Hows does Boards.ie make money?

McBauer

Just wondering how Boards.ie (and sites like it) make money? Is it solely from the ads on the website? And if so would these generate a significant income?

Bigcheeze

Ads and using their large userbase to launch spin off sites like adverts.ie.

The large userbase to target stuff at (deals etc) is what makes it valuable.

There are paid accounts as well.

the mods are volunteers so apart from IT it doesn't require a lot of people to run it.

Shzm

And the talk to forums I believe.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

The Apprentice

I would have to agree and dissagree with some of the comments above..


My belief is that boards.ie is 100% profitable meaning it makes gold coins year after year, trust me - it aint run at a loss..
I do know that there are significant revenues from advertising on this forum with the Pageviews/Unique users it has

The "NORMAL" business model of a forum is indeed Adsense or Affliate (Sky,donedeal etc) banners and Unique Advertising outside of the norm. The more profitable is Advertising and because boards.ie is such a national brand you could be asking four or five figures for a Advertising banner..

Make no mistake boards.ie is run by a dedicated team of which some are paid, but the majority like other forums are unpaid. Some forums do give perks i cant really suggest a comment on this forum but i do know it has full time staff

This site is in the region of six figures a year, so its pretty significant. The advertising costs for a banner has Lots of variables to give a suggestion on, such as bounce rate, Unique Users, Demographic - Age .. all that jazz will decipher how much someone can ask for 1000 or 10,000 pageviews or click throughs.. As stated four of five figures perhaps on a monthly basis..

I dissagree on running the server costs, i can as anyone get a pretty significant server in Germany for (Dedi) for something of this nature and adsense alone would service this cost yearly comparitive to the income it generates. It states its been and is hosted in ireland but Black knight will tell you different about how you can be fooled into thinking this. I wouldnt be surprised if they have a contract with Black knight as the owners of this site have other significant interests online .. so deals can be made (i would)


The large userbase is true as an upsell, but i read this week on the forum that the daily deals side of the site has been been shut down and staff have been redistributed amongst other online ventures.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

mneylon

The Apprentice wrote: »

I dissagree on running the server costs, i can as anyone get a pretty significant server in Germany for (Dedi) for something of this nature and adsense alone would service this cost yearly comparitive to the income it generates. It states its been and is hosted in ireland but Black knight will tell you different about how you can be fooled into thinking this. I wouldnt be surprised if they have a contract with Black knight as the owners of this site have other significant interests online .. so deals can be made (i would)

I'm not sure what you're trying to say about our relationship with boards.ie, but we don't host the site and have never hosted it.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

The Apprentice

The Apprentice wrote: »

I wouldnt be surprised if they have a contract with Black knight as the owners of this site have other significant interests online

They are irish company, you are irish host .. thats what i was saying in between the lines.

riveratom

The Apprentice wrote: »

They are irish company, you are irish host .. thats what i was saying in between the lines.

Em...you only need to scroll a few inches to the bottom of the page to see they are hosted by Digiweb....

The Apprentice

or i could have wasted 6 seconds of my life doing a whois lol.. meh

This is turning into an argument about a "relationship" that clearly doesnt exist. My point was on the emphasis of server running costs and revenue nothing more.
No intention of anything other than that guys..


And for the record i dont know the ins and outs only surmising, but to clarify it certainly run at a loss but still can be profitable. Upgrades, staff costs all that must be taken into account.

Graham

The Apprentice wrote: »

My belief is that boards.ie is 100% profitable meaning it makes gold coins year after year, trust me - it aint run at a loss..

The Apprentice wrote: »

but to clarify it certainly run at a loss but still can be profitable. Upgrades, staff costs all that must be taken into account.

Thanks for clearing that up

The Apprentice

Well ok to give you an example


Operating costs -50,000
Staff -50,000
Revenue +155,000

Meaning + 55,000 In year 1



Operating costs -50,000
Staff -150,000
Revenue +180,000

Meaning Deficit - 30,000 In year 2


Operating costs -50,000
Staff -150,000
Revenue 280,000

Meaning Deficit + 80,000 In year 3


So with basic numbers you may not have tripled the staff, but you may have paid off a debenture, you may have paid off a mortgage that year on an existing premises which over the coming years add signicially to the Revenue Pile.. Short term pain for long term gain
OR Paid off an existing loan for starting up the business decreasing cost of capitol for future company investments --
OR you could have diversified your business model going after different markets instead of having all their eggs in one "Irish" basket.. Boards.ie went to england and china didnt it ?? Well that cost money and although it was unsucessfull it needed revenue

Theres plenty of scope for other work, im not sure if boards.ie is a seperate or existing entity in this company
http://www.distilledmedia.ie/


Hope that clarifies it a bit better ..

Graham

The only thing that clarifies is that you are bad at basic maths.

Spouting vague elements of cash-flow/balance sheets/P & L neither answers the OPs question or clarifies your own later posts.

Are you testing out article spinner again, this time to rewrite your posts?

The Apprentice

Ya i didnt even go into Waac to see is it profitable either.. its a forum and im in bed on my laptop so get over it !

Its no longer called a balance sheet btw, its called a statement of financial postion

And its not vague, its a Laymans explanation clearly of which you didnt get and apologies grahem on my typos i clearly couldnt be arsed trying to help your passive agressive self so ive decided to leave them

Duggys Housemate

The Apprentice wrote: »

Ya i didnt even go into Waac to see is it profitable either.. its a forum and im in bed on my laptop so get over it !

Its no longer called a balance sheet btw, its called a statement of financial postion

And its not vague, its a Laymans explanation clearly of which you didnt get and apologies grahem on my typos i clearly couldnt be arsed trying to help your passive agressive self so ive decided to leave them

The place is either profitable or it isn't. We have your surmising about who hosts them (totally incorrect) and guesses at temporary expenses - all plucked from your arse - vs the founder saying it ran at a loss last year. I'll go with that.

RATM

I'm scratching my head as to how forums like Boards and other news websites are going to make money now or the future.

I (and a lot of people I know) use Firefox and the app Adblocker. I see no ads whatsoever when using this site or others. I am not sure how many people are using Adblocker but my guess is that it people will always choose no ads over having ads so if they are aware of the app then they'll be quite likely to download it.

It also makes me wonder about websites and their advertising rate cards. Like when they say they have 50,000 unique visitors a month they are able to back that claim up with programs like Google Analytics to prove their claim. But what if half of those 50,000 unique visitors have Adblocker installed and never see the banner ads that the purchaser of advertising has paid for ? The price paid for the banners was arrived at due to the claim of 50,000 unique views of the ad. But the reality might be very different.

As I said before I am unsure of how popular Adblocker is except to say that the majority of my friends use it. If it gets more and more popular then sites like Boards have a problem as their ad revenue could dry up. At some stage they may have to look at a subscription model to sustain the business.

Personally I wouldn't be adverse to the idea of paying €10 or €15 a year to use Boards as I find it a great resource that is uniquely relevant to Ireland / matters of Irish interest. But I think I would be in a minority on that one. It is a real Tragedy of the Commons situation and programs like Adblocker complicate it considerably.

Duggys Housemate

RATM wrote: »

I'm scratching my head as to how forums like Boards and other news websites are going to make money now or the future.

I (and a lot of people I know) use Firefox and the app Adblocker. I see no ads whatsoever when using this site or others. I am not sure how many people are using Adblocker but my guess is that it people will always choose no ads over having ads so if they are aware of the app then they'll be quite likely to download it.

It also makes me wonder about websites and their advertising rate cards. Like when they say they have 50,000 unique visitors a month they are able to back that claim up with programs like Google Analytics to prove their claim. But what if half of those 50,000 unique visitors have Adblocker installed and never see the banner ads that the purchaser of advertising has paid for ? The price paid for the banners was arrived at due to the claim of 50,000 unique views of the ad. But the reality might be very different.

As I said before I am unsure of how popular Adblocker is except to say that the majority of my friends use it. If it gets more and more popular then sites like Boards have a problem as their ad revenue could dry up. At some stage they may have to look at a subscription model to sustain the business.

Personally I wouldn't be adverse to the idea of paying €10 or €15 a year to use Boards as I find it a great resource that is uniquely relevant to Ireland / matters of Irish interest. But I think I would be in a minority on that one. It is a real Tragedy of the Commons situation and programs like Adblocker complicate it considerably.

You are suffering from selection bias. Most of your friends are probably geeks.

There is a subscription model already, since you are taking money by ad blocking, that seems like it might be for you.

riveratom

RATM wrote: »

I'm scratching my head as to how forums like Boards and other news websites are going to make money now or the future.

I (and a lot of people I know) use Firefox and the app Adblocker. I see no ads whatsoever when using this site or others. I am not sure how many people are using Adblocker but my guess is that it people will always choose no ads over having ads so if they are aware of the app then they'll be quite likely to download it.

It also makes me wonder about websites and their advertising rate cards. Like when they say they have 50,000 unique visitors a month they are able to back that claim up with programs like Google Analytics to prove their claim. But what if half of those 50,000 unique visitors have Adblocker installed and never see the banner ads that the purchaser of advertising has paid for ? The price paid for the banners was arrived at due to the claim of 50,000 unique views of the ad. But the reality might be very different.

As I said before I am unsure of how popular Adblocker is except to say that the majority of my friends use it. If it gets more and more popular then sites like Boards have a problem as their ad revenue could dry up. At some stage they may have to look at a subscription model to sustain the business.

Personally I wouldn't be adverse to the idea of paying €10 or €15 a year to use Boards as I find it a great resource that is uniquely relevant to Ireland / matters of Irish interest. But I think I would be in a minority on that one. It is a real Tragedy of the Commons situation and programs like Adblocker complicate it considerably.

It's based on ad impressions not site visits.

TouchingVirus

OSI wrote: »

This post just highlights that you have absolutely no clue what it takes to run a site like boards. None. Not even close.

I'm just going to leave this here, something posted on the no-longer-hosted Boards.ie blog by the previous developers Conor & Ross on work they did back in May 2010.

This site isn't some one-instance/shared hosting solution

mooonpie

RATM wrote: »

I (and a lot of people I know) use Firefox and the app Adblocker. I see no ads whatsoever when using this site or others. I am not sure how many people are using Adblocker but my guess is that it people will always choose no ads over having ads so if they are aware of the app then they'll be quite likely to download it.

Just to point out I, for one, use Chrome and have Adblock Plus installed, but actually have it turned off for boards - as do others according to the "Re-introduction of Banner Ads" thread in Feedback.

I've no doubt there are plenty of people using adblock or similar plug ins, but for me as long as the ads don't start blaring sound or taking up crazy amounts of screen space (which I don't feel they do on boards - but what's acceptable to some people is unacceptable to others) I'm happy enough to ignore them and go about my business.

RATM wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't be adverse to the idea of paying €10 or €15 a year to use Boards as I find it a great resource that is uniquely relevant to Ireland / matters of Irish interest. But I think I would be in a minority on that one. It is a real Tragedy of the Commons situation and programs like Adblocker complicate it considerably.

There is the option of subscribing for €5 a month, and I believe most long term subscribers (long term as opposed to those that pay for 1 month in order to change their name) do so for the same reason you'd be willing to pay €10/€15 a year.

The question is, back in 2006 would you have paid that money? boards don't want to turn away any new members and that is what a paywall would do. The idea of boards gear - t-shirts, etc has been raised as an incentive for people to subscribe but then it becomes a case of balancing extras/perks against the cost of same.

Then again some people are willing to pay the €5 a month for the current perks - what's acceptable to some isn't acceptable to others.

The Apprentice

OSI wrote: »

This post just highlights that you have absolutely no clue what it takes to run a site like boards. None. Not even close.

Yes your right. I should change my profession asap.

Yes i also remember that post from 2010 .. but 18 rackservers with 15 gigaput throughputs is all well and good but you heard it hear first folks boards is closing according to Duggys housemate.

It aint profitable so im wondering when the bill for these 18 gigaput servers isnt paid will the doors close ?? Tick tock



fml im actually sorry i even posted on this

RATM

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

You are suffering from selection bias. Most of your friends are probably geeks.

There is a subscription model already, since you are taking money by ad blocking, that seems like it might be for you.

Yeah for sure I know there is a selection bias, I am much more likely to use the apps my friends do. A small minority of friends are geeks who then told the rest of us about Adblocker and we then go on to tell others who tell others and so on- its easy to see how it spreads. Installing Adblocker is free and only takes 30 seconds so if people are aware of it then it seems to me that it is a no-brainer.

I'm aware that by subscribing to Boards will remove the ads but when I checked a few years back the cost was €50. As I said I might be willing to pay €10 a year but I'm not willing to pay €50. But even if I do pay €10 a year to have no ads it still doesn't solve my ad problem on all the other sites I use, hence why Adblocker is such a handy tool. I realise here that I am what is called a free-loader but the current model doesn't suit me so I'll operate outside of it until one that does suit me comes along.

At the end of the day Boards has over 400,000 registered users with probably another few hundred thousand lurkers who never post and don't register. If they could find a way of charging even €5 a year then they could generate revenue of €2m a year, a pretty substantial sum. Maybe they're making more than that from ads, I'm not sure. But one thing we can be sure of is that Adblocker and similar programs are growing in popularity and once people install them and see the benefits of ad free browsing and a de-cluttered screen then it is highly unlikely that they'll be un-installing the app anytime soon.

The Apprentice

Aye... ze germans know **** all about building ****..

the paddies know it all .. well just a few i might surmise

rubberdiddies

if the usage of Adblocker does become widespread, then it will kill off many many sites that are currently free to use.

it's an anti-internet app imo

galwayjohn89

rubberdiddies wrote: »

if the usage of Adblocker does become widespread, then it will kill off many many sites that are currently free to use.

it's an anti-internet app imo

I'm sort of on the fence about ad-block all though it's the first thing I install when I get a new device. Ads have become far too intrusive in my opinion. I run a few sites that currently have no ads, if I was to add ads they would be small ones and I would ban any animated gifs.

Noel Kinsella

Bigcheeze wrote: »

Ads and using their large userbase to launch spin off sites like adverts.ie.

The large userbase to target stuff at (deals etc) is what makes it valuable.

There are paid accounts as well.

the mods are volunteers so apart from IT it doesn't require a lot of people to run it.

Yes and the "paid" accounts seem to have much more "pull" with the Mods too

irish bloke

Noel Kinsella wrote: »

Yes and the "paid" accounts have much more "pull" with the Mods too

Care to elaborate????

jmcc

The Apprentice wrote: »

I dissagree on running the server costs, i can as anyone get a pretty significant server in Germany for (Dedi) for something of this nature

That is a bit of a WTF? comment. I don't know what kind of site(s) you run but large database backed sites generally require more than one server. The size of the databases is also important and a database with a few hundred gigabytes of data has its own kinds of problems that the operators of small sites with tiny databases (<100MB) never encounter. Add a few thousand simultaneous users and things get more complicated.

Regards...jmcc

Noel Kinsella

irish bloke wrote: »

Care to elaborate????

I retract that opinion 100% a very unprofessional moderator got me thinking that due to his/her behaviour and I said it "seems" like "donors" get special treatment

AltAccount

The Apprentice wrote: »

the paddies know it all .. well just a few i might surmise

There's only the one know-it-all that I can see!

Brendan Flowers

RATM wrote: »

I'm scratching my head as to how forums like Boards and other news websites are going to make money now or the future.

I (and a lot of people I know) use Firefox and the app Adblocker. I see no ads whatsoever when using this site or others. I am not sure how many people are using Adblocker but my guess is that it people will always choose no ads over having ads so if they are aware of the app then they'll be quite likely to download it.

It also makes me wonder about websites and their advertising rate cards. Like when they say they have 50,000 unique visitors a month they are able to back that claim up with programs like Google Analytics to prove their claim. But what if half of those 50,000 unique visitors have Adblocker installed and never see the banner ads that the purchaser of advertising has paid for ? The price paid for the banners was arrived at due to the claim of 50,000 unique views of the ad. But the reality might be very different.

As I said before I am unsure of how popular Adblocker is except to say that the majority of my friends use it. If it gets more and more popular then sites like Boards have a problem as their ad revenue could dry up. At some stage they may have to look at a subscription model to sustain the business.

Personally I wouldn't be adverse to the idea of paying €10 or €15 a year to use Boards as I find it a great resource that is uniquely relevant to Ireland / matters of Irish interest. But I think I would be in a minority on that one. It is a real Tragedy of the Commons situation and programs like Adblocker complicate it considerably.

Using Adblocker is something that really p!sses me off. Ok I can see why people dont want to view ads. But the majority of professional websites dont have pages filled with crazy ads. And sites that have ads are usually those that are run by a same group of people/person who spends a lot of time mantaining these websites for nothing more than the very same profit that ads generate. But f**k the little guy a long as some people get to view an ad free webpage.

Graham

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

the majority of professional websites dont have pages filled with crazy ads.

Have you been to irishtimes.com or independent.ie recently?

In one, the whole top half of the page to the left and the right of the content clicks through to the AD.

In the other video ads magically float in from nowhere on the homepage.

Junk like this makes people resort to Ad-blocking software.

Duggys Housemate

The Apprentice wrote: »

with 15 gigaput throughputs is all well and good but you heard it hear first folks boards is closing according to Duggys housemate.

I said it ran at a loss in a particular year quoting the founder. It's part of a larger group now, as far as I know. I said nothing about closing.

fml im actually sorry i even posted on this

we're all a bit sorry.

Axwell

The Apprentice wrote: »

but you heard it hear first folks boards is closing according to Duggys housemate.

He never said it was closing

Much like your original post that comment was just pulled from thin air, if you are going to post and claim xyz at least check they are true before doing so.

For everyone else can we get it back on track or it will just get locked for going off track, its spiraling with the other unrelated comments being posted as it is.

The original question was how boards makes money..

kippy

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

You are suffering from selection bias. Most of your friends are probably geeks.

There is a subscription model already, since you are taking money by ad blocking, that seems like it might be for you.

I don't know much about boards outside what is in the mainstream but I doubt the owners are rolling in cash - I do hope that they are making a profit from their ventures and continue to hire staff - this is a good things. The owners are probably tearing their hair out that they didnt come up with "facebook" before facebook as they were in that "zone" essentially.

What I do question is the relevance and indeed monetary value of online advertising to the advertisers.

I don't usually have adblock switched on but I do use it on some sites from time to time and you are indeed correct, most of the population dont use this app however a lot of people accessing this site tend to be tech savvy (not such a large percentage nowadays but in the past) and indeed I would wonder, whether those that do get to see the adds ever actually click on them?

I've been using the internet for 15 odd years now and not once have I ever clicked on an add on ANY site. Am I the only one in this zone, do people actually click on adds and make purchased based on these adds?
I doubt it very much.

Duggys Housemate

You can also get paid per view. PPV. It's up to the advertiser to make a compelling add to click on. That said I rarely click either. ( if you want to help turn off add blocker and click on random ads).

I agree with the €5 per year model - it would need some benefits though. Linked in do it with some simple benefits, see who visited your profile. . An idea?

Allow subscribers to see who thanked them for all time, non subs just see a week of thanks.

People love thanks. For €5 a year would we pay up just for that? I might. It would be a tad annoying but it's the cost of a pint.

The Apprentice

kippy wrote: »

I've been using the internet for 15 odd years now and not once have I ever clicked on an add on ANY site. Am I the only one in this zone, do people actually click on adds and make purchased based on these adds?
I doubt it very much.

Well you could be in the minority in comparison to most "Users" or regular joes.

Here is an infographic on googles Revenue share based on the premise of people clicking on adds shared by relevant brands/companies/industries.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2220372/How-Google-Rakes-In-Over-100-Million-in-Search-Advertising-Daily-Infographic

Majority of googles revenue comes from its adwords, the revenue and clickthrough rates from companies also speak for itself. If adds didnt work companies wouldnt pay for them.. Industry rates on sector do vary on PPC.


We have seen a mass exodus of major brands from facebooks advertising - Ge, Ford etc, it could be theorized that its the platform the adds are served on may indeed be the difference whether people click and spend.

Facebook - social interaction about someone hassling you.. buy buy buy..
Google search - Your actually looking for information, and adds served based on the relevance of your search etc

I can see your point on adds being annoying or intrusive, but according to the figures the majority of users dont seem to mind.. ?

kippy

The Apprentice wrote: »

Well you could be in the minority in comparison to most "Users" or regular joes.

Here is an infographic on googles Revenue share based on the premise of people clicking on adds shared by relevant brands/companies/industries.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2220372/How-Google-Rakes-In-Over-100-Million-in-Search-Advertising-Daily-Infographic

Majority of googles revenue comes from its adwords, the revenue and clickthrough rates from companies also speak for itself. If adds didnt work companies wouldnt pay for them.. Industry rates on sector do vary on PPC.


We have seen a mass exodus of major brands from facebooks advertising - Ge, Ford etc, it could be theorized that its the platform the adds are served on may indeed be the difference whether people click and spend.

Facebook - social interaction about someone hassling you.. buy buy buy..
Google search - Your actually looking for information, and adds served based on the relevance of your search etc

I can see your point on adds being annoying or intrusive, but according to the figures the majority of users dont seem to mind.. ?

I'd question all that logic tbh.

1. Have a conversation with a group of people anywhere. Ask them, how many of you have clicked on online adds?
2. Then ask them, after clicking on the add did you actually go and buy a product or service from the add?

In MOST groups where I have had the conversation the answers are usually the same. (1. Very few and 2. even less)

I'm not saying I mind adds, if the admakers pay the site to host them and that keeps the site itself essentially free, I have no issues with them, as I dont click on them in the first place.
The point I make is that I do think advertisers are cottoning onto the fact that online adds (points per click/hit etc etc) is not as successful as other organisations would like you to believe.
There are better, cheaper and more effective models out there.

Those google stats - do you actually take them at face value?
Think about it for a second.

The Apprentice

Well to answer your question i take nothing at face value any more, one opinion is as good as another on the internet unless its backed up by qualified and quantified analysis.

BUT - my point is if you look at it from a pay per click exercise..

For every 100 bucks you spend online and you get back 10,
the 1000 people you may have asked in your circle of friends may be one thing but the money coming in is another..

The stats may be skewed of which i can accept but the revenue you make is not.. which is my point if im not making it clearly.

Peter Faulkner did a relevant facebook campaign and did what you could call a "Test" run on Facebook adverts, which was documented both here and on the http://www.journal.ie and he more or less said it wasnt great, he got no return from it.

If he gets a quantifiable return from google adds, you have to look at that differently no ?? Again this varies on industry but still ..

The Apprentice

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-i-put-my-family-business-on-facebook-here%E2%80%99s-what-happened-455538-May2012/?utm_source=shortlink

mneylon

The Apprentice wrote: »

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-i-put-my-family-business-on-facebook-here%E2%80%99s-what-happened-455538-May2012/?utm_source=shortlink

And? I saw people discussing that article a few weeks back and did a bit of poking around
The sites weren't exactly engaging and the Facebook and Twitter accounts / pages were boring, so of course the success was practically non-existent

The Apprentice

Yep ..

facebook conversions from industry analysts have them at less than 1%
Google can be in the region of 4-6%

Hence the mass exodus.. This isnt the topic to be debating whether PPC marketing works
As you poster stats believing their numbers is one thing, making money from it is another..

Duggys Housemate

Yes. Once people click through googles job is done. If you can't convert those consumers to buy or sign up, or whatever your model is, that's a failure of the clicked through website. Not Google, Facebook, or boards.

Branch Meeting

McBauer wrote: »

Just wondering how Boards.ie (and sites like it) make money?

Simples. The mods work for free. Any business would make money with that model.

Duggys Housemate

Branch Meeting wrote: »

Simples. The mods work for free. Any business would make money with that model.

why would they get paid? like all forums which break even volunteers contribute the content and the moderation.

Branch Meeting

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

like all forums which break even

Boards.ie is a business, not a charity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards.ie

28064212

Branch Meeting wrote: »

Simples. The mods work for free. Any business would make money with that model.

The employees don't

Duggys Housemate

Branch Meeting wrote: »

Boards.ie is a business, not a charity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards.ie

whats that got to do with anything? I didn't say it was a charity, I said like all forums which ( generally I meant) break even.... the mods work for free. You also supply content for free. In return you get a discussion with people on the internet. These volunteer roles are not for everybody, and you don't have to be a mod, or post here, or anything else.

The Apprentice

OSI wrote: »

Apart from one that has staff, office space, hardware, bandwidth, power, and multiple other costs to pay for.

So you saying it needs to be profitable to stay open in the long term.. ?? :eek:

Graham

It either needs to be profitable or it needs to be contributing sufficient value elsewhere to warrant continued financial support.

As far as I can see, most of the value in boards is in it's large, diverse, yet fairly geographically constrained user-base.