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

Imperial Ghosty wrote: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?

But then there would be no new members.
New members bring new debates and new opinions.
Also, all the Q&A's are firstly arranged via twitter.

I can only speak of what I know of the boxing board but on the face of things we have very few vocal members who post, it may be different elsewhere but even the new members we have were on the original 606.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:I can only speak of what I know of the boxing board but on the face of things we have very few vocal members who post, it may be different elsewhere but even the new members we have were on the original 606.

Thats a very insular view IG.

The rugby board has attracted a load of new members through social media.

The Media sections are now beginning to grow on the back of it too.

Maybe the reason the boxing section isnt growing, is due to the type of "banter" that some members continually spout.

The situation is this. The more people who come on, the more the ad removal costs. Even if we dont get any new members, the costs are pretty much going to stay the same from now on.

If we put in our own adverts, the more members that join, visit the site, the more money that 606v2 will generate. So it is in our interest to get new members. We are hoping that the money from our adverts will cover the costs that we have from forumotion.

If they dont, then we will have to think of plan B. Which is coming back to the members and asking them to contribute.

Quite simple really, either we put our own ads that will help us grow and cover our costs, or we need to ask the members for donations. If we dont receive enough from donations, then we have to run the forumotion ones.

If we can all except that we need to have adverts to reduce the costs to members, then its down to a staight argument of the 606v2 ones versus forumotion ones.

We have no control over forum motion ones and they can be misleading.
We can control our adverts and make them suitable. We might also make a surplus that can be reinvested into the site and hopefully get us away to a custom built forum in the future.

If we dont generate enough from the ads, then we come back to you all.

You are not here as a public service paid for out of your own pocket.

Most people I reckon will be committed to survive the advent of ads.

New members will come in and not notice the difference.

You are not the BBC and can't replicate a subscription service.

So do what you want. I appreciate your inclusivity (I'm sure we all do). But now is the time to do what you need to do. (I don't like the cash outlay figures trend). Just tell us what's going to happen. This is not a democracy in here - for you and the team it's time and by inference, money (even if some give it freely). You should not bear a financial burden to supply a welcome service for us freeloaders.

My bet is that most people wont switch rugby forum suppliers if it doesn't cost them where it hurts,

Hence why I said I can only speak of what I know of the boxing section Hobo and with regards to the 'banter' point, we didn't join this forum for any other reason than it's where we as a group decided would be best, at the time and even now I doubt many are too concerned about new members joining.

It may be an insular view but the reason this forum was created in the first place should not be forgotten, it was I believe to give the members of 606 a new place to post on the sports they enjoy, the use of twitter is a good gimmick but aside from that does it create the level of discussion required to counteract the effort that goes into it?

On a personal standpoint I don't mind ads, almost every website has them and does it stop people using them to such a degree it makes a cash outlay worthwhile?

Sorry Ghosty - that wasnt a dig at you but more at the people who only ever criticise and dont think about the consequences.

The boxing twitter is ran by Fists and he is doing a great job. Without his efforts we wouldnt have got the Q&As we have.

I wouldnt want us to lose the twitter feeds as they do provide the other sports with some great information and articles.

As I said - sorry for any unintentional digs at you there!

I'm up for V2 ads, the figure to have ads removed for 6 months is far too much to ask Founders/Mods/Admins to pay out their own pocket. Donations is also not going to be a reliable source of income.

Would be great if we could have a Wrestling/Boxing Bonding Sticky thrown in once in a while, some of the banter was first class.

just to let everyone know, that the banner ad has been added.

It remains like that for potential advertisers to see and is replaced with ads that we approve when we get made offers.

Hobo wrote:just to let everyone know, that the banner ad has been added.

It remains like that for potential advertisers to see and is replaced with ads that we approve when we get made offers.

Good to see that you've just moved it on mate. Hope it goes well.

I'm probably way off the mark here but i know a guy who lived off of forums and lived on his own and all that stuff. It was a forum for a certain game and i believe it was through ads, is there not perhaps a way that you guys can do such a thing that will gain the website money and then put that money into ad removal? Or is that essentially what one of the options does?

Does this mean an end to those random ads that appear if you weren't logged in?

The ads should be the same whether you are logged in or not.

Not what I'm asking, should have worded it better;

What I mean is, when there have been ads, some have been quite random, like the vodafone one. Now, they will be all your own choice?

yes that is correct.

The ads will be the same accross the board.

As long as everything goes to plan we should get offers for the space and then will accept an offer. So it will be our choice but only out of interested parties!

Ok, well that is better than the current situation. Something I never liked were those 'default' ads.

Interesting the ads have been put up "out of office hours". I wonder how many people will see blocked ads tomorrow when they log in from work - and how many office net-nanny systems will be triggered

The alternative which you preferred was the forumotion which would have been far more likely to trigger a work firewall, or were you willing to assist in the payment?

Davie, it wasn't intentional. I put them up as soon as I got computer access rather than mobile. Been helping my sister move all day so only had the chance tonight.

I have quite a strict firewall at work and when i'm not logged in it's the Ad rather than the forum itself that shows an 'Access Denied' logo.

Kudos on the decision making. Lets hope it is successful.

Where did Notch's comment go?

I think Portnoy has been talking the most sense,

Do what you have to do that doesn't cost you money. Inclusivity is appreciated, but you're in danger of a bit of "groupthink", "a camel is a horse designed by a committee" and all that, and coming up with a botched solution rather than a good decision.

I fully appreciate the money injected into this so far by the admin team, but that situation needs to stop. The time and effort spent on this place is payment enough from each of you.

However, as a regular Joe on the board, I've already said it a few pages ago - I will not contribute money to a faceless organisation. (forumotion). And I would urge the admins not to either.

I know enough of the v2 guys well enough (I think), to know they would absolutely never be in on a swindle, and only ever have this amazing forum's best interests at heart. However, I cannot say the same for forumotion as I have absolutely no idea who they are.

So in conclusion, I'm perfectly happy for advertisers to pay them whatever they like. I won't be.

If you could all bear with us regarding the adverts - we are trying to sort them for suitability.

Apologies if anything innapropriate has cropped up - we are trying our best to resolve it.

Teething issues.

I've had "Russian models love English men" - which was annoying because I'm Welsh.

And an invite to Warsaw - which I may consider

Electric Demon wrote:I've had "Russian models love English men" - which was annoying because I'm Welsh.

And an invite to Warsaw - which I may consider

I'm English, can you forward it on?

I don't mind adverts, but I was a bit concerned when I saw the Russian models - only because our strict work filter didn't block it either (usually adverts are blocked on websites). Trouble is, some adverts are prompted by key words (a bit like on Facebook) so you can end up with all sorts accidentally appearing.

Cari - apologies for any offence caused.

It was an accident on our part - the filter we set up with the ad company was incorrectly ticked to auto approvement of adverts. We had icked for family friendly adverts but it obviously slipped through.

We have removed the ads as soon as we saw them - we are new to this aw well remember! Teething problems!

We should now have to approve all ads before they appear on the site - this should stop it happening again!

Any of the above type of ads and I won't be coming on here.

Reason I joined this site was because it didn't have that type of stuff and it didn't look obvious.

Paul,

Please read the above comments.

Ok fair enough, so we won't be getting any dating adverts on here anymore?

Work friendly adverts please.

VivaPaulScholes wrote:Any of the above type of ads and I won't be coming on here.

Quick bring em back!

Hobo - cheers I appreciate you're working on it. I'm not offended by those things personally, but like most it's worrying when you're on in work and it just appears. Like I said though, that could be due to certain key words posted in the forum, so things can creep through. A family friendly ad would be preferable

What adverts ?

Cymro - they have been removed.

A filter at our end wasnt working and some innapropriate ones got through.

The problem is now sorted - no need to worry.

Not woried about it Hobbo I was just wondering if I was missing out I did not want to end up with a ugly one.

Ha, fair play, cymro!

Hero wrote:

VivaPaulScholes wrote:Any of the above type of ads and I won't be coming on here.

Quick bring em back!

Quick to dish it out but can't take it and needs Daddy Davie to help.

I've no real problem with acceptable adverts but can i ask why this announcement was whipped off the 'Announcement's section of each particular sport so quickly?

It's a very important item and was put up only yesterday and is now gone. To be replaced on the golf board by the 'partnership with Leaderboard' topic again.
I'd say this was infinitely more important and should be left up for longer.
Anyone who did not log on yesterday will probably not have seen it!

Is there a reason? and can it be put back up

MPB,

The decision has been made now, think there isn't much left to discuss, hence it no longer being Global.

In the same way that no one needs to be told if the tax rate was going up to 75% tomorrow? Decision's been made so don't worry...........

I think people would still like to know!

MustPuttBetter wrote:In the same way that no one needs to be told if the tax rate was going up to 75% tomorrow? Decision's been made so don't worry...........

I think people would still like to know!

Just passing on what i know, pal.

KB, appreciated bucko

I'm not getting at you. Just asking those who have the power to put it back up globally to do as much

No offence chaps, but given the importance of this advert annoucement i find it interesting that Hero and Hobo, you are both online, both responding to posts on other topics, but no comment on my request (which has been up for an hour and a half) and no sign of the global annoucement being reinstated

Disconcerting...........

It's all kicking off on another thread....

https://www.606v2.com/t12284p150-floyd-money-mayweather-is-coming-to-primetime#398220

Might wanna give it a while....

Sorry we do have other things to deal with such as sections kicking off and real life duties like jobs.

No it's not going back up as a global topic, the announcement was made yesterday, people put forward their views and it remains in the section named Announcements which is the top section on the board, I'm sure that if anyone wishes to put forward any more comment they can.

Hero wrote:Sorry we do have other things to deal with such as sections kicking off and real life duties like jobs.

What like the "Furious League 6" or "Trash Talk 9" threads that you managed to reply to??
I'm not looking for an argument but don't patronise me Hero

Hero wrote:No it's not going back up as a global topic, the announcement was made yesterday, people put forward their views and it remains in the section named Announcements which is the top section on the board, I'm sure that if anyone wishes to put forward any more comment they can.

So you don't think it's important enough an announcement to not warrant even a whole day as a global annoucement? Really??
I read all the conspiracy theories of people lining their pockets thinking they were just that, conspiracy theories. But you wanting to hide this annoucement away leaves me concerned. What is the reason for not leaving it global?

If we wanted to hide it we'd remove it or lock it. Anyone is still able to view this, it's quite clearly the top article on the home page.

Sure, but annoucements that are important appear globally on each sport, everyone knows that, so no doubt some people don't feel the need to check here.

Whether you think that's wise or not you must accept it will happen. Do you think every member of the site will have logged in yesterday?
So why not leave it global?

Because it had run its course. It was an announcement and now the banner space has gone up, that's fairly clear to see, more so than a global announcement.