Response to Russ' Front Page Letter.

[Ed Cha]

Russ,

You and your team have done a wonderful job with this Web site! You've created a community that has been able to share not only ideas, information, and opinions, but also personal moments of hope and sadness with each other.

I wish you the best and I hope you can continue to help EN World grow and prosper! Also, good luck to you on the job search.

Ed

 

[Kilmore]

Grunt. I mean that in the best possible way.

 

[KB9JMQ]

I was scared to death when I started reading that announcement.
Hit me like a phone call in the middle of the night.

But glad it is just news of good things for everyone.

Thanks for everything Russ.

 

[Renaissance Man]

I'll add my voice to the chorus: thanks a million for services rendered. And welcome back to the unwashed hordes of fandom.

 

[MacMathan]

Thank You.

This is the only website I have ever thought enough of to contribute cash to.

I understand about the hobby/job thing. I am recovering from my own stint in the electronic gaming industry.

 

[reapersaurus]

umm.. color me confused.

Redundant sycophantic posts seem a waste, so I'll ask some questions instead.

Russ - are you saying that tending the website made you enough money to live for 2 years?
I wasn't aware that the proceeds from ENWorld were going to an individual - I must have missed that announcement thru the years.
I thought the Community Members $ and advertising revenue was going towards the renting of database/server and bandwidth costs?

I seem, to remember some talk about sales of products and such, which is fine, but I don't know how comfortable I am in realizing that ENWorld member contributions and (I think) Mortality's generosity was going towards supporting someone's life expenses.

What would you say took you the lion's share of time on the site?
Sales/marketing, maintenance of the database/bandwidth, or posting of the news?

Just to help you understand where I'm coming from, I couldn't care less about the news on the frontpage - the only thing that interests me about ENWorld are the Forums. (no offense)
I wasn't aware that you spent any time maintaining the Forums?

If the moneys that you're speaking about came solely from your efforts of sales/marketing and agreements, than just say my concerns are invalid, and no worries.

edit: I am NOT saying I know what your job was - I'm just asking you what it entailed. Please nobody keel-haul me for daring to ask what the Wizard actually did behind the curtain.

 

[MerricB]

Best of luck, Morrus!

 

[Morrus]

Without wanting to go into my private financial details here in public, I'll say that Community Supporter Accounts alone do not cover server hosting. The shortfall, therefore, was made up from elsewhere.

Just to help you understand where I'm coming from, I couldn't care less about the news on the frontpage - the only thing that interests me about ENWorld are the Forums. (no offense)
I wasn't aware that you spent any time maintaining the Forums?

Well, that's fair enough - nobody says you have to take an interest in anything other than the forums. However, as you aren't the only person who visits the site, that fact is also somewhat irrelevant to this particular discussion.

The forums, incidentally, are responsible for the lion's share of server costs... and I have spent many a night wrestling with technical stuff and trying to keep them up and running - or fixing things which have gone wrong. That doesn't matter, but it does illustrate that they do have a significant time demand.

 

[reapersaurus]

Thanks for the response.

Oh, I know many people love the news items - I was just saying that's not a selling point for _me_....
It's been difficult to be very heartfelt-appreciative of your efforts, since you're always so tight-lipped and secretive about them, and the costs and where the shortfalls are made up from.

That's totally your call, of course, and I respect your privacy. I just don't assume that the last 2 years' efforts were solely out of the goodness of your own heart, like others do.

What I've never understood is :
you don;t know databases/computers, right? So how could you have been involved in their maintenance?

Another question, if you'd be so kind:
If you performed some maintenance functions, and some advertisement sales work, WHO is going to be taking care of these functions after you're gone, IF they are necessary for the continuing existence of ENWorld?

 

[Shadowdancer]

I now have a new D&D game scheduled to start on Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to it! It is likely to use a lot of elements from Arcana Unearthed.

I spent today hunting for a job. I have an interview already (that's on Tuesday, too), and have been carefully refining my CV (resume).

Get a game together, then find a job -- glad to see you have your priorities in order.