Rapid Growth
In light of the rapid growth of this site (and the problems associated with said growth), we’d like to make an announcement about some changes that will be happening here in the near future. Please read.
To all the fine patrons of [caedmonscall.net],
I first created The Rumor Mill in September 2001 with hopes that it would become the primary source for Caedmon’s Call information on the web. About six months later we debuted [caedmonscall.net], desiring not only to be a source for news, but for any information regarding the band. It was our hope that in being an information hub, people would be drawn to the site and a community would form.
It’s been just over a year since [caedmonscall.net] opened its doors and the site has become much more than any of us could ever have hoped for. Despite our forums crashing multiple times in the past year (more on this in a second), we currently have 343 registered members and a community of friends that has formed which rivals any other online in terms of closeness and camaraderie. When you add to that the fact that [caedmonscall.net] itself receives over 500 unique hits per day, you can see why we are so proud of how well our little site is growing up.
Unfortunately, with growth there also comes some necessary changes. Like a child who outgrows his/her shoes and clothes every 12 months, we too are walking around lately with pants that leave our ankles exposed and shoes that are making our feet blister. Basically, because we have so many people enjoying the site every day, we’ve outgrown what a normal Web host can provide us. Our heavy traffic is taking a disproportionate amount of server resources, and we are being left with no choice but to do something to alleviate the situation. It’s a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.
Recent problems that we have had with the site have only pushed us to move quicker on something that we have been talking about for a few months now, namely, getting our own server. With our own server, we won’t get brought down when others act like morons and cause the data center to zap the hard drive (Which is, in a nutshell, what caused our weeklong outage last week). It will, in essence, allow us to control our own destiny, sink or swim.
—following paragraph for techheads only—
After taking plenty of time to think about the options available to us, we’ve decided to go with a low-end dedicated server. We considered building our own server and having it co-located (and even had a cc.net person offer to help us out), and we also considered a “virtual dedicated server” option, but we decided that it’s worth it, in the long run, to pay a little more to get the highest quality of service that we can. We might as well pay the people that do this for a living to do it for us.
—techhead part is over—
As you may have guessed, making a transition like this costs money. That’s the only reason we’ve waited as long as we have to do this. At this point we really can’t wait any longer, and that’s why we’ve come to ask for your help.
To do this will cost us around $200/mo. Our current hosting plan has been running about $30/mo., and our referral fees from Grassroots have been covering that–thanks to all of you who choose to feed your music addictions through us. We really appreciate that. (by the way, buying music through our front page link to Grassroots Music helps us out so much. Please continue to use it.) Unfortunately the Grassroots Associate money alone will not be enough to cover server costs.
What we’ve decided is to go ahead and order the server next week, getting it up and running and moving the data over and then “flipping the switch” so that, by May 1, we’re ready to go. The cost to do that this month will be around $400–the setup fee is one month’s cost.
The loyal board tyrant Geof, who pays out a decent chunk a change to other hosting companies for his other sites, has agreed to move all his sites to our new server and for the time being put that money he was paying to other hosts towards [caedmonscall.net]. It will help a great deal, but will still not be enough. This is where you come in.
What we’re asking for is a yearly pledge to help us out. By doing some math, we figure that we can make it if enough folks donate $25 a year to us. If we couple those pledges with Geof’s donations and the Grassroots Associate Link program, we should be able to cover costs and provide everyone with a virtually problem-free website with no limits on how much we can grow.
Please do not think of this as a new “Guild” or anything like that. You will not be paying money for perks and special goodies. Please think of this as a donation. You’ll be paying us 25 bucks a year (which ends up only being about two bucks a month) to continue to enjoy everything you love about this website.
We’ve decided to call this our ‘charter member’ program. And though we don’t want you to think about it as a “pay for goodies” program, we will do our best to offer charter members a few extras that regular members are not privy to. It will be our way of saying thanks for helping us out. We won’t make any promises concerning perks, but a few things we have in mind might include a special board in our forums just for charter members, an occasional band chat with charter members (or extending a band chat longer just for charter members), and possibly passing along copies of a quality bootleg to charter members. Just possiblities at this point.
Again, don’t become a charter member and then whine about it not being worth your money. We want to be up front that this is about donations, this is not like the Guild or a fan club. The reason to give is that you love this site and want to help us keep it running and growing. It’s kinda like giving to public broadcasting. You give because you enjoy it and want it to stay on the air, not because they give you some chintzy coffee mug.
Of course, many of you will choose not to become charter members for many reasons, and that’s fine. You will not be offered anything less from our site than you have received in the past. Our aim is not to cater to the paying members in an effort to get others to join the donating throng. Though we will try to thank them with occasional perks for their generosity, our goal is still to be a community that all are welcome to free of charge.
Exactly how do you give and become a charter member? Well, we’re still hammering out the details. We will be setting up a separate bank account and paypal account for caedmonscall.net in the near future to make things a little more legit. And as always, you can donate to us now using our paypal link on our front page (more info on that is located in the FAQ). We will be unveiling more details about the charter member program in the coming weeks, so if you’d like to join, hold tight for a few days and we’ll give you more info on everything soon.
Thanks for caring enough about the site to take the time to read all this. We hope that we’ve gained enough trust from y’all over the past year to be able to propose a program like this. Y’all are the reason this site is so great, and that makes it a lot easier to ask you to help us keep this site running and growing.
Caedmon’s Call is showing no signs of letting up any time soon and we want to continue to move alongside them and provide all their fans with a community where they can share their love for good music and develop great friendships. We’d love it if you came alongside us and helped us do that. Please give it some consideration.
Sincerely,
Bryan and the staff of [caedmonscall.net]
Ps..if you have any questions or comments regarding this, please use the Feedback Board in our forum.
Pps..if you plan on donating $25 a year (or more) to help us out, can you send us an email at cmpledge@caedmonscall.net and let us know. also let us know if youd be able to give your donation by the end of this month. thanks.