Ideas for db4free.net?

This year I plan to create a new version of db4free.net, which should be bigger and better.

One of my ideas is to create a support system where users can (if they want) mark a database as "supportable" and ask for help on query writing. I often have found questions in newsgroup how a query writing problem can be solved, but it's always harder to give help if there is no data that the query is based on. So with db4free.net new, people should be able to upload their data into a supportable database and a group of MySQL experts could help them to solve the problem based on real data.

Another idea is to extend the possibility to specify IP addresses and hosts to allow access to the owner's database(s). At the moment, it's only possible to set one value for the host. In the future version I'd like to give the possibility to specify different hosts or IP addresses, each of which should be allowed to access the database.

Another idea comes from Giuseppe Maxia which is to provide an interface where users can insert their triggers - which can be activated by a script that is run by a cronjob. With MySQL 5.0, creating and dropping triggers require the SUPER privilege that cannot be granted to non administrators (due to security risks). This would be a great workaround for that problem. However, I hope that separate trigger privileges will be available in MySQL 5.1, so that should work without roundabouts in the future.

By the way - I'm also looking for sponsors for db4free.net. Don't worry, the service is absolutely not in danger! But there are a few expenses and on the other hand, there is space that could be used for advertising - preferably to MySQL or database related things. For EUR 50.00/month you can get a banner in the size of 468 x 60 in the head area, where you find the Google Ads at the moment and for the same amount, you can get banners of the same size on the start page and on the registration page, which are the 2 most frequently accessed pages of db4free.net.

So if you are interested in advertising at db4free.net, please contact me (m.popp@db4free.net) and if you have ideas for the new db4free.net, please email me too or leave a comment to this article ;-).