OT There ain't no free lunch

I have been a member here for 10 years and have never been asked to contribute to the operation of the site. I have not sent any money voluntarily.

Milacron has run this site since Dec. 2000, as far as I know on his own nickel. Redundant servers, people to take care of them, people to take care of software glitches, hackers, etc. cost time and money if you roll your own, or exponentially more money if you have it in a server farm and hire everything done.

We pay for this by having ads appear on the pages, just as we have ads in our newspapers, magazines, and TV - even TV that some people pay to have come into the house.

I have no idea how much PM costs to run or how much ad revenue comes in. Maybe Thermite or some other IT - IP people could cost out what it takes to host all the old posts, and the equipment it takes to let people post and read without slowing the site down to a crawl.

If Milacron is getting rich running this site, good for him. Life is short and maybe Milacron has found other things to do than sit in front of a screen and read every new post on the site every day. Just as we have ads in our newspapers, magazines, and TV - even TV that some people pay to have come into the house.

People bitching about how much money is being made from the ads, or how PM is being run, could make Milacron an offer he couldn't refuse and then run it to their own satisfaction, and make all that fabulous ad revenue, or charge a membership, or do as Milacron did at the start, pay out of pocket.

Meanwhile, enjoy what we have, a wonderful resource with mostly helpful supportive people.

Paul

I hope no one makes him an offer. Have seen several sites get bought by a large web site holding company who then buries the site in ads and then the site goes to crap.

It's fine just the way it is.

Steve

I think this site was 'sold' a while ago. Don still seems to be in charge though.

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...inform-what-your-topic-actually-about-307648/

Gordon Heaton said:

I think this site was 'sold' a while ago. Don still seems to be in charge though.

Click to expand...

No it wasn't....but I do have a revenue sharing arrangement with an ad agency in Chicago, hence the possible confusion there.

Paul, appreciate the comments but to be fair I do have to lock the thread due to meaningless topic title...plus it falls a bit into the "chit chat and gossip" category...OT threads are supposed to be about solving problems or solutions to problems that aren't manufacturing related.