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Author Topic: DRBO.org  (Read 9588 times)

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Offline Bonaventure

DRBO.org
« on: January 09, 2024, 02:12:23 PM »
Just went to do a search at DRBO.org, and got the below message.  $6k/year to run that site?  Is that the going rate nowadays?

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Offline Yeti

  • Supporter
Re: DRBO.org
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2024, 02:19:37 PM »
About a year ago the guy who runs that site got cancer and has no insurance, so he was asking for donations. I suspect that's what's going on here.

If you read carefully, the notice doesn't exactly say the site costs $500 a month to run. He says he needs $500 a month in donations, but he doesn't say what the donations will pay for. Maybe they will pay for his cancer.
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Offline Matthew

  • Mod
Re: DRBO.org
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2024, 02:33:15 PM »
Paul Mann (apollo on CathInfo) did hand-code the entire DRBO.org website, a labor of love I can relate to.

Like many Trad businessmen/website owners, he tried to get advertising sponsors, etc. over the years, with limited success. And keep in mind he lives in the largest gathering of Trads in the United States: St. Mary's, KS.

If you can't get a little "Trads helping Trads" mini-economy going in St. Mary's, then it can't be done.
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Offline Ladislaus

  • Supporter
Re: DRBO.org
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2024, 02:39:15 PM »
Welp, there is a way around this, but I'll respect the site owner by not posting the details.

I don't recall whether he ever put advertising of any kind on his site.  If I were trying to finance the site, and didn't want to use the broader Google Ads type of stuff, I would try to sell various books or religious articles off the site, since it draws a lot of visitors.

As for the cost of running the site, it really depends on what you want to pay for in terms of performance, redundancy, etc.  You can get some really cheap hosting solutions that would be more like $20 per month, but they might choke under the load.  $500 per month seems like a lot for just infrastructure, since you can get a dedicated server in Microsoft Azure for about $400 ... except there's also work involved to maintain it, update it, etc. ... not to mention all the work that went into creating it in the first place.  So I think what he's asking is fair.

I'm not a huge fan of the "blackmail" of taking the site down until he gets random donations.  Perhaps he could make it a subscription service, or do some kind of sales/marketing on the site instead.  It's also a little weak that he's asking for checks.  Why not just put a PayPal link on the site?
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Offline Ladislaus

  • Supporter
Re: DRBO.org
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2024, 03:04:02 PM »
This thing is amazing, BTW.  I have it set up here for Douay Rheims English, Latin, Greek (Septuagint OT), Hebrew (OT), and there are a lot of others to choose from.

Gospel of St. Matthew (NT Sample)

Book of Genesis (OT Sample)

You can mouse over the Hebrew and Greek to get dictionary entries for each words.  Unfortunately, there's no Latin yet that has that capability.  I've downloaded it ... lest there come a time when they cut off internet access.  You can get it for Windows, Linux, MacOS, and also a Mobile app for iPhone / Android.

This doesn't mean we shouldn't support DRBO.ORG as well, since the Step Bible above is more difficult to use and also would benefit a Traditional Catholic.

As Matthew said, the Trad economy is a bit too small to support someone, even in a place like St. Mary's.

I just wish he'd set up a more convenient way to send him money other than checks.  It'll be several weeks at least before enough paper checks come in where he could put the site back online.
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