Back Online - Details and more here.

sirCombatWombat · Post by **sirCombatWombat** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 3:15 pm

Thank you Daz and Sharp, I'm really glad that you got the forums back on-line! I owe much to the discussions here.

I support any measure that Sharp and Daz see necessary to keep the forum up and running. I don't mind ads, and music hardware ads would infact be interesting. Korg offering a free server is absolutely amazing, and while it needs a lot of work to get it realized I believe it would be worth it. Membership fee could quiet things down too much, but I would join in an instant.

Thank you again, I really appreciate your continuing efforts!

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 3:29 pm

Ads are fine, I don't care about ad quality, etc.

Tell us what you need for donations. If you need $10 per person via PayPal, I will do it, immediately

Its simple for me.

Lets get it resolved avoid crisises

chris · Post by **chris** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:23 pm

Hi Daz and Sharp,

Why don't you setup some kind of petition where all interested Korg users could mention their name so that this document could be sent to Korg in order to show them the interest of the Korg Forums members.

I think that if you take the approach of Korg, you could try to negociate a part of the forum being completely independent from Korg as well as another part where Korg could for example present new products and post some demos as well as provide some support to the Korg users.
This might be a good balance and still keep the interest of Korg Forums members.

Regards,
Chris

demonp · Post by **demonp** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 8:10 pm

Hurray! Back online! Thanx guys for the resurrection! Flood must go on!

Mike Bunker · Post by **Mike Bunker** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 8:25 pm

Fool that I am, I thought Korg was running the fora. And yet I always felt that there was a disconnect between them and the topics being discussed in that they could hsve been more proactive.

On the topic of a membership fee: Reading is free, to contribute you have to pay. That way nobody would be cut off. And we'd make a killing of of George Inar.

a.schemkes · Post by **a.schemkes** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:38 pm

First of all a big hand to Daz who got us online again. And for the future, I'll go for the KORG server, and some advertisers. I wouldn't mind reading about new sounds or stuff you can buy for you korg.

dave · Post by **dave** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:28 am

I love Korg hardware and software. I must do since I own six KORG hardware synths and both KLC Editions.

I presume most of us are here for the same reason. Of course some are here because they want info before they buy.

So my vote would be to invite KORG on board here officially on the condition that there's no interference with our ability to talk about competing products and criticise the mothership when justified.

Gear-related ads are OK by me too, since just about every other forum I'm on has them. But the surest way to kill this forum slowly is to seek subscriptions IMO. I've never joined any subscription-based web services (except for MobileMe) and I never will. The signal-to-noise ratio in any music-related forums makes sure of that.

Kind regards.

lcmorley · Post by **lcmorley** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:22 pm

Of course, the advantage of having a subscription based forum is that you should not get as many trolls as we have had lately on the Oasys forum.

Francois · Post by **Francois** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:05 pm

I would support a two-tier system with parts of the forum restricted to payment of a fee. We need to find a way to secure the long-term future of the board, and that may well be it.

Of course, having restricted areas also mean less indexing from Google et al.

georgeinar · Post by **georgeinar** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:48 pm

On the topic of a membership fee: Reading is free, to contribute you have to pay. That way nobody would be cut off. And we'd make a killing of of George Inar

Point well-taken, and yes you would. I contributed the last time we had a similar problem and I wouldn't hesitate again. Although it wouldn't make sense to pay to help someone on their gear or music and the one that gets to read the help and apply it gets the help for free.

dschultze · Post by **dschultze** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:55 am

It's great to see the forums back up.

It's also great that Korg have offered to help with the hosting. My view is that this is an offer worth exploring fully. After all, if it didn't work out with Korg having a stake there's nothing to stop the forum from going totally independent again and then having to find a way to fund with adverts or subscription further down the line.

Trying to work in partnership with Korg is unknown until it's tried.

I'm sure it would be in Korg's interest to encourage honest and open feedback on their products. I doubt we'd notice any difference.

kimu · Post by **kimu** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:37 pm

thanks for the great work!! very nice to see the forum back and active in so short time.

regarding the option proposed by sharp (sorry, i have not read the whole 3-pages 3d), i agree with donation section and with advertising add e.g. also using google ad-sense. a banner at the bottom of the page is not so hurting.

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 1:34 pm

Great to see you're back online. Well done Daz!

As mentioned via email, I would certainly be happy donating a few tens of Euros if you required donations due to wishing to remain independent from Korg.

Are there any strings attached with Korg's offer? I already think this forum is good for Korg in a business sense, as naturally more products are undoubtedly sold due to the support this forum offers amongst like minds. Would it be cheeky, therefore, if Korg were to perhaps offer you the dedicated server as a standalone, one-off gift, for you to do whatever you wish, rather than retain any particular stake in it (if there was a stake implied)?

It is a great offer, though.

Rob Sherratt · Post by **Rob Sherratt** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:40 pm

Good thought - but a stand alone server in Sharp's garage is not much use.

It has to be co-located in a building to which the internet backbone is connected so that there is enough bandwidth for several hundred concurrent users. We are talking about 10 Mbit/sec bidirectional interconnect speeds to the Internet here. The outgoing Internet routes from the building will be several fibers at 16 Mbit/sec or more.

Normally there are only two or three such buildings in any major city, and often they are provided by the Telcos who rent the facilities out to internet service providers (ISP) and to major manufacturers.

I doubt even if Korg is big and rich enough to rent co-location space directly from a Telco. Korg will probably be leasing a co-located server from a business ISP and will be paying maybe $500 to $1000 per month for this.

So, Korg's offer to us is extremely generous and should be taken seriously. They are offering to pay the hosting costs every day of the year for us to share space on their server. This is worth about $300 per month to us. Money which otherwise would have to be raised by subscription or advertising. And it's not just about the money - if Sharp or Daz end up doing the fund raising and administration for 300 people all chipping in $10, it is a major workload. And they have full time jobs to do.

So the alternatives to accepting Korg's offer may also involve employing someone full time or part time to administer Korg Forums and the fund raising etc. The real value of accepting Korg's offer is the amount of admin effort it will save, and quite possible Sharp and Daz can have their lives back again

No-one, wants to see this forum lose its independence, its energy and drive. I'm sure not even Korg. The fact that occasionally people will be critical towards Korg is just one of the things Korg will accept. There will be no censorship by Korg, most probably the admins will continue just like they are are the moment.

Why would Korg want to take on the admin workload of the user forum anyway?

I think the one difference we would notice if the forum is co-located on Korg's server, is that Korg employees would increasingly take more of a role in answering questions, providing hints and tips, demos, video clips etc.

salcerin · Post by **salcerin** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:40 pm

I agree with a membership fee, Nothing is free.