The Street > The Lounge
Sheepdog still out there
Alex.:
--- Quote from: Kinchy on March 13, 2015, 09:43:26 AM ---Well, you didn't even try by the sound of things. There are a fair few dedicated mods on this board and countless extra users who could of helped. But instead you just removed (deleted?) some of the communities favourite threads and a large section of its history.
--- End quote ---
It's apparent Sheep doesn't really give a damn about this forum anymore and is just doing whatever he can to make the most money from it while he can before everyone get's so fed up with the bogus rules and unanswered suggestions that they jump ship, like 3/4 of the members did when he switched to the Simple Machines engine.
PabstBlueRibbon:
Seriously guys whos dick is bigger? what a pissing match we're having?
sheepdog:
--- Quote from: Stoked on March 13, 2015, 04:15:59 AM ---Get some products donated from co's and run lottos for users to generate site funds
--- End quote ---
Yeah, we tried that years ago, the products were worth far more than the money raised and then half went towards shipping everything. That was included in the $400 I stated earlier.
--- Quote from: Kinchy on March 13, 2015, 09:43:26 AM ---Well, you didn't even try by the sound of things. There are a fair few dedicated mods on this board and countless extra users who could of helped. But instead you just removed (deleted?) some of the communities favourite threads and a large section of its history.
And how much is the ad revenue? Googles input must be considerable for you to take the action you did. Maybe some transparency, rather than treating us like children. This isn't some huge mega forum, it's a fairly close knit group of people
--- End quote ---
Do you really honestly think I just went in and deleted everything? Really?
I spent 5 hours the first day, only to be denied my appeal. Then another 5 hours the second day cleaning house making absolutely that there was no way to lose the second appeal.
I think you have 24 hours to respond to Google before it's done. Once a site is blocked from Google, it will NEVER have Google ads again. Google has a limited appeals system, and once gone, you are gone. Screw up too many times, goodbye. Didn't get it right the first time, you run the chance of them denying your appeal and deciding not to consider another. Google is judge, jury and executioner and they really don't give a damn what you think. They don't listen to reason, and they don't care about evidence, comply or die.
Google is not the only ad company around, they aren't even the highest paying. They are the safest (they keep adware to a minimum), least intrusive (like pop-unders?) and most reliable in terms of actually getting paid. Other ones will allow you to do anything you want, but you guys would have 30 popups behind your browser and a computer infested with spyware after a few days.
As for the money, I'll explain in a bit.
--- Quote from: MEAT on March 13, 2015, 02:06:03 PM ---Start a new one, but without the tits or other sinful content that was presumably in there polluting the internets.
Interesting stuff with the printer sheep, any videos of it in action?
--- End quote ---
Exactly!
They can rebuilt over time. Nothing was really lost, you guys constantly add to it, so it's always growing. Do you honestly start from the start every time? Tastes change, styles change. Besides, dumping those HUGE threads sped up the site.
On Youtube just search delta printer, you will find tons of them. I'm not sure how much footage we actually have, we have been hard pressed to hire pro photographers and such, and our camera rigs don't do it justice.
--- Quote from: amishrob on March 14, 2015, 02:39:51 AM ---doesn't 4chan have google ads?
--- End quote ---
Doesn't matter what anyone else does, when Google sends a notice, you are the one in their crosshairs.
sheepdog:
--- Quote from: Bunky on March 14, 2015, 01:18:11 PM ---So that works out to about $1800 a year, or 150 a month to keep the site running... That's actually a pretty big chunk of change.
How many active users do we have? and I wonder what percentage of those would actually be willing to pay like 10 dollars a year? Probably less than 15%.
What was the cost for premium membership when that existed? and how many people opted in for that?
Sorry for all the questions. I just "feel" like there's got to be a way to make this site self sustaining that doesn't rely on google advertising. I know from work experience, though, that what I feel and what reality is don't always line up. Still doesn't hurt for me to take a look at it, and run some numbers.
--- End quote ---
I have 4 forums, and I don't want to have 4 different chat forum software on them, therefore if I'm going to run Vbulletin on one, I'm going to run it on all 4.
Vbulletin plus mobile (which is BS) is $369 for a license, so there's $1480.
As for hosting, before I changed hosts, BG was on a dedicated server, because when BG was younger, servers were less powerful, and it required a full server to handle the load, this was about $105 per month. Even today some hosts will not put BG on a cheap hosting plan. Part of this is because of the size of all attachments, the other half is the database, it uses a lot of resources. When i changed hosts, I dropped to a virtually private server, which is about $45 a month.
As for sustaining, the site earns a bit more than it costs to host. Am I getting rich, hell no, I make enough to pay for everything and buy lunch once or twice a month, that's about it. Kurt can back that up.
--- Quote from: meathead on March 14, 2015, 04:17:06 PM ---could always take a page out of radbmx's book and have to buy an annual membership to post for sale and wanted adds and maybe a private locked sort of category where you can post anything aslong as you have paid a bit like bmx-forum.com have/had befor that turned to shit, like almost every other decent bmx related forum has.
maybe a monthly/bi-monthly raffle £5 a ticket to win some part or frame from some company or some shit?
failing that could always find a way to create a spam bit and spam every other forum with this ones web address and perhaps get some new members and a bit of life/income into this place?
--- End quote ---
No, I have always said BG will be free. You want to see people leave, that's a great way to do it.
We tried a premium membership, it didn't do well at all.
We tried raffles, it was a joke.
--- Quote from: bluebmx on March 14, 2015, 04:25:51 PM ---It's good to see you are still around... I thought you handed over the site to Kurt @ BMX Union a while back though?
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He handles some of the ads, and has a greater say in the day to day operations.
--- Quote from: Alex. on March 14, 2015, 05:03:25 PM ---It's apparent Sheep doesn't really give a damn about this forum anymore and is just doing whatever he can to make the most money from it while he can before everyone get's so fed up with the bogus rules and unanswered suggestions that they jump ship, like 3/4 of the members did when he switched to the Simple Machines engine.
--- End quote ---
Yes, I totally make a fortune off this place...
3/4ths of the members didn't jump ship at the time, I purged a ton of spam members.
As for the rest, if they leave at the first change, they were just looking for a reason to leave and weren't going to be here much longer regardless.
Any time you change something on a forum a ton of users bitch and moan and a few leave, a whole bunch say they will but don't or find their way back. I could change the background to black and 20 people would shout they were leaving because of it. If I offered to go back to Vbulletin, exactly as it was before, a quarter would cheer, another quarter would scream saying don't mess with it, the other half would just shrug. Even sites that HAVE to update because things are outdated (as BG was), users will complain. Some despise change, no matter how beneficial it is. Was all of the change for the better, maybe not on your end, but from mine... Absolutely.
We have far less spam, I mean truckloads less. I don't have to deal with Vbulletin's fees or service, I have cheaper hosting, and in many ways, this software is actually better. Don't get me wrong, I liked Vbulletin, I still think it;s one of the best chat forum software you can get, it's very fast and low resource. It's also lagging behind on features since they sold, and their price more than doubled since I started using it.
Prodigal Son:
Blue, oh blue site. You're easy on the eyes late at night. For that, an ad do I click.
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