The Atari Music Network is Live!

[Mal7921]

Shredder11, your a genius, had you not mentioned ebay...

I'll post more tomorrow...

[Mal7921]

And it is indeed now tomorrow...

Thanks to Shredder11 mentioning ebay, I managed to find Donovan's last 2 auctions and get in touch. As a result we now have a unique opportunity.

I'm aware of the situation surrounding the site and its disappearance, and while it was financial, it was not directly because of the site. I've been offered the archive of the site to set up elsewhere, however there are a few things which mean I won't be able to necessarily do all of it alone, so I'm asking for help and we don't have much time to get organised.

I need help with the Joomla side of things, which the site itself is built with, SQL databases should not in itself be an issue, but the main problem is if we wish to keep the atarimusic.net domain, we have exactly 1 month to get that side sorted. Or as other platforms are invited, should it be renamed to reflect this? The older domain is known though, so that's a plus in keeping things as they are.

The site archive is 600MB in size, so I can fit the archive on my site to download elsewhere and unpack.

Any suggestions are welcome regarding Joomla, hosting, rebranding or whatever.

[AtariSince1989]

Thanks to Shredder11 mentioning ebay, I managed to find Donovan's last 2 auctions and get in touch. As a result we now have a unique opportunity.

Wow, this is a real CSI work

I can help with Joomla and SQL. I did a website in Joomla a year ago. Is basically a matter of configuring PHP modules, but I guess AMN was already configured, so it should be something like just maintenance.

There two other thins that are more difficult to solve:
1. Where to host? You mentioned already that the archive is 600MB, which means that unpacked will need even more space, and also we have to remember that AMN is a growing site, as people are able to add their music. Hence, we should find a suitable place to host it. And here comes the negative part; my guess is that it will cost money to pay the hosting.

2. Keeping the domain? Again money I have a domain for my website and it cost me $15 per year.

Said that, the main question is who is going to take account of the expenses? Don't think that donations are the solution. Advertising could be a solution, though I've been always against it, because people gets very annoyed.

Well, let's see what we can do with collaboration

[Mal7921]

I've already considered advertising, it's more annoying if it's intrusive and not relevant, but get those out of the way and things are not too bad.

Were looking at 200 to 300 visits per day at April's rates, so bandwidth is a concern.

I have an Amiga guru who is willing to help out on Amiga related stuff (Though not a musician by his own admission, but very technical and very knowledgable).

Me thinks this needs pushing out to other groups as well so they are aware of the situation and the attempts to get things moving again.

[AtariSince1989]

I've already considered advertising, it's more annoying if it's intrusive and not relevant, but get those out of the way and things are not too bad.

You're right. Maybe using Google Ads, which add text only adverts related with the content of the site.

Were looking at 200 to 300 visits per day at April's rates, so bandwidth is a concern.

Yes, I thought the visits per day would be high, that's because I cannot offer my server to host it, as it is done on my own bandwith connection.

I have an Amiga guru who is willing to help out on Amiga related stuff (Though not a musician by his own admission, but very technical and very knowledgable).

Atari and Amiga reunited by music... sound great

Me thinks this needs pushing out to other groups as well so they are aware of the situation and the attempts to get things moving again.

I was thinking if Atari.org could help here. I have seen some websites hosted by them (whoever they are ).

[Mal7921]

Atari.org host Tim's Atari MIDI world and are pretty central to the Atari scene, they may well be willing to help.

Buying the existing domain and setting up a redirect to the new location would be pretty easy to do as well, so people go to the old site, end up at the new.

I'll start looking into Google ads as well

[wongck]

well done, guys.
Things are looking up for the music scene again.

[Shredder11]

Good suggestions by all so far and if I can think of any ways of helping I will.

[thgill]

If you need some small donations to help offset some of the initial costs to get the ball rolling, by all means let everyone know.

I wouldn't mind sending some Paypal funds over to help out.

[AtariSince1989]

I'll start looking into Google ads as well

Google Ads is very easy to set up. You just need a Google account (I can send invitation if anybody needs) and go to https://www.google.com/adsense/

There you configure what type of advert you want and/or the contents. Finally you get an html code to paste into your website's code.

Let me know if you need any help with this.

[wongck]

I'm sure there are reasons but it's not up to me or anyone else to speculate on this.

Sorry... no offence meant. just got a bit carried away.

[Mal7921]

Well, I was meaning more for Donovan's reasons, no offence taken really, at least from this side

I've more of an idea what's going on now, which when I put that up, there was no information anywhere, just a blank screen when you went to the site.

Which reminds me, I need to let Dave know over at the Sound On Sound forum...

[Mal7921]

Right, to keep people informed. The site is back in it's original place but 'turned off' for the moment, so instead of the INDEX OF :\ error there is a brief message. Donovan has done this so it is ready to go once we know where it's all headed.

And I'm beginning to realise just how big a task this is going to be...

In and among this, there is Joomla!, phpbb3, rockettheme pro and bridge modules between the three, as well as the music player module for AMN Live. Modules will need checking for updates regularly, forums will need moderating and ideally it has always needed a team, and especially needs a team to run it now.

@thgill, thank you for the generous offer, though my main concern is ongoing costs and once running, keeping it running without running ourselves into the ground!

[thgill]

I think before you go forward you really need to figure out what its monthly operating costs were. How much storage space needed for present and future and how much bandwidth it was using and predicted to use 6 months and 12 months down the road (and further). I doubt storage would be much an issue since most hosting plans are fairly generous with regards to that. Monthly bandwidth is probably a different story. Plus you need to get the registrar info for the Atarimusic.net domain name switched over from Donovan to whoever plans to keep this up and running. And you need a staff as you mentioned to help keep it a float/update news/moderate forums and etc.


So, in my opinion, this is what needs to happen:

1. Obtain Atarimusic.net domain name (I hope the plan is to continue using it...I think its really nice and perfectly fitting)

2. Determine operating costs/monthly bandwidth and storage needs

3. Obtain hosting for the website. Although a dedicated server would be the best solution, they get pricey pretty quick. Depending on the answer to #2, a shared hosting plan might work really well. Depends on the host.

4. Get all the content moved over to the new server and repopulate the databases, update the software backend and etc.



I think the hardest decision is going to be to come up with a web host that you are confident in using that can provide you with 99% uptime and do it with the bandwidth you need for the limited amount of money you have available. Plus they need to support all the technologies you plan to use and versions that you need for your software backend to function (perl, php, mysql and etc). If going with a shared hosting plan, perhaps just paying for a full years worth of hosting is the best solution since usually they offer discounts for this versus month to month. Plus where should the server be located? USA, UK or somewhere else in EU?

I have some experience with setting up content management websites but I personally don't have any experience with Joomla. Probably going to need at least one person on board that has advanced knowledge of it and phpbb3 to keep them updated and locked down so the site doesn't get took down by malicious hackers.


I honestly think that if you can get some quality folks on board, you can get Atarimusic.net back up and online for a fairly insignificant amount of money. Just depends on hosting needs and bandwidth.

[wongck]

I think before you go forward you really need to figure out what its monthly operating costs were.

Just ask Donovan for the amount he was paying to get an estimate. Of course if it's another hosting company, then the price is different.
But it's a good estimate.

[Mal7921]

Hello, sorry for the delay, I have asked a couple of times and not yet got an answer, though I have an idea where the price will be. I'm hoping to talk over skype some time this weekend to finalise a few things.

[david etheridge]

Hi folks,
much to my amazement I've found a working AMN link here:
http://www.atarimusic.net/atari-music-network/

although how much of it's actually active maybe another matter altogether;
unless this one's a backup?
Anyone know for sure?

Best wishes,
Dave.

[Shredder11]

Yep it has been backup sort of for a few weeks now, but work is in progess to move it to a better server etc.

[Mal7921]

Right, after a few delays and suchlike, AMN is fully back online, though a few of the front page links need tweaking once the new Facebook and Twitter accounts are set up.

For those who are helping out with things but do not have an account over there yet, I suggest hopping onto the forum and creating one. I'm going to create a moderator/site admin area over there but people need logons for me to add them to the necessary groups.

Things are moving again

[Shredder11]

[Mal7921]

Ooops...

Easy mistake to make, but Donovan gave me the costs for renewing the space but not the domain, I have to admit I did similar a long time ago in my early adventures in internet land.

As he has the account details for renewing, I've emailed him and awaiting his reply. As were on opposite sides of the world, this sadly takes some time

[Mal7921]

All back up and running again (Again)

[AtariSince1989]

All back up and running again (Again)

I had a look today, and I have seen that some downloads doesn't work. Like for example Zero-X, KEEPTIME, ROMSPEED and NVRam. The links returns page not found.

[Mal7921]

Odd, they should work as I've located at least some of those files in the backup I took today of the site. I'll double check things and make sure they are all working ASAP. Thanks for the heads up

[Mal7921]

Ok, just downloaded the media files directory to my main "Internet browsing (And TV)" Mac and again found the files, so I'll double check the links on the pages and correct them where needed.

It seems the files are there, but the links in some places are wrong (The NVRAM and clock files are available under Warez - System Utilities and those links worked on this Mac about an hour ago as I type this)