- Joined
- Aug 23, 2009
- Messages
- 21,871
- Reaction score
- 39,629
To our members and lurking guests (we know you're watching)!
Without a doubt, 2015 has been a banner year for TAG and its inhabitants. Each year since our opening, we have seen significant growth in different areas of the site. We did take a black eye with a massive hardware failure that took us down right around the time of the March 2011 triple disasters in Japan.
At the time of this writing, in 2015, we have served 25 million pages across 55 million hits serving roughly 1 million people at a best guess when discounting bots and people connecting from various locations while traveling. Thank you to our dedicated members and guests that keep coming back to us.
Looking forward into 2016, it will be time to bring TAG to a new level in order to stay relevant and continue to provide the kind of service that people are used to. Like any family, there are conflicts and just like any ordinary situation, we have to work to resolve those disputes and help everyone get along with one another. Part of our internal conflict is where to go from here. We have opted out of many partnership requests and investors that wanted help bridge the gap in finances to help us move forward. However, the strings attached to either type of venture was not something we wanted to get tangled in.
Our operating expenses when factoring in all aspects of operating tag, come to about 7,500,000 yen since our opening day in 2009. (software, hardware, business continuity/DR, man hours and of course bandwidth and related rack expenses)
It would be inappropriate to state our plans for the future until things are more clear and we have a green light to move forward with those plans. We do want to implement some cost recovery mechanism, but it has to been a very non-intrusive method that will not disrupt how people enjoy the site as you see it today. (i.e.: No eye candy or distractions, just the 'facts' as we like to call it.) The obvious answer that most everyone knows already, advertising! However, it is not as easy as slapping a few banner ads up here and there. The people that fund and operate TAG have professional day jobs and there is potential for exposure about our involvement with TAG, which isn't illegal, immoral or negative in any aspect. However, Japanese companies have silly rules with silly clauses and we prefer not to give them any ammo to cause problems in our lives.
In closing, the bottom line is.... we need help. Our primary backbone is mostly just Meiji and I that maintain the daily operations with most of it falling on Meiji's shoulders. On the other hand, it is also difficult to find someone that is trustworthy enough to bring to the 'inner, inner circle' so-to-speak. I mentioned in previous news thread that I wanted to put together a TAG focus group, but time hasn't been my friend as of late. (new girlfriend, work and everything else that keeps me tied up...) (Note: all of you need to make sure you thank Meiji for his work, since he is the main reason the site stays clean when I'm not available... you may not agree with our rules that he enforces, but that's life!)
Thank you to everyone who has been with us from the beginning and thanks to those who have joined along the way and have made significant contributions which has helped excel our growth and popularity. I keep hearing TAG mentioned in random conversations from both clients and providers and it's a good feeling to know that we are a well-known resource in English where peoples' opinions matter as well as respected.
Happy New Year and Best wishes to you in the upcoming New Year!
(Posted today, 12/28/2015, because it wouldn't get posted otherwise until after the New Year...
)
Without a doubt, 2015 has been a banner year for TAG and its inhabitants. Each year since our opening, we have seen significant growth in different areas of the site. We did take a black eye with a massive hardware failure that took us down right around the time of the March 2011 triple disasters in Japan.
At the time of this writing, in 2015, we have served 25 million pages across 55 million hits serving roughly 1 million people at a best guess when discounting bots and people connecting from various locations while traveling. Thank you to our dedicated members and guests that keep coming back to us.
Looking forward into 2016, it will be time to bring TAG to a new level in order to stay relevant and continue to provide the kind of service that people are used to. Like any family, there are conflicts and just like any ordinary situation, we have to work to resolve those disputes and help everyone get along with one another. Part of our internal conflict is where to go from here. We have opted out of many partnership requests and investors that wanted help bridge the gap in finances to help us move forward. However, the strings attached to either type of venture was not something we wanted to get tangled in.
Our operating expenses when factoring in all aspects of operating tag, come to about 7,500,000 yen since our opening day in 2009. (software, hardware, business continuity/DR, man hours and of course bandwidth and related rack expenses)
It would be inappropriate to state our plans for the future until things are more clear and we have a green light to move forward with those plans. We do want to implement some cost recovery mechanism, but it has to been a very non-intrusive method that will not disrupt how people enjoy the site as you see it today. (i.e.: No eye candy or distractions, just the 'facts' as we like to call it.) The obvious answer that most everyone knows already, advertising! However, it is not as easy as slapping a few banner ads up here and there. The people that fund and operate TAG have professional day jobs and there is potential for exposure about our involvement with TAG, which isn't illegal, immoral or negative in any aspect. However, Japanese companies have silly rules with silly clauses and we prefer not to give them any ammo to cause problems in our lives.
In closing, the bottom line is.... we need help. Our primary backbone is mostly just Meiji and I that maintain the daily operations with most of it falling on Meiji's shoulders. On the other hand, it is also difficult to find someone that is trustworthy enough to bring to the 'inner, inner circle' so-to-speak. I mentioned in previous news thread that I wanted to put together a TAG focus group, but time hasn't been my friend as of late. (new girlfriend, work and everything else that keeps me tied up...) (Note: all of you need to make sure you thank Meiji for his work, since he is the main reason the site stays clean when I'm not available... you may not agree with our rules that he enforces, but that's life!)
Thank you to everyone who has been with us from the beginning and thanks to those who have joined along the way and have made significant contributions which has helped excel our growth and popularity. I keep hearing TAG mentioned in random conversations from both clients and providers and it's a good feeling to know that we are a well-known resource in English where peoples' opinions matter as well as respected.
Happy New Year and Best wishes to you in the upcoming New Year!
(Posted today, 12/28/2015, because it wouldn't get posted otherwise until after the New Year...
)