Messages

You could just go to one of those free layouts sites. Or I'm sure someone here will eventaully help out, but the last thing I want to do, is do what I do at work for free :p.

I enjoy both nudity AND porn

Oh yeah, I want one of these when they are made.

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/

Good, I was worried there for a second

Most the people who you find out about who died in WoW die from actually playing the game. You don't generally hear about deaths that aren't in relation.

Why not, I'm sure if I died one of my friends would be kind enough to post here and say "Yo...so Gwyn got hi by a truck"

Perhaps the guild had a forum or a website that the death was posted on. Or maybe some of the guys real friends told everyone. I mean I'd wonder why the guild leader vanished.

Did the guy who ran the guild die from playing to much, or was it un related?

Personaly I'd rather pay for health care if it ment actully GETTING HEALTH CARE. I can't stand waiting in a waiting room for 6 hours while people with nothing wrong clog up the room and time because they have a scratchy throat.

Better yet, people on welfare like come into town and get their gas paid for because the group of them take turns faking problems and going to the hospital.

Doctors in Canada don't charge you for telling you something you already know!

I like the one trying to do the karate kick

Oh My God
http://www.archivestowearpantsto.com/tracks/0029_our_hearts_belong_together_forever.mp3

Yeah currently I'm trying the whole "contract web design" thing. It's not bad or hard or anything.... but just like anything else, you don't get paid till you're done.

That's where you should ask for like a 20% down payment or something :p

[Whatever is the best option for you is a good enough option for me. All my stuff is backed up the wazoo anyway]

1. Do you think waiting to rebuild the system is a good enough option? Does it worry you undully that the server might be compromised in the meantime?

Whatever is the best option for you is a good enough option for me. All my stuff is backed up the wazoo anyway


2. When I rebuild, I'm going to try and resecure things even more than now, but I don't want limit the useability too much. How many non-essential services here do you actually use? To clarify, here's the list of things people can or do use here. Please let me know which ones you actually use, which ones you'd like to use (or might in the future,) or ones I forgot or that you'd like to see

Webserver (essential)
SSH (essential... at least for me, shell/command line access)
SCP (secure file upload, used instead of FTP)
FTP (unsecure file upload... I may be getting rid of this anyway)
Email (username@xepher.net)

Webmail --I plan to use it more once I get my act together, the thing is so full of spam though, I don't know what to do with it.
IMAP (email access protocol)
IMAPS (secure version of above)
POP3 (email access protocol)
POP3S (secure version of above)
SMTP (Outgoing mail server)
Email forwarding
Spam filtering
I don't use much of the e-mail now, I do plan to use it, but I wont lose any sleep if you get rid of it.

Wildcard email (anything@username.xepher.net goes to your account here.)--this would be cool

Wildcard filtering (possible future addon... would let mail for address1@username.xepher.net get sorted into a different folder than address2@username.xepher.net. Would require use of email access that supports folders, either IMAP or Webmail.)---also sounds very cool

Virtual Domains (using a domain you purchased, EX: www.missmab.com rather than missmab.xepher.net)--plan to use it soonish

Statistics ( http://xepher.net/stats/ and in the future, more advanced stuff)

Web-based file manger/upload (possible addon in the future)--would be sweet


3. Do you think I should prioritze security, or ease of use / convience, and to what degree? For example, would losing FTP and having only SCP be worth the added security? (WinSCP is just as easy as FTP for direct access, but a lot of editors (like dreamweaver) only support FTP for their builtin file upload.) On the other end, would having to do everything via web-interfaces be too restrictive? That is, having to upload and manage everything in a web-app, with no access to shell, FTP, or other such things. (This is the extreme option, but I believe it would've been secure enough to prevent the most recent hacking attempts, as they all relied on shell access.)

Whatever is more secure, and better for you, I have nothing aginst changing what I use to upload files. I've never used SCP but I'm sure it's not leaps over my tiny brain.


4. What other features or services would you like to see added?

I'm not sure but I'd be glad to discuss and offer my opinion on any ideas you have.


5. How do you feel about the quality of service? By this, I mean how fast the server responds, how well it runs scripts, general performance stuff. This is not to rate MY service as an admin... which has been seriously neglectful when it comes to things like reviewing applications. I apologize for that, but what I'm considering is trying to find a new hosting service for the new server. I notice a decent amount of packet loss and wildly varying ping times with the current one. (On the other hand, it's REALLY affordable, and you get what you pay for.)

I don't notice any problems, but my site isn't all that complicated anyway.


6. I want ideas here. I have a couple problems I'm trying to solve. First off, I want Xepher.net to grow, and I want to do so with quality, not just by becoming another geocities. Secondly, I'd like to find a way to get some small income for this thing. I'm looking at investing about a thousand bucks in a new server, and hosting is still costing another hundred a month. If I move to a better host, it could be even more. Right now, the only real income is from donations, and 90% of that is from DMFA ( http://missmab.com ) Still, it's been just over three years since I put the server in chicago and I've spent about 3800 bucks out of pocket for this, not counting hardware costs. I don't intend to forgo the free hosting, but I'm thinking options along the lines of maybe running a seperate "commercial" hosting area, perhaps with dedicated comic services like webcomicsnation.com, which wouldn't have to have a newsbox, or share revenue with donations like the free sites do. Another idea is to maybe offer dedicated game servers for things like counter-strike and such. Other options are maybe stick with the shared donation/ad revenue, but just work hard to get some good, quality content here. I mean, a couple more sites like DMFA is all that's needed. Question is, how to attract such sites? I mean, obviously I need to get one top of my game with applications and whatnot... Speaking of..

To get the thousand bucks for the new server, you could maybe have some sort of a "upgrade xepher.net" drive. I have some money sitting around for something like that if you ever needed it. I mean Canadian money but our dollar is totaly going up!

Other than that you could give sites that you host the option to put tasteful ads up, like google ads or  like alot of webcomics do these days. If the site wants ads they can have them, but like donations you could get a percentage of the ad revenue. I don't think you should have to force anyone to have ads, just give them the option to allow decent ones.

I like the dedicated server for games idea. Not sure about the commercial hosting area, since that kinda ruins what you where going for in the first place.

I think you need some sort of logo, to show that we're a community kinda like how all the comics that form BlankLabel all carry the logo. We could also get some community projects on the go and have different websites for them.


7. How can I redo the application system? I want some sort of quality "filter" on new members, but at the same time, I feel bad because the current "wait for Xepher the bevelant dictator to nod" method is leaving lots of worthy applications sitting in limbo because I don't have the time I need to take care of them. I was hoping that with them on the forum, there would be lot of peer review. Don't get me wrong, there are a few members that have been doing a lot of work looking at applications and giving good opinions and advice, and I thank them... but I need more than two or three opinions to let me feel comfortable rubber-stamping something. When I rebuild, should I make a system that requires current members to show up and vote on new people from time to time, or is that trying to force a community where there's not one? How else could I redo it? Do I deputize some trusted people to review and approve/deny applications?

I liked when we could vote for them(I know you can't do that on this forum). Deputising sounds good but maybe combine that with the general publics thoughts and votes




I think that's about it for now, and I apologize for the length of this post, but it's stuff I need to sort out (and apologize for.)

It's all good

I live in Cananda!

http://www.ernestcline.com/dmd/

So true :p

That's the same guy who created Potter Puppet Pals. I love his stuff, I almost want to buy his CD :p