A new pool forum

[SeanB.]

I'm not really viewing my site as a "back-up" site. I think it has it's own style and hopefully some appeal but you are absolutely correct that the idea started here at PF and I would probably never had made a forum if Ben were still maintaining this one. We all owe him a lot and I admire the loyalty of the mods and members. Heck, I still haven't bought a good test kit because I was hoping he would start selling his again. But I'm not going to wait for the water to turn green before I go get one.

Even as just a resource to search through, this is a great site and the members and mods who are still participating are fantastic. I hope Ben makes a triumphant return, new members can join and all will be right with the world. However, if that happens I do hope that people will continue to visit my site as well. I'm not trying to be PFII and I hope no one feels that way.

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Site owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[sevver]

there is currently a login problem there sir.

[SeanB.]

there is currently a login problem there sir.

Should be working. Sent you an e-mail.

Anyone else have any issues, not being able to get setup or anythig?

[sevver]

Odd, I just deleted all my cookies, and it worked after that...

[waste]

Sean, I meant no insult nor slur for the new sites, I think it's great to have different venues for the info. I'll support all (at this time) 3. There are quite a few different forums for pools out there (I couldn't stand the others that I joined, just because they don't have the BBB menality and are poorly 'topic-ed') I came to this site because I don't know all the answers I need to have for my boss' customers, and wanted to learn more about better serving/ servicing the pools I have to deal with in the course of my work. This doesn't make me a 'HERO', but I have, personally known 100s of 'pool dudes' and I'm the only one who cares enough to, at least try, do a better job of it by going on line and researching --- my payback is offering help/ advice when I think I can

I wish the other forums well, and will be a participating member of all of them as time allows. (though my time to be on line will be greatly reduced for the next few months, I will still check in on a ~regular basis to see if I can't be of assistance to the newbies on both sites)

[Poconos]

Canuck,
Yes, Ben, or somebody, does have to pay to keep the site alive. He did tell me a number one time and I think that was just for the bandwidth.....not cheap. Throw in the hardware and software and the cost only goes higher.
Al

[sevver]

Canuck,
Yes, Ben, or somebody, does have to pay to keep the site alive. He did tell me a number one time and I think that was just for the bandwidth.....not cheap. Throw in the hardware and software and the cost only goes higher.
Al

I would imagine that it is probably roughly $100 a year. A forum is basically a limited website, not alot of graphics, not alot of storage requirements, mostly text, all images are stored offsite, like at imageshack or photobucket. Hardware... meh... the provider, provides that, software is a one time investment, unless you upgrade that is. If he paid for like say two years at a time like I did when I had a computer repair forum, then it could be like this for an indeterminable amount of time. But as for a high cost of running this, I don't see it, all you have is a domain name and a host. This is a template, out of the box site with little to no additional tweaking.

[mammallama]

I run a forum much smaller than this and it's NOT cheap. There are NO ads on this site, to have an ad-free site costs $$. We have the ability to post attachments here. That also costs $$.

These things may not cost a lot individually, but if the fees are monthly (like they are on MY site), there is definitely costs involved that one may not have thought about.

I DO hope that life for Ben starts to settle down and that he can find his way back to his forum (and business). I've learned so much here and would hate to see it flounder into oblivion.

[SeanB.]

Just a quick bump. I've steadily been making changes to the site, including the ability to upload attachments.

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Site Owner
www.troublefreepool.com

[Poconos]

The $100 a year is way off base. That's less than the cost of a dialup connection. Keep in mind, all this stuff is hosted on Bens computers and under his total control. That means bandwidth has to be leased. If you look at the forum stats at the bottom of the home page, there are a lot of members, 20,000+, and 588 active whatever that means, and the number online at any one time can be quite high. Even with a bunch of people on at one time I have never seen an access slowdown.
Al