Ok if I get it right..(buying up all EQ sites)

[Artemisia]

This is in reaction to my post "arghh eqdruids is no more" and I put it seperately because it's just an idea.

I deal al lot IRL with "her did..she did" situations so I did not fully read the whole link but skimmed through it, checked some other forums, site etc and it seems a lot of people are really mad and worried that one person/company is buying up all eq sites. It is also alleged in some places that this person is not a very nice person (I'm sort of very worried about some of the things I did read, so much so that I am considering not renewing my Alla subscription because certain obscene things I read about quite sicken me. But then how much of what I read is really true?).

Question is from me to Eq-ers out there: If everyone is so mad, why has no one come up with a counter attack? Such as creating another site which combines all the features of Alla, Illia, Eq-druids/beastlord/bard/warrior/etc etc etc?
The only reason he could have done this (buying everyone up, and getting everyone mad) is because there is no alternative for players (such a myself, the druids info on eqdruid was a little out of date but excellent anyways) out there.

Now I don't know what it involves to do run a site like EQdruids or Alla, money and equipment wise. But this could be something that is feasable.

Maybe DenMother can tell us something about what it costs (time wise, love wise) to run this site, how much help she gets and maybe even how much equip she needs for it (not in money but in hardware) just to give us an idea.

Or maybe you work as a IT person and would be able to give some idea?

In a war the best attack is counter attack and not sit and lick ones wounds.

* wonders if she shall now end up on someone(s) doggy doo list*

(P.S. Again I hope it is ok to post this here, normally I would post something like this on Alla, but atm I am not sure if I want to support that site anymore and not sure where to post.)

Edit: grr edit and then forget what I wanted to say *makes note to self not to go afk for tea next time*

[Grolyn]

Allakhazam contains a LOT of info and short of copying it would take a long time to come close to allakhazam in content. Then you'd need incenticives to get most people to come to the new site rather than allakhazam like all free content no paid membership required no ads, etc.

Should that work, you'd need a decent server and lots of bandwidth plus money to cover those.

I don't like what IGN is doing but I would guess they are desperate to find new ad revunes since selling plats isn't good enough these day.

[KyrosKrane]

From a technical perspective, there are three main costs associated with a site like Alla's (or this, or pretty much any other hosted site). You have to pay for the physical server box (or, if you run a small site, for the hard disk space on a shared server); you have to pay for the bandwidth, and you have to pay the people who work on your site.

In general, for a site like Alla's, you'll want several moderately powerful servers dedicated to your site that are co-located at a reliable hosting company. This is probably your lowest cost, but it's still several hundred dollars per year, in addition to the cost of the hardware itself.

Bandwidth is not cheap. A site like Alla's needs HUGE amounts of bandwidth, especially with all the graphics.

Your people costs are likely to be the highest. Even if you have a mostly volunteer staff, you'll need a few full-time people whose sole job is to maintain your site.

One thing I've been thinking about is how you could do a site like that for less. Perhaps the answer would be a wiki. A wiki is a Web site where any user can directly edit any page. Because of the way a wiki works, your people costs will drop dramatically; you can get by with maybe one full time person and a few volunteers. Wikis would also reduce some of your operational costs, since it's pre-made software. You wouldn't have to create all the programming and scripting for your site from scratch.

[Twistagain]

The most obvious problem with a wiki in this situation is that you are already trying to get away from some untrustworthy, unliked person...the kind of person that would have no problems going to your wiki, using your bandwidth, and altering your information to make it inaccurate.

It would be a MAJOR headache to keep the information there anywhere near correct.

[KyrosKrane]

Granted, but sites like the Wikipedia have been enormously successful because of peer review and user contributions, to the point where a recent study found that Wikipedia is about as accurate as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, if not more so. (Of course, EB disputes the study, but by and large, Wikipedia is more than accurate enough and probably more diverse than EB.)

It would take a critical mass of users, though, all reviewing and editing and cross-checking the new info, and I don't know if EQ has a sufficiently motivated user base for such a site to be successful.

Edited to add hyperlinks.

[Twistagain]

Yeah, I just don't think an EQ site would have enough users to maintain a decent signal-to-noise ratio, so to speak.

In the case of Wikipedia, you have a LARGE number of users from all walks of life with all sorts of interests and really no one (besides maybe EB or other such places) with enough of a personal interest to "destroy" the information.

In this case, you have a somewhat "small" user base with a very LOUD and ambitious detractor (in IGE/OGaming/whatever-they-call-themselves-at-the-moment.)

[Itek]

*sigh*

Alla and other sites is successful because they offer good information.

Replication of that information would be a vast undertaking. (Alla has over 100k pages.) The bandwidth is enourmous. (800k visits a day. Ask DenMom what her bandwidth costs are. Then ask if she could increase 5 fold and depend on donations and volunteers. Then DUCK the rolling pin.)

Wiki won't work. Not a chance. They lock certain pages there due to "grudge" users who mess up specific pages. Alla had to institute a "filter" for horrible posts. But the pages would become the "whine-play boards" in about five minutes. Druid stances, "this is monk gear", knight-envy, trinity, etc, etc etc...

Will IBM make you buy plat to look on Alla? No.

If Alla keeps up the quality it's been known for I'll keep going there. Absolutely NO REASON EXISTS to stop visiting the site mearly because they shill for someone you don't like. Burn Yaris's bandwidth if you want to feel better about it.

Alla has been there for years and probably gotten about as rich running his site as DenMom up until the sale. (Read: not very.)

If you don't want to buy / sell plat ... don't. But don't look down your noses at people who are trying to make a living. And don't presume that because something CAN be done and has been done it's easy to do. I'd never undertake to carry on in DenMom's place. And I'd try to build an Alla replacement site at gunpoint. Maybe.

Want to have the data and have it be accurate and have the money not go to a third party. Get SOE to do all of Alla / Lucy / Magelo / EQRankings / EQTraders work on their own "for extra fee" website. That would solve the problem.

Oh... EQPlayers... *shudder*

I just can't understand how a website with access to the actual database can be SO FAR OFF that it's plain silly. I have "auto update" in options, log out, check EQPlayers (I have a FULL subscription for a year paid) and find that my cleric is still wearing the "small iron mask" from before he turned level 28. (70 with 272 aa now, I assure you my face slot is a LITTLE better +3 AC only) And that I have no rings on. And ... well the list of errors is somewhat lengthy. Suffice to say .... I'd rather pay HAL 25 bucks a year for RIGHT information than SOE 36 bucks a year EXTRA for WRONG data.

[Grolyn]

You do offer some good points. It'd be hard to match Allak. I use Firefox browser with AdBlock added, it blocks darn near everything including the flash and all but the most trickiest pop ups. I haven't seen any ads on Allak for sometime now. I'd suggest you try the same if you aren't using Firefox or alternative browser with built in pop up blocker and ad blocker.

As for intentionally sucking up bandwidth, they could view it as DoS attempt and you'd be in hot water. You could try a script that uses random number generator to load a random item or beastiary page every min or so. But do it at your own risk.

[Lothay]

As for intentionally sucking up bandwidth, they could view it as DoS attempt and you'd be in hot water. You could try a script that uses random number generator to load a random item or beastiary page every min or so. But do it at your own risk.

He didn't advocate any nefarious activity. Just using the site costs IGE money in bandwidth costs.

[Itek]

*nod* (Thanks Lothay)

What I meant, guess I wasn't clear, is that using a site, the publicly accessable stuff, and not subscribing to it or buying / visiting the ads on it uses their bandwidth and gives them nothing in return.

Personally I still visit sites that Yaris and folks own / run. I am holding out hope that the people running Alla stay the same and are just under new "management" (whom I hope keep their claws / fingers OUT of the website) because most sites they have "bought" have degraded quickly into near uselessness.

I personally think the most reasonable view on the "gold sellers" is a Penny-Arcade comic on the subject.

[Nolrog]

I don't like what IGN is doing but I would guess they are desperate to find new ad revunes since selling plats isn't good enough these day.

IGE!!!

[Itek]

Don't you mean IBM ?

We've been using pseudo-nyms because (I at lest thought) a) they were filtered, b) why advertise, and c) if you don't know who we're talking about it's probably better not knowing, no?

[KyrosKrane]

Except that IGN is a real games-type site that has nothing to do with the baddies you meant; people might think you meant it literally if they're not too familiar.

[Nolrog]

Except that IGN is a real games-type site that has nothing to do with the baddies you meant; people might think you meant it literally if they're not too familiar.

Exactly.