Hi folks.
Just saw all the ruckus about charging for the new boards. A couple of things to have in mind before flying off the handle like I've seen at least a few people do on the boards.
Do you actually know the costs involved in running and operating a website on the scale of LHL? Being in the computer business myself - and having been there for close to ten years I can assure you that the costs for hardware, software, operations, hosting etc. does not come cheap. A low end guesstimate would be in the range of 100-200 dollars a month - I wouldn't be surprised if the actual amount was higher.
Apart from the cost itself - the time involved is also a factor. A good day maybe less than two hours for the administration - any problems with the site and its operation and you're looking at more than that - anywhere from four to eight hours. Quite a lot of time for a hobby or something you do on your spare time. On bad days it amounts to a full time job - on top of whatever work you already do.
I've seen some of you saying that we're the community and it's our privilige to have it for free. Excuse me? It's our privilige to hang out here while Jennifer pays the bill and provides the time for running the site? Would you seriously consider hanging out at a friend's place for months - closing in on years - without contributing something to him/her?
And no - advertising won't cover the costs involved in running this type of site. At the best advertising will cover a small part of the cost. Sites like Yahoo, Angelfire etc that provide free access to homepages are nowhere near covering their costs with advertising - their income largely comes from selling email addresses to other companies.
Also - keep in mind that the new LHL is a newly developed site - likely done by hired programmers. A low end programmer runs between 60-100 dollars a day - that's for someone fresh out of school with absolutely no experience at all. Wanna have an experienced developer? You're looking at at least three times the cost - programmers from my place charge up to 100 dollars an hour - top notch stuff with lots of experience - just to give you an idea of the range. Jennifer herself has said that the new site is a nine month development effort - and it's not the work of one programmer - more likely a team of two to four people judging from what I've seen of the new site. You do the math yourselves - whatever way you cut it the development costs are substantial.
Apart from that - we've done a few polls on both the LHC and GOB boards on how much people on average spend on haircare per month. An average amount seems to land between 20-30 dollars. Basic access to new LHL would land you at an additional 2.5 dollars a month or less than nine cents a day - not a huge amount in addition to what most of us already spend... Also - most of us come here daily and enjoy spending our time here - if you have
any other hobby/entertainment/pastime that you can do for less than nine cents a day you're welcome to share it with me.
Still think it's such a terrible thing to charge for covering the costs involved in running this thing? And what if Jennifer makes a profit from it - well I don't think it's such an evil thing... It's her idea, her site, her baby - she's being nothing but a true entrepreneur.
I for one will choose to support what I think is the best long hair site on the net - I want to keep it running and will gladly pay the amount required. For me nothing different than paying for other services I buy whether on the net or in real life.
/Fia
 | start: cropped neck, above the ears
current: collar
goal: where it's comfortable or where it wants to stop - whatever is first
lots of straight fine hairs (type 1aFii)
reddish brown henna over light golden brown base |