Quote:
Originally posted by MacDEF
Well, I have to disagree with Jude and Neruda here.
If the purpose of Head-Fi is to be a "backup" for HeadWize (as Neruda alluded to), then make Head-Fi read-only once HeadWize goes back up. If anything goes wrong with HeadWize, we'll always have this one...... |
Of course, Neruda is entitled to his opinion, but I don't believe
I've ever said this place is intended to be a backup. It's built to grow. And it won't be read-only once HeadWize is back up. I think it's time for some frank, open discussion about
why I don't consider it simply a backup.
When HeadWize first went down, I started suffering from withdrawal. Like many of you, I was checking it
constantly, and it became (however geeky or sad it may seem to some) an important part of my daily socializing. I remember before Chu took it down, he had explained to us his costs were escalating, and there was much discussion about that. Ideas were being exchanged by members about alternatives -- things we could do to help shrink bandwidth utilization, etc. If I remember correctly, some suggestions included (and it was just people coming up with ideas off the top of their head) evening-only access; every-other-day access; not checking for new posts too frequently; limiting signups; etc. Of course, I don't think any of those options seemed attractive to any of us (again, I know they were just ideas put out there by some members for the sake of discussion). And then Chu finally had to take it down because of the bandwidth overuse penalties he was charged by his ISP. Alternatives sprouted up: there was the
headphone_folks Yahoo/eGroups group I started a long time ago (during one of the Spring HeadWize software upgrade take-downs); and another one on CoolBoards. Neither of these alternative options was very satisfactory. As a
frequent HeadWize poster/reader, the downtime was downright painful. I kept in touch with several members via ICQ, and we were all pretty much freaking out, like addicts needing a real fix.
I think I went back to the HeadWize forums home page URL a bazillion times, just waiting for it to pop back up. Well the message went from stating it'd be down a few days, to one that indicated the outage was of an undetermined length. Okay, now I was
really freaking out.
I wrote Chu (I will not discuss any of our discussions specifically) to offer assistance -- to see if there was any way that, based on whatever expertise I have based on my line of work, that I might be able to help him keep the forums up. We had friendly e-mail exchange/discussion. We reached no conclusions.
I think it was day three or four of the outage, and still not knowing when we'd be back online with HeadWize, the idea of starting a place of permanence came to mind. Here are the considerations I had, and how and why we put Head-Fi up:
- The HeadWize forum had grown significantly since I had joined in November, in terms of membership and activity.
- The likelihood that the growth rate would continue to rise seemed very likely to me, as headphone hi-fi is so easy to fall in love with, and relatively affordable to adopt.
- The demands of the forum would obviously also grow. The forum would need to be able to scale to meet that growth, if.…..
- ....as I believe, a forum should be able to grow relatively unchecked. It is part of the magic of the community that new members can continue to join, new viewpoints can thus be shared, and more of the discussions we find so interesting could also blossom.
- To allow a forum to grow unchecked would require serious growth planning.
- On June 18, I received an e-mail from Audio Asylum (likely the Web's biggest audiophile forum) titled “Audio Asylum: Status Update” that they sent to their members. Discussing Audio Asylum’s growing needs, the following was said in their e-mail:
Quote:
Last year, we added a new server. This year, we're adding another bigger, badder, faster Dell 2450 server to support both anticipated growth and a new more powerful search engine. (A personal thank to Ted Smith is in order for his donation of the software to power this new server.)
We're also been blessed in the past with low cost high bandwidth connections for our server. Due to our tremendous growth and huge bandwidth consumption(currently about 60% of a T1), these options are no longer available to us. To solve this problem and ensure high performance for the future, we've contracted with NextLevel Internet for a dedicated T1 to a new Asylum data center. This connection will put us one hop from Level 3's extensive internet backbone and we expect it will significantly improve performance. The downside is that it will equally significantly raise our monthly operational costs.
The new T1 service is scheduled to be installed by July 1st. Shortly thereafter, we will be moving the Asylum servers to this new data center. We'll update you via the General Asylum when this takes place. The move should be uneventful; however, you can expect a short interruption of availability and you may temporarily lose a few visited links. This is unavoidable. We'll endeavor to make this painless and with luck, you won't notice a thing except that the Asylum will be faster than ever.
Rolling blackouts in California are one concern with this move. We hope this will not be a problem, but to ensure against this possibility, we do plan to acquire battery backup systems as finances allow to keep the primary servers online for at least an hour in the event of a power outage. |
- That e-mail from Audio Asylum was a key impetus behind the idea of Head-Fi. We too are a growing community, hungry for continued socialization with one another. Our demands are growing, and I honestly feel that a forum for headphone hi-fi and portable audio enthusiasts (who obviously depend on headphones for their listening) will eventually (and probably not too far off if left relatively unchecked) reach the kind of demands that Audio Asylum is currently facing. If allowed to grow beyond that, then the needs will grow too.
- The day after receiving that e-mail from Audio Asylum I decided to commit to a permanent forum that would be purpose-built to accommodate rapid and sustained growth -- growth unchecked. And when I say “commit,” that’s exactly what it is -- a commitment. Setup would be too costly to do it as a temporary forum like our Yahoo eGroup headphone_folks or CoolBoards. I was pretty much ready to pull my hair out by then (as I’m sure any of my ICQ HeadWize contacts remember, as they were also starting to go into withdrawal). That day, after work, I gathered a couple of the programmers/developers at my company, who had also become headphone hi-fi enthusiasts, to ask for their extracurricular assistance in planning the possibility of putting up a permanent forum with future growth as a very key consideration
- The next afternoon (June 20th) we acquired a license for the forum software, decided what hardware we had that we could put it on, allocated bandwidth, registered the domains, did the necessary programming and configuration, and then put it up. I asked my ICQ mates to visit it, and they helped me tweak it. They then spread the word to the rest of the community (or at least to those they had contact info for), and that’s how and why Head-Fi started.
Almost immediately after we put it up, Chu and I reestablished contact via e-mail and then via telephone to discuss the best way to go about (A) working together, (B) getting the forums back up, (C) keeping them up, and (D) preparing it for growth. Again, it was a friendly conversation, but we didn’t come to any firm decisions or conclusions on how exactly to go about this.
And nearly one month later, this is where we are now.
What are the likely realities that we’re faced with going forward? Growth. Alexa rankings showed HeadWize catching up to Audio Asylum -- HeadWize is Alexa rank #6415 and Audio Asylum is Alexa rank #5974. Will a forum for the headphone hi-fi community eventually require -- as Audio Asylum does -- its own dedicated T-1? Yes, probably. Will a forum for the headphone hi-fi community eventually require significant server and storage upgrades? Yes, probably. In order to keep the forums free for the members, yet pay for all the above stuff as it grows, autonomy is needed to do what is necessary to keep the costs covered. User donations? Maybe. To count on member donations to support the site as it grows the way Audio Asylum does
might be tough, since our members appear to be, on average, quite a bit younger than Audio Asylum’s members. How about corporate sponsors (in at least somewhat the same vein as Audio Asylum’s approach)? Yes, probably -- and it has to be done in a manner that doesn’t betray the community’s demand for honesty, integrity, and objectivity (again, Audio Asylum is a good model in this regard). Banner ads? No, very unlikely -- their effectiveness makes them almost worthless to advertisers anyway. Other ways? Innovative marketplace ideas that I’ve discussed with a couple of the members that should also help offset costs. Again, it’ll take planning (already well in progress). And I cannot continue to incur the costs alone for too long, especially as the needs and expenses grow -- especially not without the autonomy to ensure that the community meeting place(s) stay funded while keeping it free for the members. MacDEF’s suggestion of making Head-Fi read-only when HeadWize goes back up later today would pretty much eliminate any possibility of keeping growth funded. It’s something that might seem like a good idea in some sense, until you’re the one who incurs the costs, and so realize it’s not a practical option. To make Head-Fi read-only means we may as well shut it down, and I’m not prepared to do that unless I know that we as a community have a meeting place that is pretty darned permanent for as long as we want it to be, and can grow as needed.
Quote:
Originally posted by MacDEF
I really think that having two forums is a bad idea, from a "community" point of view -- the close-knit community of people we've established at HeadWize, and now here, just won't be as close-knit if both forums are up and doing similar things. |
I don’t agree with this statement at all. If, for example, HeadWize does shut down again, would you eschew the two-community concept then? I would think the community would be even less close-knit if there was no permanent option going forward. And as I’ve stated before, HeadWize and Head-Fi will likely evolve in at least slightly different directions. I can’t see any reason why having two communities in uncertain times has to be at all divisive.
Quote:
Originally posted by MacDEF
.......If there is no way Jude and cmoy can work something out to combine the two and use the other as a backup, then maybe you two can figure out some way to clearly delineate the topic areas (reviews on one site, discussion on the other; DIY on one, non-DIY on the other; etc.). |
This to me is a better, more practical suggestion. However, I don’t want to say much about it without discussing it privately with Chu first.
I’ll end this by saying again that this shouldn’t be viewed as two competitors slugging it out. I do not view Chu as a competitor at all. I view us as two headphone geeks trying our best to make sure we always have a place to go. And we’ll likely move in slightly different directions to get there, and may work together on some things too.
Nothing in this entire post should be construed as a criticism --
not even in the least -- of Chu and everything Chu has done. He is the catalyst behind the formation of this headphone hi-fi community I enjoy so very much. I don't know, though, if he ever realized just how big it would get. It's
big, it's getting
BIGGER, and it's on its way to becoming downright
[size=small]HUGE[/size].
At the end of the day, I just want to know I can
always check in somewhere to see what everyone’s up to (and for me, that’s
several times every single day).
