Hi, I just registered, so I'm probably about to somehow make a fool of myself. However, I like reading the stuff in here, and was thinking, how much does it even cost to preserve the site? Not the moderator work and such, just the cash upkeep you seem to be mentioning?Of course, it seems the expected time-of-death was December 2014, which has passed, so maybe you found a solution. But just in case my unknown rich uncle dies, a figure in the ball park would be interesting...
Hi Henry,
I purchased the site from Mop in September of 2014 for $1500, paid out of my own pocket. I was running a crowd-funding effort to raise the money that way, but decided to just nut up and get it done so the site could be put back up - At the time, Mop was having some serious problems with his server and didn't have the resources to correct the issues.
The purchase included rights to the TTI forum database, the xenForo software license all of the associated domains (timetravelinstitute.com, .net, .org, john-titor.info and .net and maybe one other) - All of those have an annual cost of about $10 a piece, depending on the domain suffix. I also purchased timetravel.institute for about $30, which is also an annually recurring fee.
A xenForo license by itself costs $140, plus $40 per year (I think) for continued access to new versions of the software. I own all of the xenForo addons (gallery, resource manager and enhanced search) which comes at additional upfront and yearly renewal costs as well. There are a several other addons which had upfront costs as well, the TTI Database and Chat sections for example ... Good software certainly isn't cheap!
We run the site on a VPS from KnownHost which runs me about $55 per month, but I also run a few other sites on this server and it's an expense I would have had anyways.
Obviously the site is operated at a net loss, but I consider this a fun hobby and don't expect to go swimming in pools of cash. I purposely don't run ads anymore as I feel it screws with the aesthetic I'm trying hard to curate, but there's a chance I'll eventually recoup something via the TTI Store I'm working on when I have the time.
If your rich uncle ever does kick the bucket, I'm not sure I'd be willing to sell the site unless it was for a much higher amount than I paid for it... TTI has some historical value from my perspective and I enjoy being able to keep it alive and take care of it so that others can enjoy it also
We don't have any moderators as I've not seen the need for any just yet - I'm on often enough to respond to reported posts and the members here generally know how to behave or self-moderate to keep things running smoothly
Time spent moderating is pretty minimal.
Hopefully this answers you question!
