How would people like to handle the 'switch over' of the web site then?
As I see it we have 3 options:
put someone in charge of it (this would require financial responsibility of the hosting, although donations may be used)
put developers in charge of it (part of being a developer would be an expectation to contribute to hosting)
put everyone in charge of it (hosting costs are paid from donations only; if there is no donations, hosting is not paid for)
(for option 1 should we have a vote or just nominate someone? theprism and myself have volunteered anyone else?)
Think we should avoid developers having to pay to host it, perhaps some developers are students and money is too tight. I think between us we can top up the donations if necesary, perhaps do a fund raising push by way of competition etc.
Another source of income to consider is Google AdSense. I have a banner on mw3d.org, and this site hasn't as much traffic as the jmonkeyengine.com, so chances are good, that it could generate some money. But don't over estimate it, you won't get rich with such a banner. My account is one year old, and google only pays, when you have reached a limit of 100$. Currently my balance is 40$
Apart from the forum I would tend to agree with moving everything over to Google Code. However, I think one of the reasons jME is still thriving is because of the much loved forum.
I agree, that moving most of the activities to google code is a good idea, but we should keep this site, because it lets jme look more professional, and visitor might think, that we are knowing what we are doing here
Just look at the ogre3d site. At first, i didn't notice the banners at all. So i don't think, that anybody will complain.
Units(Cost) Detail Bill Period Product Description
1 (95.40) 95.40 2009-01-20 to 2010-01-20 12 Months ($7.95/mo) Hosting - jmonkeyengine.com
1 (14.95) 14.95 2009-01-20 to 2010-01-20 1 Year Domain Name Registration
3 (12.00) 36.00 2009-01-20 to 2010-01-20 Additional MySQL Databases - 1/unit - jmonkeyengine.com
1 (24.00) 24.00 2009-01-20 to 2010-01-20 Java Enabled Account - 1/unit - jmonkeyengine.com
1 (35.40) 35.40 2009-01-20 to 2010-01-20 Dedicated IP - 1/unit - jmonkeyengine.com
Total Amount Due: 205.75 USD
Settled by Charge: -205.75 USD
(IMO it would behoove us, if we are taking over the hosting, to reimburse mojo for his costs; since the site was paid less than a month ago...)
As far as banners go, I am not against it; however they should be minimal and be as un-obtrusive as possible (also IMO).
As far as moving stuff, I think the current setup works GREAT! It shows any potential users that jME is serious enough to have its OWN site (that we could host the code through if we wanted to) but competent enough to show that we leverage 'good' technologies when appropriate...
Moving to google code is a good idea to cut down on bandwidth, but abandoning the site would be very bad (unless if you get a forum in google code heh? still it would probably suck anyways). A good site that lays out what the engine does, how it does it, why its for you, etc is something very important for a project like this. Many times I've seen projects where they just have a google code like page, minimal info, often an incomplete project…you tend to have to dig for information before you may find that the project just isn't for you, and that tends to be uninviting from the start.
Of course, a site can be overdone (imo…that Unity engine website is a bit overdone). So a balance has to be struck between a project site that's useful, feature/info rich, and professional. I believe the current jMonkey website more or less hits all of that, and should remain. If ads will be needed, make sure you tailor them to not be as obtrusive as possible (e.g. the comment about the OGRE3D site - a site where the ads aren't haphazardly placed is always the best). Anyways those are my thoughts.
I have donated said monies to mojo, I feel confident in taking on the financial burden for at least a year or two (but am not above asking for donations when the time comes ;)).
If anyone else would like to be responsible for the web hosting (for jmonkeyengine.com) please speak up, otherwise I am just gonna nominate myself (oh goodie more work/less time, the wife is gonna love me ;)). I feel there are some issues that desperately need to be solved now before more and more develop…
(I think lunarpages has a really high bandwidth cap, but if we ever are in jeopardy of that moving the wiki and maybe the demos would be relatively painless I think…)
Go for it basixs, there is a contribution link in the homepage, you should look to ensure that the funds come back to you. Any excess could be ploughed back into a competition.
but am very enthused about the "new generation"…