User talk:Timeshifter

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Your ShoutWiki Wiki
Hi Timeshifter! Which wiki on ShoutWiki is yours? D u s t i *Let's talk!* 21:05, 9 August 2013 (UTC)


 * This one:
 * http://cannabis.shoutwiki.com --Timeshifter (talk) 23:53, 9 August 2013 (UTC)
 * That's definitely a good wiki - and it could definitely be hosted here on Orain. I love the fact that you have a lot of ideas and suggestions. Your technical abilities are also a super plus. Would you possibly be interested in helping out here more? We could certainly use the boost! :) D u s t i *Let's talk!* 00:16, 10 August 2013 (UTC)


 * I may host some stuff here, but right now I don't have the energy. In the meantime I don't know how I can help out much here. Maybe if you start a forum, I can help out now and then.


 * I am curious as to what it costs to run a wiki farm monthly? Just for site hosting, bandwidth, etc.. Not staff costs. --Timeshifter (talk) 04:15, 12 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Right now, the costs are extremely minimal as we've only had to take care of the domain name and SSL certificate. I expect that as time goes on those costs may fluctuate. D u s <font color="#0000ff">t <font color="#6600cc">i *Let's talk!* 05:11, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

(Unindent). I tried to figure out what it would cost from this page:
 * http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing

But that page and some of its linked pages baffle me from my cursory examination. I have seen sites like this:
 * http://www.1and1.com

Their web hosting page has some simpler pricing for people like me who do not understand the server end of stuff:
 * http://www.1and1.com/linux-web-hosting

That web host has had huge multi-page ads in PCworld magazine in many issues of the magazine. So they must be big. They are also international with servers spread across several countries. I like the fact that they allow unlimited bandwidth and web space. Web space is important because the Global Marijuana March wiki at Wikia has over one gigabyte of GMM flyers, posters, banners, and other graphics all the way back to 1999. Bandwidth is important because any current GMM site gets slammed for a few months leading up to the event in May. Thousands of hits a day.

I have some ideas. Maybe you, TropicalWikis, and WikiHub can create one wiki farm. Or you could buy them out. Or ask them to donate their sites and domain names to you. So you could redirect those wikis' domain and subdomain names to your site. See:
 * http://wikiindex.org/Category:Free_MediaWiki_wiki_farms

I am leery of being on small wiki farms. I think most people are. Few want to be one of the first wikis on a wiki farm. People are not sure how they will be treated, what the wikis will be allowed to cover, how much customization is allowed. Many people have had problems with Wikia, and so their fears are understandable.

I think a memorable domain name is needed for a wiki farm. Wikia and ShoutWiki are catchy and easy to remember. I don't like "TropicalWikis". It sounds like a travel agency or something. "WikiHub" is too generic and boring. "Orain" does not have "wiki" in the name, and is hard to remember. "Orain" is not catchy.

If you consolidate all of the wikis from TropicalWikis with your wiki farm, then you are no longer a small beginning wiki farm. People would be more likely to create wikis. Especially if you have a catchy name.

Your draw might be that beginning wikis do not have ads for the first year no matter what. And for as long as their bandwidth does not exceed a certain monthly or quarterly amount. If that happens they have the option to pay to not have ads. WordPress.com has this option, and is very popular. Its Alexa rank is currently 21. See the WordPress.com info here: --Timeshifter (talk) 21:39, 12 August 2013 (UTC)
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Advertisements#Arguments_for_optional_adverts