The future of Apolyton

[Alexander's Horse]

I say we turn this into an FPS site and watch the traffic spiral

[Ben Kenobi]

And if I'm a stay in the way for new good owners to jump upon the bandwagon, then I'm happy to move away.
But if people will be willing to join me, take over tech support and server support, and think about the future of Apolyton and be able to be creative about that, then I'd be very happy to work together on that.

I don't see you as the barrier halting further improvement of the site. You were always in a partnership with someone with the technical capabilities of running this site. That, I believe, was part of the deal when you came in because you understood your limitations in this area. So, we need to find you someone who's willing to do this work for you.

Here is my proposal. Since Poly seems short on time but not on money (which is a change from years past), why don't we hire someone to help you with the technical aspects? People do have busy times and lives, and compensating them for their time makes sense. I'm willing to pitch in to see this happen to keep this site up and running. And I know I'm not the only one who's up for that.

I think we will have an easier time attacting someone with these abilities if we offer them compensation for their time.

Up to you Robert, I'm not the one who makes the decisions here - you paid for that privilege. I'm just the monkey rattling his cage.

[Ben Kenobi]

AH, I think the problem is not so much the negativity, but rather the cornerclub feeling. The OT has basically become a tight community consisting of people who've been there for the better part of a decade - or even longer than a decade. Which is good in itself, except the fact that it's probably prohibitively difficult for someone new to blend into the community.

And it's not like the OT has stopped beating certain dead horses. I checked a coupe of days ago, and people (Aeson) were still arguing with Ben. Amazing how that hasn't been given a rest yet.

We'd be a stronger site today if not for your decision to divide the community, Solver. I thought it was a shortsighted decision then, and I maintain that today. I realize that people have longstanding issues with each other - but we're going to have to put those aside to fix things.

[KrazyHorse]

I don't understand why the "archive poly" option is even being considered - there are obviously options to continue poly at its current level of activity without any further cost to its current owners, which seems strictly superior to archiving.

[The Mad Monk]

I run my own websites for a living, the most active of which is a gaming website that has ~14k daily unique visitors. It runs on a VPS that I manage myself. I've built it from scratch in the last 6 months, including the parsing of game data, display, and other functionality that allows me to often beat the game's related wikia (with hundreds or thousands of contributors and a rather large, active, and technically proficient management team) in being first to publish new info about the game. While I'm still learning a lot ... I understand both the promotion and technical side of things, as well as what else is required to build a gaming community.

What it requires is a lot of time and hard work. I'm no longer a single guy living with no responsibilities, so couldn't devote that time and hard work without ownership and profit potential. I think Apolyton can be an elite gaming site. I think it can be profitable as well. I would be willing to take on the risk and responsibility to make it so in both regards.

I think I have a pretty good track record in regards to on-topic content and events both from a management and participant standpoint. I ran the Civ III HOF at CivFanatics and was a main contributor to the management of the CivFanatics GOTM during the Civ III years. In both cases I helped to turn them from hand generated lists into dynamic database driven ones. (Even though I was a complete noob ... those were my very first PHP/MySQL projects.) In both cases I was one of the more prolific contributors to the discussions around those events. Also I was one of the more active contributors tot he on-topic here at Apolyton at the same time. One of the few posters who had significant roles on both sites.

I was on the Civ IV playtesting group for ~2 years, and one of the more active contributors to that project. I was also approached by Trip about having a role in Civ V. (I don't know what role, because I had to decline.)

I understand that things in the OT and my own posting would have to change. I wasn't always cuddly in on-topic, but certainly more respectful and constructive than in the OT. The OT would need some rules to keep it from negatively affecting the rest of the site, but could remain mostly how it is. I would return to my on-topic days, and necessarily wouldn't have time to do much arguing in the OT. No grudges on my part of course. So, if you want me gone from the OT (in my current incarnation), you should support my bid for ownership.

Supported.

but I can possibly pay somebody else to do so (in terms of technical support, security etc).

Ditto.

[MrFun]

Let Apolyton die.

[Wezil]

If it was a pet it would have been put down long ago.

[Captain ******* Kirk]

Plomp: if you can't dedicate the time/money to keeping the lights on (including security), then I suggest you give over control to somebody who can (this is no knock on you - makes sense that you've given a good amount to this site, time to pass the torch).

I can dedicate 0 time to the site, but I can possibly pay somebody else to do so (in terms of technical support, security etc).

Where are Asher and Guy? Let's do this.

[MOBIUS]

If you guys are willing to pay me, I'll run it...

[self biased]

If you guys are willing to pay me, I'll ruin it...

fixed.

[Nikolai]

If you guys are willing to pay me, I'll run it...

How sheep will it be?

[Alexander's Horse]

If you guys are willing to pay me, I'll run it...

into the ground

Maybe starting a civ site would be a good retirement hobby for me. I could call it "we played civ" or something, a nostalgia site with an unusually active off-topic forum

[Dinner]

How much are we talking?

[notyoueither]

into the ground

Maybe starting a civ site would be a good retirement hobby for me. I could call it "we played civ" or something, a nostalgia site with an unusually active off-topic forum

Didn't you try something like this before and don't you profess to not care anymore?

[Alexander's Horse]

no i never did, and I'm not retiring for another 15 years, so sorry Boris