[AGA-mcm] Forum "purchasing"

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Scott,

I am replying off-forum to the topic where you keep steering to "let's pay 
the money and buy vBulletin now".

I do not think it is appropriate to just say as treasurer "we're going to 
spend the money". The board discussed and voted on the current proposal, 
not one that involved purchasing a BB.  And I do not think the overall 
opinion of the board is that clear-cut.  Sorry.

Further, you don't know if I am technically able or willing to install 
vBulletin at this time.  You don't know if it will cost more to have 
someone else do it, host it, etc.  Maybe Jeff Ludwig would do it for free. 
But I'm starting to get fed up enough with this direction that I'm now 
ready to pull the offer of host computer entirely and say, "OK, YOU GUYS 
FIGURE IT OUT."

You wrote: "We spend as much or more on miscellaneous postage & delivery 
than we are talking about for forum software. In fact, there are few 
things that AGA spends omoney on that cost as little.  I think printing 
_The Basics_ for the ACA show, cost more -- and very worthwhile endeavor 
-- I'm not questioning that at all; I'm only trying to show scale."

The Basics booklet was not a speculative project, nor is the postage and 
delivery expenses.  In the former, we knew exactly how much it would 
cost, and we knew the goals: to provide some literature to 
convention-goers.  We knew every one of those booklets would go home with 
someone and we would "lose" a couple bucks per book, as we were giving 
them out for free.  We *discussed* it on this list and agreed.

The forum project, on the other hand, is a big unknown.  We have no idea 
whether it will fly.  I hope it will.  But we don't know.  Nobody may use 
it.

In the meantime, we still don't have anyone leading the discussion on 
remaining items to be worked out.  It's going nowhere.  The volunteers are 
sitting there, occasionally trying to come up with a question.  The forum 
LEADER needs to take care of some important things, including:

        * PR strategy, lock down opening date
        * Finalize Topics
        * Find someone to customize graphics as needed
        * Verify moderation policy

  - Erik

--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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