XDCAM-USER.com has hit another visitor milestone this month. Despite a couple of hacking attempts (one of which resulted in the forum being down for a while and the need to do some database cleaning) the amount of traffic on the site has reached new levels.
So far this month, and the month isn’t over yet, the site has received over 2 million hits form over 55,000 visitors making 130,000 visits to the site which has served up 400,000 pages.
I’m really flattered that you all find the site so useful and I will aim to keep growing the knowledge base contained here. However it is starting to become a real chore to keep it running. As the site has become more and more popular it has become a bigger and bigger target for spammers and hackers. The site receives no external income other than a few occasional PayPal donations (for which I am thankful). Going forwards I am going to have to investigate sponsorship and advertising on the site to help cover the running costs. This will be a shame as it will take away some of the sites independence, but it may be a necessary move just to keep it tenable.
Certainly understand, Alister, it’s a jungle out there! But how about a “premium service” option for the site? You have so much practical (and hard-earned!) knowledge about shooting in all sorts of situations, it would be very helpful to watch a periodic series of short, 5-minute videos (“Shooting With Alister”) in which you demonstrate all sorts of challenging conditions and how to handle them. For instance, shooting in snow, in the rain, at night, in a hurricane, at a concert… somehow, seeing how you actually do things, what equipment and settings you use for very specific situations you run across, would be extremely helpful for many of us. Just an idea!