xith.org temporary downtime

[William Denniss]

Sorry guys, I forgot to renew the domain name in time and it expired.  Fortunately they have a grace peroid and I have renewed all 3 xith domain names.  The site may be down for 1-24 hours as a result of this.  Until the domain works again, please feel free to use this temporary URL: http://pluto.dnswild.com/~xith/tiki-index.php

Running the site does cost money, if you wish to help me out (and it would be most appreciated, especially now that I am a poor student again), please feel free to donate  (Delta IT is my trading name).

EDIT:  It's working for me again now.

Cheers,

Will.

[arne]

Running the site does cost money, if you wish to help me out (and it would be most appreciated, especially now that I am a poor student again), please feel free to donate  (Delta IT is my trading name).

Why don't you make a link at the xith3d page?
mmh.. it looks as if the link is not working. I only get a 500 Internal Server Error.

Arne

[croft]

Why don't you make a link at the xith3d page?

That's an idea.  Another way to support an Open Source project is to run ad banners.  I like google ads:
http://earth.whoola.com:8080/space/
http://www.croftsoft.com/library/code/

http://www.GameJUG.org makes enough money off of Amazon.com Associates book links to pay for domain name renewal.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[William Denniss]

I should I guess, in the past I havn't worried too much as I had a full time job   Are you still getting a 500 server error?  I don't get that here.

Croft, thanks for the tip, It's good that the Amazon links do work.  I have bought my share of tech books from amazon over the last few years -- I really wish they had an outlet in Australia though, the postage is a killer.

Cheers,

Will.

[William Denniss]

I hadn't heard of the gamejug till now, how active is the group?

Cheers,

Will.

[croft]

I hadn't heard of the gamejug till now, how active is the group?

We were off to a good start when we launched in 1999.  We even made the Top 25 JUG list but we have been fairly inactive recently.  Since JavaGaming.org was created, we really cannot compete with an organization maintained by Sun employees

I try to recruit a new President once a year to bring in new blood periodically.  The idea was that we might someday incorporate as a non-profit:
https://gamejug.dev.java.net/volunteers/

I'm starting to think of mothballing GameJUG.org, however, as it requires a lot of attention from me personally to keep it fresh.  I'm thinking instead of focusing on a for-profit wrapped around an Open Source business model.  It would be pretty much the same as GameJUG.org in that it would support Open Source Java game code and Creative Commons tutorials, but content creators would be incentivized by payments.  I started something 5 years ago but dropped it when the Internet bubble popped:
http://www.GameSpawn.com/

[William Denniss]

Interesting.  As someone who has written several tutorials for Java gamedev, and with more on the way I like the idea of profit! 

Will.

[blahblahblahh]

I'm thinking instead of focusing on a for-profit wrapped around an Open Source business model.  It would be pretty much the same as GameJUG.org in that it would support Open Source Java game code and Creative Commons tutorials, but content creators would be incentivized by payments.

I think JGF is about to go the same way - paying for articles and tutorials. Google ads dont earn anywhere near enough to support this, so it would be out of my own pocket for now, but if it's what it takes to get people to write them, then its worth it. I write a fair amount of articles and tuts myself, so I have a very good idea how exhausting and time-consuming it is to write them...

[kevglass]

Might be better to offer JGF branded T-Shirts or something, they're probably cheaper and most geeks will do anything for a corny t-shirt

Kev

[William Denniss]

I write a fair amount of articles and tuts myself, so I have a very good idea how exhausting and time-consuming it is to write them...

It sure is!

However, I feel it is also a good way to consolidate your knowledge (after all the best way to learn is to teach).

I look forward to when all these money-for-article scheme's start!

Will.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[blahblahblahh]

I look forward to when all these money-for-article scheme's start!

The biggest question is: how much? I'm afraid of offering something that people consider insultingly low

[William Denniss]

Would it be a once-off fee per article?  What sort of rights would you want for the text?

Will.