Joined: May 22, 2003 Posts: 23945 Location: NSW, Australia
Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:01 am Post subject: nearly 10 Years since the birth of Xbox-HQ.COM
It has officially been nearly 10 years since i started good old xbox-hq.com where we first all met on Xbox LIVE, XBConnect etc etc and learned all about the Xbox 1. Wow, how time flies eh.. Next May is the 10 year anniversary of the original site. How long have you been around?
Xbox-HQ.com Stats
We received 175,322,266 page views since May 2003
Busiest Month: February 2011 (3,689,323 Hits)
Busiest Day: 16 November 2011 (205,586 Hits)
Busiest Hour: 09:00 - 09:59 on October 29, 2011 (27,836 Hits)
Put it this way. I started the site when i was 26 so im no young spud now! Nearly 10 years?? lol so what's that make me. hahah.. It should actually be 11 years next year, but when i moved the site from our very expensive host in australia back in 2002, we lost our database and decided to start again!..
How's it feel to know that you've owned a site for nearly a decade?
Not really a fan of all the 'Good Stuff' Getting thrown into VIP access I understand though that it's how you make money, maybe have a free week of access to the VIP area for the public every week of a certain month?
Thanks for the site, hope we can get ISO games uploaded around here soon.
forahobby Administrator
Joined: May 22, 2003 Posts: 23945 Location: NSW, Australia
Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:13 am Post subject:
kennethk wrote:
Besides the annoying ads it's been a fun ride.
How's it feel to know that you've owned a site for nearly a decade?
Not really a fan of all the 'Good Stuff' Getting thrown into VIP access I understand though that it's how you make money, maybe have a free week of access to the VIP area for the public every week of a certain month?
Thanks for the site, hope we can get ISO games uploaded around here soon.
yeh, i know all about the annoying ads, its been 10 years of them, and the main reason is to keep the site online... Our servers cost us around 4,000 dollars (USD) per year to keep online.. And our adverts do NOT even come close to covering those costs.. Let alone our domain names and all that sort of crap..
You have a good idea with a free week of vip access etc and im sure i have done this before, since we used to NOT have the trial vip and it was free for a few days.
anyway, i only built this site originally to help out all the people who need it. I think i've done my bit for xbox 1.. maybe its someone elses turn to transform this place..
Check out 360-HQ one day too if your not bored, it aint too shabby.. VIP stuff on there too but really no use unless you are into homebrew.
That's the bad part about Ads, if you don't have a community swarming with activity your balance drops to 0 fast, that's why something new should be edited.
- Dead Boards be removed or put into Subboards
- More features, Eg: Game uploads
Something more eye catching needs to be added, no offense but this website looks like it has been here for 10 years lol, like it hasn't been updated in years.
I'm actually suppose to get a TX PCB unlocked board in my DVD drive soon because the guy dug too deep into the DVD chip or something.
Btw check your inbox.
X_Splinter Moderator
Joined: Jul 03, 2004 Posts: 2385 Location: Portugal
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:30 am Post subject:
kennethk wrote:
That's the bad part about Ads, if you don't have a community swarming with activity your balance drops to 0 fast, that's why something new should be edited.
- Dead Boards be removed or put into Subboards
- More features, Eg: Game uploads
Something more eye catching needs to be added, no offense but this website looks like it has been here for 10 years lol, like it hasn't been updated in years.
I'm actually suppose to get a TX PCB unlocked board in my DVD drive soon because the guy dug too deep into the DVD chip or something.
Btw check your inbox.
Uploading games is piracy...
About the ads, if you find them too annoying install ad block plus and that's it _________________
SPPV V.I.P. Lifetime
Joined: Sep 13, 2010 Posts: 2644 Location: Kamloops BC Canada
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 2:47 pm Post subject:
Allowing XBOX games would be a massive mistake. The servers are in USA so the site is bound by USA law. We would get butt raped so quick hosting games directly on the servers it would make your head spin. ROMs are as far as it goes. This is a modding site not a "gaming" site per se. You want great apps, great tuts, great support you come here, you want free games go somewhere else. Far as I know we are the only guys left still making new apps and installers for XBOX, all the other new stuff I see is Emus/Front-ends. If thats not good enough to keep the blood flowing then maybe its time to hang up the old XBOX jewel
tweaked V.I.P. Lifetime
Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 1769 Location: NH, USA
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:14 pm Post subject:
I was considering building a ROM/ISO site with membership access for past end of life consoles but there is already an awesome site for that. We'd be competing directly against them.
Also since I live and own a company in the USA, it doesn't matter where the servers are in the world. America has a strong arm. Even if it Forahobby got a server anywhere, it is bound by where he lives and where the server is.
So it comes down to 2 countries. AU and US that this site is bound by.
Now if anyone lives in a ISO safe country and wants to talk to me, I'll listen.
Well, if Forahobby wants to go this route, I'm sure we can figure it out. It sure would make the sites popular.
tweaked V.I.P. Lifetime
Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 1769 Location: NH, USA
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:37 pm Post subject:
The ads are not that bad. I been on many really annoying sites with ads popping in your face one after another. Not having some ads is actually stupid when you have 2000 visitors every second. Please don't expect people like Forahobby to work endlessly forever for nothing.
I also sacrifice much to help these sites stay alive. I do not make a profit on these sites either. What I charge for hosting fees does not cover the costs to run these sites. Both Forahoby and I have gone the distance to provide the best possible service for the lowest possible cost.
We already found out that a $200 per month dedicated server can not support these sites. It takes a $30000 server to do it in Intel terms or $10000 in AMD terms. I'm talking the ones that go for $500 + per month self managed. I provide server management for free as my personal contribution. That is a fact. Now after Forahobby redoes the HQ sites, I am sure a $200+ per month server will be able to handle these sites.
I for one am grateful for all Forabooby and his admins and moderates do here. I have used these sites tons of times for news, and info on modding. I hope he does not give up on the sites yet because with the new xbox coming, the 360 will become the golden mod egg and I will then start toying with it myself. I never mod anything that is on the current market. I buy all my games for the consoles I use that are on the market.
Thanks again to all those who work hard on these sites!
SPPV V.I.P. Lifetime
Joined: Sep 13, 2010 Posts: 2644 Location: Kamloops BC Canada
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:51 pm Post subject:
If the copyright bill gets shot down again Canada would be a favourable place. As it stands now as long as its not for commercial gain its legal. Thats why the MPAA and RIAA hate Canada, they consider us like Russia just a safe haven for pirates But if the new law passes it will ban circumventing digital locks and copy protection which by default would ban XBOX games. PS2 games would be safe though under that law since you can just pop the disc in your PC and rip it
dartht33bagger Moderator
Joined: Apr 17, 2007 Posts: 5408 Location: Oregon, USA
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:47 am Post subject:
It's hard to believe it's already been 5 1/2 years since I joined this site. It only seems like yesterday I was a new guy to Xbox modding trying to learn everything I could. I remember the good old days fondly, when new topics popped up in waves daily. Now we're lucky to get a new topic every day. _________________
quads V.I.P. Lifetime Xbox Version: 1.0, 1.6 Modded: softmod, smartxx
Joined: May 25, 2008 Posts: 176 Location: Elkhart, IN
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:20 pm Post subject:
Not a lot of activity around here anymore...as far as I'm concerned, the xbox is still the way to go for playing emulators, easy to mod and runs all the old consoles just fine.
Prehistoricman Moderator Xbox Version: 1.6 crystal Modded: Xecuter 3
Joined: Oct 09, 2011 Posts: 406
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 4:12 pm Post subject:
What sort of firepower does a site like this need? AMD does some great server CPUs and they are a lot cheaper than the Intel ones which aren't as good for the price.
The Xbox will definitely have its magical place in modding history as the most popular to mod. There's been some great times. _________________
tweaked V.I.P. Lifetime
Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 1769 Location: NH, USA
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:43 am Post subject:
It been all sorted and all is good. This server is AMD 24 cores, tons of ram and the best SAS drives money can buy. It's allot more powerful than these sites need but we got sick of the servers getting over run every few months. _________________ 10% VIP Discount (Coupon Code: HQ-VIP-001 ) - Signup for web hosting at www.TweakedHosting.com/clients/aff.php?aff=004 and earn the HQ network of sites recurring income!
Prehistoricman Moderator Xbox Version: 1.6 crystal Modded: Xecuter 3
Joined: Oct 09, 2011 Posts: 406
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 4:18 pm Post subject:
Nice! I noticed the site being quite responsive recently. _________________
seriouslycgi1 Xbox-HQ Elite Member
Joined: Jul 28, 2012 Posts: 363 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:53 pm Post subject:
i gotta be honest, over the couple of years ive had an xbox original, ive hit an run the tutorials quite a few times, i never stopped at the forums unless the tutorial was there. i guess the look of the site was too cluttered for me, like 4 layers of tabs it starts to look like more than one site, the biggest reason for me not staying was on an intel 1.5ghz 1gb ram the site would lock the processor up so i would either have to move to another computer or just search google for another site. i think if you guys change the site and add a wiki with the latest information the users like me (10 years late on the scene) would use xbox-hq as their only source of info. are there any plans for wii-hq?
maybe a portal site console-hq and users expand out to the different sites and have one forum for all consoles? idk you guys know what you want, familiar is good for regular users but apart from the hundreds of googlers looking for ways to softmod the site only has 3 members online right now, those googlers might not be regulars so it would only change familiarity for the few regs who visit.
500 users online right now is nothing to laugh at but 3 members? you guys certainly seem to be at a junction though you should probably look at having a meeting and see where everyone wants to go with the site. what happened in 2011 that made this site very very popular?
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
HQ Network: 8,504 | 
Guests: 2381 | 
Members: 2 
Forums 
