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Quetion possibly geared for Trifox?  I may have the oportunity to purchas one. Am curious about the operating costs?  What type of PC skills are nesseccary?

Hmm, typically you first acquire the PC skills, and then you run a site. In this order ;)

Of course you can also hire someone with the necessary skills, but that's a budget issue. Oh, and the required skills depend solely on the technology that this site is based on. Which OS, which software, which databases, etc...

Last time I checked, successful social sites were valued a few billion US dollars on the stock market. I consider this the rise of another Internet bubble, personally.

If it is just running on a single server, the costs should be moderate. Depends a lot if this is a high-traffic, high bandwidth site (say, sharing images or videos) or just a chat service.

please be more specific, as cbuchner outlined, costs can be of around a few dollars to a few thousands

How about what questions do I need to ask before enquiring.. The site is now down to 5 staffers.  It's called eons.  Jeff Taylors creation. It has really fallen apart over the last few yrs.  Actually after the 1st yr. it went down hill rapidly.  I recently suspect that he has his mother basically running it.

Bent-Winged Angel, I'd suggest extreme caution here. Sorry to be so blunt, but if Jeff Taylor (founder of Monster.com) couldn't make it work, why do you think you can?

Relevant links:
eons.com homepage (http://www.eons.com)
Recent business article (http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2010/11/18/nearly-entire-staff-laid-off-at-eons-says-founder-jeff-taylor/)

I have to agree with fractal Ken. The first question you should ask (yourself) is: Is there any added value to a social networking site that is aimed at babyboomers within the abundant availability of other networking sites with different themes?

Ohh I'm more curious than serious!  lol  He seems to start up business' then walks away. Y a goota keep up with those ya hire.  I finally figured out that maybe he started it for his family to run.  I had my own business for 14+ yrs. & know ya gotta be hands on.  Right now it's being run by 3 women. The main one I think could be mommy dearest & the other 2 are well her toadies!  Ya know like th mean girls clique in HS?  But granny style.  Folks are leaving in droves.  Ya know like if ya yell fire in a theater!   

YES! It is a great niche.  Don't take it too personally but I like to talk to folks who have grown past HS.  Just can't get into facebook or twitter/tweets whatever.  Maybe that 's a sign that I'nm old?  BTW I have had 3 successful groups there.