What's Next?

[dwessell]

Fellow Members,


SRP is about to undergo another set of improvements, and we’d like your help and your feedback. We’ve grown so much since we opened the site, that we’re having to move hosts again. Our current host can’t support our usage anymore, and we’re in the process of setting up a server just for SRP.
With that in mind we’d really like suggestions for features that you would like for us to add while we’re doing all of this. Nothing reasonable is off limits, and we look forward to some really interesting ideas from you.


As well, we’d like to ask for your help. We’d really like to get a series of helpful articles going for our main site (Not forums). How to Hone, How to Strop, etc… Anything that you think would be interesting. If there are any aspiring writers, or anyone who wants to take a crack at it, let me know. We feel like the community is missing this, and it would be a big boon.


Since Lynn and I started SRP.com back in Oct 2006, we’ve gone from 4,000 unique visitors per month, to 18,000 per month. Now we’ve got Joe and Don on board, and things are getting even better. We appreciate everyone here, and look forward to this next run where we push to make SRP as good as possible.



David,Don,Joe,Lynn



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[Nickelking]

I'd really like a chat interface not based on flash, there are IRC based options that would be much more stable.

Love the site, love the folks here and if nobody else steps forward I'd be honored to compile all the descriptions of how to do stuff into one text file. (don't feel knowledgeable enough to make one from scratch yet.)

And I'm gonna add a thanks for all the work you guys put into this site for us to play on.

5¢

[azjoe]

Jared,

Which is more important to you... HAVING IRC or NOT having flash?

All Chat capabilities, including IRC, place an extremely high load on a server. Many hosts (eg, the one SRP currently uses) no longer allow the running of any "chat" software on their machines... so, we host the chat on a different server (ie, different from the SRP host). Further, most reliable hosts will not allow anyone to run an IRC server on their equipment. Most of those that do require that the chat be fully moderated... that's because of legal issues (eg, making sure illegal activities are not being supported via IRC on their servers), not bandwidth. Granted, there are "free" IRC servers out there... but you know there's really no such thing as "free".

There are non-IRC chat programs besides the one we use... some are flash based, some not. Some are quite expensive.

Lastly, the subject of voice chat and video chat always surfaces about this time. If you think text based chat requires a lot of server resources, voice and video requires orders of magnitude more.

Ultimately, it comes down to cost (both in dollars and manpower)... how much is it worth to our community to have a better chat capability than we have now?

So, those are some of the issues to think about.

[Nickelking]

More the not having flash... ok exactly the not having flash. I get so many flash errors while using the chat that it's almost not worth using. I know byrontodd has come across some IRC based things that reside on thier own server.

Mainly I want to get away from all the error messages that flash results in. We won't start on my hatred of Adobe in general

And yes, I'd be willing to chip in a few extra bucks myself to get a non flash based chat. (The extra word being used as I plan to when I sell use Old Schools idea of shipping a percentage back to srp.)

Edit: I'm wholly against voice or video chat... not necessary at all for us. If I want to talk to someone on a voice line I'll ask them for their skype or phone number and go outside SRP. It would be quite ungentlemanly IMO to expect SRP to foot the bill for that.

[keljian]

ok..

The one thing I think is lacking from SRP is a Newbie guide incl quick start guide.

The newbie guide on B&B is pretty good but isn't straight razor specific.

Lynn's dvd is a great start, but _some_ of the info should be public knowledge in my opinion (to attract more people to straight razor shaving).

perhaps we could get a few members to collaborate on the project with unique skills - eg I've worked as a pro editor, I'd be happy to edit the material and write a bit but not all, nickel is an actor so he can help out with the videos etc..

[Kenrup]

More the not having flash... ok exactly the not having flash. I get so many flash errors while using the chat that it's almost not worth using. I know byrontodd has come across some IRC based things that reside on thier own server.

Mainly I want to get away from all the error messages that flash results in. We won't start on my hatred of Adobe in general

And yes, I'd be willing to chip in a few extra bucks myself to get a non flash based chat. (The extra word being used as I plan to when I sell use Old Schools idea of shipping a percentage back to srp.)

Edit: I'm wholly against voice or video chat... not necessary at all for us. If I want to talk to someone on a voice line I'll ask them for their skype or phone number and go outside SRP. It would be quite ungentlemanly IMO to expect SRP to foot the bill for that.

Flash error messages? I've not experienced a single one with our current chat setup. I'm running a 8 year-old Dell. I admit it's tricked out and maxed out on its capabilities but it runs faster then any other newer computers that I use.
I vote, it works for me, leave it alone.

[sidneykidney]

Does this overlap with the FAQs joe?

[Nickelking]

I vote, it works for me, leave it alone.

There is that I'm just saying from hanging in the chat daily there's a lot of folks that get kicked every couple of hours.

It's a horribly tiny thing in the grand scheme, but suggestions were asked for.

[azjoe]

Does this overlap with the FAQs joe?

IMHO, Yes... once all the existing relevant threads get cleaned up and moved into the FAQs.

I think the recurring issue here is that often people (I'm not picking on anyone specific, so calm down) want/expect that someone else is going do the work to create these things... eg, construct the FAQ, write a guide, etc., etc.

Guys, this is a community... ie, a commune ... ie, everyone helps create what everyone enjoys. That's why David asked for volunteers. We get out of this what we put into it.

[azjoe]

There is that I'm just saying from hanging in the chat daily there's a lot of folks that get kicked every couple of hours.

It's a horribly tiny thing in the grand scheme, but suggestions were asked for.

The timeouts are something I've experienced too... they have something to do with connections timing out and I'm convinced there's a bug in their program, but can't prove it. What's frustrating is some people never see them, others see them regularly... and I haven't spent the time to figure out why.

BTW, I have never gotten a flash error either... I think that's a problem primarily for those not running windows. I'm not a big fan of flash either, and certainly am not a fan of Adobe. But flashchat works pretty well for the money (if we can solve the errors and timeouts) and could work until we need to support more than 50 people in chat. Now, IMHO, if more than 50 people want to chat at the same time it will be pandemonium no matter what chat is used... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.