[ic] maintenance mode? and extra pooling idea (softgoods and travel call)

[Paul Jordan]

Hi guys

I was checking out Miva Merchant (under duress). Now that Three's Company is
off the air, I get my laughs checking out Miva :)

They did have something I wouldn't mind trying to do in IC. It was called
maintenance mode, and would allow you to put up a (I guess) site wide
redirect to a temporary maintenance page. and lets no customers sign up X
minutes prior... etc.

What would be involved with something like this? I am guessing Apache would
be the force to coordinate with?? I don't have much knowledge in these
areas, but if I can have some hints/points to research on... I wouldn't have
to research transportation. (future invention being the wheel...)

Maybe if I can hash this out with a dev group member, we can have any
interested parties pitch in $50 or so... As I am sure "maintenance mode" is
low on the dev groups list being that Interchange needs no maintenance...
ever 8^) $50 seems like a modest amount, and we could #1 speed up dev on
(mortal)user desired functions, and #2 entice smaller business to pitch in
money to the devgroup that they could not normally afford to pay for a
sizable job, plus have a chance to repay the hard working dev group.

In fact, now hat I have your ear, I would like to mention that we have more
power as a group, than as individuals. I am sure there are many LIKE
businesses using interchange. Let's say there are a handful of people that
use IC to sell downloads... said user could team up, possibly share costs on
developing ~softgood~centric~ features, that an individual (or small
business) would not normally afford. Maybe even go as far as hosting
together.

I cannot afford to do it right, from the start. I cannot afford 3 dedicated
servers, one for shop, one for db, and one for downloads. However if I had
three members, and we pitched in for 3 servers, we could all use them in an
IC-geard for download kinda way, but would cost us the normal cost of having
one server. Maybe one member would be from UK, thus enabling the US members
to have a (better) EU presence and vice versa.

the point is this can be done with alot of shops... subscription services?
multi vendor services? malls? team up! share costs, put more money into the
devgroups hands, and receive more than you could on your own!

I have wasted enough of your time :) However I would like to invite others
who sell softgoods (or sell travel) and are interested to at least kick
around ideas to contact me... paul@gishnetwork.com

Thanks

Paul