Blogging from Beyond?
Corvallis resident Dave Gore, founder and Chairman of the Board of Ashbrook Independent School, has launched a new company that promises to maintain websites for "many generations" to ensure that websites can now outlast their creators. The idea is similar to any other endowment, where a sum is paid up front, invested, and then the yield (or a portion thereof) withdrawn each year to cover the costs of hosting the website.
Arkhold Endowed Websites charges an initial fee of $2,500, which buys you 1 GB of storage space and 5 GB of bandwith for an undefined period of time. It's a neat gimmick. Kudos to Mr. Gore for the innovative idea. But it's a giant ripoff.
First of all, if you want to include your own domain name, you will have to cough up an additional $450 endowment to maintain the domain name registration. Arkhold charges $25 for registration for a single year. At GoDaddy.com, domain registration is never higher than $8.95 per year, with discounts for multiple domains, additional years or addresses that end in .info, .biz or .us.
In addition, Arkhold sets aside 40% of the initial fee to use for corporate taxes and startup expenses, leaving only $1,500 to be used for the actual investment. The company projects a yield of $60 per year to cover hosting costs. Ignoring the numerous free websites available, assuming we want to create a site free of ads (or only using ads that benefit us, not the hosting company), there are still cheaper, better alternatives. Using GoDaddy as an example again, simply because I really, really like them, their Economy Plan costs under $40 per year if you purchase two years at a time, and includes 5 GB of storage space and a whopping 250 GB of bandwidth.
"But those companies don't offer to host my website for all eternity!"
Neither does Arkhold. The technical specifications page states the period of time purchased is "as described elsewhere," so I went searching for something more definite. I was disappointed; Arkhold is very careful to hedge all bets against promising a set period of time. In addition to the repeated reference to "an indefinite" amount of time, I found a reference to "many lifetimes" in the proposed contract, with an immediate disclaimer that the length of time was not guaranteed.
Even more concerning is the following line item in the published contract:
2.3. By submitting content to Arkhold, Client grants Arkhold a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce and publish the content.
Yikes! I understand Arkhold needs permission to publish the content, but "royalty-free reproduction" can be interpreted as allowing the company to use what customers create in advertising. Maybe my brilliant attorney brother can clarify this one for me, just to make sure I'm not butchering the legalese.
Frankly, I find it irritating enough that there are pictures and mentions of me on websites that haven't been updated in ten years by well-meaning friends who probably no longer remember their passwords. Thanks to archive.org, many websites live on in perpetuity for free. While I like the concept better than the website that promises to send letters to relatives in case of rapture, I can think of better ways to spend $2,500.
Arkhold Endowed Websites charges an initial fee of $2,500, which buys you 1 GB of storage space and 5 GB of bandwith for an undefined period of time. It's a neat gimmick. Kudos to Mr. Gore for the innovative idea. But it's a giant ripoff.
First of all, if you want to include your own domain name, you will have to cough up an additional $450 endowment to maintain the domain name registration. Arkhold charges $25 for registration for a single year. At GoDaddy.com, domain registration is never higher than $8.95 per year, with discounts for multiple domains, additional years or addresses that end in .info, .biz or .us.
In addition, Arkhold sets aside 40% of the initial fee to use for corporate taxes and startup expenses, leaving only $1,500 to be used for the actual investment. The company projects a yield of $60 per year to cover hosting costs. Ignoring the numerous free websites available, assuming we want to create a site free of ads (or only using ads that benefit us, not the hosting company), there are still cheaper, better alternatives. Using GoDaddy as an example again, simply because I really, really like them, their Economy Plan costs under $40 per year if you purchase two years at a time, and includes 5 GB of storage space and a whopping 250 GB of bandwidth.
"But those companies don't offer to host my website for all eternity!"
Neither does Arkhold. The technical specifications page states the period of time purchased is "as described elsewhere," so I went searching for something more definite. I was disappointed; Arkhold is very careful to hedge all bets against promising a set period of time. In addition to the repeated reference to "an indefinite" amount of time, I found a reference to "many lifetimes" in the proposed contract, with an immediate disclaimer that the length of time was not guaranteed.
Even more concerning is the following line item in the published contract:
2.3. By submitting content to Arkhold, Client grants Arkhold a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce and publish the content.
Yikes! I understand Arkhold needs permission to publish the content, but "royalty-free reproduction" can be interpreted as allowing the company to use what customers create in advertising. Maybe my brilliant attorney brother can clarify this one for me, just to make sure I'm not butchering the legalese.
Frankly, I find it irritating enough that there are pictures and mentions of me on websites that haven't been updated in ten years by well-meaning friends who probably no longer remember their passwords. Thanks to archive.org, many websites live on in perpetuity for free. While I like the concept better than the website that promises to send letters to relatives in case of rapture, I can think of better ways to spend $2,500.
posted by Corvallist at
10:45 PM
5 Comments:
This just makes me shake my head. Maybe I'm not able to see the big picture on this one, but I think Goretex was a better idea. A postmortem website just sounds creepy to me.
My $.02...
ch
By
Unknown, at 6:23 AM
Apparently, you read but didn't comprehend the basic advantages of this service.
For artists and writers, like me - having my poems, my family photos and thoughts for my grandchildren and greatgrandchildren seems more like a legacy than a 'creepy' thing.
Perhaps experience has been more of an educator for me.
By
Anonymous, at 8:51 AM
The "basic advantage" is completely blown out of the water by the up-front cost and unpredictability of what you actually get for your money. If the works/photos/thoughts are worthy of being left as a legacy, surely someone in the family would care enough to send in the annual fees required for maintenance, no? Anyone in my generation of my family would eagerly maintain a website of my late grandfather's travel history, as it is fascinating. Instead, we hold the physical items and will pass them along for preservation until nobody cares any longer, at which point we'll look to local historical societies.
If there truly is no eager audience, this is little more than an overpriced ego boost. If people are willing to pay for this, then good for the company. But in my opinion (the point of this website, after all), it is not worth the cost.
By
Corvallist, at 6:26 PM
Oh man, would my family chuckle if they got a Rapture letter from me!
Keep up the good work, Corvallist. I love the news of the weird.
By
Anonymous, at 12:46 PM
Sorry for the lag -- vacation, etc.
You are not butchering the legalese. Looks like they're just picking the most open-ended way to protect themselves from infringement claims -- but absent restrictions to frame the scope of the license to non-advertising purposes (in fact, don't forget other uses, like publishing a book using such material), it is a very broad license. The use of the term "non-exclusive" does at least prevent them from messing with another legitimate licensee's use of the material, but it looks like there are no other restrictions.
Caveat emptor.
By
Anonymous, at 11:04 AM
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