Financing the Tavern’s Future

So, this is something that’s been discussed a bit behind the scenes amongst the Tavern staff, but I’ll throw it out to everyone, so everyone is in the know. [New update: private financing has been secured – we’ll post about it in a few minutes].

The Tavern is hosted on WordPress and costs a bit over $100 a year to maintain (hosting, domain rights, etc). Since it’s inception, that cost has been covered by the trusty Tavern owner (Roy). It’s something he’s been happy to do, but Roy will be embarking on some exciting personal projects soon, and so it doesn’t make sense for him to continue to pay for something he is not really involved in. I too (Jae) will be moving on to different ventures soon, and so I’m not willing to throw out a chunk of change to maintain that cost either. The other contributors (Jinseok, Tim, and Jeremy) are all students, so they don’t have a lot of money to spend either.

Tavern Owner intruding > hey everybody! Some longtime Tavern goers know a while back that I’m putting notice and gradually relinquishing my role here to pursue other projects, but I’ll always bleed red for the Taeguk Warriors!  Basically what’s happening is I’m starting a documentary project detailing my father and his sibling’s escape from North Korea during the war, and later how they came to the US.  Some of the doc will follow the family coping with Japanese occupation to liberation to pre-war Soviet occupation of North Korea, then through the trauma and family split during ‘THE WAR’ and post war survival. Much of our family history went up in smokes in Pyongyang, as are missing family members, but I’d like to get as much of what is known down for future generations. My father and his siblings are getting on in age, so my window of opportunity is starting to close and I’ve got to move fast for the sake of preservation. I hope you all understand that I’m not abandoning Korean football or the Tavern, but I will always be on the lookout for the further growth and development of hanguk chugu, until the end of days.  But I’m not gone yet, there’s still the Asian games right?

Which brings us to the main point of this post. The Tavern’s financial future. Essentially there are two options:

  1. Go to WordPress’ free version
  2. Crowdsource the necessary funding

I’m not entirely sure what happens with option 1. It’s possible that very little would change (just a new URL address). It’s possible that older, archived content would be lost (different server host or something like that). Again, I’m not sure exactly what happens when this transition is done. As far as future content goes, little would change, although there may be less graphics in posts as we would have less storage space for images.

Option 2 is fairly simple (I think). Basically people, the contributors and readers, can donate a small amount of money online. The money is then used to pay for the hosting fees and such, so the website can continue on uninterrupted in it’s current form. The action would be done through an established crowdsourcing company, so people would have some assurances that we are not just pocketing any money you give.

Time for WordPress to get paid is coming soon, so a decision must be made. Please vote in the poll below whether you would be willing to contribute a little to keeping the Tavern going or if the site should just transfer to a free version of WordPress. Thank you.

About Jae Chee 339 Articles
A football fan who got bit by the writing bug.

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  1. The Future of the Tavern [updated] - Tavern of the Taeguk WarriorsTavern of the Taeguk Warriors

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