Helping Boards.ie

Undercoverguy

Hey,
This has been on my mind a while now and i'm just wondering how everyone else things about my "Bright Idea". Please answer the poll, Thanks!

As we all know Boards.ie is free to everyone and anyone who wishes to use it.
However i feel its sometimes it only fair that when your using something this good as this for noting that its only fair to give something back.
Maybe something only small but something none the less, you often see many services on-line in which you must pay to use it or that are screaming out for your donations in order to keep it free, yet boards.ie asks for none of this. Sure they may accept donations but how would we give it? Not everyone has a Credit or Laser card and those of us who do avoid using them on-line for security reasons. However there is something we all have and we can all use to help boards.ie and that is.... Our Mobile Phones.

I'm sure half the people reading this message at sometime in the last few months have bought a Game, Ring-tone or Wallpaper for your mobile phone or even just used the new Dart-Txt or Bus-Txt service, by doing so chances are you sent a simple text message to a premium rate number such as 53000 or something similar. Well here's my idea....

If boards.ie were to set up a premium text number where by you could donate from a little as 50c to 1 Euro to help keeping this site free, Would you use it?

Please Note: I am posting this poll under my own curiosity and am no way related to boards.ie other than just being a normal member.

Karl Hungus

You know... That's not actually the worst idea I've ever heard. In fact, it's a pretty damn good one.

billy the squid

Well theres one way of helping you can click on some of the google advertisements at the top of each page.

embee

Who voted no,eh?

Tis only a couple of euros.

I would do this, yes. It isn't a bad idea at all.

Of course, one could just subscribe the regular way either.

Isn't it expensive to set up a premium rate number?

billy the squid

Yeah but not everyone can afford the subscription, anyway I dont think they are availible at the moment.

the text message idea is a good one though dont the likes of the cancer society use something similer.

dahamsta

embee wrote:

Who voted no,eh?

I did. That ok?

Optikus

Between 50c - 1eur no problem.. tis a great idea.

embee

dahamsta wrote:

I did. That ok?

Thats grand.....

X-Dawg

I would donate if they got rid of the stupid "reputation" thing, and made the boards a bit faster. So currently - No.

Lenny

The whole point of donating is to get boardsie to go faster

X-Dawg

Lenny wrote:

The whole point of donating is to get boardsie to go faster

Make it faster - then ask for money. People would appreciate it more.

If I came onto boards one day and the speed had improved a lot, then by putting me in that good mood, I would donate.

Hagar

Boards.ie goes fast enough for me, except for the lunchtime rush which is a natural peak.

I would be prepared to donate random amounts by text.

I do have reservations though about subscribing to a service from which you can be "arbitrarily" banned. I know that the type of people who would subscribe are generally the people who would not be banned but it's still a niggle. I am not accusing anybody of un-fairness. Nobody sets out to be banned. From reading other peoples' posts it seems one word leads to another and before you know it someone is deemed to have overstepped the mark and is on the outside looking in at a wasted subscription with no real means of redress.

Just the thoughts of a grumpy old man.

LegacyUser

I'd donate some money if they had a section with pics of nekid woman

Jim

X-Dawg wrote:

Make it faster - then ask for money. People would appreciate it more.

If I came onto boards one day and the speed had improved a lot, then by putting me in that good mood, I would donate.

The new server is up afaik. Give money now.

pickarooney

Make the reputation points attributable via mobile phone?

Linoge

Donate???? Boards isn't a charity. It makes its money from people like us visiting here on a daily basis and clicking on the links above. By all means support boards, because it is a good service, by clicking on the links above.

As for a donation? What is the incentive to donate? Who would know you've donated and what use would it be to you? If boards.ie didn't provide this service someone else would.

I would pay E2 if it gave me access to some premium service or information or even better, make it faster.

therecklessone

How much of the fee per call would go to boards though? Don't the service providers get a cut? I'd have no interest in putting money in anyone else's pocket TBH.

Winters

Why dont people do the easier option of just singing up for the Subscribers package? Not only are you helping boards but you also get little advantages over the "regular" users.

/me rubs subscriber package.

Jim

Winters wrote:

Why dont people do the easier option of just singing up for the Subscribers package? Not only are you helping boards but you also get little advantages over the "regular" users.

/me rubs subscriber package.

As was said Winty, subscriber package is down atm.

therecklessone

Winters wrote:

Why dont people do the easier option of just singing up for the Subscribers package? Not only are you helping boards but you also get little advantages over the "regular" users.

/me rubs subscriber package.

Because its unavailable at the moment.

therecklessone

Jimeatsmenu wrote:

As was said Winty, subscriber package is down atm.

Beat me to it. Foiled again!!!

Deadwing

Oh god i can see it now...
"Are you living in ireland? Want todays cooooolest posts on your mobile? Just text 'post' to 57777, and for just 6 yoyo's youll be crawlin on da floor!!"
Aside from that yes, i think its a good idea

Winters

therecklessone wrote:

Because its unavailable at the moment.

but you dont have long to wait before its back anyway. No point wasting a lot of money setting up some sort of txt donation system when in a week or so the subscribers pack shall be back live.

Deadwing wrote:

"Are you living in ireland? Want todays cooooolest posts on your mobile? Just text 'post' to 57777, and for just 6 yoyo's youll be crawlin on da floor!!"

Latest post from boards.ie
"rofl" on Humour

mechanima

pickarooney wrote:

Make the reputation points attributable via mobile phone?

Oh PLEASE...I would enjoy my neg points SO MUCH if I knew they COST someone...

But just a little thought...I had NO idea there was a subscriber level...so, even though I see it is down, I am looking for links to it...and I cannot find any...

I WILL find it, of course, but surely if you want someone to give you money it is a good idea to make it as easy as possible for them to find out how, yes?

G

Flukey

We are putting something back by posting here in a number of ways. We get something from other posts made here and others get benefits from what you post. That is what keeps the board going. If no one posted it would collapse. Boards.ie can sell advertising on the basis of the hits they are getting. The more hits they get the more enticing it is for advertisers. The majority of boards of this type are free and make their money from advertsing which they can charge money for. Coming here is our contribution in a number of ways, so I don't see any reason for anyone to put their hand in their pocket to use here.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

if you don't want to you don't have to, but some people like the idea of being able to help boards.ie along financially, alot of us have gotten alot out of this "community" over the years.

Agent Smith

i'd give a couple of squids..... euro's even

DeVore

This is a really nice idea... that wont work

I'm chuffed that people feel they'd like to give something back. I'd be lying (and inhuman) if I didnt say that that makes up for a lot of the hassle we get day in day out.

The reason it wont work is because we refuse to give the leeching fncks that run the telecomms in this country 60% of that money (money they have done NOTHING to deserve).

Yup, 60% of those premium rate sms charges go to the carrier. It might be 50% now but its still outrageous.

If you look at the bottom of every page we have a PayPal donate button that allows donations of quite small amounts (1 euro min I think) direct from your credit card OR your bank account (afair!).

So if you wanted to donate you can do it that way or you can wait a few weeks for the subscribers packages to come online and buy yourself a few little toys in Boards land.

DeV.

mechanima

I am afraid that you STILL cannot use paypal in Ireland unless you have a credit card.

There are plenty of people who (for reasons that should remain between themselves and their banks) are not likely to get a credit card in this lifetime and yet would still like to donate.

As far as I can tell it is not hard to set up a facility to take "Laser", some online payment systems accept it, I forget which...worth looking into?

G

mechanima

I am afraid that you STILL cannot use paypal in Ireland unless you have a credit card.

There are plenty of people who (for reasons that should remain between themselves and their banks) are not likely to get a credit card in this lifetime and yet would still like to donate.

As far as I can tell it is not hard to set up a facility to take "Laser", some online payment systems accept it, I forget which...but one is affiliated to the Bank of Scotland I think...worth looking into?

G

DeVore

Boards.ie can sell advertising on the basis of the hits they are getting.

To whom? The bottom fell out of the online advertising market back in 2001. We are also untargetted (ie we have a very broad base of interests) so advertisers think that the majority of their ads are wasted and would rather buy into a community targetted soley at their market.

The more hits they get the more enticing it is for advertisers.

There are soooo many pages being served on the internet these days that even our numbers are a blip. Its not about numbers of pages, its about unique person counts (of which we only have about 14K) and targetted advertising at niches, which we dont do.

The majority of boards of this type are free and make their money from advertsing which they can charge money for.

The majority of boards our size charge per view or greatly restrict the service. SomethingAwful having been the stalking horse for this and their success has changed the way people view bulletin board sites.

Coming here is our contribution in a number of ways, so I don't see any reason for anyone to put their hand in their pocket to use here.

Coming here costs us CPU power, memory, a database connection which are limited and bandwidth. That is the reason we just had to spend 4K on a new server.

If you dont feel like you owe us anything, thats ok. I'm fine with that, really. But I'd really rather you didnt wave that in my face with incorrect statements to back up your rationale. Just dont give us anything, trust me, I wont be coming round knocking on your door with my hand out.

DeV.

PH01

You start paying for something, you keep paying. But, a donation, well that's probably different?

DeVore

Mechanima (cool name btw, you watch Red Vs Blue?), I thought they had fixed that recently as they added Ireland to the countries you can extract money TO a bank account for sure. I'm going to use it for the Santa Strike Force.

DeV.

seamus

PH01 wrote:

You start paying for something, you keep paying. But, a donation, well that's probably different?

Well I guess I might feel at some point this year that even though I've already paid my subscription, that I'd like to give a little more. So I can donate by clicking a link instead of having to organise to get the money to somebody. Perfect for lazy webophiles like me.

seamus

DeVore wrote:

Mechanima (cool name btw, you watch Red Vs Blue?), I thought they had fixed that recently as they added Ireland to the countries you can extract money TO a bank account for sure. I'm going to use it for the Santa Strike Force.

Indeed you can. But I think they won't let you sign up without a credit card, i.e. a means for you to pay people through paypal. I could be wrong.

DeVore

I signed up yesterday to set up a paypal button for Santa Strike Force and I dont have a CC and can extract the money directly to the SSF bank account.

*shrug*

DeV.

mechanima

DeV...

Thanks for revealing that, at last, should I get a little money INTO paypal I will, in future, be able to retrieve it to my bank...

BUT

That's no good to you.

Because I still can't put money INTO paypal to send you without a credit card...which was my point...

G

DeVore

That is an issue I guess. I know very little about Paypal but I'll be learning more about it in the next few weeks because of the SSF.

the other way is to mail us a cheque, or hand us cash at a Boards Beer. Its not essential after all, we run this on the presumption that noone is going to send us cash, its a perk (and a very appreciated one for times like when the server goes splat and needs replacing).

DeV.

Winters

You should allow people to pay to get +100 Karma points. Would make laods of money for those karma hungry people out there.

dahamsta

mechanima wrote:

Thanks for revealing that, at last, should I get a little money INTO paypal I will, in future, be able to retrieve it to my bank...

Ye gods, someone didn't know about Paypal withdrawals? With the six squillion threads that have appeared on Boards.ie about it?

adam

mechanima

dahamsta wrote:

Ye gods, someone didn't know about Paypal withdrawals? With the six squillion threads that have appeared on Boards.ie about it?

adam

I plead PTSD due to dealing with paypal support once too often

DeV?

What is "Red vs Blue" (only have 2 coathangers in attic on mountain TV)?

"Mechanima" is a word I thought I made up meaning "the soul of the machine" as title for a piece of music someone wrote...and then I realised no-one was using it as an ID anywhere...

g

maxheadroom

I voted no, but that's because I subscribe.

secret_squirrel

I cant believe after 900 odd posts I've only just noticed the paypal button thanks to this thread - and also incidentally gone looking for more info why the Admins would put up with us lot and read Amps Faq for the first time!

Shure lurned a lot today paaw. Hope the subscribe feature works again soon.

mike65

DeVore wrote:

the other way is to...hand us cash at a Boards Beer.

DeV.

Sayin' nuttin'. Nuttin' at all.

Mike.

Flukey

DeVore, I have been using boards like this for a long time. I know people who run these types of Boards so I do have a little insight into how they work. Of course there is expense in running them and as you said making money off them or sustaining them is not that easy in the past few years. Still, none of the ones I use charge their members. Donations can be paid and you can subscribe or pay for extra privileges, which I have done, but generally the boards I use are free. There are a few private boards out there, where you need approval to join like you have for the soccer forum here - which I think should be reviewed* - and I am a member of some of those but again there is no mandatory charge.

Any of the boards that I know of, that have closed usually close because the administrators can no longer give the time to it or sometimes things have got out of hand due to conflicts and the board has become a negative place to be. I know of only one board that closed down due to financial considerations, though even that was a dubious reason. It was an order that came from on high, down to what was seen as being a fairly insignificant project, within a larger organisation. The board in question could easily have been kept open but the powers that be were having none of it and in the process they disenfranchised a lot of people. Many of them went off to found other boards and have maintained some of the friendships and communities that were there and grown their communities and made new friendships.

I have no problem with donating to boards or paying for extra privileges but I don't think there should be a charge to join. I know that the idea of a charge was not being proposed in the thread, it being just a query on money coming from members, either mandatory or voluntarily. Both elements had come up and I was posting in relation to the mandatory charges as opposed to the voluntary ones, which I have no problem with.

As people have said they get a lot out of coming here and my experiences on other boards would bear that out, but it is down to the fact that we contribute most just by posting here. Other people are getting benefits out of what individuals post. Being a community we are contributors as well as receivers. Within reason, boards like these need to have that openess and flexibility to attract people to add to the community. Freedom to post is what creates that. A board is only as good as its members.

*On the subject of the soccer forum, from what I saw somewhere it was closed off because there were conflicts between contributors. As I said above, I know boards that have closed down as a result of that. Having said that, you are going to get conflicts wherever people post, it being a part of the dynamic of discussion boards. I am not particularly interested in joining, but from time to time I would have an interest in posting there and I am sure many others would too. So are there any plans to review the situation and re-open it to everyone with safeguards to try and reduce the possibilities of conflict?

Victor

I'm not sure how cost efficient such a measure would be, unless "we" could get a very good deal from the service provider.

Flukey

Who does actually run Boards.ie? What are its origins and history?

seamus

Flukey wrote:

I have no problem with donating to boards or paying for extra privileges but I don't think there should be a charge to join. I know that the idea of a charge was not being proposed in the thread, it being just a query on money coming from members, either mandatory or voluntarily. Both elements had come up and I was posting in relation to the mandatory charges as opposed to the voluntary ones, which I have no problem with.

As people have said they get a lot out of coming here and my experiences on other boards would bear that out, but it is down to the fact that we contribute most just by posting here. Other people are getting benefits out of what individuals post. Being a community we are contributors as well as receivers. Within reason, boards like these need to have that openess and flexibility to attract people to add to the community. Freedom to post is what creates that. A board is only as good as its members.

There will never be a mandatory subscription to pay or join boards. Ever. DeV has made that pretty clear all along, even in the last two years you've been here.

*On the subject of the soccer forum, from what I saw somewhere it was closed off because there were conflicts between contributors. As I said above, I know boards that have closed down as a result of that. Having said that, you are going to get conflicts wherever people post, it being a part of the dynamic of discussion boards.

The Soccer forum was restricted because too many people were acting the tosser - the usual football "My team is better than your team" bull****. It was decided by them and the admins that restricted access was the best solution so that the mods and admins were not wasting half their day cleaning up people's bull****. Remember they're not paid, so it's only reasonable that they shouldn't have to deal with that kind of crap.
I don't use the soccer forum either, but I get the feeling that most posters are happy with the new setup, certainly I can see less ****e threads moving along the new posts list. If you want to post occasionally, ask for access. Having access doesn't mean that you have a quote of posts to fill.

DeVore

Flukey, where did anyone mention Pay-Per-View?
Beyond the Subscribers forum and the potential that some form of transaction might have to happen to prove age before access to adult-topic forums (not porn, I mean topics not suitable for <18), there will NEVER EVER EVER be a charge for signing up to Boards while I (or indeed any of the other admins I suspect) are involved.
Thats the plan anyway.

Most boards die because the admins cant give the time to keep them running smoothly because they dont have the spare time. We saw that coming and instigated the Mods as a group and have headed off the Hardware/Bandwidth issues (currently a new server is being installed).

Running a board with a 1000 posts a month is a doddle. Running a board with 1000 posts a day is MUCH MORE THEN 30 TIMES THE WORK.

Boards is running at 3000 posts a day and 150,000 views a day. Thats not a hobbie, thats a monster. You should see its bandwidth usage!

DeV.

DeVore

Oh and the Soccer forum is MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH better and better behaved then before. Theres no way in hell I'd go back, my proposer/seconder idea worked sweetly. If you want access its really very simple and easy to get you know...


DeV.

Flukey

As I said, I know that there is no proposal for a charge on the boards and I would agree that there shouldn't be. I would agree that there should be some restricted access on boards. If things were as bad as you say in the soccer forum, then it sounds like you have done the right thing to clamp down on it.

Can I ask again as to the background of the board and as to who runs it? The board I spoke of earlier that was closed down, was run by a large organisation and it would have been on a large scale too. Is there a similar structure behind Boards.ie?