Originally, I had the idea for Oracle and I expected it to be kind of a smaller project. Wow, was I wrong! Folks backed Oracle in a big way, bringing up a final funding level that came close to Calaveras. My expectations were way off, and I've never been happier to be wrong!
The thing that I was most pleasantly surprised about was how much of a community grew up around the project. I had folks messaging me and leaving comments, offering suggestions, and words of encouragement. You know, it's always a little scary putting something you create out there in the public sphere - you never can tell how it's going to be received. All my personal fears and doubts evaporated when I started seeing how much my work meant to people, and that's absolutely priceless.
My biggest lesson from this project (aside from never running a project for only 30 days), was that life is about so much more than just money. You might think that's easy to say after 2 successful projects, but it's really true. Money comes and goes, but relationships with a community that appreciates your work transcends dollars and cents. The dialogue I had with my backers means more than anything to me, and I realized just how important it is to keep the vision of a project unclouded by short term gain.
For Oracle, I'm giving a lot back to the community, probably more than they might realize—and that's exactly the way the way I think it should be.
Well enough ramblings for one night, hope some of this rings true for you if you're reading it.
-c
say I currently have a Dedicated Server that hosts small saoicl networks (i.e.: sa[oohoskldat]com) and other database-driven (sql) websites. What is a price comparison that I can get and/or are there any benefits for a small fish like me? Is private cloud hosting for someone like me or for a larger customer that runs very large websites? I will appreciate a response.