Hello Blitz,
I haven’t posted regularly for over 2 years, and I haven’t watched a second of AFL this year.
At some point I felt a loser organisation like Essendon – inside of an even bigger loser organisation called AFL – doesn’t get to effect my emotional state.
And to be honest I’ve never been happier.
Two things happened in the last year
- I finally upgraded the server so it doesn’t suck
- The bottom fell out of the online ad market
So I started doing the numbers and it turns out I’m personally subsidising Blitz’ existence. The ad revenue doesn’t cover the server cost. When I was active in the community I didn’t really mind that, there’s probably been plenty of times in the past where this has been true before too.
(There’s also been times like The Sorry Saga when ad revenue more than covered server costs, but this hasn’t been true in awhile).
I’ve looked at moving the server but there’s no really good options. And it’s unlikely I could find one cheaper that would be any good anyway.
The difference between server cost and ad revenue fluctuates month to month. In April it was a small profit, but in the four months of this year it’s a net loss.
So there’s three options
- I ask Blitz for money
- Someone else owns Blitz
- Blitz shuts down after 20 years
I really don’t want to ask Blitz for money. Makes me sick that Essendon asks you for money already. I don’t think they deserve your time or attention. And considering the players who left last year, turns out you can’t even pay some people to be interested in Essendon.
I’ve floated the idea of someone else owning Blitz and had a few replies but really I don’t want to hand it off to just anyone. And whoever does own it needs to have a degree of technical competence should anything go down. Blitz is too big for a technical amateur to administer but too small to self-fund technical help.
And as I’m making clear now with this post – owning it costs money, unless you as a new owner decided to fundraise somehow.
Closing Blitz down is the last thing in the world I want to do, because it’s been an excellent community over these 20 years.
Anyway, I don’t know what’s next. If enough people felt so motivated to keep things as they are and donate to Blitz, I don’t mind just being responsible for the server staying online.
Or if someone truly wants to take complete ownership of the site I’m open to have that discussion too.
I just don’t want to foot the bill personally for much longer.