Announcement regarding the site

First topic message reminder :

As you can all see, 606v2 is growing day by day. And for that, we have you all to thank.

The effort and dedication that you have all put in to help this site grow has been nothing short of phenomenal. Every day I am surprised at how you all contribute in making this forum such a great place for us all to carry on the community spirit that was born on 606. And that is only part of the story. I can now see how we have outgrown our beginnings and are attracting new posters from outside our original home.

And I thank all of the new members for this too. Your continued contribution has helped us continue to flourish and become so much more than the original 606. Through the hard work of the moderation and admin teams, we have managed to get some incredible exclusives that were not possible under the BBC banner - interviews, competitions, special offers. These will continue to come and will get bigger and better the more the forum grows.

However, all of this has come at a price.

The original set up of this forum was facilitated by the use of free software. At the time of inception, this was the best and most cost effective solution for us all. And hopefully, you all really like the features of the forum. However, due to the incredible growth in our forum, the costs for housing us have risen dramatically (it’s now 10x what it started at). The owners of the software (forumotion) have to give us more server space, although they benefit from the fact that we generate more advert revenue for them.

The more hits the site gets, the more the forumotion gets from the ads. And it therefore costs us substantially more to remove them (to recompense them for their lost revenue). On top of this, forumotion also charge us more to retain the domain name. All in all, the costs have become much more than we had anticipated, and should the forum continue to grow as we plan, these costs will continue to grow too. So this leaves us with several choices.

1. We continue to pay for the ad removal out of our own pocket.
2. We leave the forumotion ads in place.
3. We introduce ads of our own.
4. We move to a new forum platform

So let me cover these off one by one.

1. The costs are now so great, it is not fair to ask the moderation and admin teams to continue to pay for these ever increasing costs. It’s not fair to ask members to contribute. The moderation and admin teams already give up their time for nothing and to ask them to pay to do this is unfair. For the founders, this is simply not an option.
2. We can leave the adverts in place and pay the domain cost from member contributions once a year.
3. The revenue generated by our own ads will pay for the domain name and removal of forumotion ads.
4. If we move to a new platform, we would lose the historical posts, the name (possibly) and a chunk of our membership possibly. We would also be faced with the same problem as now when we once again get to a certain size. It is merely delaying the problem unless we build our own software. This would cost us money to develop and we would still need to host any bespoke software.

So this means that the only viable option is to go with option 3 - the introduction of adverts that will pay for the domain name and removal of forumotion ads (so hopefully no misleading ‘you have 1 new message’ type). Any excess could potentially be used to advertise the site, as well as potentially paying for our own software to be developed.

So you will shortly be seeing adverts on the site. This is not being done through choice but as a means to better the forum and take away the burden from the members.

Hopefully you will continue to use 606v2 - we have some exciting developments ahead of us. We still aim to achieve our goal of being the best multisport forum in the UK (and beyond) and the addition of adverts will allow us to get there more quickly.

I would just like to finish with a final thank you. When I started this forum, I honestly thought it would be a nice little home for my friends I had made. But due to the work that you have all put in, I can now safely say that it has exceeded all my expectations. From thinking I would keep in contact with a dozen or so friends, I have nearly 3000. So I may not be the next Mark Zuckenberg but I can tell you that I consider you all to be my friends.

Hero

Davie wrote:PLEASE can we stick to topic - there are still some important points to be made here

What are you looking for? It wasn't a thread asking for a vote or opinions but an announcement.

I thought it a good chance for the forum to bond.

Scottrf wrote:

Davie wrote:PLEASE can we stick to topic - there are still some important points to be made here

What are you looking for? It wasn't a thread asking for a vote or opinions but an announcement.

I thought it a good chance for the forum to bond.

We may have bonded but we still haven't got any donations!

why not just make an article called the wrestling-boxing bond thread?

What about, if you get banned you can pay a fine to be reinstated depending on the length of your ban?

TheBrahmaBull wrote:why not just make an article called the wrestling-boxing bond thread?

What's this got to do with 007?

TheBrahmaBull wrote:why not just make an article called the wrestling-boxing bond thread?

You guys might get the wrong idea.

I might make an article called "Sentences should begin with capital letters"

And place it where Bull? In the Wrestling-Boxing section?

Scottrf wrote:What about, if you get banned you can pay a fine to be reinstated depending on the length of your ban?

You'd clear the payment by yourself!

Hero wrote:

Scottrf wrote:What about, if you get banned you can pay a fine to be reinstated depending on the length of your ban?

You'd clear the payment by yourself!

I'm thinking about protecting my future v2 life.

Scottrf wrote:

Hero wrote:

Scottrf wrote:What about, if you get banned you can pay a fine to be reinstated depending on the length of your ban?

You'd clear the payment by yourself!

I'm thinking about protecting my future v2 life.

Just make a new ID, it's much cheaper!

Portnoy wrote:Hobo,

At the expense of being charged as being a Dragon, I'm finding this difficult to follow.

How much money would it take to

a) Get the RWC
b) The subsequent 12 months


How many regular punters does v2 have?

Is the objective of v2 to be profit-making or self-funding (and if so how are the officers going to be remunerated?

Talking all around the issue doesn't help. If you want people to sign up to the concept, you'd best present your evolving business model.

Portnoy, the costs (as of today) were posted up before the wrestling and boxing fans had their wee diversion but re-posting (and converting credits to £s for the mathematically challenged )
Add 1 month(s) : 5451 Credits £43.06
Add 2 month(s) : 8176 Credits £64.59
Add 3 month(s) : 13626 Credits £107.65
Add 6 month(s) : 27251 Credits £215.28

Though over time as the site gets busier the cost go up (Forumotion basically charges the money they would have made off the ads if they hadn't been taken away

The objective is to be self-funding.

Kiwireddevil wrote:

Portnoy wrote:Hobo,

At the expense of being charged as being a Dragon, I'm finding this difficult to follow.

How much money would it take to

a) Get the RWC
b) The subsequent 12 months


How many regular punters does v2 have?

Is the objective of v2 to be profit-making or self-funding (and if so how are the officers going to be remunerated?

Talking all around the issue doesn't help. If you want people to sign up to the concept, you'd best present your evolving business model.

Portnoy, the costs (as of today) were posted up before the wrestling and boxing fans had their wee diversion but re-posting (and converting credits to £s for the mathematically challenged )
Add 1 month(s) : 5451 Credits £43.06
Add 2 month(s) : 8176 Credits £64.59
Add 3 month(s) : 13626 Credits £107.65
Add 6 month(s) : 27251 Credits £215.28

Though over time as the site gets busier the cost go up (Forumotion basically charges the money they would have made off the ads if they hadn't been taken away

The objective is to be self-funding.

What happens if you turn a profit? Is that money put aside to ensure future fees can be paid?

How about a advert free paid version.

So, you're putting up adverts to pay the cost of taking away adverts?

Scottrf wrote:So, you're putting up adverts to pay the cost of taking away adverts?

Yes. Someone else found that 'logic'.

Are someones pockets potentially being lined here?

Portnoy wrote:Hobo,

At the expense of being charged as being a Dragon, I'm finding this difficult to follow.

How much money would it take to

a) Get past the RWC
b) The subsequent 12 months


How many regular punters does v2 have?

Is the objective of v2 to be profit-making or self-funding (and if so how are the officers going to be remunerated?

Talking all around the issue doesn't help. If you want people to sign up to the concept, you'd best present your evolving business model.

If the dipsticks have been eradicated I'll say it again. I don't mind paying so long as I know what I'm getting. I hate adverts but as long as I can have the opportunity to elect to ignore them , then that's ok,

I for one am just not being presented with a comprehensible understanding of the planned future of v2.

Scottrf wrote:So, you're putting up adverts to pay the cost of taking away adverts?

No they are putting up adverts to avoid paying to take adverts away.

Celtic Warrior wrote:

Scottrf wrote:So, you're putting up adverts to pay the cost of taking away adverts?

No they are putting up adverts to avoid paying to take adverts away.

So what happens to the revenue generated by the adverts? Will it eventually remove the adverts? Will we get adverts for 6 months of the year?

King Beer wrote:

Celtic Warrior wrote:

Scottrf wrote:So, you're putting up adverts to pay the cost of taking away adverts?

No they are putting up adverts to avoid paying to take adverts away.

So what happens to the revenue generated by the adverts? Will it eventually remove the adverts? Will we get adverts for 6 months of the year?

No...because Forumotion would get the revenue of the adverts, not v2. So although the adverts are on v2, the revenue generated is not credited to v2. (As far as my understanding goes!)

King Beer wrote:

Celtic Warrior wrote:

Scottrf wrote:So, you're putting up adverts to pay the cost of taking away adverts?

No they are putting up adverts to avoid paying to take adverts away.

So what happens to the revenue generated by the adverts? Will it eventually remove the adverts? Will we get adverts for 6 months of the year?

Urgh.

The adverts don't generate revenue.

We have to pay to remove them.

So, if they're there, we don't pay.

Celtic Warrior wrote:

King Beer wrote:

Celtic Warrior wrote:

Scottrf wrote:So, you're putting up adverts to pay the cost of taking away adverts?

No they are putting up adverts to avoid paying to take adverts away.

So what happens to the revenue generated by the adverts? Will it eventually remove the adverts? Will we get adverts for 6 months of the year?

No...because Forumotion would get the revenue of the adverts, not v2. So although the adverts are on v2, the revenue generated is not credited to v2. (As far as my understanding goes!)

They chose option 3, not 2.

Pr4wn,

Before alluding to people being dumb....

3. The revenue generated by our own ads will pay for the domain name and removal of forumotion ads.

So clearly that wouldn't go to Forumotion.

So does that mean we can have a paid advert free version ? if you want the free version you get the adverts.

What I dont understand is how you plan to replace Forumotion ads with v2 ads, therefore you receive the revenue, so surely you would have to pay to remove the original ads to put your own in? Unless you're gonna put your own ads on as well as the Forumotion ones? So we'd have 2 lots of ads on the site?

Make sense?

If so, would the money generated from v2 ads be used to remove the Forumotion ads later down the line?

Assuming that 5% of the punters think it's worthwhile, Fow much would it cost each contributor to keep the site going

a with ads
b without ads

How are you volunteers going to be recompensed? I can't believe that it's gong to be a Big Society long term.

You can PM me on this if you wish. But you'd have to it generally known that you have sent me a PM. Confidential information will be respected, but general information will be treated as available publicly.

Pointless having a debate if it then goes to PM.

Portnoy, what makes you above everyone else? Surely it should either be disclosed publically or not at all?

King Beer wrote:Portnoy, what makes you above everyone else? Surely it should either be disclosed publically or not at all?

agree

Also, Kiwi has already stated the costs as it stands. They are on this page.

OK. No PMs Hobo. That's fair.

But can you put up a link to another Forumotion site with ads so that we can sample the look and feel?

If you log out, that's what it will look like.

What it would look like with other v2 placed ads I would like to know? Will they be on the portal?

Nothing in my inbox so far

I have to say that over £500 funded out of the pockets of the 'owners' and voluntary workers is wholly unfair compared with the freeloading majority of us punters.

This is the whole point, Portnoy. Donations have never really been discussed in the public domain as previously Hero has covered the costs as they haven't been as high.

So we have the options given to us, with ads being the focal point going forward. However, I still think there should be more transparency regarding ads as a whole, as the major selling point of v2 was a lack of ads. Is this a short term fix until v2 becomes self sufficient through it's advertisements? What of the founders, are they entitled to a share and how will that effect the forum going forward should one pull out?

I KNEW there had to be a drawback



Why the hell should we pay for a site that was started by a

few individuals ? Get Real !!!



No=one is going to *contribute* to the cause - you might as

well shut the forum down now !



Money is hard earned and NOT easily spent

I don't see the harm in 'donations' being made by contributers of this site. I know I wouldn't have any problem with it and would be surprised if others did. As specified by Hero that Admin and Founders give up so much free time to maintain and run this site.

legendkillar wrote:I don't see the harm in 'donations' being made by contributers of this site. I know I wouldn't have any problem with it and would be surprised if others did. As specified by Hero that Admin and Founders give up so much free time to maintain and run this site.

+1 But we would need transparency.

Portnoy,
We do not have a business model, no business plan. We have simply been hit with inflated costs to remove adds, and as we are not paying to remove them, we are putting our own on instead.

If there is cash left over then it will be used for advertising or possibility saved up so we can develop our own software in case we look to move from forumotion in the future.

Yummy,
No one is asking you to pay anything. If you don't want to contribute, you don't have to.

yummymummy wrote:I KNEW there had to be a drawback



Why the hell should we pay for a site that was started by a

few individuals ? Get Real !!!



No=one is going to *contribute* to the cause - you might as

well shut the forum down now !



Money is hard earned and NOT easily spent

Thank god for rational people, eh?

What a ridiculous comment. So what about the money Hero has pumped into this place? Or the communities that have been built through this place? We should just bin it all cause some narrow minded bint thinks it's a waste of time? If you don't care for v2 and wouldn't care if it closed then why are you still here? Why haven't you jumped ship to MTL?

We're discussing ways to help the forum and asking for a bit of transparency for future plans so people can decide whether donating is the best way forward or if the other options are more viable, frankly, if you can't contribute anything worthwhile....... Hop it.

Y I Man wrote:Portnoy,
We do not have a business model, no business plan. We have simply been hit with inflated costs to remove adds, and as we are not paying to remove them, we are putting our own on instead.

If there is cash left over then it will be used for advertising or possibility saved up so we can develop our own software in case we look to move from forumotion in the future.

Yummy,
No one is asking you to pay anything. If you don't want to contribute, you don't have to.

YI. The point is I get the v2 experience. In some ways it's better than v1.

But if a bunch of like-minded individuals take on the task of replacing a displaced global brand out of enthusiasm.

Personally I'd much have preferred a like it or leave it or lump it option. Like 'sorry folks I can't afford this - but I'll try to keep it going but I've got to take ads otherwise I'll just have to close the board'.

Like the utility companies do - and I'm sure that even Saga Louts like me would get over it.

I think the adverts sounds the sensible way to go personally Hero - we all have to be realistic, and I don't see that it will detract from anyone's enjoyment of the site.

Thank you very much to you and all the founders for the work you have done and the costs you have bourne on our behalf - really pleased that you had the energy to take this forward from 606.

I wouldn't discount the idea of contribution personally, because it looks from costs as if it would be inexpensive, but I think to have the forum funded by adverts will attract more posters across the age divide.

We could easily just turn back on the ads that forumotion stick up, the issue with that is often they're those kind that trick you into clicking (the annoying 'you have 1 message etc), and it doesn't allow any hopeful excess revenue to be ploughed back into the site to continue to generate new footfall.
It'd certainly save us time and effort though!

How much time do we have before a final decision needs to be made or has it already been made.

It is still up for discussion, I believe, though as you can see above we have thus far been heavily leaning toward option 3.

Hero wrote:We could easily just turn back on the ads that forumotion stick up, the issue with that is often they're those kind that trick you into clicking (the annoying 'you have 1 message etc), and it doesn't allow any hopeful excess revenue to be ploughed back into the site to continue to generate new footfall.
It'd certainly save us time and effort though!

Go whichever way which doesn't cost you money. If I or any other freeloader don't like it, I'm sure we'll be queuing up to set up a rival forum.

You do need to set aside some time with your team to discuss the way forward though.

yeah i guess opton 3 would be the most resonable option to pick even with its limitaions

We introduce ads of our own.

How about asking sport companies to sponsor the site in return for advertising space at least then the adverts would be in keeping with the site.

Hero wrote:We could easily just turn back on the ads that forumotion stick up, the issue with that is often they're those kind that trick you into clicking (the annoying 'you have 1 message etc), and it doesn't allow any hopeful excess revenue to be ploughed back into the site to continue to generate new footfall.
It'd certainly save us time and effort though!

Option 3 does sound the best of all worlds in that case, imo

I am somewhat confused, would it not be an idea to cut down on all the twitter and facebook stuff if it's causing issues like this?