Changes To The Site

[Ric Raftis]

G'day all,

This is a very, very hard post for me to write.

As you will have no doubt noticed, I have been a bit absent from the forum for the last few weeks although I have certainly been keeping an eye on things.  I have been heavily engaged in more commercial pursuits.

I had a good talk to myself earlier this week and this resulted in me having to make some hard decisions.

I have run this site for eight years now for no compensation other than a few Google ads and a PayPal donate icon.  It's only fair that you know that I have purchased a new 80 foot yacht, a beach house in the Bahamas and been on several world trips as a result of this.  You do believe me don't you?

Well, the reality is that I need to make the site commercial in order for it to go ahead.  If you visit any of the pages now on the site you will find a banner ad for my web design business and two ads for "Your Ad Here".  I hope to replace these with commercial advertising that will be suitable for the site and work in harmony with what I am trying to achieve.  I have some big plans for the site including a complete redesign, but I can't put the time into this in all honesty unless there is some realistic compensation for my time.

Now I know full well that there will be detractors out there who will be all to willing to throw stones.  Let 'em!  This is what I do for a living and I have done this site as a hobby for long enough.  Make no mistake however, the ultimate mission of this site is, has always been, and always will be to promote bush poetry and music.

I am trying to be as open about this as possible to you all here on the Forum because you are the lifeblood of the site and its main supporters.  I trust you will support me in this change of direction and recognise the need on my part to do this.

If you have any problems with this, I would be most happy to hear from you.  Your views and opinions are important to me.

Kindest regards,


Ric

EDIT: By the way.  I have no idea what I should be even charging for advertising on the site.  I am waiting on some input from a mate of mine who should know more.  If you have any ideas, or know anyone who might be interested in advertising, please let me know.

[zondrae]

G'day Ric,

I'm all for anything that will promote Australian Poetry and/or Song. I also have been looking for a site that will offer a complete list of Festivals throughout Australia. The ABPA has some of the Festivals listed but do not include many of the Folk Music Festivals. I would like to see a page with a dedicated moderator who actively seeks out any events that have poetry on their programme, and includes them on a calendar with a contact number or email address. There are so many.  I am sure the organisers would also pay to advertise their Festivals on this site.
Keep up the good work and I look forward to having an expanded site.

[tomchap]

Hi Ric,

I'm still fairly new to this site (compared to some of the others), but I have felt welcome and have made a lot of friends here, and really appreciate what you've done. I don't have any problem with making things pay, we all need bread and water.

If I can be of any help with coding please let me know. I am reasonably proficient with HTML and CSS, and have some knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. I already maintain 3 sites of my own. I'm not suggesting becoming involved in your business Ric, just helping with this site if necessary.

Cheers, and thanks again for your work,

Tom

[tomchap]

Hey Ric,

I just tried to check the stats by clicking in the red box, but that takes me to the cPanel area, which needs password etc to enter. Your URL is the webalyser page, but once in there surely anyone could get to other sections of cPanel too. Is this safe?

Cheers

Tom.

[Ric Raftis]

Bloody hell Tom.....no it's not!  Did you get straight in or just to the password protected area?

I'll send you an email privately about some more "techy" stuff so you know what's going on.

[tomchap]

I just got to the name and password form, but of course I didn't know them, so entry was refused.

Tom.

[Ric Raftis]

I thought so, although you had me in a panic there Tom.  I'm trying to get to Live Help on the Hosting Service, but of course since my PC crashed I have to install Java Runtime again and that is a real pain on dial up.  So it looks like it will be while before I can sort it out.  I obviously need a direct link to those stats.

Thanks for the heads up mate!