The future of Juventuz decided (1 Viewer)

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
#1
As most of you know by now, Juventuz has been on sale for the past month and a half, in an open auction. The auction has now ended and it's time to announce the outcome.

First of all, I'm very happy to say that there is a winning bidder and that this site has a future. I have done my best to arrange a bidding process which would reflect primarily on the bidder's ability to run this site and keep it alive and I am satisfied that those efforts have been successful, I strongly believe the winning bidder is up to the task and is the best person for the job. Above all, experience in the field of web publishing counts, because this is a special field of many aspects and challenges. It takes experience to be able to handle a site of this size, because it requires many different skills.

As announced in the rules for this auction, the winning bid will be published, along with the bidder's Juventuz Survival Scheme, which is, of course, part of the actual bid. The winning bid has been known to me for some time but to be fair to all bidders, I have not revealed this outcome and thus noone has been able to gain an unfair advantage. I could also not be certain that the winning bid would go through, simply because every bidder had the option to change or withdraw their bid at any time.


Winning bidder: Martin Nathell

Bid amount: $1000


Juventuz Survival Scheme


1. List the person (or persons) behind this bid with full name, age, website (if applicable) and email address.
If there is more than one person involved in this bid, please explain what your roles are (if they differ).
If you currently run (or own) a website, mention it here.

Full name: Martin Alexander Nathell

Website: Runs a network providing free hosting for websites
(http://network.emulation64.com/about.php), and have a few personally owned
sites I regularly update and visit as well:

1. Emulation64 - www.emulation64.com <http://www.emulation64.com/>
(emulation news site)

2. EmuTalk - www.emutalk.net <http://www.emutalk.net/> (forums for the
network)

3. Spelkontroll - www.spelkontroll.se <http://www.spelkontroll.se/> (my
company's website - we sell video game accessories)

4. Stylefone - www.stylefone.com <http://www.stylefone.com/> (free cell
phone downloads, such as ringtones)

5. Slipknot CPD - www.slipknotcpd.com <http://www.slipknotcpd.com/> (fan
site dedicated to the band Slipknot)

I don't manage any of the other sites on the network; I only provide hosting
and keep our dedicated servers fit.

E-mail: <not shown>

Apart from running the sites above as a hobby (apart from Spelkontroll,
which I do for a living), I'm a college student at Lunds Tekniska Högskola
(LTH) in Sweden, where I'm studying engineering. I'm 25 years old.



2. Are you a regular visitor to the site?
How often do you visit? Are you a member of the forum? Do you subscribe to the newsletter?

Yes I am. I visit a few times a week, always around game days and sometimes
other days just for reading the forums. I'm not a member of the forums
myself, I'm just a lurker (person who visit but doesn't post ;)), but will
of course register in case I win the bidding.



3. When did you first discover Juventuz?

It was around the time Zlatan became an official Juventus player, I've
followed his career ever since he played in Malmö, and I will continue to
follow it forever as he's an amazing player. As I'm sure he will stay in
Juventus for a long time, the club usually signs people for a long time),
I'm confident I won't lose interest in Juventuz. I've always had interest in
Juventus and have respected it as one of the greatest teams in the world,
but have not been a manic fan until after Zlatan joined. :)



4. Have you ever run a fan site before?
If yes, what was it for, does it still exist? What kind of success did you have (traffic? forum participation?)?

Yes, I run Slipknot CPD, which is just like it sounds a fan site for the
popular band Slipknot, with a co-webmaster and we have fairly active forums
(2500 members), though the forum is currently down due to a server move. On
Emutalk I have roughly 3000 forum posts. I also regularly post at some other
forums.



5. State your motivation for buying this site.
If you are a member of the community and you would hate to see it die, that makes a convincing argument. Otherwise explain why you want take over the site, be it for financial reasons or sentimental ones.

Though I'm not a member of the community as a poster, I closely follow it
and recognize many of the key posters, and I would sincerely hate to see the
site close down. It's the premiere Juventus fan site, with great content,
excellent news posts and community spirit, and any club should have a
community like it.

The motivation is not financial, though I would of course like to see it
break even so I don't have to pay too much out of my own pockets every month
for hosting fees, so there will be advertisements, but nothing annoying. If
I do have to pay out of my own pocket that's no worry, I have the financial
support for it.

My main motivation is to try to take it a step further, a new layout
(eventually), new forum functions (such an arcade with a high score list)
and software

(vBulletin 3) with some nice hacks implented. I have lots of experience with
vBulletin in particular, and have release a few vBulletin hacks myself
(though it was a while ago.

I'd be looking to start a channel on IRC, which the visitors could join from
an applet on the site/forum, perhaps the ability to connect directly from
the forum with the username on the forum as the username on IRC. It should
be great for live matches if the turnout is good. :)



6. State your level of experience with web publishing.
For each of the following areas, state your knowledge/experience in the field in the range: no experience - some experience - fluent

+ html & stylesheets (css)
+ php scripting/other server side scripting languages
+ mysql/other database programming/administration
+ linux skills (as a user) - command line, shell scripting
+ linux server administration

+ html & stylesheets (css) * FLUENT
+ php scripting/other server side scripting languages * FLUENT
+ mysql/other database programming/administration * SOME EXPERIENCE
+ linux skills (as a user) - command line, shell scripting * FLUENT
+ linux server administration * FLUENT

I've been working with websites since 1999 and got my own dedicated servers
back in 2002.



7. State your plan for hosting Juventuz.
Do you plan to move the site to another host? If so, what are the technical specifications of the new server? What are the terms of the hosting (where will you host it? how much does it cost? do you own the server or lease it? is there any advertising involved or is it strictly money for hosting?)? How familiar are you with this host (have you hosted there long? what is the company's reputation? how is their support/outage response?)?

I already have two very capable dedicated linux servers
(http://network.emulation64.com/about.php) for our network of websites, but
plan on purchasing a third identical server, which Juventuz would be stored
on along with some other sites, as the current two servers have some
overload problems at times, usually around weekends. Our network consists of
nearly 200 sites and our bandwidth usage is roughly 2 TB/month.

Our servers are on server4you.de, located in Germany, and we've been with
them for about 10 months, the network is very reliable and our uptime is
impressive and support is good. Uptime should be very close to 100%, with
the odd 5 minute downtime for upgrading server software which requires a
reboot, but that's rare.

The cost per server is 145 Euros a month, which advertising hopefully will
cover.



8. State your plan for the financial stability of Juventuz.
What do you expect the running costs will be (this will obviously depend on hosting)? How do you plan to cover them (advertising? sponsorship?)? Are you willing to spend money on Juventuz out of your own pocket or will the survival of this site depend on whether you can run it at a profit (or at least not at a loss)?

I've already answered this in the questions above, but again, running costs
are 145 Euros a month and advertising will hopefully cover that. If it
doesn't, it's no problem; I can afford and am willing to run the site with
money out of my own pocket.



9. Do you plan to make money off of Juventuz?
This question is closely related to the previous one but I wish to make a point out of getting it answered.

No, not other than covering the costs, the will be no pyramid schemes or
annoying advertisements. It's not a financial investment; it's an investment
of interest and as a hobby.



10. Do you have a vision for Juventuz?
Are there specific things that you would like to achieve with this site? Things that are missing in your opinion? (For instance to build a proper image gallery or create a statistics section.) Or are you content with leaving it mostly as it is and just making sure that it runs?

I mentioned some of my ideas under 5., but the ideas you stated here are
great as well, I would definitely look into providing those.



11. What don't you like about Juventuz?
Are there some sections that you don't care for, that you would like to change or get rid of? Aside from the previous question, what smaller changes/improvements do you have in mind?

The forums, which are a big part of the site as I understand it, could use
some harder moderation in my opinion, there could be some stronger rules.
Create a rules thread at the front page of the forums and make people read
it before signing up. If you see excessive swearing and disrespecting other
members - make the moderators set a temp. ban. Then again, the forums are
important and I wouldn't make too many drastic changes, people are obviously
happy about how it's run.



12. Do you plan to keep Juventuz up-to-date?
Even though Juventuz was designed to require a minimum of updates, it still leaves room for quite a bit of work in keeping the site up-to-date if one is so inclined. There is a fixture list to update after games, there isn't a league table (although there should be one), there could be pictures and videos from matches every week, there is a news section to update with articles, a column section, a "Featured" section where one could post recent articles from magazines. So the potential is there, the question is do you have the willingness to run these sections (or create other sections which will require frequent updates and run those) so as to provide an up-to-date website for the fans?

Yes, of course. And I would be happy to get some help keeping it up to date
as well (I'm not sure if you run it completely on your own as is).

Speaking of videos I have some ideas for providing high quality captures
(I'll soon have Canal+ digital and a digital cable box, enabling high
quality captures) after the games, posted as torrents on a separate site
(perhaps http://torrents.juventuz.com <http://torrents.juventuz.com/> ) to
prevent spoilers from the main site and forum, and hosted on a third party
tracker (such as pirate bay). I don't know if this would be frowned upon or
appreciated, but I think it would be the latter. I don't have access to live
matches myself at the moment, and I know many Juventuz fans doesn't either,
so I think it could be a great addition to the site. Sure, there are
captures released, but the quality is generally poor.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the bidding evolves. :)



Choosing the winning bid
Now, I realize that many of you anticipated Pete as the new patron, but having built this site from the ground, my biggest worry was that it would simply disappear. And the best possible way to save it would be to pass it on to someone who has helped run it with me, someone who shares my ideas and philosophy. But sadly, such people who are also willing to take on the time, the financial commitment and everything else that goes with running a site, do not always exist. So the next best thing was to try and sell it to someone who is qualified to take it over. I believe I have found the person who is the best qualified. Above all, Martin has been successful in financing his sites through advertising, which is something that I have failed at.

It is a big deal to me on many levels, in fact. I have been deeply involved in Juventuz since 2000 when I first started it. It has been a huge part of my life for over 5 years and whether I still frequent the forum or not, I would definitely want the site to survive after my resignation from the post.

The road ahead
There is no time table yet for when the site will change hands. In order for this to happen, there is a bit of work to do and I'll have to consider what the realistic time limit should be. But the next few weeks we'll be working to transfer the site to the new owner and try to make this process as smooth as possible. But like always, there can and probably will be hiccups, so please bear with us in the transition phase.


Martin
 

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