Good news for Boards.

DeVore

Well, we've bashed out a deal between us and an ad agency, so from now on, we'll at least see some cash for the ads you put up with!

We hadnt done this before because:

1. Ads pay jack and are a pain to organise.

2. Anyone we talked to wanted control over the ads and then we wouldnt be able to put up ads for ourselves or mates of ours (like Ireland Offline etc).

But we're signing a deal which allows us control and they do all the work and collection etc.

So, finally after 3 years what Cloud and I and the rest of the Boards crew set out to do is almost complete. The community will be financially self sufficent and free from corporate image and control.

Think of it this way. Most other "community sites" are there to power something. CD sales, ISPs etc. We wanted to create somewhere that was for us, our rules and paid for by the activity of the site itself.

This is nearly so now, which is cool! But the inevitable question is going to be "what happens to the cash".
Well, we have server bills to pay and software to pay licenses on too. We need to put some away for a rainy day (like if our host ever went out of business).

After that we will have sod all left I think but we are thinking of running Boards.ie parties with free beer and hopefully kicking back to the Moderators too for their hard work (we have to be careful about employment laws etc so it cant be cash). The admins deserve some too, I'm sure noone would deny Cloud a few quid for his hard work

So, hopefully within the next three months Boards.ie will be one of the rarest things on the internet... a profitable website!

Once we get a firm grip on the income we can expect we'll come back to you guys for ideas as to what you think we should do with it.

Phase 2 of Operation Boards is complete. Time to start to take over the world muahahaha.

DeVore.

Stephen

Good luck

Fand

Well done, and the best of luck with your ads. Well-deserved luck.

LegacyUser

So does this mean we all get those's car's we where promised

---

Are you a Player of Games?

LegacyUser

So does this mean we all get those's car's we where promised

---

Are you a Player of Games?

Carnate

Well done to all on Boards, Tom and John and da rest of the crew.. btw have yah an opening for a new member of da boards??

i must admit he will be ready in .. say about 15years.. but just getting him ready

again WELL DONE EVERYONE!!


Carnate

Gladiator

im really happy for you man, i know you probably dont like me but ive a great respect for what your doing here, theres so few places like this on the net, id go as far as to say theres nothing like it, its allmost like a big home. theres so few places on the net for irish people and i for on apreciate all the hard work you put into this place even if i dotn show it some times



[This message has been edited by Gladiator (edited 25-08-2001).]

logic1

Cool, Glad to see all the hard works paying off.

.logic.

SantaHoe

Well as long as I don't have to put up with those 'punch/shock/kick/stab the monkey' banners... they're just horrid.

Gladiator

arnt they american? abite of a waste of time on an irish site

Bard

That's good news... congrats and best of business luck in the future

--

---

Bard

---

'First motorbike in the bible ???? ---- a Triumph --- 'Yea verily Moses struck down the ammmanites and all the land heard the roar of his triumph !!!'

Lenny

That's excellant news
glad to see that happening

SantaHoe

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Gladiator:
arnt they american? abite of a waste of time on an irish site</font>

Dunno m8, I never click them :P

gandalf

Congrats Tom, its nice to see your plans are working out the way you want and you'll get some reward (well the currency type) for all your hard work. A big shout to you, Cloud and all the others who put all the hard work into something that is an important part of alot of peoples lives.

BTW any news on the Zeddies yet I expect Boards.ie to walk it.

Gandalf.

dahamsta

DeVore, who'd you come to the agreement with, ICAN? Just curious.

adam

richindub2

Yay, glad to see you'll finally be making money for providing such a good free service

DeVore

Cant disclose who we've done the deal with yet (though its an open secret really).

There wont be any popups or ghey ads like that. We've limited the ads size to 12k in the contract too so I doubt there will be animations.

DeV.

dahamsta

But DeVore, since we all have broadband connections to the Internet now, the size doesn't really matter, does it?

Oh, hang on...

adam

Victor

Wha haaay!

Congrats.

---

Kill, kill, kill the laser mice.

Evil Phil

Nice one lads. You deserve it, hope you put some aside to buy yerselves a well deserved pint!

Mills

Congratulations lads .

jaarius

UBER excellent! profitable websites! what next?


j

---

"Why not put the match in a shark tank, with real live sharks, hungry sharks, and the only way to beat your
opponent is to stuff them down a shark's throat and pin a shark".
-Kurt Angle to Lilian Garcia

Puck

Excellent! Well done

---

John (yes THE John!)
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."

amp

Excellent. All your ads are belong to us.

---

Lunacy Abounds! GLminesweeper RO><ORS!
"[amp] may have the respect of the plebs on the other boards" - WWman

dahamsta

Heh, this is so funny. Any other site and there'd be war...

"Hey, we're introducing commercial banner ads."
"You're WHAT!? Well, that's it, I'm off. I'll never visit this site again. Terrible, terrible, terrible."

etc.

adam

entropi

Well done and GL in the future.

< why not use that money stashed away to save jeffy the kitten from doom>

---

That island has freedom written all over it" Sir, that's Cuba. [url="HTTP://WWW.thesimpsons.com"]look at that smithers!![/url]

Trojan

Sweeet

There ya go Dan, it can be done...

Nice one guys.

Al.

dahamsta

Devore said:

LOL. Yeah I was just thinking that. I guess its the way we all came up together. I mean, noones getting rich off this but the main point is Noones getting poor!

Errah, no-one'll ever get rich off advertising on a website alone DeVore, I think you know that as well as I do. Maybe marketing and sponsorship deals - I like the "section-branding" style on The Reg meself - after a while, but never from advertising. As long as you're having fun and the box and the bandwidth are paid for though, who cares?

Micro said:

in all fairness this isn't like most other web forums now is it?

Well, it is really Micro. What's different is the fact that it's done for fun and it's Not Just Another Dot Com. That'll always make a difference on the web IMHO - if you do it for the love of it, and you're any good of course, it'll all work out. Throwing money at it like it was bricks 'n mortar very rarely works. And rightly so. The Internet'd be rubbish if it did.

adam

DeVore

Yeah... what dahamsta said.

We never sat down and thought "hey, I know... lets get stonkingly rich from a big notice board".

I mean, Cloud is a lecturer and the rest of us are running Spin.

Boards is becoming a well known name around town now (I love sitting in a pub or cafe and hearing people talk say "yeah I read that on boards". Its happened a few times ). If boards becomes even bigger then it is we might have to rethink stuff because even as it is you can hear the creaking and groaning of the system (and not the tech system either, although that too!)

Anyway, lets see where we go to, but at least we're motoring under our own steam now (or will be!)

DeV.

Kix

Yeaah! Good for you guys. This place is important to a lot of us and I'm sure most people really recognize and appreciate the fact that Boards are a labour of love.

So control your breathing and keep pushing!

And if it ever came to it I wouldn't be adverse to throwing a few quid in a pot, as long as I get a sticker.

K

Gladiator

if he was selling the site im sure you would all be *****ing, but the fact is what hes doing is to make it even more independant,
what if some of the admins lost there jobs and couldnt fund this place anymore, we all would be fudged.
the fact that its getting reinvested here is what makes the difference

kayos

Hmmm actually that aint a half bad idea kix I wouldn't mind buying some boards stuff like a mug or mouse mat or t-shirt. Ever think of doing it Dev/Cloud/ et all. Hey its advertising the site while getting paid for it.... Maybe even just one or two runs of t-shirts would raise a bit of money to help out even if it was put away for a rainy day.

kayos

Shiminay

Big thumbs up lads! Well done.

looking at taht Zeddy add with me thinking a cat's sexy makes me realise what a crazed bunch of lunatics we are on this site - only daft fockers like us would do stuff like that and laugh at it!

I'd buy a boards.ie T-Shirt (but as a Moderator I feel one should be given to me ).

---

All the best!
Dav
@B^)
So Bob Hoskins was about to roll a spliff when in walks Dana with her 3 foot Bong
[honey i] violated [the kids]
When the Beefy King arrives, I shall be paying homage with Puunack The Receiver in a haze of green curry.

Evil Phil

Limited edition 'I'm a boards.ie moderator' mouse-mat.

WhiteWashMan

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by MindPhuck:
*Chaaa ChiiinnG*

Nice nice..</font>

so eric, where are us oldies going to go for a pint with all this money?

Alis

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">I'd buy a boards.ie T-Shirt</font>

Actually that's a good idea, I think I'd buy one for the laugh

Lots of the online t-shirt vendors have partner programs that allow websites to sell branded merchandise through their online shops.

OK I'm sure the t-shirt vendor takes a big enough cut from every sale to make it worth their while but it saves websites setting up their own t-shirt selling enterprises

The companies I thinking of are probably US or UK based but maybe there is an Irish company that would do something like that.

Actually I probably wouldn't buy one, because boards.ie probably wouldn't do t-shirts for girls Yes, there is a difference

smoke.me.a.kipper

2 words: thank you.

azezil

---

"just because you're not paraniod, doesn't mean they're not after you!"

DeVore

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:
Heh, this is so funny. Any other site and there'd be war...

"Hey, we're introducing commercial banner ads."
"You're WHAT!? Well, that's it, I'm off. I'll never visit this site again. Terrible, terrible, terrible."

etc.

adam</font>

LOL. Yeah I was just thinking that. I guess its the way we all came up together. I mean, noones getting rich off this but the main point is Noones getting poor!

Its one of the things that motivates us to do Boards.ie... everyone seems to *get* what we are trying to do.

We've got some pretty loopy ideas in the works , watch this space (community building stuff).

Also, I think the boards.ie get-togethers will be a laugh and not put a hole in our cash too much. Maybe rent out a cafe and get a few kegs. Dunno what we'll do with the mods yet. Tricky one that but we'll work something out. Maybe a prize draw or something. Anyway, its a while yet before we see a penny and we need 5k for the server alone so that has to come off the top but

I'd say by new year we'll be sorted.

Thanks for the support lads (and ladies).

DeV.

MiCr0

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:
Heh, this is so funny. Any other site and there'd be war...

"Hey, we're introducing commercial banner ads."
"You're WHAT!? Well, that's it, I'm off. I'll never visit this site again. Terrible, terrible, terrible."

etc.

adam</font>

in all fairness this isn't like most other web forums now is it?

the fnj

Oh my god Dev!

You've sold us out!

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!



On a serious note, well done lads.

LegacyUser

well done

MindPhuck

*Chaaa ChiiinnG*

Nice nice..

SHADOW

Yeah DeV, that merchadising idea is really something worth looking at doing, if you guys can find the time.

I think loads of people would buy a mug or a t-shirt that was BOARDS.IE branded. I would.
(Well, as long as it didnt have any pics of that poxy looking little cat ) And it would go along way towards paying for server upgrades etc.

I know somebody that does that kind of printing actually, gimmie a shout if you want to get prices etc..


N

---

If the bottom falls out of your world, drink Andrews and the world will fall out of your bottom!!
games?

dahamsta

If anyone mentions the phrase "revenue streams", I'm outta here...

adam

Kix

kayos

love it kix....

DeVore

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">I think loads of people would buy a mug or a t-shirt that was BOARDS.IE branded. I would.
(Well, as long as it didnt have any pics of that poxy looking little cat ) </font>

HAHAH, well we were thinking about doing a
jeffy the kitten series!

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">If anyone mentions the phrase "revenue streams", I'm outta here... </font>

Seriously, we're not in this for the money. We'll do stuff thats funny and sub-cultury and the suits of the world can scratch their heads and wonder why its selling like hotcakes etc but once the server is paid for and we get a bit of cash to have some fun with I'm not looking to milk it.

I think taking some of the pictures from the Jonesy muppet thread and putting them on bags and mugs and stuff would be a laugh tho.

Can you imagine the looks you'd get


DeV.

MiCr0

mugs with a sly stab @ the competition:

"Boards.ie Members,
better that p45's any day"

Kix

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DeVore:
I think taking some of the pictures from the Jonesy muppet thread and putting them on bags and mugs and stuff would be a laugh tho.
</font>

That would be excellent! That was a fantastic thread


<edit>Fixed UBB codes</edit>


[This message has been edited by Kix (edited 28-08-2001).]

Shiminay

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Kix:
</font>

OMFG Kix - that RULES!!!

Get some of Freak Bro's little guys on the index page on the t-shirts/bags/mugs - they can be saying some of the stuff that was used in that Jonsey muppet threat mentioned earlier!

---

All the best!
Dav
@B^)
So Bob Hoskins was about to roll a spliff when in walks Dana with her 3 foot Bong
[honey i] violated [the kids]
When the Beefy King arrives, I shall be paying homage with Puunack The Receiver in a haze of green curry.

[This message has been edited by Kharn (edited 28-08-2001).]