Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 01:01:50 09/29/04
Go up one level in this thread
On September 29, 2004 at 03:59:30, enrico carrisco wrote:
>On September 29, 2004 at 03:54:07, Russell Reagan wrote:
>
>>On September 29, 2004 at 03:07:23, enrico carrisco wrote:
>>
>>>How much bandwidth does CCC currently take? I've heard "alot" and "high" but
>>>that doesn't really pinpoint things. The $4,400 / 6 months estimate would
>>>essentially be the price of a full T1 right off the hop. I can't imagine any
>>>text-based forum to come close to using a full T1 -- even in peak login times.
>>
>>The ISP costs $599.40 per year.
>
>I wasted like 3 hours a few weeks ago searching the archives for the messages I
>missed about this.. Is this an ISP figure from Steve? If you have the entire
>message handy -- could you just repost it for the sake of this thread? (I've
>already got to optimize my drive from the last 3,000,000 message files I
>downloaded, unzipped and then searched through..) :P
>
>-elc.
Subject: Here are the details of CCC/CTF expenses.... and a plea to donate.
From: Steven Schwartz
E-mail: icd@icdchess.com
Message Number: 384539
Date: August 26, 2004 at 13:15:44
There are three major tangible parts to CCC/CTF expenses:
1) The cost of hosting from ISP
2) Payment to Tim for 24 hour technical support
3) Payment to me for oversight of the board
There are several intangible costs:
1) Lost sales due to having posts on the board promoting:
a) competitor's products
b) programmer direct sales
c) sales of items we do not sell
As far as the first group - per year:
1) The ISP = $599.40
2) Tim's support 24/7 = $2340
3) My time - average of 4 hours a week - including reading all moderator
email, all complaint emails from members about other member's posts, decision
making, responding to requests for passwords, communicating with Tim almost
daily about CCC related issues, setting up and running elections, emailing
membership about elections, resolving conflicts, speaking with my attorney about
possible CCC related issues, liaison between ISP and Tim when problems pop up,
requesting that Tim add or modify features, etc. etc. etc... "paid" at a rate of
$7 an hour (minimum wage) = $1456
That is an expense which we lay out yearly of $4395.40. This does not include
any legal related expenses that have/might come about.
I cannot quantify what we lose from the board promoting other's products, but
perhaps it equals what we make from being associated with the board.
There are 5439 active CCC/CTF email addresses right now. If I had to guess, we
probably have between 500 and 1000 who either post or lurk in a typical month.
The bad news is that when we run an election, we get all of 200 members who step
up to vote, and I have grave concerns that a plea for donations will affect,
maybe, that small a number or less.
I have projected that the degradation of the chess software and stand-alone
market has meant that we have paid the CCC/CTF bills, in their entirety, for
that long which, according to my accountant, at least, is a total 3 year expense
of $13,186.20.
I am sure that some of you resent the fact that I have included a fee for myself
in the figures above. However, that is just for accounting purposes. I do not,
and never have, received a penny from operating the CCC, but I have certainly
dedicated hundreds of hours (in the last three years alone) which certainly, if
I were not busy with administering the CCC site, would have allowed me to make
more than minimum wage. I can not count how many times I was in the middle of an
ICD project when a frantic email came in from CCC about one thing or another.
What it all comes down to is that you all see a smoothly running forum because
we make it that way. Just because someone volunteers to host the CCC does not
mean that everything will run the same way. There is LOTS more going on that the
typical member does not see. Just ask the moderators.
So, I will follow through on what I said last night. I would like to ask for
donations to help defray the expenses here. I think our expending over $13,000
over the last three years has shown our dedication to this project (and if you
are still puzzled by my "pay", make that $9000+). I would like the membership
now to step up and take on some of the burden.
I have guaranteed to keep CCC/CTF up and running as it has been for at least 6
months. If donations pay the expenses, we can run on indefinitely.
Should donations stop and the expenses mount, I will again make a plea. If that
does not work, I will give the membership plenty of time to move elsewhere.
I think I have covered everything. If I have not, please ask and I will try to
answer all questions.
I will put up the donation information in a short while, but I am leaving
tonight for a long weekend without a computer, thank goodness, so if I do not
answer today, I will by Monday.
Please donate!!!
Steve
P.S. The CTF is an extremely small drain on resourse. It does not add to the ISP
expense nor does Tim get paid more and I have not attributed any time devoted to
CTF to my own "allocation".
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