viewtopic.php?p=214452#p214452

I am not really concerned about money. I ask because I wonder what you think. Upgrading will mean greater possibilities, continuing as it is will mean only greater organization and a still-limited capacity, shutting it down will mean I don't have to spend any time or money or interest on it anymore and HaloMD would need to be moved to the MGM server(s). Other projects that I am working on would probably just fade away as I would decidedly lose interest.

Vote or I will decide for us.

EDIT: Results are that we are upgrading. Poll results said that people liked how HDM is now, and so I decided to upgrade and expand what HDM is now into something much better. Because I am not willing to share all the details, however, I must move forward with it before more discussions will take place.

Here then are the options you may choose:

- I don't know all the details, but I want to participate in the development of what Sparky is working on
- I don't know if I will participate because I don't have enough details
- I basically don't know what Sparky is talking about, and I don't like HaloDemoMods.com or Sparky

Possibly a better poll would be whether we actually use it or not, and derive your answer from that.

I use HDM quite often to find mods and files. I would like it to continue to be what it is now. If money is ever a problem, a donation button is always an option and I would be willing to donate.

Sparky, you've been providing an invaluable service for us modders and anyone out there still interested in halo demo. I can't express how thankful i am for the generosity you've shown to us.

What would upgrading mean? Would we have more server capacity? Or greater speeds in accessing the data? If it's not necessary I wouldn't go for it right now and just continue keeping the current plan, and I too would be willing to donate what i can to help you maintain the servers online.

I've been wondering how much this HDM thing is costing you. If you're willing we could discuss the prices and see if we can divide the costs between us, if anyone else is willing to! Maybe, uh, not in a public board? I dunno..!


I'd vote for the second option, but I am not sure what upgrading would mean, so could you explain to me what advantages would we get from upgrading? And how much would it cost? :-\

Thank you for the support.

Right now, here is some relevant information:

HaloDemoMods.com
Dedicated IP: 208.131.147.123
E-mail Accounts: 33 / Unlimited
Domains: 1 / Unlimited
Subdomains: 34 / Unlimited

Disk quota (MB) - Current usage
63%
64638.25/102400 MB
Bandwidth quota (MB) - Current usage
Starting 07/01/12 00:01:14 Ending 08/01/12 00:00:01
6%
253664.19/4048000 MB

(That's 64 GB / 100 GB HD space used, and 253 GB / 4 TB monthly bandwidth used; average bandwidth used over HDM's history has been ~300-500 GB per month.)

Pricing:

I currently pay about $11 per month, including the server hosting and domain URL. The server hosting per month is $10, and the domain name is $12.50 per year, so that's about $11.04 per month. I pay for the domain name every year as a $12.50 payment and for the server hosting every two years as a $240 payment. The server hosting is going to expire this October again, so I wonder if I should pay $252.50 this time, or if I should try to set this up as a business and move forward with the source code project(s) as an LLC business which would lease the rights to the source code from Microsoft and continue to develop the game in partnership with MacSoft. We would make money based upon the license terms of the agreement with Microsoft, but that would require an investment for us to purchase the license first. At the same time, HDM would be upgraded to allow us to maximize our online potential to coincide with developing the source code.

The available upgraded dedicated hosting plans are REALLY expensive in comparison, but they would mean that we would be making money as a business (the LLC) along with MacSoft. So basically, we've got these options, and the listed prices are per month (I asked a sales representative just to make sure)... so we're talking at least $100 per month... which is money I don't have right now, but would have later.

http://www.westhost.com/unmanaged-dedicated-servers/

So basically, I'm asking you if you would be willing to work as a team with MacSoft to further develop the Halo game for Mac/PC in order to continue the ideas I've already presented to you. And I'm asking if you would be willing to consolidate MGM and HDM as a single LLC... and how we would make money on this I'm not yet going to specify.

Regarding compatibility, I investigated running Mac OS X server on one of these unix-based servers, and the reply was:

So we would be able to install Mac OS X Server on the dedicated servers (the upgraded server plans) using "emulation software"... (?)

If we kept what we have now, we would still be able to do alright as a small community. I'm asking how much you would be willing to grow as a Mac Gaming Mods community and as a Halo developer community.
As for the latter, I would intend for us to combine with HaloMaps.org and all the other Halo communities so that we could all work on this together. Right now, the communities are fragmented by platform and game version. My vision would be to unify us and involve everyone more with the improvement of the game. If you guys are willing to do this, then I am also willing to do this. I already know which steps would need to come first, and I've already been working towards this idea for over a year now. Let me know if you are willing to participate in this endeavor.

Also, if you are willing to do this, then what is currently planned for the project called Zeus will be on a much larger scale and much better. MUCH better. It would be fully-integrated with the game, and the game would be brought online to include in-game multi-modding sessions, similar to Sauerbraten... and development would take place per community suggestions... and more.

I'd like the current setup to continue, if possible. Set up a way to donate if you think it'll help. 63% used is a lot better than I thought the situation was. If we ever get close to running out of space, you can look into removing unused files. I'm dubious about all this Macsoft/Microsoft/LLC/investing stuff that you talk about. Please don't bother with a OS X server or OS X software on a server; that will likely bring disadvantages and bring no advantages.

I only recently got into modding Halo: Combat Evolved for Mac and I find the website incredibly useful with its database of mods and tools to use, if that helps at all. I also do find the current setup to be easy to navigate and not entirely complex. However, I don't see that many new modders coming in from what I've seen lately, but I can say that I would feel sorry to see it fade away.

Although, like I already said a few times, I am not concerned about money, what I am concerned with is the direction we are headed. In case you want to help pay for the hosting for HaloDemoMods, I added a PayPal button on the site. It can be found in the navigation menu. Expenses are $11 per month.

Oh man! Those plans about combining with other sites and doing an LLC sound really interesting to me! But i am not sure if it's really feasible. As for me, I don't really know how to program, so I wouldn't really be useful under the programming aspect. And anyway i'm not sure if M$ would be willing to let us do what you said (at least, not with the money we have)

That's too bad, 'cause I really like the idea of ‘merging’ ourselves with other halo modding sites. We'd have to see if these sites would be willing to do such a thing. (although, let's remember that MGM is not all about halo. Undoubtedly this section is the most active, but the site is not meant to be a halo modding site, but a mac games modding site in general..! So... yeah!)

Also, it isn't clear to me how would we be rising money. o_o Advertisings? Stock exchange gimmicks? b-being paid by microsoft or macsoft, somehow? Selling the apps/games we would make? /me is confused



in the end: I like the idea, but i am not sure we are ready, enough, and if it's actually feasible. Also i don't understand how businesses work and i am in truth pretty scared by them.

We would be making money based upon what we do: modding! That's all the details I am giving right now about money in the LLC.

The LLC would have a different name and more general purpose, and would be a consolidation of all the Halo-related communities also. Basically, MGM would probably be a sub-forum in this new business's web site. HaloMaps.org would be a sub-forum also. All the forum-based communities would be a sub-forum there, including the older dead or dying communities.

Also, I'm getting in touch with Gearbox Software now. I'm hoping we could do this via licensing the HEK... and so maybe they could help, since they've worked on it.

Dedicated server hosting would cost anywhere from $700 to $1200 per year or more, probably much more, like several thousand dollars per year. I really don't have that much money, so we'd have to already be moving forward with the business plans (which I have not entirely revealed yet) to generate enough revenue to cover those expenses.

I'm pretty comfortable with what HDM has now. We can run small scripts and do what we've been doing and what I plan to do, but the server slows down sometimes, as the wiki plus any scripts running take up quite a few resources. So when the site is slow, you know why, it's probably the wiki software processing a huge uploaded file or image.

the vote is in and people say to keep it as it is.
however, I say upgrade. so yeah. I'm experimenting with upgrading. and nil knows what I'm talking about ;D

Good to know its a keeper It really is a great service, From what I've seen most everyone who mods Halo knows about HDM if they started out playing with trial or demo, which is a good 50% probably Just look at all the youtube videos showing the mods on there.

Most are your videos? What would I search for to see these?
EDIT: Oh yeah. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... lodemomods

It's great to see you ignoring our wishes and choose to upgrade to this new 'domain' and 'website' which honestly I don't want to be a part of - however unrealistic it may seem be, just like Zeus, except this time you're gambling on money. You speak of a site for developers, when really, modding is what attracts people. It doesn't sound feasible or believable anyway, but that's not surprising either given that it's you. Whatever happens, I don't think I'm going to participate in a business, or to a site replacing HDM called blamdevssomething.