Having slept on and digested the news that I can no longer host The Kamera Club on Google’s free Blogger site due to the content I post I’ve decided the site will continue in some form, but I’m still looking at options.
The reason for doing this site in the first place was for several reasons, I love the subject of glamour photography from back in the 1950’s and 60’s and it still fascinates me today. I want to try and capture this content, the models, magazines and photographers before we lose it and this format is a good way of sharing it with others. I’ve had lots of great feedback and interaction from others that also enjoy the subject now or were part of it back then. I have made lots of good contacts, that not only provide lots of great information to the site, but original content as well! For all these reasons it seems a shame to stop now.
Now the hard bit! I make no money from the site and do it because I like doing it and want to share the content I have. A free site made this easy, as I had no overhead costs, other than my time and effort, but now if I want to continue to share the content I need to move the blog and the options I have are:
- Stop completely – Can’t do it, won’t do it and would be gutted if I had to stop!
- Use another free hosting site such as Tumblr – I have a matching Tumblr blog for The Kamera Club and it has over 6000 followers, but again it comes back to control. Layout and design is restricted and I again have no control over the content should Tumblr decide it’s unsuitable and delete the account or content!
- Pay for hosting for a WordPress site – I do this for my Just June site (thanks to a generous donation) and it works well. I have complete control and freedom to post and do as I wish, the interaction is good and I have great creative control, but at a cost!
Anyway those are my options and I’m moving towards a paid hosted site, but looking at the costing options now.
So a question, would you pay for the content and access to the site? I have always tried to avoid having you to sign up as members to my sites, be it free or paid as I have always believed the content should be free for all to access without restrictions or username and passwords to remember. But would you support the site and keep it free and open with a one off donation? No fixed fee, just a one off, whatever you can afford payment to help towards the hosting so it can continue? As you can see with the official Harrison Marks site, even with a one off payment for membership, but restricting content to paid up members the site has struggled and will be closing later this year, a model that I want to avoid.
So what are your thoughts?
I’ll continue to look at the options, but want to thank you all for your support and contributions thus far as it’s been fantastic and long may it continue!
Cheers,
W
I was going to say wordpress on a cheap shared server – maybe the incentive of larger images would help payment as well – alternatively large resolution scans for those who would like to print a couple off for themselves – just a thought…I remember the old myarchives it worked well easy to access / see comments / new images….photopost gallery is expensive unforunately.
Thanks, I'm moving towards WordPress on a shared server option. The larger image option is an idea and one I could do I only publish small images for various reasons, but always have much larger sizes available 🙂
Your site is very good and worthy of a fee, so I would strongly consider contributing!<br />Jeff
Thanks Jeff and as always I appreciate the support
There are a multitude of hosting sites around of course, and cost is dependent on bandwidth usage, but i've used tsohost for years and always found them very reliable and cost-effective.<br />A big problem with WordPress sites is that they are easily 'attacked' by spam bombers and the like, which can put your bandwidth through the roof, so I'd be hesitant with WordPress personally
Thanks Roop and looking at all the options, but want to do it soon so I can migrate the site and get it up and running without loss of service as know how much you all appreciate the images rather than me ranting about hosting 😉
I'd certainly consider contributing, if the cost is reasonable. May I suggest one improvement to this site (and the Just June site): make the pics downloadable. Maybe it's my technical incompetence, but I can't find any way of doing so at present. I am gobstruck by Blogger's attitude. There's absolutely nothing obscene or pornographic about the innocuous nude photography on
Thanks Alan and It’s a general policy change that impacts all sites on Blogger not just me, but Google who own Blogger seem to be taking a very strong stance against nudity on their sites, so not good! I lock the site down so images cannot be downloaded, but would definitely consider that an option, going forward. Contribution wise I’m happy people are willing, so I’m not
I certainly don't have a problem digging into my pocket, other than when its my round lol
Thanks Phil always appreciated and a round with you must be cheaper 😉
Please donot let your excellent site disappear. It is from a cultural and artistic view a loss that will never be replaced these beautiful girls may disappear, unfortunately, but their work is forever. Brave, beautiful, timeless, except for some hairdo, but anyway. Please give us old admirerers a piece of advice. Your site is not only for the UK, it is for the whole world! So thinks Nils