Irish Times: "Boards.ie €445,000 in debt". Expect compulsory subscriptions soon

Zimbabwe

Boards.ie is one of Ireland's most popular websites with 70,000 active daily users. However, the owners have so far been unable to turn this popularity into profit. It's 2012 accounts show losses of €445,000. Will we be charged to post here soon?

Link: irishtimes(dot)com/business/sectors/technology/new-chief-for-boards-ie-1.1846573

catallus

Internet

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> ?

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> profit!

questionmark?

Zimbabwe wrote: »

Boards.ie is one of Ireland's most popular websites with 70,000 active daily users. However, the owners have so far been unable to turn this popularity into profit. It's 2012 accounts show losses of €445,000. Will we be charged to post here soon?

Link: irishtimes(dot)com/business/sectors/technology/new-chief-for-boards-ie-1.1846573

Great first post :rolleyes:

Tar.Aldarion

Zimbabwe wrote: »

Boards.ie is one of Ireland's most popular websites with 70,000 active daily users. However, the owners have so far been unable to turn this popularity into profit. It's 2012 accounts show losses of €445,000. Will we be charged to post here soon?

Link: irishtimes(dot)com/business/sectors/technology/new-chief-for-boards-ie-1.1846573

Yep, paypal 1 Euro to mods@boards.ie
For today only, quoting me will cost 50c


No they will not charge to post as that would end the forums.
Reddit gold was a great idea for them, I suppose they'll need some ideas.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Serves them right for scrapping the Thunderdome.

TeddyTedson

Those Christmas parties really do go all out

noodler

Duracell Bunny wrote: »

Serves them right for scrapping the Thunderdome.

Kinda shocked given the popularity of the site.

more ads?

Little CuChulainn

Doubt they'll go with subscription. Probably just advertise porn. It's the internet way.

Mr. CooL ICE

Stop giving mods free coke and save on hookers by making them have sex with each other.

ToddyDoody

They'll have to get involved in the sex trade in some way.

Diabhal Beag

Coke and hookers don't come cheap

solomafioso

Ensure your donations are addressed to "Jesus c/o The Pentagon"

PizzamanIRL

"The daft brothers"

They got that right.

Sir Arthur Daley

The mods will have to take a wage cut.

hatrickpatrick

Boards badly needs to stop using Flash for its banner ads. I don't see any of them because I have flash disabled as many macbook users do, due to its serious unfixed glitch causing GPU overheating. iPhones can't see such ads either, so that's another chunk of users who won't see them.

Specialun

Maybe they need to get pepsi instead of coke..or that lidl coke

Sunnyisland

The question is , Would you pay or subscribe to use boards.ie ?

ToddyDoody

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Coke and hookers don't come cheap

Especially if you happen to be Ben Dunne *grabs gym bag*

Kermit.de.frog

Zimbabwe wrote: »

Boards.ie is one of Ireland's most popular websites with 70,000 active daily users. However, the owners have so far been unable to turn this popularity into profit. It's 2012 accounts show losses of €445,000. Will we be charged to post here soon?

Link: irishtimes(dot)com/business/sectors/technology/new-chief-for-boards-ie-1.1846573

Encourage them why don't yeh.

Red Nissan

noodler wrote: »

Kinda shocked given the popularity of the site.

more ads?

But it's poster profile is the key factor, that and possibly excessive moderation in the 'open' forums.

I'd like to see the breakdown of the ad click throughs form the various forums, like how many bibles and rosary beads were sold from the Christianity forum, footballs and kits from the soccer forums and so forth.

Me?

Debt is only a problem if you don't have assets and capital.

Have we any?

Harry Palmr

Boards.ie is just too big, if it were smaller it wouldn't be losing money as it wouldn't have any full time staff.

As so many others have discovered monetising the popularity of chat is harder than it looks. Advertising is worth diddly.

catallus

70'000 daily active users? But the user count up in the corner of the mainpage is never over 7'000?

As far as I can tell there's just me and three other people on here sometimes.

How do you lose nearly half a million in a book year? I could run the entire internet for about a fiver, I guess, (although I have yet to carry out any research on this, but it seems to me to be a pretty good estimation, I mean how much more could it cost? I knew a guy once who made about 2 euros a month off of a youtube channel he had, and he was certain he was going to be a bazillionaire, but I suppose people like that are like teen band-members, thinking they're going to hit it big and then end up doing accounting for the rest of their lives. Not that there's anything wrong with the noble ancient art of accounting, mind you.) Anyways, I agree with the OP, we're all going to hell in a handbasket and we might as well just get high and get hookers and coke too. But no grass. Well ok maybe a bit of grass, cos the other two guys seem to like it, but then that might attract some ne'er do wells.

Thread needs poll.

Galwayguy35

realies wrote: »

The question is , Would you pay or subscribe to use boards.ie ?

No.

PizzamanIRL

Me? wrote: »

Debt is only a problem if you don't have assets and capital.

Have we any?

We :pac:

Fries-With-That

Now we know why they introduced the commission fees on adverts.

I'd hate to see the demise of boards as its a mine of useful information or a mine of useless information if you just browse after hours.

I have to agree with the poster that mentioned flash adverts I rarely click on any of the links to the companies that advertise on Boards or Adverts.

Umadbrah?

Bull****. I run a forum with a lot less traffic than boards and I turn in around 7k per month for adsense alone.

Also they wouldn't have full time staff.. Why does boards even have full time staff? It's run on vbulletin so there is no maintenance.

There are sites 3 times the size of boards.ie and they have no full time staff.

Little CuChulainn

Umadbrah? wrote: »

Bull****. I run a forum with a lot less traffic than boards and I turn in around 7k per month for adsense alone.

Also they wouldn't have full time staff.. Why does boards even have full time staff? It's run on vbulletin so there is no maintenance.

There are 87 mods on full time contracts for the soccer forum.

PLUG71

Umadbrah? wrote: »

Bull****. I run a forum with a lot less traffic than boards and I turn in around 7k per month for adsense alone.

Also they wouldn't have full time staff.. Why does boards even have full time staff? It's run on vbulletin so there is no maintenance.

There are sites 3 times the size of boards.ie and they have no full time staff.

Link to your forum please?

PLUG71

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

There are 87 mods on full time contracts for the soccer forum.

:eek:

The Hill Billy

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Coke and hookers don't come cheap

You should see the state of the hookers. Even a well-paid Premiership footballer would need a barge-pole. Don't get me started on the diet coke.

Piliger

catallus wrote: »

How do you lose nearly half a million in a book year?

That's not what the article or accounts say. It says they lost 100k in 2012 and have accumulated a total of 445k in losses over the years.

I must say I find their choice of a new CEO completely baffling really.

From these figures, and as someone who has been involved in financial management in the SME sector for quite a while, I sense something majorly flawed in the either the core business model or it's implementation, or ... some other financial 'loading' of the accounts by the company's owners.

Hootanany

I dont think Mods get paid.

Me?

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

We :pac:

Aren't we all in it together?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Me? wrote: »

Aren't we all in it together?

Only until the accounts are in profit.

Dozen Wicked Words

Hootanany wrote: »

I dont think Mods get paid.

I get paid in coke and hookers per visit to my Rugby League forum, so no, I don't get paid.

Umadbrah?

PLUG71 wrote: »

Link to your forum please?

Sorry can't say I act the maggot on here

But if the owner of boards.ie wants some tips feel free to PM me

PLUG71

Umadbrah? wrote: »

Sorry can't say I act the maggot on here

But if the owner of boards.ie wants some tips feel free to PM me

So wheres your proof that you know what you are talking about?

entropi

LordChessington wrote: »

Stop giving mods free coke and save on hookers by making them have sex with each other.

Once I get to choose which other mod that is, I'm ok with this.

Kenny Logins

Boards has full-time staff? I always thought it was just a load of people scattered about the country typing all kinds of sh!te. What do the staff do?

Umadbrah?

PLUG71 wrote: »

So wheres your proof that you know what you are talking about?

Why would I have to show you proof I'm not trying to sell you something.

I'm talking from my experience, you don't have to belive me.

dirtyden

Umadbrah? wrote: »

Why would I have to show you proof I'm not trying to sell you something.

I'm talking from my experience, you don't have to belive me.

What sort of Forum do you run? Can you give an indication of the type of users without giving away the name.

Sounds like quite a good business, if your making nearly 90000 a year in advertising sales.

Titzon Toast

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Boards has full-time staff? I always thought it was just a load of people scattered about the country typing all kinds of sh!te. What do the staff do?

I've been to the building were they are based to read the electricity meters. The rent there must be astronomical.

Piliger

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Boards has full-time staff? I always thought it was just a load of people scattered about the country typing all kinds of sh!te. What do the staff do?

Well there must be a need for computer tech guys to keep the whole database maintained and backed up and 'up'. Then there must be someone to deal with advertisers and finance. Also someone to coordinate and manage the mods, whatever we may think of them.
We must also remember that a subsidiary, as boards is, of another company can be managed in such a way that it is loaded with costs that it may not necessarily deserve to incur, thereby generating losses that can then later benefit it's group company(ies). I'm not saying it is the case, just that without seeing the full accounts, it is impossible to know the real cause of the losses.
Losing 100k in one year is extremely odd. That's all I will say.

Harry Palmr

Boards.ie merchandising is the way forward - window stickers, t-shirts, branded headphones Dr Dre style, etc

28064212

Umadbrah? wrote: »

Bull****. I run a forum with a lot less traffic than boards and I turn in around 7k per month for adsense alone.

Also they wouldn't have full time staff.. Why does boards even have full time staff? It's run on vbulletin so there is no maintenance.

There are sites 3 times the size of boards.ie and they have no full time staff.

Boards has at least 17 servers in production, at least three developers as well as Niamh, Dav and Gordon (and possibly others), and an office in the city centre. It's not run on vBulletin (just started out on it)

kowloon

Beats, by Daft.

anncoates

I really think the coke and hookers joke has been used enough in the thread.

I am pie

those howlers dont come cheap

PizzamanIRL

Me? wrote: »

Aren't we all in it together?

Well that 445k loss isn't from my pocket so I don't think so.

Tardful Slakerly II

anncoates wrote: »

I really think the coke and hookers joke has been used enough in the thread.

It wasn't funny 5 years ago, just sad.