RE: More Questions For Bart About The Über (2941 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 1.78 on 27 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Bart Cilfone <uberuser.at.cilfone.com> (View user info) at 2003-12-18 05:14:48 EST
In reply to http://www.ubersite.com/m/20655
1. Übersite, from the sheer size of it, seems like it would be an expensive site to maintain. How much is the monthly bill for hosting?
$0 right now. I have a friend that works here: http://eyeglasses.com (cheap plug) Ubersite is currently hosted in their cage and using their bandwidth at no charge to me. That doesn't mean it's free however, just that it has been flying below radar for some time now. The way that most corporate hosting deals work is that the company pays for more bandwidth than they use so that they pay a low fee for a guaranteed minimum amount of traffic and then they incur higher rates by going over some fixed limit. Think of how a cell phone plan works... $30 for your first 600 minutes ($.05/minute), $.35 for every minute over. If you only use 400 minutes per month, you could lend your phone to someone else for a couple hours and not incur any additional cost. So, as long as the combined bandwidth stays below the minimum, there's no incremental cost to the company. The day will come when the ubersite bandwidth will be too big to hide, and hopefully by that time it will be making twenty thousand dollars a week so I can get my own setup someplace.
As for the machine itself, I own the server with a couple other people, so there is no ongoing fee for hardware, disk space, etc. The only potential incremental cost is for the bandwidth which I'm not paying right now.
2. If the site gets to be too much for you, would you abandon it altogether, or would you turn over control to someone you trusted?
I don't think you really grasp just how little I actually do. The bulk of my involvement with the site is as a user, just like anyone else. Every once in a while, as I have time, I will change things, speed things up, add a feature, etc. If I don't have time, I just read and write. If I don't have time for that, I just read. If I don't have time for that, the site pretty much just runs itself.
So to answer your actual question, I don't foresee things getting to the "too much" point any time soon. I think the only way I would turn over the site to someone else is if I were put in prison without access to the internet.
3. If you turned over control, would you give up administration ability?
I suppose, but if I were busy getting assraped in prison (see #2), the least of my concerns would be administrative access to ubersite.
4. How many users are you willing to allow on the site?
http://www.ubersite.com/m/16307
Billions and billions.
5. Won't the sheer amount of users become so great that posts will not have much time at all on the front page?
I don't totally get the obsession with time on the front page. The time on the front page does not correspond to the number of hits or the number of reviews a post will get. In fact, the longer a post is on the front page, the less activity there is on the site. The only thing that impacts that is the ratio of how much people read in comparison to how much they post and comment. If a post gets a lot of comments, it will naturally get a lot of hits because of all the people reading the comments and the post's listing in the "most recently reviewed" and "most heated" boxes.
Really, what is the goal here? I mean, you could have a site at one extreme where it had one post per year and had a hundred people accidentally stumble upon it in that timeframe. You could also have a site where there were hundreds of posts per day and thousands of people seeing them all. Whenever there is doubt, I think more freedom is the right choice. Rather than trying to limit the number of users or the number of posts, the right thing to do is make it easier for people to find things they're looking for and things they don't know they're looking for in the large volume of information.
6. What the hell is the deal with automated submissions? Can I do automated submissions?
It's basically just an alternative way of feeding a message into the site. If you send email to a certain address, it will show up on the site as an automated submission. Because of how absolutely horrible email has gotten regarding the volume of spam, I don't want to publicize that email address very much. One of these days, I'm sure it will begin to get bombarded with spam at which point I'll just have to turn off the automated submissions altogether. They were a little more useful a couple years ago when the site would get one post every three months.
7. Who would you nominate as some of the most promising new or recent Übers?
After seeing both his chest hair and his "O face", I'd have to say Jonukah. My second choice would be the Hooters girls whenever they show up.
8. If I'm ever in Chicago, or if you're ever in Winnipeg, think we could meet for coffee? If so, could I draw you, a la Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic?
Yes, although I'm pretty tough to track down. I have email, IM, cell phone, home phone, eyes and ears. I don't reply to a lot of my email, I never turn on IM except to talk to one particular person, I don't answer my cell phone, my home phone has the ringer turned off, I wear glasses, and I have trouble hearing. Top that all off with the fact that I have the attention span of a six year old boy and the short term memory of a 90 year old man. I'm sure Nicole will vouch for me on that last part... I think I tried to tell her the same story three separate times in a 24 hour time span.
I'll gladly pose "a la leo" for you as long as you bring an expensive necklace and a magnifying glass.
9. Could there be an Übersite "Readme" for new users, which gives helpful hints on punctuation, grammar and attachments?
No. Baptism by fire.
10. Where do all the hits for Cool Ubersite User 'go'? Do they count for you? Can he be a user with an ID of 0, so we can view all his stuff?
They don't go anywhere. There's a little back story to "Cool Ubersite User" that involves a couple of key points:
a) Initially, you did not need to register an account in order to be able to post a message. Instead, you could just type in your name and email (much like comments work today) and they would show up without a "user info" link since there would not be a user record.
b) One day, Ryan Donovan asked me to change his posts to use a personal email address rather than his work email address.
c) Due to an SQL quoting incident on a non-transactional database, I accidentally set the "author" field of every single ubersite post to be "Ryan Donovan"
I'm not going to go into too deep of detail, but basically after I wiped out all the names (most of the names were either me, close friends, or made up names like "sdfdsa"), I fixed all the names for messages that had been written by registered users based on the information in the users table. Since there is no user information for people who don't register, I had nothing to use to update all those other messages. Rather than leave them all as being written by "Ryan Donovan", I changed them all to be written by "Cool Ubersite User", as I'm sure that the person who wrote them was in fact very cool.
And I just made a small change so that you can see all the anonymous (aka. "Cool Ubersite User") posts:
http://www.ubersite.com/cgi-bin/message_get.cgi?user_id=0
11. Do you (Bart Cilfone) have the ability to ban yourself?
Every day, sometimes twice if I'm feeling particularly frisky.
12. Can I submit a prototype for improvements for http://www.ubersite.com/cgi-bin/wholovesrazor.cgi and the aforementioned Readme?
Sure, but I probably won't do anything about them. The "wholovesrazor" page is so badly done that any suggestion at all would be an improvement. It needs to be completely redone and worked into the regular site layout. The Readme will never exist, so there's nothing to improve there.
13. Why aren't there icons for the Romance or Quotes & Stories subjects? Or is it just me?
Laziness mainly. Red and pink hearts look kind of goofy and I could never think of a good icon for Quotes & Stories.
14. Should there be an IQ test to become an Überuser?
That's why there isn't an FAQ or a Readme. The IQ test consists of "are you smart enough to figure out how to create an account and submit something to the site". You'd be amazed at how many people that filters out.
Maybe I could make a small multiple choice inkblot test and anyone who chooses the response "OMG THAT REMEINDS ME OFF MY AVRIL LAVIGNE POSTER!!1" immediately has their computer crashed and the hard disk reformatted.
And last, and probably least...
15. Can you change your name on the Most Viewed Authors list to 'Ingsoc' for an hour or so? Please? Pretty Please?
Only time will tell.
Ok, time's up. No.
Now, just to piss Lisa off, I want to mention that I had a great time at UberCon 2003. On paper, it's one of the weirdest things I've ever done - drive 900 miles to Atlantic City to spend two days with twenty people I've never met. However, it turned out really well. So much so, that as I was leaving, I wished that I wasn't. There were a couple people that I didn't get a chance to spend much time with and there were a couple others that, no matter how much time we spent together, it wouldn't have been enough.
The good thing for all of you folks sick of pictures from UberCon is... I didn't take any pictures at UberCon! I had a camera with me that I set on the table in the hotel room on Friday when I got there and then picked up on Sunday when I left. Fortunately, I did snap a couple of random pictures during my trek back and forth.
In order from left to right, top to bottom:
1. In a suburb of Cleveland, I got a speeding ticket for going 79 in a 60. The cop said he clocked me at 87 but that if he wrote the ticket for more than 20 over, he would have to arrest me and tow my car. I decided to pay the ticket before I left town, so this is the court where I paid it.
2. BUDDY, I SAID I'D PAY THE TICKET!!! This is a tank outside the library right next to that court building.
3. Canton, OH - The pro football hall of fame
4. A restaurant in Canton called Nicole's where I stopped to eat just after I left the hall of fame. I had shredded beef with potatos, vegetable, soup, coffee, and bread for about eight dollars.
5. The city of brotherly love - Philadelphia
6. The city of brotherly something... I got off the highway and drove around town for a bit. I found this market area with some dumpsters on the street and a random drum of fire. Maybe Rizzo is used to this kind of thing, but in Chicago, there generally aren't drums of fire in the middle of the street on a Friday afternoon.
7. Second speeding ticket - this one on the Atlantic City Expressway for going 84 in a 65. I thought of following Kristen's advice and asking him, "Hey, are you bored at work?", but I couldn't muster up the courage to do it. Instead, I just took a picture of him while he was writing up the ticket.
8. A picture of the mountains from the parking lot of the Quality Inn where I stayed in Breezewood, PA on the way back.
User Reviews
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-11-29 18:57:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2006-07-12 19:53:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by DonovanMD (user info) at 2005-03-30 22:24:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You need to do another one of these Bart.
Submitted by boneface (user info) at 2005-03-21 04:46:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Sassmasterr (user info) at 2005-01-20 15:17:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for Euclid cops. they are the gheyest
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2004-12-09 05:44:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Gnome (user info) at 2004-07-12 23:50:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
what an experience it would've been....UberCon... if this comes up again in the coming years i'd be interested. there's a lot of really interesting people on this site (if you weed out all the 15 year old kids just causing shit that is)
good read.
Submitted by mystiamoon (user info) at 2004-04-19 14:41:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Scott_James (user info) at 2004-03-02 22:46:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I think some of the new folk should be reading this.
Submitted by Ingsoc (user info) at 2003-12-19 14:21:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I can't believe I missed this. I was out Christmas shopping and eating at a Thai restaurant.
Submitted by William_Q_Percy (user info) at 2003-12-18 15:23:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Mick, piss in a cup, use a turkey baster as an eye dropper, cure your sty, then put the turkey baster back and leave the piss out on the table.
Done and done.
Submitted by Phinch (user info) at 2003-12-18 13:34:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2
Bart, am I on crack, or is the "view older messages" link jacked up?
Submitted by MickGinny (user info) at 2003-12-18 13:04:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
11. Do you (Bart Cilfone) have the ability to ban yourself?
Every day, sometimes twice if I'm feeling particularly frisky.
+2 for that
i have a question bart, a two part question.
is it really possible to cure a sty by putting your urine in to the effected eye?
if it is possible, can you reccomend a method of delivering the urine to the eye besides pissing in your hand and splashing it in your face?
Submitted by Nicole3 (user info) at 2003-12-18 12:51:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No, I lived in Cleveland for 4 years while I went to college. Originally I am from Texas/Kansas, (my sister goes to the same school Streetpunk went to) though now I live in Mass. All of my tickets were on my out of state license while in Ohio and when I moved to Mass my record was essentially wiped clean. I've only had two warnings since I've been here.
Submitted by drstrangedhruv (user info) at 2003-12-18 12:49:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"Where HAVEN'T I been? WOOF!"
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2003-12-18 12:24:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Wait a minute, Nicole, you live in Cleveland? I think I knew that already.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2003-12-18 12:22:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Nicole3 (user info) at 2003-12-18 11:43:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Ouch, those tickets have to hurt. Cleveland suburbs are absolutely horrible though Cleveland proper is great as they don't care about traffic violations (they have more important things to worry about). I got a nasty ticket in Parma once. Two lane with a median down the middle, no homes or entrances to the road as far as I could see, no posted speed limit, speed limit 30 mpfuckinh. It was explained to me that if the speed limit isn't posted it is automatically 15 mph so I should feel lucky. Bastard.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2003-12-18 11:30:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You drive too goddamn fast.
Submitted by Tom (user info) at 2003-12-18 10:50:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
That's my barrel you're exploiting on the internet, buddy.
-Tom
Submitted by Luther (user info) at 2003-12-18 10:20:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This post has it all. Entertaining! Substance, information, pictures, and humor. I love you, er, it. I love it. heh heh *snort*
Submitted by antluvdog (user info) at 2003-12-18 08:57:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The first picture of Philly is the view from I-76 East, a.k.a the Schuylkill Expressway. Take that road to its end and you'll get to Lincoln Financial Field and then the bridge that brings you to the highway that brings you to A.C.
The second picture of Philly with the dumpsters and market looks like South Philly, probably somewhere near the Italian Market. Remember the street Rocky jogged down during the theme music in the original film? The street with the hanging green awnings and the outdoor market? Yep, that was it. And, yes, when you're in the heart of Philly there are random barrels on fire. I've never figured out why there are so many, though. I know certain city employees and construction workers use them to keep warm, but that's it.
Ubercon was the shit, dude. I wish I could have stayed longer as well.
Submitted by Manfre (user info) at 2003-12-18 08:30:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You got lucky with the picture of the cop. Theyre usually dicks down in AC and if he saw you taking a picture he might have beaten you Rodney King style.
Cops in Jersey suck.
+2 for the flaming barrel.
Submitted by Deisangua (user info) at 2003-12-18 07:49:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No. Baptism by fire.
----------------------
Just. Fucking. Wicked. Cool. +2 for that alone.
Submitted by EH (user info) at 2003-12-18 07:20:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I like the 2nd to last picture... Damn cops!
Submitted by QueenBea (user info) at 2003-12-18 06:06:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Damn, that would have been awesome if you had asked him if he was 'bored at work'.....lol. I would have loved to see a picture of his facial expression....and then him taking a picture of you as he i'm sure would have found some other offence to add to your already hefty speeding ticket...haaha
Queen
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-12-18 05:43:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
What the hell is a barrel fire?