from his own pocket. But to specifically post to say you won't pay is a little like going over to someone's pool party and then pissing in the pool.

And to post again saying you won't pay to be punched in the face by UT (what? I didn't see anything aggressive in his response) and saying fuck you is unpleasant and unreasonable.

UT doesn't pull rank because he is a decent guy and doesn't want this place to be his own personal fiefdom, but I think at least we owe him common courtesy.

There is so much about the dynamic here that you do not understand.

We "run off" assholes, and do that only rarely, but fully in compliance with Title IX.

Sky, I really do think your incomprehensible posting style is endearing, much like Zippy's incomprehensible spelling style, and I would miss it if it were gone.

Goddamn, I laughed so hard I scared the baby.

@ Wolf and Sundae. I read your posts and get your point. Thank you for that.


I don't want, didn't want to make an ongoing argument but since yer off the fricken point. The point of women wanting to contribute money and they reasons they don't want to. My reason for not wanting to is valid.

Yes I think LJ is emotionally unstable. Yes ,I feel he targets women and UT allows it. Yes that makes me feel insecure. Yes I feel like they do not care. They don't care because they respond with ridicule and name calling. Yes that makes THEM crazy to me.

If you are talking about money then I am keeping mine. You'd think you would even care about losing the money I would donate. Before UTs 'crazy' comment I wanted to buy him a beer. fuck that!

To use your own example it's like tripping a potential shopper who comes into your store to make a purchase. It's poor customer service to let one of your workers harrass a customer...esp when they seem to be women. I'm thinking of Mari too. Then me or anyone else he can get a rise out of.

Im thinking UT allows it and lo and behold even participates in abuse. Well you only need to read his second to last post to be sure about it. He can't even take a concern seriously. :( What a fricken jerk.

:twocents:

Hello?! Bank it against the (possibly many) months when the balance tips the other direction. I know my donation schedule is much more erratic than the billing cycle from your colo and your isp... if you have a month in the black, good on you. Use it to reduce the red glare of the other months.

mirror?

You're still not getting it, even after claiming you do.

I'm done with this.

well then can you read between the lines then and digg it?

Why do you think you're a customer here sky, what have you purchased?

Jinx, I havn't purchased anything. I was using UTs example of being in a store.

I am upset I have been insulted. Before UT's post I would have liked to have bought him a beer but he dosn't want my money. I made my point I'm done.

No, actually, I think you've made LJ and UT's point - but I'm glad you're done regardless.

This is the problem with running anyone off, and I think I acknowledged it at the time: some people will think they are "next"

But such things are probably inevitable, in a world where different personalities emerge. Personalities are always in conflict; it's basic human drama, and to be expected.

The alternative is to not allow our personalities out of the box at all, to the point where only polite discourse is permitted. It requires a strict set of rules and very active moderation to detect when someone is making an underhanded comment.

Frankly, fuck that kind of shit. If that's what you like, there are hundreds of places like that for you to choose from.

The Cellar is doing quite well in its current form. It's not seeking money in any sense of the word, and yet donations continue to rise to permit it to get bigger and bigger. Perhaps the rich-but-fragile-women market is not our target market.

Lastly, Sky, you may not have noticed that you have now said worse things about both LJ and I than we have ever said about you. According to us, you are endearingly nutty. According to you, we are systematic mysogynists. You know, nobody has called me worse in a long time.

Yet we stand, blithely unaffected. You cannot cut us. Not because we're powerful, or because we're somehow in league with each other. It's because we have the self-assuredness to know that people can call us fuckwads nine ways from Sunday, and it doesn't actually matter. We are who we are, and people can think what they like about us. Call me mysogynist - I will stand my ground, and let everyone else on this system determine who and what I actually am by my actions.

It's a good way to be. I recommend it.

speak for yourself, tony....i'm devastated. pass the tissues.

Now now now...I'm the one who is supposed to be ostracized right now.

I've seen it time and time again...just like high school, the whole crowd will get in on it if it's the popular opinion. Or, your friends don't try to stand up for you if they know it's not popular opinion.

Some great folks here, but still cliquey as hell.

I DO think it was in poor taste for UT to post Sky's PM...kinda takes the "private" out of it...with all due respect to you UT, you know I love ya.

This is a great place, but if you're not "in" remember to tread lightly. Only the elite can get away with being snide. I'm not dissin' anyone, I just think you should be aware of that.

And, as I said before, when I win the lottery I would love to totally subsidize the Cellar. It's an important place, imho. And here, like in real life, people can get hurt, feel alone, feel ganged up on...no fun. I'm happy for the perfect people who always know the right thing to say and when to say it, who never get offended, but know how to offend.

Maybe everyone could try a little more compassion.

Because it's also "cool" to do so, and implies "eye-batting innocence" I must make sure to add this smilie: :2cents:

I love most of you like family. Like family, sometimes you all get on my nerves. :3eye:

the more i think of this, the more i think that sky is the aggressor here. she used to say this shit about flint, right? i've poked fun, but never attacked her. there was something hot_pastrami said on here once about diving onto a knife.....found it:

Quote:

Originally Posted by hotpastrami when I am not wielding my knife as a weapon, I have little sympathy for someone who chooses to fling themselves into it.

so....think of another excuse to be cheap. i dare say at this point UT doesnt want your crazy money.

PMing shit to an owner/admin/mod is the last refuge of the true troll, particularly when there's no new information presented

It's an additional opportunity to whine.

I thought about excerpting it but I realized I would have had to excerpt it all. It would have been far worse, on sky's behalf, to just say "sky really ranted all over me and LJ in a PM and told me to shove the tipmug up my ass", and let everyone speculate.

I'm sort of sorry I mentioned anything at this point. Unfortunately, I still think it is a good idea to have a system of donation/cost feedback for us users. In a free market, Internet or otherwise, every consumer has the choice to shop elsewhere, so that part is sort of self-regulating. At any rate, I in no way perceive this place as systematically misogynistic on *anyone's* part. There *are* a couple of people whose bullshit detectors are set pretty sensitive, though, and their alarms go off a lot sooner than others', sort of like a smoke detector does when you're just cooking dinner...or thought you were.

In any event, may I please claim use of the new user title "systematic misogynist", even though it isn't true? *Especially* because it isn't true? It just has a nice ring to it...great turn of phrase, that.

Geeze Sky , haven't you figuered out that you need to be fairly thick skinned to be around here !!!!
Get over it , get your self a cold beer and chill !!!

Oh and UT ,about that spelling crack , well ,,,,, I Love you to ;) ;)

You should have seen my spelling befor I got Puter , dos don't like der when you meen dir

No, use the drapes.;)

I have to disagree with you. LJ is one of the most emotionally stable people around here.

Gee...I'd been wondering where all the conflict was lately. Glad I didn't see this thread sooner or I'd probably have said something to wish I'd taken back.

I think the tip jar thing is a good idea btw. I noticed it for the first time about a month ago and contributed a small amount. I'll probably have to get around to doing so again soon. I also like the idea of seeing whether donations have covered the cost of running the site or how far it falls short. Personally I don't even care if the boss makes a profit. I'd still contribute when I thought about it. I don't see any problem with UT getting paid for providing this site if it came to that. Most other people like being paid for their efforts too.

I'm visiting the states in early april - ive still got your address and havent forgotten my promise to drop some cash in the mail for you!