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Planning Your Site - Community Building Part 2

Author: Paul Kenneth Egell-Johnsen

Publishing date: 06.11.2000 11:03

What are you looking for in a solution

When you're looking for an existing product you need to know what to look for. Here is our short list of things to look for:

Installed customer base - If nobody uses it beware.

Customizability - You shouldn't have to pay the seller to customize their solution.

Ease of use - Demand to try out the solution, both as a user and as an administrator.

Price - There should be a good reason why the off-the-shelf solution costs more than a built from scratch system.

Hardware requirements - Why is it running on expensive hardware only they can configure and only they sell?

You might want to know the following facts.

You pay half as much for double the performance every 18 months.

Many successful web sites run on software which are free (as in gratis, no purchase cost).

You don't have to place the hardware in your back yard. Some specialize in giving their customers good hardware, good bandwidth and good service. And at a monthly fee.

And where are you left when it comes to problems and bugs in the software? Keep in mind that widely used software often have gone through 'evolutions', things have been added, more or less planned. There might be serious problems under the hood, and shrink wrap licenses might rob you from any method of reclaiming your costs.

I won't pretend to give you all the answers, but I hope you'll have a realistic view of the situation. You don't want to spend a lot of money in the start on idling hardware or idle bandwidth. Instead spend your money on your content creators. Professionals who will create lasting value for your site.

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