Idea for a possible project

This has been on my mind the past few days and I thought I would mention it to get a second opinion and see what you guys think. I'll just talk about it the way I pictured it in my head.

Idea -

the amount of howtos and all sorts useful information related to Ubuntu is growing very fast, to the point that googling or searching the forums for something can become extremely time consuming even if you know the proper keywords to search. What if there was a www.ultimate-ubuntu-links.com that contained any links useful to Ubuntu, an exhaustive list that was well organized with a good rating system and categories so that when you go there you _know_ that you'll find what you're looking for.

I bet in an hour I could find 100 links that need to be on that list. I feel like it would be really beneficial to newbies and veterans alike. There are sites like ubuntuguide.org, which is awesome, but they are really just a collection of howtos. ubuntulinks would of course link to these howto sites, but also to up-to-date hardware compatibility lists, commercial software known to be natively compatible with Ubuntu, Ubuntu blogs, Ubuntu news and more! To me just a well made list of links to all the different howtos alone is enough to make it worthwhile. Theres alot of bouncing around when you're looking for something Ubuntu related and that would be a great way to collect it and sift it to reduce repetition (aided by 5 star rating system rated by viewers?)

anyway, it sounded good in my head....

This would be a good idea. If you decide to go with this let me know. I can help out in .net and php/mysql stuff. Can also photoshop but not really all that talented with that...

i would be willing to help with anything

You guys really thik it would be a good idea?

I stared cooling off on the idea after no one posted, on top of that I wouldn't really know where to start, I guess we would need some space hosted

I like the idea also!

I design websites.. & I'd be happy to help.

Perhaps some more domain name ideas may be a good place to start ..

how about

www.howtoubuntu.com

Any other ideas?

kiv said: I like the idea also!

I design websites.. & I'd be happy to help.

Perhaps some more domain name ideas may be a good place to start ..

how about

www.howtoubuntu.com

Any other ideas?

Here are some of my websites:

Personal: www.josefnankivell.com www.k-i-v.com www.vividpixels.co.uk

Designed for others: www.thisisbid4it.co.uk www.cornishkeycompany.co.uk

very nice sites, clean is good

I was hoping for something with "links" in the name the ultimateubuntulinks.com was just the first thing that came to mind... but I have no preconcieved ideas, I just wanted to post it before I forgot about it

loserboy said: very nice sites, clean is good

I was hoping for something with "links" in the name the ultimateubuntulinks.com was just the first thing that came to mind... but I have no preconcieved ideas, I just wanted to post it before I forgot about it

I liked your domain name idea.. I was just trying to generate some more interest from others in the forum.

This idea has a lot of potential ... how to guides.. blogs etc...

that's how I feel, ubuntu related stuff is so spread out and I only see it getting worse

Yeah I agree. Trawling through google to find the decent ubuntu blogs is really hard work!

I really like reading other people's blogs.. and finding a good ubuntu one is always great..

if only there was a site to index them all ... heh.

One thing to keep in mind: Any use of their name should really be run through ubuntu trademarks before moving ahead, lest they tell you to take it down.

Thanks Bordy

www.neutralweb.com is my suggestion for hosting, I was a customer of theirs for years, fanatical customer support. (Email replies in minutes, even @ 2:30am)

Bordy said: One thing to keep in mind: Any use of their name should really be run through ubuntu trademarks before moving ahead, lest they tell you to take it down.

good point, I wouldn't expect them to have any issues with it though.

trying to figure the best way to get the ball rolling on this one..

cAllison said: www.neutralweb.com is my suggestion for hosting, I was a customer of theirs for years, fanatical customer support. (Email replies in minutes, even @ 2:30am)

I'll look into it when I get a chance, my business has alot of names registered and hosted space with www.networksolutions.com, I really like the company but I don't think they are very competitive with their pricing as they offer 24 hr phone support standard and a nice control panel for the less knowledgeable people (me).

on a side note if this really comes together I would plan sponsoring at least most of the costs of hosting/domain name, but isn't it theoretically possible to do our own hosting and register with a DNS?

Neutralweb has a great CP too. But let me do some negotiating with my SO (Significant Other) later this evening and see if I cant secure us some web space.

I've been wanting to get my hosting plan back with NW anyways and I've been trying to warm her up to the cost of it for the last several month... tonight I'll pop the question ;)

edit-

On this site, is there going to be any room for our own form of tutorials ? Or are we talking about a strickly link enviroment. Also what about ads to help with the costs?

I don't have any issue with tutorials, I was planning on having the niche for just links, but It would make sense to have our own if the are really unique and can't be found anywhere else as long as that's not our main focus - just my opinion

I never had a site with adverts on it before so I don't know much about it, can't say that I object to it though, I think I would opt for the small google mini searches at most if that was the route we decide on.

Aye, no more then small google indeed.

What are our estimated bandwidth / storage needs ?

no way of telling yet.. they always be larger than what we guess at now. lol. i like the idea of small google ads also..

we need to make sure this site stands out from the others and that our own tutorials are unique.

i'm getting more excited by the minute...

how about a forum style section also .. where users can submit tutorials ... or do you think just a submit for would be better?

well we want users to be able to submit links, but I'm afraid that dealing with a forum can be stressful if you monitor things for language etc. , but if you don't thik it would be a huge hassle I we could do it either way, I pictured just submit for review form

Re: Copyright, I would still run an email past the copyright department to avoid any legal issues.

And also, couldn't hurt to ask in #ubuntu-us and #ubuntu-marketing to see if this idea is overlapping any others out there already, we don't want to step on anyones toesies.

No need to over complicate - We can provide a links database, provide hosting of tutorials (Inhouse and submitted) and we can take further suggestions from the community when the needs arise.

Bordy said: Re: Copyright, I would still run an email past the copyright department to avoid any legal issues.

And also, couldn't hurt to ask in #ubuntu-us and #ubuntu-marketing to see if this idea is overlapping any others out there already, we don't want to step on anyones toesies.

very true.

off hand would you know who to contact specifically?

I'll hop into those channels when I get a chance.

before we get too excited (maybe I am already), perhaps we should take a couple of days to come up with our own lists of links and material we'd like to see on the site, then compare notes after a few days and see if we have not re-invented the wheel, while I really feel like theres enough out there for this idea to work I'd hate to go in without doing proper research and have a single page with 10 links when everything is said and done.

also I was curious Bordy, do you think this has any potential?

cAllison said: No need to over complicate - We can provide a links database, provide hosting of tutorials (Inhouse and submitted) and we can take further suggestions from the community when the needs arise.

I think thats a sensible idea. how much will this cost to host?

We can start out with the cheapest hosting plan availible, and when we need the extra storage and bandwidth, we can get it.

But hosting links cant be too space consuming. Even with thousands of links.

Estimate needing no more then 1 gig storage. Bandwidth depends on how image heavy we make the layout. 18-22gigs/mnth? Roughly $40USD/mnth based on

http://www.neutralweb.com/hosting-plans.htm

Plan C

cAllison said: We can start out with the cheapest hosting plan availible, and when we need the extra storage and bandwidth, we can get it.

But hosting links cant be too space consuming. Even with thousands of links.

Estimate needing no more then 1 gig storage. Bandwidth depends on how image heavy we make the layout. 18-22gigs/mnth? Roughly $40USD/mnth based on

http://www.neutralweb.com/hosting-plans.htm

Plan C

Looks good to me!

Regarding the design, I think we should stick to the Ubuntu colours - I'm sure most of you will agree! lol.

I'll see if I can come up with anything over the weekend.

Any more domain ideas out there?

Yea, I'm not going to be able to provide any hosting unfortunately. Any one else able to?

I think the origanal domain idea was fine.

cAllison said: Yea, I'm not going to be able to provide any hosting unfortunately. Any one else able to?

I think the origanal domain idea was fine.

Because of the Ubuntu Ultimate Distro I think there might be some confusion... thats the very first thing I thought when I read the domain name... other than that I really like it... it's a shame Ubuntu Ultimate exists! lol.

uLinks.org/info is availible. I left my creative side in bed this morning. It's friday, I'm not going to be very useful today.

over the weekend I'll be able to look into some stuff, but I didn't sleep last night so I'm worthless today.... my stupid cat bothered me all night

Now where are you guys and all this enthusiasm at our meetings in IRC?

C'mon, you can do it!

/cheerleader

;)

Sounds great guys

http://www.networksolutions.com/web-hosting/compare.jsp?showBuyNow=true

10 bucks a month and a free domain name if I buy 1 year worth 7 GB space 150 GB transfer a month

maybe you could take a look and see if I'm missing something as to why it's cheaper, also it's unix if we want :)

Few things I noticed off the bat, differences in Neutralweb and Networksolutions: Unlimited FTP Accounts with NW, only 3 for NS NW offers Nameservers Limited amount of MySQL databases with NS, Unlmited with NW Also with NW you have the right to resale the space/bandwidth at whatever price you want. (NW also offers a unlimited bandwidth option if you contact their sales dept)

Basically NW is awesome if you want to say... host multiple websites for multiple clients. However for our use and needs, Networksolutions looks to be better.

oh ok i see what you are saying. well I would really like to sponsor at least most of the costs of the hosting, but at 40/mnth I wouldn't be able to, unless maybe we could hoook up with other members that wanted to start their own site and we could split costs.

I think the $10\usd plan on Networksolutions would be fine. If we need any aditional services that Networksolutions cant fulfil we can always re-evaluate. at a later date

If you let me look in to it over the weeked.. I think I may be able to get us free hosting. I'll need to check with a friend.. & it would be nice if we could all make small donations to his paypal or something if he says yes...

I'll talk to him when he comes online..

I'm also willing to design the site.. i'll work on some ideas.

you guys have any ideas about the design?

Minimilistic in my opinion. I can start work on a php/mysql stuff on monday.

just an update - I emailed [email]trademarks@ubuntu.com[/email] as Bordy suggested about possibly using all or part of the ubuntu name and I'm waiting to hear back from them, I also went to #ubuntu-us and #ubuntu-marketing, a got a little feedback from the -us channel which was positive and I talked to someone in -marketing who doesn't support it, I don't know if he has "official" team status, but he had some good points and I'll post them here soon

good work!

& I'm eager to read his views.

kiv said: If you let me look in to it over the weeked.. I think I may be able to get us free hosting.

I'll need to check with a friend.. & it would be nice if we could all make small donations to his paypal or something if he says yes...

I'll talk to him when he comes online..

I'm also willing to design the site.. i'll work on some ideas.

you guys have any ideas about the design?

that would be great and I'd be glad make donations.

clean and easy to navigate would be my only concerns, it's obvious you guys have the talent not me.

the guy in the marketing channel showed me this site http://loll.sourceforge.net/linux/links/ which he said is no longer maintained and died because it was not useful. While I disagree with him because alot has changed in th linux world since that site was maintained and it's much different than what I think we have in mind, it is still in some ways similar.

he felt we are going at this from the wrong direction and thinks we should put our time on the wiki, updating it and reorganizing it. He also said he doesn't know of any team specifically working on it, again though he might have been some random person just sitting in the channel (sry bud if you see this)

loserboy said: that would be great and I'd be glad make donations.

clean and easy to navigate would be my only concerns, it's obvious you guys have the talent not me.

the guy in the marketing channel showed me this site http://loll.sourceforge.net/linux/links/ which he said is no longer maintained and died because it was not useful. While I disagree with him because alot has changed in th linux world since that site was maintained and it's much different than what I think we have in mind, it is still in some ways similar.

he felt we are going at this from the wrong direction and thinks we should put our time on the wiki, updating it and reorganizing it. He also said he doesn't know of any team specifically working on it, again though he might have been some random person just sitting in the channel (sry bud if you see this)

Despite his concern I am convinced we are going at it from the correct angle. That other site is a bit old .. and with the web 2.0 movement & the popularity of ubuntu & gnu linux atm.. this idea/site has alot of potential!

perhaps if our site was in the style of a blog? The blog of all ubuntu blogs & tutorials. I think, if done correctly, it would be easy for all of us to maintain together. Would be useful to archieve data also.

I'll have a think.

btw my real name is Josef Nankivell - Thought I'd introduce myself if we are gonna end up working together.

I agree I just felt what we had to say was relevant.

My name is Mike Riesenberg

nice meeting you mike! im off ot bed now as its 2.20am here in the uk.

night! speak soon.

cAllison said: Yea, I'm not going to be able to provide any hosting unfortunately. Any one else able to?

I think the origanal domain idea was fine.

If the We might try contacting Devubuntu if kiv's friend can't come through. To quote their site > Devubuntu offers web hosting to Ubuntu-related projects, free of charge.

The server is Located in Colorado, USA on a 45Mbps dedicated DS3.

Accounts are limited to 500mb's of space.

Projects hosted have a free subdomain of devubuntu.com, but domains are also allowed. Please discuss domain options with the administrator.

Email facilities can be supplied for both domains and subdomains. Not the best, I know, but free and Ubuntu oriented.

As far as the site itself, I think that:

would be essential. As far as a name, my vote is for howtoubuntu.org. I mean, c'mon, it rhymes.

• filtering entries by release or applicable packages,
• rating entries (similar to digg or netscape}
• a mechanism to report bad links

pyros said: If the We might try contacting Devubuntu if kiv's friend can't come through. To quote their site Not the best, I know, but free and Ubuntu oriented.

As far as the site itself, I think that:

would be essential. As far as a name, my vote is for howtoubuntu.org. I mean, c'mon, it rhymes.

• filtering entries by release or applicable packages,
• rating entries (similar to digg or netscape}
• a mechanism to report bad links

thanks for mentioning that, it's worth talking about, theres a chance we could squeeze everything into 500 megs.

i like the name, but it might be kind of misleading since it's not just going to be a howto collection, though it's really not up to me to make the final decision, we'll prolly take a vote or something if someone feels strongly about it.

findubuntu.org ?

loserboy said: thanks for mentioning that, it's worth talking about, theres a chance we could squeeze everything into 500 megs.

i like the name, but it might be kind of misleading since it's not just going to be a howto collection, though it's really not up to me to make the final decision, we'll prolly take a vote or something if someone feels strongly about it.

findubuntu.org ? I suppose in that respect you were right about the links part. For instance "ubuntulinks.org" (which appears available)

pyros said: I suppose in that respect you were right about the links part. For instance "ubuntulinks.org" (which appears available)

I'm going to ask my friend about the hosting tonight.. I'll have to find out about the space and bandwidth we could have. Although I think we should contact devubuntu also.

I really like all the domain ideas.. I think ubuntulinks.org is the clearest so far.. but I'm loving the rhyming on the other one :P

pyros said: If the We might try contacting Devubuntu if kiv's friend can't come through. To quote their site Not the best, I know, but free and Ubuntu oriented.

As far as the site itself, I think that:

would be essential. As far as a name, my vote is for howtoubuntu.org. I mean, c'mon, it rhymes.

• filtering entries by release or applicable packages,
• rating entries (similar to digg or netscape}
• a mechanism to report bad links

Things are starting to take shape as far as ideas are concerned. Filtering/rating and the reporting of dead links are good ideas!

kiv said: I think ubuntulinks.org is the clearest so far.. but I'm loving the rhyming on the other one :P basically I suppose it should be short, easy to remember, and clearly represent the content/purpose of the sit.... man seeing that in print-- it all seems painfully obvious.

I could possibly provide some sort of hosting if need be. I'm currently using a host called Evo hosting and i'm using http://www.evohosting.co.uk/plan_medium.php as a plan.

I could up the monthly bandwidth if it was required too.

All i got running there at the moment are a couple of phpnuke sites for warcraft guilds and a business site.

I cant do much else to help as far as projects go (being a new user) but i'm willing to do my bit.

Let me know if you need it...................FREE of course.

lenaubry said: I could possibly provide some sort of hosting if need be. I'm currently using a host called Evo hosting and i'm using http://www.evohosting.co.uk/plan_medium.php as a plan.

I could up the monthly bandwidth if it was required too.

All i got running there at the moment are a couple of phpnuke sites for warcraft guilds and a business site.

I cant do much else to help as far as projects go (being a new user) but i'm willing to do my bit.

Let me know if you need it...................FREE of course.

Thats very kind of you!

So atm we have three FREE hosting options..

Mine, lenaubry & devubuntu...

when I get the details of what I can offer we should comapare them all and decide.

Its nice to be part of something where everyone is so friendly, fresh and giving.. I love Ubuntu.. I love the Ubuntu forum.. & I love you guys!

I have a web server at my house that I have a few sites on. Nothing major at the moment and while I may not be able to provide 100% uptime due to storms in my local area, I can have it near 99%. It's an old IBM Netfinity 5000 that I have the mypc.is-a-geek.com on and the domain name is through DynDNS, so if you wanted howtoubuntu.ath.cx (or any other free domain name they offered) I can check on availability.

I'm heading out to the conference this AM (It's currently 6:12 in Portland - damn early for me) so I'll check back often. If anyone need to reach me quickly check for this same name on yahoo.

NeoTaoistTechnoPagan

very cool len and neo, like kiv said when we get his answer we'll compare and decide, thanks for the offers guys

I haven't heard from anyone at trademarks, I'm gonna contact Devubuntu here soon

ubuntu trademarks replied:

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your email and apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

In terms of our trademark policy we strongly prefer that a website does not include the name "Ubuntu" in a domain as it implies an official relationship between you and Ubuntu, which is misleading and may cause confusion.

We would therefore prefer that you use "Ulinks" rather than "Ubuntulinks".

Best of luck with your website.

Kind regards, Michelle

haven't heard from you guys lately, but I thought i would go ahead and post this