| Author | Message | ||
     Electraglider_1997 |
Just wondering. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Right now Blake is still paying for it. And because he pays for hosting, monitoring, and support of the software, it ain't cheap. The costs are offset by donations, but I suspect he could have one of pretty much every bike Buell ever built with the out of pocket money he has spent over the years. If he decides to stop, we have a problem. To move it, it would take a major data migration, because the software is now out of production. And that would be expensive, and disruptive, even if it was a growing site with a growing brand (which I doubt it is at this point). At some point it could just become a great big searchable snapshot of some kind that is all current content but read only, and we just restart a new discussion board that everyone has to re-register for and start over on. Which will likely lose us a measurable percentage of membership and participation just because of the hassle factor. I'd suspect the static content could stay up forever though, even if you just search it with Google. That would be more affordable to host and maintain. | ||
| Hughlysses |
If you're interested in helping support the site, there was a thread on the Quickboard a few months ago. Setting up a regular Paypal payment for a small monthly donation is one way to help out. Here's the original thread: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/406 2/785312.html?1463137726 (Took me ~15 minutes to find that!) | ||
| Reepicheep |
Thanks Hugh! | ||
| Hughlysses |
Retirement has freed me up to do important stuff like that! Now I need to go ride for a while... | ||
| Teeps |
Maybe Blake could post a monthly or annual monetary fuel gauge on the home page. Seeing the monetary health might provide motivation for some. | ||
| Blake |
Glider, The intent is to maintain the site in perpetuity. We currently have some very thoughtful folks pitching in and donating, some monthly, others in lump sum. They cover a little over half the monthly costs, about $115 out of $200/mo total. I chip in the rest. I'm currently discussing options with our server administrator. We'll need to move to a big corporate service to ensure the integrity of the site. Our current sysadmin is great, but he's just one man, and not immortal. Thanks for asking. Whatever happens, I blame Ferris aka Jerry Haughton. :~) | ||
| Reepicheep |
Hosting will be easy. Maintaining the software will be harder. Debugging something when the Discuss software goes to hell in a handbasket will be the potential hairball. Regular backups might help with that. But might not. | ||
| Smorris |
thank you for getting this topic out here for all of us. i have been able to do all of the updates to my 06 xb12x to make it into a reliable touring bike as opposed to a day tripper. it really is sharing of a fraction of the savings that i have from using this site to update, repair and maintain. as this has to be true for every person that has used this site. Please spread the word in each of the forums. please contribute.. thank you to all who run this site and to all who contribute so that voyeurs, like myself, can benefit from your experience, engineering, and expertise | ||
| Ramman4x4 |
I noticed the link to the list of site sponsors at the top of the main forum section is no longer there...I assume that means there are no more sponsors to help alleviate the cost of running the site? | ||
| Hughlysses |
^ Go to the post linked above and read Blake's explanation. There may still be some commercial sponsors, but payment is on an honorary basis. | ||
| Ramman4x4 |
Got it. Thanks! I'll sign up to contribute. Is the page with the links still around somewhere? It was a nice place to go browse when I needed/wanted to spend some money on the Uly. The only sites I can remember are 5-dro and precision engineering. I know American Sport Bike closed their doors, but I remember there being more than 3 links. | ||
| Hughlysses |
^ That's 5-0dro. I thought I had read he was ramping down but their webpage is still active. Twin Motorcycles in the Netherlands has some really cool Buell stuff. Lance from St. Paul HD/Buell is the go-to for OEM parts. | ||
| Johndd |
"Lance from St. Paul HD/Buell is the go-to for OEM parts." I wouldn't have been able to restore my 06 if it hadn't been for Lance's assistance. Great guy to deal with.... | ||
| Hugie03flhr |
Hopefully this site will live forever with the amount of information and dedication for Buell motorcycles! |
