Kinja'd

"benjrblant" (benjblant) 11/11/2019 at 09:05 • Filed to: None

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I, for one, am so in support of moving to oppositelock.com . Is that still a consideration? Just because we haven’t been axed yet doesn’t necessarily mean that 1) we should stay and 2) they won’t still axe us.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > benjrblant 11/11/2019 at 09:14

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I think it’s still in the cards - Nickhas anExocet is working on it. Our big hurdle is cost...it’s not rea dy yet, but we’re not sure how much bandwith the site would generate and how much it would cost per month to sustain that.

We wouldn’t want to have to ask people to pay anything, but we have no idea if it would come to that. If you think of the number of images that get posted here daily in posts AND comments, the bandwith would be pretty high...

McMike > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/11/2019 at 09:33

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Start a website, they said. Reserving a domain name is like, $10 a year, so how hard can it be?

benjrblant > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/11/2019 at 09:37

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100% happy to contribute to keep such a good online community going. I understand it’s a ton of work, time, and money and I’m happy to help as I can!

E90M3 > benjrblant 11/11/2019 at 09:49

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I’m with you on this, if we need to fund it, I’m more than willing to help. 

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > McMike 11/11/2019 at 09:54

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We have the domain name, it’s the bandwith you people generate that would be the issue...and the storage space for all the uploads!

thejustache > benjrblant 11/11/2019 at 10:30

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I’ll be frank - I’m not sure if moving on from Kinja while it’s still around is a great idea or not. On one hand, NickhasanExocet has been putting in a lot of work and I think it’s a worthy goal. Us getting booted from Kinja is most likely a when, not if, scenario. If we can get our replacement home tested and dialed in and ready to go before that happens, we’ll be in much better shape.

On the other hand, if we try to make the switch while we still have a home here, we run the risk of fracturing the group. Web hosting, especially for an image heavy site, can get pricey. Like several hundred dollars a month pricey. In order to keep things going, we’d probably need some sort of a monthly fee or donation - either permanently or until some revenue stream was found. There is talk of handling this with a ‘patron’ tier of user, which I personally think is a neat idea. I don’t have a problem paying a couple bucks a month to help out the site, and I know others would feel the same way. It’d still be a change though, and one not all of the users here might want to make as long as oppo on kinja is still here and free to use.

Even if there were no financial boundaries , any time a community changes platforms there is significant user loss. The Jalopnik FP actually still drives users to Oppo somewhat, so without that new user generation might take a hit. Hosting our own site also will mean handling our own disaster recovery - if the site gets PWNED Nick or someone on our team will need to have hopefully been backed up, able to do a restore, and make changes to prevent the attack in the future. We all joke about Kinja and how glitchy it is, but it’s still somebody’s full time job to maintain it. We have no such person.

All this said, the oppo community is pretty large and healthy. As was proven by how quickly the Discord server grew once the ominous messages popped up the other week, many of us will want to make the jump when we can, and certainly if we have to. I think we can make Oppo 2.0 a success. I just think we should really all consider the situation in full before moving to a new self-hosted platform if our current home is still around and in good shape

McMike > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/11/2019 at 10:44

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What about the platform ? The db and the maintenance , updates, and administration?  Who is going to logon and troubleshoot issues and minimize downtime?   Will there be mobile version?  

vondon302 > benjrblant 11/11/2019 at 10:51

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Me too.  

Chuckles > thejustache 11/11/2019 at 10:57

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I agree wholeheartedly. I sometimes worry that the damage has already been done. It’s hard to trust a platform after the owners make it clear that they are willing to wipe out everything. Look at a sub-blog like clashtalk. Here today, gone tomorrow. Oppo has a better chance of survival because our interactions with the front page sites are more limited, but there is still the very real possibility that Oppo on kinja won’t be around forever. It feels like we will lose people if we go, but we also might lose people if we stay.

Just Jeepin' > thejustache 11/11/2019 at 11:12

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The problem is that marketing the new site will be much easier when the current one is still functional. We can’t as easily attract a ready audience (and make sure long-time contributors are notified)  once our current platform is gone.

So waiting too long is bad and jumping too  early is bad. A tough needle to thread.

thejustache > Just Jeepin' 11/11/2019 at 11:27

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I agree completely. There are pros and cons to both, and it’ll be a hard call to make either way. I think in some ways the sooner we can finish oppo 2.0, move it to it’s real home with the new domain, and get some users on it testing the better. The success of the switch in some ways depends on how solid the new home will be. I also think if we have a decent amount of time to keep everyone informed over on Kinja of where the new site is, and what it is like, then if/when Kinja officially dies hopefully the maximum amount of users will know where to go. If Kinja ends up sticking around for another year or two though, then I think we’ll have some tough questions to ask

thejustache > Chuckles 11/11/2019 at 11:28

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Very true. Sitting around here waiting to see if something happens might be just as damaging as making a leap into the dark. It’s going to be a tough call no matter what. At least I think we have enough core users that will be willing to keep things going no matter where we end up

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > benjrblant 11/11/2019 at 11:29

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On Jezebel (yes, I read Jezebel), the ads on the left bar are starting to chase me halfway down the page as I scroll through. The good news is that this time it was a CarGurus ad for a car I actually like.

Nick Has an Exocet > E90M3 11/11/2019 at 13:10

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I would say “finishing” the site is probably the biggest technical hurdle and convincing the entire community to move over is the biggest social hurdle. We’ll need a real effort to do the 2nd.

As for how we pay for hosting, I’m looking at our options. There’s a pretty good combination of potential ways of doing it, including Patreon. I dislike the idea of giving Patreon a 5% cut but if that’s easiest for people, maybe that’s ideal. 

Nick Has an Exocet > McMike 11/11/2019 at 13:18

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As RallyDarkstrike mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been working on the answer to those questions. The short answers:

What about the platform? Wordpress (self-hosted, not a Wordpress.com blog)

The db and the maintenance, updates, and administration? On me. Thankfully W ordpress is generally fairly easy to administer, backup, and restore if there’s an issue.

Who is going to logon and troubleshoot issues and minimize downtime? I am. We also have 2 other volunteers with Wordpress experience. I’m currently looking at hosting solutions that specialize in Wordpress hosting for high-flow sites .

Will there be mobile version? Mobile version is more or less ready.  

It’s still a work in progress, but if you’d like to check on the work in progress: http:// drivinglane.com

benjrblant > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/11/2019 at 22:04

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Not that I doubt you, but do we have any data on that? I’d prefer to make a solidly informed decision and be aware of what we’re considering if we were to move. Any estimates or forecasts on operating costs?