2005 and beyond...

DeVore

Ok, just to put you guys in the picture.

The admins meet over the xmas for our annual (or biannual!) meal and chat about the future of Boards.

There is a HUGE amount in the pipeline right now. Quite a bit of fundamental change and the splitting of Hosted forums from Category forums is just the tip of that. We are restructuring a few things and some fair serious changes will come out of that. The creation of Category Mods as additional eyes and ears for the mods is another part of that.

The admins decided a few broad things but the details will come once we have talked our plans through with the Mods to see what they think. We generally dont do much without running it passed their collective eyes (ok, cloud does but like, he doesnt usually even inform the other admins )

Some basic decisions were made which are:

1. We are broadly happy with how Boards works. The changes will be to ensure it continues to work this way in the future.

2. We cannot withstand the growth we had last year again this year. If our level of growth even just repeated itself this year we'd have the busiest site in the country. Twice as busy as Ryanair.com. We havent a chance of surviving that as we are, we can hear the creaks already and by 2006 we'll collapse under our own weight.

3. We dont want to change the basics, we need to find money from somewhere but we will not charge for the services we provide (and have provided historically). IE: we refute the Pay-To-Talk model (ala somethingawful) as being anathema to Boards history and culture. (that said dont be surprised if the Legal Highs forum is created as a subscriber only forum to protect us legally, thats a special case though).

4. The admins are not able to keep up with the demands on our time, we've literally reached the limits of what 5 guys can do in our spare time. This is leading to longer and longer response times to Mod requests and user support. Also its leading to requests being handled on the basis of "I have time to do A right now but not time to do B so while B is a higher priority, I'll do A now to get it out of the way". Hence the odd order of things getting sorted as Muck pointed out (at least I *think* it was Muck!)

5. We need to decide what we want Boards to be in the future or it will drift aimlessly. Thats going to bug a few people because any direction we take, some people will object to it. Thats life unfortunately


So, in the next 6-8 weeks some fairly serious changes will occur and I'll keep you abreast of them here. Hopefully it will make Boards *more* like the place we all love but it needs careful handling and some trust on all sides that change will be for the better.

I know this post says lots but tells you very little but honestly I want to be able to adopt any ideas the Mods come up with and theres little point requesting their input if I've already announced a plan now is there!

I think you'll find the new admin changes to be good and our cash generation plans are all non-invasive and voluntary. We are still just as opposed to popups, mail address selling and commercial sponsorship as ever and I *can* tell you now that you wont see any of that sort of nonsense. "The Broadband Forum , brought to you by Eircom" isnt an option

DeV.

aidan_walsh

/me trembles with excitement...

CuLT

Cheers to another interesting year

Third_Echelon

This all sounds very interesting indeed, especially point number 5... :cool:

WizZard

Right, I'm subscribing come next pay cheque! Sounds great, I (and most here) couldn't do without it

mike65

Radical suggestion a) charge everyone to join (but not much)
b) close boards to new members until "its all sorted out" c) win lotto.

Mike.

BuffyBot

Should be an interesting ride

smoke.me.a.kipper

cheers to a brilliant future.

damien

Micropayments.

If you made a few euro per member per year it's be a nice bit of cash, especially with the only costs being hardware.

steveland?

DeVore wrote:

(that said dont be surprised if the Legal Highs forum is created as a subscriber only forum to protect us legally, thats a special case though).

/me looks for job and cash...

davej

Some basic decisions were made which are: <snip>

Hmmm. This seems more like a list of problems as opposed to a list of decisions.

It's obvious that one of the major solutions to many of these problems is to generate more money.

Something along the lines of the slashdot idea of paying not to see advertisments has presumably been considered?

What about selling boards merchandise? (mugs / tshirts and the like).

Maybe implement some sort of formal system for logging problems.

Find some more admins who are willing to help out on a volunteer basis. You could "advertise" the position and then choose 2 or 3 suitable people

davej

DMC

davej wrote:

Hmmm. This seems more like a list of problems as opposed to a list of decisions.

I think DeVore has just decided where the problems are, and they are going to be addressed. Decisions will be made on those points.

For which, I shall tubthump!

Tom Dunne

Sounds great guys, I look forward to Boards becoming even better.

davej wrote:

What about selling boards merchandise? (mugs / tshirts and the like)

I actually think this is a good idea and good advertising for Boards.ie.

spongebob

Finally

You need to split the mods into trusted/useful and the others . You MUST have at least 30-50 possibles in that category .

1. It gives those who CAN something useful to do , you know who can do what fundraise etc. .
2. It gves those who MAY be able to something to aspire to.
3. They can be gven admin 'lite' functions on occasions as deemed appropriate
4. They can be given ther own ádminmod forum as a sort of council of state , even if all they do is hoover up the gossip they can at least distill it reliably .
5. It also creates an approprately sized centre for a beast like Boards.

/me fears that much of the current creaking is 5 admins runnng around firefighting and too many mods scratching themselves uselessly , especially in here.

SantaHoe

I recall they had something like that going before... boards merchandice that is.
How about keeping track of individual users total bandwidth use since signup, and keep it in the top corner of the page along with how much that has cost... might encourage people to cough up, but I'm not sure how easy/possible this would be to implement.

Lafortezza

More power-mods, like amp/pam for games, gandalf for the soc boards, etc. They can cut the time the admins have to deal with spammers/muppets/knobjockeys.
Maybe install a few more mods, people you actually know and trust, ask them "will you mod the XYZ boards, its a bit busy at the moment, just need to keep it tidy and muppet free."

Crack down a hell of a lot harder on annoying muppets. Discuss them in the mod forum, ban them if they are annoying to the majority of the boards decision-makers. Boards has grown so much in the last year, and will grow steadily for the foreseeable future, you need to keep the signal-to-noise ratio high so unpopular as it is, fúcktards need to be kept out.

Money: Is people texting funds possible. Lots of young people on the site, most don't have credit cards, but all of them have mobiles. A voluntary text-payment, even if it was a couple of euro per year from numerous users would make a difference.

More random bullshít as I come up with it

SantaHoe

I like that texting idea tbh, I'd do it.
Would probably cost a bit to set it up though?

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Ancient1

lafortezza wrote:

A voluntary text-payment, even if it was a couple of euro per year from numerous users would make a difference.

Txt sounds good - if it's workable, it's quick, easy and convenient.
Or start off with a monthly fundraiser - all contributors can be entered into a draw to win __________? An extra star?

Big Ears

ya text idea does sound good .

SantaHoe

Ancient1 wrote:

Or start off with a monthly fundraiser - all contributors can be entered into a draw to win __________? An extra star?

An animated Crazy Frog avatar with sound.

Ancient1

There you go - problem solved.

Who in their right mind wouldn't want an animated crazy frog with sound?

Jaeger

Texting is one way to go, so long as it's not as up-in-yer-face as the frog.

A big boards bash is out of the question? Pay a fiver in somewhere....cost gets complicated in there, you'd want one of the accountants around here to take a look at that.

dangerman

suggestions:

ads in between posts?

as in between post #5 and #6 of a thread there would be space for google ads.

Say 1 ad per page of posts - as long as they are clearly marked, different colour they are not a nuisance. ads that show up like that in different locations are I think more likely to get click-thrus because their location would change so they are more visible. (Also more annoying too of course.) it also ads weight to the subscribe to boards to get rid of the ads idea, thats an interesting one, its how milkandcookies.net operates.

The Gawker Media blogs do it for example, you have a couple of posts, then an ad, and then posts continue.

I don't want to be flamed for this, and I know how awful some people will consider these ideas, but i'm always thinking of the impact of this kind of thing on sites, so i'd like to hear more about it. And an ad supported boards is a lot better than a boards that collapses.

billy the squid

Boards...Bigger than Jesus

oh and just an idea for those who would not be able to shell out €50 in one lump sum, why not set up a standing order for €5 a month from your bank account to boards.ie's account.

details below

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=2238527&postcount=2

also handy if you don't have a credit card or paypal account.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

BuffyBot

Find some more admins who are willing to help out on a volunteer basis. You could "advertise" the position and then choose 2 or 3 suitable people

Perhaps the admins need to look at what they're currently doing and delegate some of the "lesser" stuff to some people they trust - i.e someone to deal with name changes, someone to deal with complaints.."uber-mods" sort of somewhere between mods and admins. I'm sure some of the long term folks that the admins know wouldn't mind helping out.

My 2c (on top of the €50 )

dangerman

Solitaryman666 wrote:

This post has been deleted.

I don't think what devore said contradicts my idea. Does it?

Why is it a terrible idea? As you scroll down, there would just be a bigger than normal gap between two posts and there would sit a google ad.

I really don't think it's as awful as people might imagine it would be.

To test it, I did up a quick mockup, is it really that bad?

http://tcal.net/images/boardsad.jpg

I think it looks fine, and if it meant better/continued existance of boards, id be very happy to put up with it.

WizZard

I see how it works, and I'm not *totally* opposed to it. But there will be a few who are!

alleepally

How about an auction of some sort to raise funds. Since the idea of having big "sponsored by" banner ads is not to be considered then a once off auction of some items 'sponsored by' individuals and/or companies might be considered?

KevIRL

dangerman wrote:

suggestions:

ads in between posts?

as in between post #5 and #6 of a thread there would be space for google ads.

Say 1 ad per page of posts - as long as they are clearly marked, different colour they are not a nuisance. ads that show up like that in different locations are I think more likely to get click-thrus because their location would change so they are more visible. (Also more annoying too of course.) it also ads weight to the subscribe to boards to get rid of the ads idea, thats an interesting one, its how milkandcookies.net operates.

The Gawker Media blogs do it for example, you have a couple of posts, then an ad, and then posts continue.

I don't want to be flamed for this, and I know how awful some people will consider these ideas, but i'm always thinking of the impact of this kind of thing on sites, so i'd like to hear more about it. And an ad supported boards is a lot better than a boards that collapses.

Very good idea, and to link it with an earlier suggestion - Set it up so subscribers do not see the ads. So if the ads really p!ss you off, then subscribe - more money for the coffers!

Beruthiel

BuffyBot wrote:

Perhaps the admins need to look at what they're currently doing and delegate some of the "lesser" stuff to some people they trust - i.e someone to deal with name changes, someone to deal with complaints.."uber-mods" sort of somewhere between mods and admins. I'm sure some of the long term folks that the admins know wouldn't mind helping out

great idea and would certainly help to take the load off a bit

Crash

*cough*powermonger*cough*

/me waves at beruthiel

anyhow, yeah i'd say delegating the menail admin tasks to some of the trusted mods might work out well. probably the easiest way to speed up responses without turning the admins into duracell bunnies. :P

Beruthiel

crash_000 wrote:

*cough*powermonger*cough*

/me waves at beruthiel

smartarse
I was not thinking of myself, I have enough to do thanks, plus, I can just about turn me puter on - this type of job is for a nerd, of which I am not...

Winters

lafortezza wrote:

A voluntary text-payment, even if it was a couple of euro per year from numerous users would make a difference.

This has been looked at before however it was thrown out the window as the service providers usually look for more then half the amount. So in reality although you many be "donating" like €3, boards will only actually recieve like €1 or €1.50 worth of that. [Providing my memory is correct and thats what was said last time it was mentioned].

More super-mods might help giving the admins more time. And maybe reinstating Lucutus as full admin

SantaHoe

Although 50% comission is a rip-off ... it's still 1.50 more than they'd get otherwise.

spongebob

SantaHoe wrote:

Although 50% comission is a rip-off ... it's still 1.50 more than they'd get otherwise.

I heard that some of the UK ones with Irish Premium Text Numbers in the 5nnnn range can do it for about 33% of Gross which includes the Irish Vat as well (17% of Gross) . Shop around a bit .

Ecksor wrote:

Cripes Muck, seriously, either amp is right and you have no idea how this place works or you do know how it works and you're just annoyed that it doesn't work to suit you. I wouldn't be surprised if both are true, despite the contradiction that would mean. Now, you can vote with your feet as you've mentioned on a few occasions, but get on with voting. Others may be sorry to see you go, but I sure as hell won't.

Muck has gone Ecksor, you know because you did the necessaries yourself at his request last week . Muck thought that overall Boards was evolving in a way that would ultimately (soonerish ) suit nobody and would probably be delighted to see the supermod/admin lite idea gain a bit of mo' .......if he cared enough anymore which is in itself debateable .

If the Feedback board is not where one should discuss the 'Boards Project' then do point me to the appropriate forum . Otherwise why act indignant if relevant stuff is 'fed back' in a Feedback forum :eek:

%*^(

ecksor

Talking about yourself in the 3rd person? This supports my theory about the potential contradiction.

Feedback all you like, but I don't have to pretend that you have a damn clue what you're talking about. But don't feedback while saying "I don't care" because then why the hell are you spending time posting or "I'm going now ... any minute ... don't like the way this is going ..." as if it makes any difference at all. It's just attention whoring nonsense.

ecksor

BTW, that post isn't an invitation to drag this thread off-topic. If you really wish to feedback what you feel is going wrong with boards then open another thread. I didn't ban you the last time you consistently dragged a thread off-topic but I will ban anyone who drags this one off topic.

Peace

How much revenue would 1euro per member per year generate?

ecksor

We have a bit over 27,000 registered users (not including banned) of which close to 19,000 have actually posted. Something around 5,500 seem to use boards regularly judging by how many have actually used it in the last 30 days. That figure is more like 7,000 if you take the last 60 days and 12,000 if you take the last year. I guess you could estimate it from that depending upon your model.

spongebob

ecksor wrote:

BTW, that post isn't an invitation to drag this thread off-topic. If you really wish to feedback what you feel is going wrong with boards then open another thread. I didn't ban you the last time you consistently dragged a thread off-topic but I will ban anyone who drags this one off topic.

So what is your vision for 2005 and beyond ?????????? , I did post mine.

(Lots of) Peace be with You Ecksor

*^%(*

SantaHoe

Ok, but where are we on the Crazy frog?
Seriously though, I think the texting idea could tie in nicely with the old idea the admins had of paying to change someone elses tagline.
Maybe have it set at €10 to change a tag line and you can text the users name followed by the tagline you want or something.
You could even (or could you? I have no idea) have a few users chipping in on the same vote to spread the cost around a bit.
I'd probably be a bit sore having some faceless corporation taking 50% if it were a larger transaction, but for amounts of say less than €10 a pop it wouldn't be a major source of grief in my mind.
Although you could get 100%(?) of the cash through if everyone setup an e-transfer, but I think it's the hassle of doing all that that puts people off.

koneko

If it's possible, the txt idea sounds good and a lot of the other members who don't subscribe would probably go for it (studenty types loves their texts, they do).

But with the crazy frog... now you've just gone mad

DeVore

Wow you people are commercial hahahahah.

Ok, Crazy Frog makes my b*ll*x hurt. I mean physically. I'd rather eat my own legs.

Texting pays a huge chunk to the operators. 30-50% (and I've only seen the 50% ones). I dont like it much but if it dropped to anything reasonable I guess we'd use it as an additional option.

Subscription is a nice way to raise cash but we really need someone looking after the subscribers as we need to offer more to them and give them some TLC.

Affiliation is another way we can generate cash. I intend to look into affiliations with Play.com and Komplett among others.

We cant just throw bodies at this, we need to do accounts, pay tax returns, make agreements, work on things other then simply making sure the site is going (like debates, boards events etc). Thats the fun stuff that being here allows us do.

I am most certainly NOT putting more ads on the site. If anything I want to take them off (or at least improve their return, the google ads arent exactly churning cash in our direction. Very poor revenue actually...). Putting ads between thread links is kinda evil. Put them between forum and thread itself (ala Yahoo!) is pure fookin' Satan, so dont even think about suggesting it

Our ideas so far involve Affiliations, Subscriptions and a possible opt-in monthly or bi monthly PM from the admins (ala DNTK but containing an ad at the bottom). The aim here is to make enough to keep things ticking by stealing tiny slices where noone notices

DeV.

StupidLikeAFox

Question!
Whats the difference between affiliations and sponsorship?

For instance, you mentioned we wont have a ''Broadband, brought to you by Eircom'' but wont play.com or komplett be annoyed if someone is complaining about them etc on some board?

Moriarty

I think it's more along the lines of a 'click on this link to go to play.com and 5% of whatever you spend goes back to boards.ie', ColHol.

I think.

koneko

Yep, what Moriarty said. Also, what Dev was saying, I think, is that sponsorships/affiliations won't affect normal boards. Like the Broadband board, sponsored by Eircom. Or the Pets board, sponsored by Whiskas.

DeVore

Correct. Affiliations is a % kick back when someone from your site buys something from theirs. Like Amazon will pay us 5% of your entire purchase price if you go to them from our link.

However, its automated and theres no link or understanding about any of the forums we have here! There would be no connection between the Books forum and the link any more then there would be from any other forum.
Such deals are very common on the net and people like Amazon let you fill in a form and it automates your Id and spits out a special url for you there and then!

What I meant by the eircom comment is that I dont want to get into biasing the forums. Ever. We get so many requests from suppilers in a specific area to "brand" the various forums (omg, the Tech ones get them all the time!!!) and they always get the same response. No. Never. We have done targetted advertising before which is ok, but I dont want any idea that anything said on our forums is unaccceptible because of a "sponsor". If that ever happens, I'll have failed from my primary goal that made me want to set up Boards in the first place.

DeV.

mike65

koneko wrote:

Like the Broadband board, sponsored by Eircom.

*cough*

Mike.

Moriarty

Down with this sort of thing.