- Joined
- May 12, 2008
- Messages
- 491
what happened to just playing an having fun?
What price would you pay for an @edgegamers.org email address?
- Thread starter Artimus
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2009
- Messages
- 240
im against having premium accounts or anything like that, witch would make some members better than others
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2008
- Messages
- 335
No thanks.
EXCELLENT point. You can not offer an email address and have only certain members able to have it. Either everyone has the email, or no one does.
I agree- all or none.
The PMs work fine for clan communications.
Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail are free. Plus they have anti-virus/anti-spam that are the pain-in-the-butt when you setup an email server.
There is no such thing as a free lunch
A comment on the "free" email. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
All of the "free" emails out there scan your email once they are displayed on the website and specifically direct ads to your browser. Some are more obvious than others and some allow you to download via external clients, but all in all they are making money from the deal or using the experience to feed other projects. Google is famous for this. Look at gmail, google voice, etc. Google data mines the crap out of your mail.
That being said, if eGO is hosting their own mail server and keeping things patched and up to date then I'll stay out of this; however if eGO were to use the existing mail resource then there are costs associated with that.
Running an email client = easy
Running a single domain and a few email accounts = easy
Running 10000+ accounts, ensuring anti-spam, anti-virus, etc = not easy.
The simplest solution is to use forwarders and point them to your real address. If you just pass the message w/o any inspection than the costs can be kept to a minimum.
The upside to this is:
a. You get an email account associated with the domain name ofyour favorite gaming community.
b. There is a unified presence from the website... everything eGO.
c. You can point the mail to ANY mail account so you never have to worry about changing your email for the community. If one account gets hacked then you point it to another... easy peasy.
d. If you were to ever leave, and WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!, then you wouldn't have to worry about having community mail following you. How may times have you signed up for a forums only to find that you're getting email 10 years later... half the time you can't ever remember signing up for the forum.
The down side is:
a. You have to give people another email address.
b. You'll have to use the "identity" with care. If you act like a fool as [email protected] then you're just an individual, but if you act like a tool as [email protected] then your eGO acting like a fool. With great power comes great responsibility.
I would recommend a lower cost than $5 per month. People who pay $5 per month for mail usually expect some sort of large storage space and other perks.
How about a $1 per month for a forwarder using paypal subscriptions. That is $12 a year. Now, if every registered forum user did this eGO would have $359,832 per year, but let's be realistic. If we have about 1242 active users willing to pay $1 per month that could pay for an average of 4 servers per month for the entire year! If about half of those people paid $1 you could pay for almost two servers per month for the entire year.
I know that some people don't like banner ads and don't like fund raising, but I can tell you from first hand experience that running a site like this and maintaining multiple high performance servers costs a LOT of money. Let's say that the average server costs $259 per month and that you have 8 servers. That is 2072 per month. Multiply that out of three years (the ago of eGO) and that is $74,592!!! If all 1,242 daily active users signed up for this and my server figures are right that means that eGO is still out $9,960 (approx) so this isn't a might pyramid scheme designed to take you to the cleaners... that plan will be announced at the next vent meeting.
Now that I've ranted long enough... it sounds like somebody thought it would be cool to have an @edgegamers.org email address... I like mine
It also sounds like this would be a good way to make sure that the community stays strong and continues to provide the quality gaming experience that you've come to expect.
<Soap Box Mode Disengage>
A comment on the "free" email. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
All of the "free" emails out there scan your email once they are displayed on the website and specifically direct ads to your browser. Some are more obvious than others and some allow you to download via external clients, but all in all they are making money from the deal or using the experience to feed other projects. Google is famous for this. Look at gmail, google voice, etc. Google data mines the crap out of your mail.
That being said, if eGO is hosting their own mail server and keeping things patched and up to date then I'll stay out of this; however if eGO were to use the existing mail resource then there are costs associated with that.
Running an email client = easy
Running a single domain and a few email accounts = easy
Running 10000+ accounts, ensuring anti-spam, anti-virus, etc = not easy.
The simplest solution is to use forwarders and point them to your real address. If you just pass the message w/o any inspection than the costs can be kept to a minimum.
The upside to this is:
a. You get an email account associated with the domain name ofyour favorite gaming community.
b. There is a unified presence from the website... everything eGO.
c. You can point the mail to ANY mail account so you never have to worry about changing your email for the community. If one account gets hacked then you point it to another... easy peasy.
d. If you were to ever leave, and WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!, then you wouldn't have to worry about having community mail following you. How may times have you signed up for a forums only to find that you're getting email 10 years later... half the time you can't ever remember signing up for the forum.
The down side is:
a. You have to give people another email address.
b. You'll have to use the "identity" with care. If you act like a fool as [email protected] then you're just an individual, but if you act like a tool as [email protected] then your eGO acting like a fool. With great power comes great responsibility.
I would recommend a lower cost than $5 per month. People who pay $5 per month for mail usually expect some sort of large storage space and other perks.
How about a $1 per month for a forwarder using paypal subscriptions. That is $12 a year. Now, if every registered forum user did this eGO would have $359,832 per year, but let's be realistic. If we have about 1242 active users willing to pay $1 per month that could pay for an average of 4 servers per month for the entire year! If about half of those people paid $1 you could pay for almost two servers per month for the entire year.
I know that some people don't like banner ads and don't like fund raising, but I can tell you from first hand experience that running a site like this and maintaining multiple high performance servers costs a LOT of money. Let's say that the average server costs $259 per month and that you have 8 servers. That is 2072 per month. Multiply that out of three years (the ago of eGO) and that is $74,592!!! If all 1,242 daily active users signed up for this and my server figures are right that means that eGO is still out $9,960 (approx) so this isn't a might pyramid scheme designed to take you to the cleaners... that plan will be announced at the next vent meeting.
Now that I've ranted long enough... it sounds like somebody thought it would be cool to have an @edgegamers.org email address... I like mine
It also sounds like this would be a good way to make sure that the community stays strong and continues to provide the quality gaming experience that you've come to expect.<Soap Box Mode Disengage>
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2008
- Messages
- 3,780
Awesome Deacon, awesome. Thank you for collectively slapping us with some reality.
I'm actually against the idea of letting just anyone sign up for @edgegamers.org email accounts. I find the potential for misuse to be outstanding. However, this is probably a moot point. I would be stunned if Leadership has not already considered this and taken steps to avert such misuse.
As I move up in the community I can see benefits to having an Idol@edgegamers email account. At first I balked at the thought of paying $5 a month for an email addy, but then I looked at how much I've donated to eGO so far and realized that for a fraction of what I give already I could get something in return. Not to say that I'm not getting something in return...the community, this website, and all those servers are worth something to me...which is why I donated to begin with...now I've backed myself into a corner...LOOK! OVER THERE! A PONY!
Anyway, thank you for the numbers to quell all the "why isn't it free?" banter. Idol had a gmail account until Idol found out about data mining. Idol then used PGP on his gmail account until he figured out all his friends were too lazy to download Idol's free public key. So now Idol has a free hotmail account. Free hotmail account fills with spam. Idol buys shareware periodically to send "mail undeliverable - email address not valid" errors back to all those spambot mailing lists. Idol is paying for this service on a "free" account already. Totally worth it to Idol if some sort of die-spam-die tools are available as one of those "perks".
While I'm not 100% sold on the idea...yet; I would love to hear more. This definitely has potential.
I'm actually against the idea of letting just anyone sign up for @edgegamers.org email accounts. I find the potential for misuse to be outstanding. However, this is probably a moot point. I would be stunned if Leadership has not already considered this and taken steps to avert such misuse.
As I move up in the community I can see benefits to having an Idol@edgegamers email account. At first I balked at the thought of paying $5 a month for an email addy, but then I looked at how much I've donated to eGO so far and realized that for a fraction of what I give already I could get something in return. Not to say that I'm not getting something in return...the community, this website, and all those servers are worth something to me...which is why I donated to begin with...now I've backed myself into a corner...LOOK! OVER THERE! A PONY!
Anyway, thank you for the numbers to quell all the "why isn't it free?" banter. Idol had a gmail account until Idol found out about data mining. Idol then used PGP on his gmail account until he figured out all his friends were too lazy to download Idol's free public key. So now Idol has a free hotmail account. Free hotmail account fills with spam. Idol buys shareware periodically to send "mail undeliverable - email address not valid" errors back to all those spambot mailing lists. Idol is paying for this service on a "free" account already. Totally worth it to Idol if some sort of die-spam-die tools are available as one of those "perks".
While I'm not 100% sold on the idea...yet; I would love to hear more. This definitely has potential.
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 5,332
I agree with Idol I would like to hear how this would be implemented before doing this.
But, it is a good idea!
But, it is a good idea!
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2008
- Messages
- 2,068
i dont pay for yahoo...
I have a few issues.
1. what IF 4k members sign up at 12$ per year making eGO almost 50 thousand dollars a year. And thats at 4k members. What if it becomes 6k members? (just a consideration) That far than outweighs the cost of the gaming servers or the email service. Combine this with donations and advertisements...... I just dont want eGO falling away from a gaming community and becoming a business. We love eGO and we love what it is about, and i personally dont want out of community speculation on what eGO is trying to be, even though we know its not. However, if the extra money is used for tournament prizes or raffles to the email holders, than that would be an excellent idea. IE: say at the end of the year there is an excess of 5k or so. You could raffle off 20 novint falcons or any other gaming commodity to JUST the email holders since they are the ones who paid. Or you could hold tournaments to win various prizes, the contestants just being the email holders who paid. Just an idea. Not trying to start a debate. Basically what im trying to say is if there is an unexpected large excess of money after all is said and done, what is to be done with it? Any thoughts?
2. When it comes to promotions and advancement opportunities, I feel the people with the email and the perks are going to be considered before others. Lets remember that while donating and such gets you noticed and helps out our clan, it doesnt move you to the top of the list for promotions.
1. what IF 4k members sign up at 12$ per year making eGO almost 50 thousand dollars a year. And thats at 4k members. What if it becomes 6k members? (just a consideration) That far than outweighs the cost of the gaming servers or the email service. Combine this with donations and advertisements...... I just dont want eGO falling away from a gaming community and becoming a business. We love eGO and we love what it is about, and i personally dont want out of community speculation on what eGO is trying to be, even though we know its not. However, if the extra money is used for tournament prizes or raffles to the email holders, than that would be an excellent idea. IE: say at the end of the year there is an excess of 5k or so. You could raffle off 20 novint falcons or any other gaming commodity to JUST the email holders since they are the ones who paid. Or you could hold tournaments to win various prizes, the contestants just being the email holders who paid. Just an idea. Not trying to start a debate. Basically what im trying to say is if there is an unexpected large excess of money after all is said and done, what is to be done with it? Any thoughts?
2. When it comes to promotions and advancement opportunities, I feel the people with the email and the perks are going to be considered before others. Lets remember that while donating and such gets you noticed and helps out our clan, it doesnt move you to the top of the list for promotions.
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2009
- Messages
- 133
I'd be for it. I don't make a lot of money but if it is like a buck a month or something and we could pay for the whole year at once. I'd do it
