Squirrel wrote:

Do you think we should down load everyones email address and web pages so we can keep in contact?



There should be no concern about losing any of that. The eGroups list is totally seperate from the clues map so we should be able to communicate as long as eGroups provides this service.

Lone Wolf

So... as I understand it, we are looking for a place to house our web
site that:

A) is basically free

B) allows multiple webmasters so one person isn't shouldering all
responsibilty


Since I am not particularly able to help out with the webmastering, I am
more than amenable to whatever those individuals who are decide.

I too am annoyed by the geo-cities pop up menus. I am not thrilled with
banner advertising, but unless it seriously affects the speed the page
loads, I generally ignore the ads anyway.

--
Thom Cheney
tcgrafx... among other things

Personally, I find the ads on most free sites very annoying... and they do
significantly effect download times. At one time there was considerable
objection raised to the ads on our talk list messages, and I think to have
them on our webpages would be very distasteful.

If we went with a corporate sponsor, they might be willing to settle for much
less conspicuous advertising, and would be able to help us afford a
stand-alone site location.

My 2 cents,
Der Mad Stamper

How much space is needed for the LbNA website? Just a thought, but
if someone gets on the ball, they could use patch/decal sales to cover a
modest fee of $60/year for website hosting at www.your-site.com

50 MBs Space, 6 Gig transfer, 25 Pop3, 1 FTP/telnet account, Cgi-bin, MS
Frontpage 2K extensions, Logs, Stats, etc...

Personally, although I like the idea of free web hosting. I have yet to
find one that I like.

Just my thoughts,
Jeremy

> So... as I understand it, we are looking for a place to house our web
> site that:
>
> A) is basically free
>
> B) allows multiple webmasters so one person isn't shouldering all
> responsibilty

C) That will allow parking of the letterboxing.org domain so that
the redirect that currently exists will not annoy people who are
either unaware of, or have browers that do not support, the ability
to backskip redirects (in netscape, do this by holding down the back
button, if you care) (prolly less than 50% of free sites will do this,
but some will) I will continue to provide the redirect (pending
funding issues) if y'all cannot get this.

D) That will support setting the MX record to an arbitrary server (it
is unlikely any free service will do this, so I guess forget it -- this
is also meaningless without C)

E) That allows scripting. We don't need this now but will. Very few
free sites will do this, AFAIK.

Sorry for putting this on the main list. (I think letterbox-technical,
where this belongs, is moribund and should be vaporized) Believe me,
sweat socks interest me more than this sort of stuff. A and B are
musts, C is a strive for, count yourself lucky if you get D and E,
but don't let it discourage you from going the free route.

--
randy "the mapsurfer"
http://www.letterboxing.org

>> A) is basically free
>>
>> B) allows multiple webmasters so one person isn't shouldering all
>> responsibilty
>
>C) That will allow parking of the letterboxing.org domain so that
>the redirect that currently exists will not annoy people who are
>either unaware of, or have browers that do not support, the ability
>to backskip redirects (in netscape, do this by holding down the back
>button, if you care) (prolly less than 50% of free sites will do this,
>but some will) I will continue to provide the redirect (pending
>funding issues) if y'all cannot get this.
>
>D) That will support setting the MX record to an arbitrary server (it
>is unlikely any free service will do this, so I guess forget it -- this
>is also meaningless without C)
>
>E) That allows scripting. We don't need this now but will. Very few
>free sites will do this, AFAIK.

OK, I will mention this one last time and then I won't bother anyone with
the offer again. I will very soon have SDSL running out of my house
(assuming no foulups by the ISP) to host other websites that I have on
my computers. I currently have a network of Linux machines, Macs, and
even a windows box in my home office. I expect that the traffic generated
by the LBNA site would be relatively minimal. I am willing to host the
site on my machines for free no strings attached. I would find a way that
the site could be maintained by whomever the group wishes to have do such
a thing. I haven't the time or inclination to do that myself. The
letterboxing.org name is obviously owned by someone on the list and could
easlily be setup (by that person -who will continue to have all control
of the domain name) to point to the LBNA site on my apache server with no
redirects necessary. There is no problem setting up an MX record either
(that simply sends all mail to some specific mail server other than the
one where the website lives) though I could just as easily set up an
letterboxing.org domain on my mail server with as many users that people
would want (e.g. webmaster@letterboxing.org, whomever@letterboxing.org,
etc.). I already have the most advanced web scripting language available
on unix (PHP) and the fastest database (MySql) installed on my
webserver, and it would be available for use on the site if anyone is
interested in learning to use it. Oh yeah, an no advertising of any sort
would occur. If you all are interested let me know. If not that's OK
too, I have no ulterior motives. Best wishes on whatever is decided.

--
Regards,
Eric Mings Ph.D.

On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 17:54:55 -0400 (EDT) Jeremy Disch
writes:
...use patch/decal sales?..
if there are 127 members @ $1 ea= $127/year, nothing to produce except
apoll of members.
it might require someone to act as treasurer, but most travel soccer
teams, girl scouts etc. vary from year in membership and can easily get
savings/checking accounts fro something like this.
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Sorry to be off the list for the past week. There's been a fair
amount of 'behind the scenes' discussion as we've tried to reach a
consensus on a recommendation to bring to the list. I'm not sure
we're completely there yet, but we all feel that responses to and
involvement of the list is way overdue.

I'm feeling very positive that Mitch is willing to stay with the
group and work together on a new site. As most of you know, our site
was located on Mitch's server (aol) from the end of last summer until
early this spring. Mitch had been heavily involved in studies and out
of touch with the group, and there was concern that the site was not
being updated. So those of us who also participate in the updating
made the decision to move the site to Randy's server.

Mitch returned to the list in mid-May and took the discovery of the
switch very well (IMO). He had done a lot of work on the site as a
school project, and has continued to work on it this summer.

Meanwhile, John De Wolf, Randy Hall, and I were working to keep the
clues updated. The ultimate responsibilty now fell to Randy, as it
had previously to Mitch, since the site was on his server now. Randy
has been dealing with family illness and other demands and decided
that he could not continue hosting the site. (Despite these
pressures, he has continued to particpate in the discussions and is
our major source of technical expertise. Without his advice, we would
very likely be making some second-rate decisions right now).

Seeing our current uncertainty, and given the elegant and up-to-date
status of his site, Mitch might have decided to go on his own. But he
recognizes that we need a site that permits an increasing larger
number of people to be involved in its upkeep. A single person right
now could do it - working very hard! If the number of letterboxers
continues to grow as we hope, it will be impossible for any one
person.

We also see that there are servers out there better than aol, which
would really let the site reach its full potential. So that is what
we need to decide on now.

This brief (?) recapitualtion may be have been unnecessary, but I
don't know how many people on the list may have been following along
regulalry the past year.

One of the factors that has delayed my own posting to the group is
that I was waiting to meet with a lawyer to specializes in non-profit
corporations. I wanted to know what our legal position would be if we
set up a new site that required asking people for money. Would we be
obliged to incorporate? Would we have to acquire that status before
we registered a new site? We probably could have gotten that
information from expertise on the list, but I felt more
comfortable consulting someone in person.

The results were very encouraging. Briefly, he thinks we are in good
shape as far as exposure to liability for letterboxing accidents
goes. And he advises strongly against incorporation. I am going to
post the points he made in greater detail in a different e-mail.

Over the past two weeks there have been lots of excellent
suggestions and offers of help. Thank you all very much. We will
certainly be looking for the help with updating the new site once
it is established.

Eric Mings has made a very generous offer to host the site for free
on his server, and a lot of list members have voiced their
thanks. I add my voice to theirs. Some of the behind the scenes
discussions have involved bringing up past disagreements with Eric
and how relevant those are to our choice. The other primary
consideration is technical - whether Eric's site would meet all our
needs. When we put in the effort to move everything to a different
location, we want to try to make sure we do it right.

If we decide for either reason not to take advantage or Eric's offer,
the funding of a new site should not be a problem. Several people
have offered to contribute $50 to $100, which would certainly get us
started. I'm guessing that we asked if some people on the list
could contribute $5 or $10 a year, we would get enough positive
responses to get the $300 - $400/year we need.

Eric, regardless of which way our discussion and decision go, I am
glad you are back into letterboxing. Thank you for the offer.

I am leaving on vacation with my family for a week this morning - to
a place where there is no e-mail. (How long will such Shangri-la's
exist??) I feel a little like Snagglepuss (?) saying 'Exit .... Stage
Right!'.

Best wishes,

Tom Cooch

I am bowled over by the amount of work all these people have put into this.
Work and thought. Thanks, from beginning and experienced letterboxers
alike. Thank you all.

Erica

----------
> From: Tom Cooch
> To: letterbox-usa@egroups.com
> Subject: [LbNA] New site
> Date: Friday, July 14, 2000 10:32 PM
>
>
> Sorry to be off the list for the past week. There's been a fair
> amount of 'behind the scenes' discussion as we've tried to reach a
> consensus on a recommendation to bring to the list. I'm not sure
> we're completely there yet, but we all feel that responses to and
> involvement of the list is way overdue.
>
> I'm feeling very positive that Mitch is willing to stay with the
> group and work together on a new site. As most of you know, our site
> was located on Mitch's server (aol) from the end of last summer until
> early this spring. Mitch had been heavily involved in studies and out
> of touch with the group, and there was concern that the site was not
> being updated. So those of us who also participate in the updating
> made the decision to move the site to Randy's server.
>
> Mitch returned to the list in mid-May and took the discovery of the
> switch very well (IMO). He had done a lot of work on the site as a
> school project, and has continued to work on it this summer.
>
> Meanwhile, John De Wolf, Randy Hall, and I were working to keep the
> clues updated. The ultimate responsibilty now fell to Randy, as it
> had previously to Mitch, since the site was on his server now. Randy
> has been dealing with family illness and other demands and decided
> that he could not continue hosting the site. (Despite these
> pressures, he has continued to particpate in the discussions and is
> our major source of technical expertise. Without his advice, we would
> very likely be making some second-rate decisions right now).
>
> Seeing our current uncertainty, and given the elegant and up-to-date
> status of his site, Mitch might have decided to go on his own. But he
> recognizes that we need a site that permits an increasing larger
> number of people to be involved in its upkeep. A single person right
> now could do it - working very hard! If the number of letterboxers
> continues to grow as we hope, it will be impossible for any one
> person.
>
> We also see that there are servers out there better than aol, which
> would really let the site reach its full potential. So that is what
> we need to decide on now.
>
> This brief (?) recapitualtion may be have been unnecessary, but I
> don't know how many people on the list may have been following along
> regulalry the past year.
>
> One of the factors that has delayed my own posting to the group is
> that I was waiting to meet with a lawyer to specializes in non-profit
> corporations. I wanted to know what our legal position would be if we
> set up a new site that required asking people for money. Would we be
> obliged to incorporate? Would we have to acquire that status before
> we registered a new site? We probably could have gotten that
> information from expertise on the list, but I felt more
> comfortable consulting someone in person.
>
> The results were very encouraging. Briefly, he thinks we are in good
> shape as far as exposure to liability for letterboxing accidents
> goes. And he advises strongly against incorporation. I am going to
> post the points he made in greater detail in a different e-mail.
>
> Over the past two weeks there have been lots of excellent
> suggestions and offers of help. Thank you all very much. We will
> certainly be looking for the help with updating the new site once
> it is established.
>
> Eric Mings has made a very generous offer to host the site for free
> on his server, and a lot of list members have voiced their
> thanks. I add my voice to theirs. Some of the behind the scenes
> discussions have involved bringing up past disagreements with Eric
> and how relevant those are to our choice. The other primary
> consideration is technical - whether Eric's site would meet all our
> needs. When we put in the effort to move everything to a different
> location, we want to try to make sure we do it right.
>
> If we decide for either reason not to take advantage or Eric's offer,
> the funding of a new site should not be a problem. Several people
> have offered to contribute $50 to $100, which would certainly get us
> started. I'm guessing that we asked if some people on the list
> could contribute $5 or $10 a year, we would get enough positive
> responses to get the $300 - $400/year we need.
>
> Eric, regardless of which way our discussion and decision go, I am
> glad you are back into letterboxing. Thank you for the offer.
>
> I am leaving on vacation with my family for a week this morning - to
> a place where there is no e-mail. (How long will such Shangri-la's
> exist??) I feel a little like Snagglepuss (?) saying 'Exit .... Stage
> Right!'.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Tom Cooch
>
>
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