4degreez.com News (Nov. 15, 99)        4degreez.com has existed for nearly a year. What started with such humble beginnings has now grown into a fun and interesting place for young people to visit. As webmaster, it is my duty and pleasure to keep the site fun and interesting. It is also up to me to make sure this site continues to thrive and grow, which leads me into the point of this news article.        Imagine a pot with some flowers growing in it. The flowers look nice, and they continue to grow bigger and bigger. Eventually, they grow so large that the pot they are in can no longer support them. In order for the flowers to stay alive and continue to grow, they must be moved to a larger pot. This website is like the flowers that are growing too large for their pot. 4degreez.com is approaching the limits of it's current server. Soon, we will have to move to a larger "pot".        I envision 4degreez.com moving to a dedicated server. This means that the server will work for 4degreez.com alone and will not be shared with other websites. This means that we will have a lot of room for expansion, and 4degreez.com will continue to provide quality service to its visitors.        Dedicated servers are expensive. Right now, 4degreez.com does not generate enough revenue to cover the cost. However, there is a way to cover those costs. Most sites, when they reach a certain size, begin to sell their ad space directly to advertisers. Right now, 4degreez.com uses the middle-man company ValueClick. ValueClick is a good service for smaller sites but you cannot make enough money with them to cover high server costs.        4degreez.com will begin to sell ad space directly some time in the coming months. This will have absolutely no impact on the visitors of 4degreez.com. You won't suddenly see ad banners everywhere. I hate sites like that as much as everyone else. 4degreez.com tries to display ad banners as tastefully as possible. Basically, the ValueClick banners will be replaced with new banners. There is no reason to assume that this change will have a negative impact on the site. The impact will be positive because the money generated will be reinvested in the site in order to ensure that we have room to grow.        In order to be successful, 4degreez.com has to attract advertisers. This is for me to worry about. Soon I will conduct a survey of 4degreez.com members to get some basic information so that advertisers will know what kind of people visit 4degreez.com. It is not a Big Brother ad-targetting operation, but rather a standard procedure that all sites follow when selling their ad space. Afterall, no advertiser is going to buy ad space without knowing whether the site's audience is teens or retirees.        4degreez.com is about to enter a transitional period and I will try to make it is seemless as possible. I'm hoping that I have everyone's support! Together we will keep this site fun and interesting through the new millennium! ~Four Degreez (Webmaster)