sitelights
10-05-2006, 11:26 AM
On September 25, 2006 lowvolt.org was transfered to a new server; the web hosting package includes statistics on every aspect of the site updated daily. The address http://lowvolt.org/cgi-bin/awstats.pl will take you to the reports.
Lowvolt.org is an open site; there is no part of the site that is not accessible to anyone who cares to visit. Membership is required to post on the site but that is simply a stipulation designed to eliminate any inappropriate content. In the past few days there have been commercial postings unrelated to the topics that are listed on the site; these are deleted as soon as they are detected.
No legitmate posts i.e. relating to the intent of the site have ever been deleted or edited in any way. Lowvolt.org is monitored by me on a regular basis not to look at the content with an eye toward editing posts but rather to keep the site from being junked up by opportunists attempting to commercialize the content with...junk.
In an earlier post in this forum I characterized my role of administrator as a kind of janitor sweeping away the junk before it can accumulate and detract from the real purpose of the site: open communication on topics of interest related to low voltage lighting in both indoor and outdoor applications.
A feature of lowvolt.org that was lost in the hard drive crash in April 2005 is referred to in earlier posts. The missing page was titled "About" and contained details relative to the creation of the site, its purpose, philosophy and funding. These details are now incorporated into my posts. This posting of funding information given below fills in the blanks on who pays the bills.
Lowvolt.org is entirely and solely financed out of the personal income that I derive from my commercial company Landscape Lighting LLC founded in 1984. To date from its inception in July 2001 I have spent about $10,000.00 on site development, technical assistance, registration and hosting fees and software improvements to enhance the usefulness of the site. About $4,000.00 of the total expenditures to date has been spent in the past year with the bulk of that amount paid out in the past three months.
A survey of the content of lowvolt.org will show that there is absolutely no commercialism, no sponsors, no public service messages and no solicitation for contributions or fees of any kind. I have been told that there is potential for income from the site in membership dues or advertising but I am not interested. The only way to maintain influence-free site content is have the organization funded by a single individual dedicated to improving the image of low voltage lighting and providing a base for technical and aesthetic information from and for an interested public.
Further work on the site primarilly to recover the ability to search the entire archive, reinstate the locator function for professional designer/installers and conversion to the most recent iteration of vBulletin software will be delayed until the 2nd quarter of 2007. The hosting of the site is a minor component of the expense of maintaining the site and the current version will continue and not be disturbed by fine tuning.
Recently I have retained the services of a website development company to repair the damage that occurred in April 2005. As mentioned above, a new hosting organization placed lowvolt.org on their server a few weeks ago. The traffic statistics for the period July 2001-October 2006 have not been recovered. My commercial web site statistics for June 1989-June 2006 were also lost.
The statistics for sitelights.com were useful as a comparison. Lowvolt.org traffic quickly outpaced sitelights.com and will probably oupace it again as the stats accumulate. Those interested in a comparison can access the stats at http://sitelights.com/cgi-bin/awstats.pl As stated many times on lowvolt.org "there are no secrets in low voltage lighting".
Lowvolt.org is an open site; there is no part of the site that is not accessible to anyone who cares to visit. Membership is required to post on the site but that is simply a stipulation designed to eliminate any inappropriate content. In the past few days there have been commercial postings unrelated to the topics that are listed on the site; these are deleted as soon as they are detected.
No legitmate posts i.e. relating to the intent of the site have ever been deleted or edited in any way. Lowvolt.org is monitored by me on a regular basis not to look at the content with an eye toward editing posts but rather to keep the site from being junked up by opportunists attempting to commercialize the content with...junk.
In an earlier post in this forum I characterized my role of administrator as a kind of janitor sweeping away the junk before it can accumulate and detract from the real purpose of the site: open communication on topics of interest related to low voltage lighting in both indoor and outdoor applications.
A feature of lowvolt.org that was lost in the hard drive crash in April 2005 is referred to in earlier posts. The missing page was titled "About" and contained details relative to the creation of the site, its purpose, philosophy and funding. These details are now incorporated into my posts. This posting of funding information given below fills in the blanks on who pays the bills.
Lowvolt.org is entirely and solely financed out of the personal income that I derive from my commercial company Landscape Lighting LLC founded in 1984. To date from its inception in July 2001 I have spent about $10,000.00 on site development, technical assistance, registration and hosting fees and software improvements to enhance the usefulness of the site. About $4,000.00 of the total expenditures to date has been spent in the past year with the bulk of that amount paid out in the past three months.
A survey of the content of lowvolt.org will show that there is absolutely no commercialism, no sponsors, no public service messages and no solicitation for contributions or fees of any kind. I have been told that there is potential for income from the site in membership dues or advertising but I am not interested. The only way to maintain influence-free site content is have the organization funded by a single individual dedicated to improving the image of low voltage lighting and providing a base for technical and aesthetic information from and for an interested public.
Further work on the site primarilly to recover the ability to search the entire archive, reinstate the locator function for professional designer/installers and conversion to the most recent iteration of vBulletin software will be delayed until the 2nd quarter of 2007. The hosting of the site is a minor component of the expense of maintaining the site and the current version will continue and not be disturbed by fine tuning.
Recently I have retained the services of a website development company to repair the damage that occurred in April 2005. As mentioned above, a new hosting organization placed lowvolt.org on their server a few weeks ago. The traffic statistics for the period July 2001-October 2006 have not been recovered. My commercial web site statistics for June 1989-June 2006 were also lost.
The statistics for sitelights.com were useful as a comparison. Lowvolt.org traffic quickly outpaced sitelights.com and will probably oupace it again as the stats accumulate. Those interested in a comparison can access the stats at http://sitelights.com/cgi-bin/awstats.pl As stated many times on lowvolt.org "there are no secrets in low voltage lighting".