[theforum] What is evolt, where is it going, and can I come, too?
David Kaufman
david at gigawatt.com
Thu Sep 7 23:02:54 CDT 2006
Hi Alan,
Alan Lloyd [www-ss.com] <alan at www-ss.com> wrote:
> Hello
>
> Couple of points 1)
> ...going by the archives these lists [...] have died
> [...] I suggest disbanding them and moving all these groups
> functionality back to theforum.
I agree with Judah's point that, while the lists certainly have no
traffic now, they were created at a time when there was enough traffic
on theForum that they needed to be spun off from the main discussion so
as not to distract one another. And I hope that such a day will come
again! I'd vote to leave the lists in mothballs in the hope that they
will be needed.
> 2) On another note how is evolts finances? Who pays the server bill
> now?
That would be me.
Here's the Reader's Digest condensed version of my involvement with
Evolt (or, for the answer to your question, feel free to scroll down to
the next to last paragraph and bypass my wordy digressions).
The List spawned a thread about ideas for funny web-dev T-shirts one
day. I always need those (and coffee mugs too!) so I setup a Cafepress
store. www.cafepress.com/evoltgear
I set all the prices to 5.01 over cost, and donated the proceeds to
evolt. It was popular for a month or two, but sales dwindled to
all-but-nothing over time. Currently about 2 or 3 items a year get
sold.
Elfur and I became co-treasurers when Marlene quit (due to a bout of
apathy not unlike Dean's, and after a period of silence on these lists
not unlike the current one). We registered Evolt as a non-profit with
the IRS to obtain a tax-id number so we could open up a bank account in
Evolt's name because Marlene had been holding onto a number of donation
checks that were made out to Evolt (an entity which at the time didn't
legally exist and couldn't cash checks).
When we started running Google ads on beo, Google needed that tax-id #
and mailed us paper checks, so it was A Good Thing "we went legit" and
got the bank account. Google has since switched to direct deposit,
which An Even Better Thing, because it means I didn't have to physically
deposit checks to a physical bank out in meat-space anymore, I just have
to remember to log in to the Google and the bank's websites from time to
time to make sure the deneros are flowing, which I do with some
regularity (and which, they always are).
Then one fine day (not unlike today) we all decided to delurk and debate
our hosting situation. All of our hosting was donated at that time by
generous evolters, and there were different servers belonging to
different members, perfoming different tasks, scattered hither and yon
about the planet. From time to time one of these benefactors would quit
in apathy, or have a change in life-circumstances, financial stability,
go to prison for securities fraud, transform suddenly into a space
creature wake up one morning a meglamaniacal control freak. Well, okay
mostly they just chose to stop but for whatever reasons humans flake
out, leaving an evolt server or service somewhere hither or yon that
used to do something, not doing it anymore. In some cases (as the evolt
lore from before my time goes) some such incidents resulted in
significant down-time, some in data loss or the need to rewrite lost
code.
Now that evolt had a modest net egg in the bank and a small (but steady)
stream of income from Google, it was determined that this sort of shit
should never happen again, and evolt rented its own dedicated server
which it has paid for with its own ads, happily ever after. It became
self aware shortly after that and began to turn on its creators -- no,
wait. That was in Terminator II.
I am proud though, that it has its own income, pays its own rent,
doesn't ask me for walking around money and especially that it does it
all electronically while we all sleep (and lurk). In the same vein, by
the way, the fact that the sysamin list "is dead", is a fabulous
success. The system has needed no administration? It processes the
volume of mail and web traffic that it does with little or no human
intervention for months at a time? Business could learn a thing or two.
As for our financial situation, we have around $1300 in our paypal
account, almost $500 in the checking account. We pay $69 a month to
ServerMatrix for the lowest end dedicated server money can buy, and
GoDaddy gets $8.99 a year for each of the three domain names: evolt.org,
evolters.org and evolt.eu. On the income side, I'm contractually bound
not to disclose the super-secret number of greenbacks Google wires us
periodically, and anyway it varies somewhat, but I will tell you that
the balances above have scarcely changed at all since I became treasurer
almost 3 years ago. In other words, our primary source of revenue
neatly (and purely coincidentally) meets our primary monthly expense,
while our donations and merchandise-sales trickle in, insignificantly at
best, slowly accumulating. We pretty much effortlessly balance upon our
balance sheet. Which is, I suppose, as it should be.
As for the future of evolt? Participation levels wax and wane -- so
what? New, quality articles seem few and far between at times lke now
but, taking the long view, so many of our *existing* articles are in the
top couple of Google hits for their subject matter, and the subject
matter is something we all care about, so I don't think "evolt is dead"
or even dying, just because it is sometimes quite quiet. Maybe it's
thinking. The beast may sleep but we know it lives because the The List
breathes. This community began as a mailing list and that list will
always be its core, as far as I'm concerned. Despite our own strange
psychological need to form committees, little inner circles, appoint
titles and gather around in special interest groups (and despite the
IRS's requirement that we choose to categorize ourselves within one of
its non-profit "categories of activity") the only "organization" evolt
has ever had is just whatever it needs for the list to continue to send
and receive email to all the people in the world who want to communicate
(or just listen) and associate (however loosely) with all the other cool
web workers of the world, for free. And I feel that that's okay.
-dave
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