Server upgrade discussion...

Chong

Also I reckon maybe some of the guys over at the slydice specials forum would pay a subscription if they are not already to get nipples included in posts over there.

Chong

Sorry about all the posts in a row but the ideas to raise cash are endless really.

The Sweeper

FUNDRAISING CALENDAR!!

I'd like to reinstate the idea, from four years ago on irc, of the boards.ie calendar. If I recall, the pictures I had at that stage included WWMan in an air-hostess costume, and half naked pictures of some of the then-regulars that were sent to me one dodgy sunday on #boards.ie in irc... Not that I'm recommending we go with those...

I for one would HAPPILY buy a boards.ie calendar each year, with twelve jolly images on it from the preceding year. We could vote the images in on a thread, then we'd need to get printing costs, and commitments from users (including advance purchase to offset the costs of printing) - I'd recommend it be an A4 wall calendar...

Think of it, we could plan 2006's events a year in advance and put the dates on the calendar...

Now's the time people, perfect opportunity to get this mocked up and on sale for Dec 05 christmas presents in time for the new year...

(That and if I have to spend another year writing my events on something stuck to the fridge with images of fluffy kittens on it I'll go bats)

ecksor

Do I get to be the winter of everyone's discontent?

Beruthiel

ecksor wrote:

Do I get to be the winter of everyone's discontent?

you've got my vote

great idea majd

Tar.Aldarion

ok,which admin wears a bikini for the summer one,eh!?

it's a good idea.

Beruthiel

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

ok,which admin wears a bikini for the summer one,eh!?

no contest
DeVore

Tar.Aldarion

must..not..ph..otoshop image..would....be...ba..nne..d....
/slaps self out of it.


maybe they could seel some boards merchandise at the beers('and you are sure that is some of <insert admins name here>'s hair')

Sparky

WDK wrote:

Also I reckon maybe some of the guys over at the slydice specials forum would pay a subscription if they are not already to get nipples included in posts over there.

yes me want nipples

DeVore

Lol!!

Ok two things:

1. We're not yet desperate for cash, dont worry... there may not APPEAR to be anyone at the helm here but trust me like the cylons we have a plan! I appreciate the keeness to help though.

2. I like some of these ideas, especially the Boards calendar. I dont know anywhere we could get it printed but I'm sure there are places out there that will! I particularly like the idea that we make the calendar as a community effort.



We have to rememeber that SSF is very different from Boards.ie (speaking of which, its coming round to that time of the year that I have to start thinking about it!)

DeV.

stevenmu

What about a 'quote a day' calander, each day quoting a different post that was funny/insightfull etc. Though it might be hard finding posts that make sense out of the context of the thread, and even harder picking out 365 of the best ones, without some kind of rep system.....


/*runs*

flogen

stevenmu wrote:

What about a 'quote a day' calander, each day quoting a different post that was funny/insightfull etc. Though it might be hard finding posts that make sense out of the context of the thread, and even harder picking out 365 of the best ones, without some kind of rep system.....


/*runs*

Or a Gathering card of the day... although a few more cards may have to be made first...

ecksor

Would nobody buy a word of the day calendar?

evilhomer

ecksor wrote:

Would nobody buy a word of the day calendar?

Would the words be printed on the bikini DeVore is going to wear?


BTW: any help needed in fundraising, i'm more then happy to help.

Tar.Aldarion

ecksor wrote:

Would nobody buy a word of the day calendar?

i would,but only for the best words!
i do enjoy reading back over the words as mine all have memories attached to them,good or bad.great thread!

Santa Claus

Had been meaning to renew my subscription for a few months now so just took a 3 month one (can't stretch to 1 year at the mo).

Santa

DublinWriter

DeVore wrote:

This will clean out our coffers almost completely. Its just as well we put up the Sex & Sexuality forum (even if it is a bit.... saucy, at times!) as the number of subscriptions it generated helped a great deal financially!

If you don't mind me saying, I think you should get yourself a commerical manager and start selling advertising and banner space on here. It seems to be a little bit of a missed opertunity to me.

mike65

Seems to me the best way to raise funds is to 'engineer' a failure and then start a thread about service issues

Mike.

ps say no to banner ads.

Sparky

how about highlighting the boards merchandise, some lovely t-shirts and mugs there
maybe the admins should sell some on ebay or something, and get some money rolling in.


another thought would be a devore, cloud and regi action figures or voodoo dolls
and a boards behind the scene's DVD

Boston

DublinWriter wrote:

If you don't mind me saying, I think you should get yourself a commerical manager and start selling advertising and banner space on here. It seems to be a little bit of a missed opertunity to me.

Sorry? But they do sell banner adds here. They have it all set up through some app called ad-server. wheres the missed oppertunity? Or maybe you're talking about banned adds in posts? what good would a commerical manager be? I'm pretty certain the admin team have allot of experience in that field.

The Sweeper

I'd cost the A4 wall calendar for you if you wanted. I could do it in my spare time - possibility is that I could even get cheaper printing costs for it (being uk-based), and as long as they're offset by shipping it could be worth it. As with all of these things though, the fewer you print, the more expensive it is. It's more cost-effective to print 10,000 of something than 10 of it.

If you really like the calendar idea, we should investigate how it should be done. I'd envisage it as follows:

1. Cost printing - note, black & white is cheapest, and you pay more for each colour, so we'd have to do a b/w vs. one colour, two colour, three colour etc.
2. Pre-production commitments taken. These would have to be with some degree of seriousness, since the outlay on the calendars would be, erm, financial.
3. Deadlines for everything, including images and final proofs, need to be listed to fit with the printers.
4. Colours are specified, threads on the photoshop forum for 12 images of boards.ie begin.
5. A vote on the 12 desirable images
6. Anniversaries and important boards.ie events noted, e.g. first post anniversary (unlikely I know,) anniversary of DeV changing company name to register the url, that sort of stuff

I think the Calendar should have a cover with the wee chappie from boards.ie doing something funky, then one page per month with a boards.ie image. Establishing what to print against important dates isn't a biggie cost-wise, since it's only text to be included.

For an extra [insert sum of money] we could issue a 1-page list of shapely stickers with "my birthday", "boards beer", "queer beers", "boards event", "my subscription should be renewed" and "EVENT: ______" on them so people could personalise their calendars further.

Go with me here people, I'm on a roll...

ARGINITE

stevenmu wrote:

What about a 'quote a day' calander, each day quoting a different post that was funny/insightfull etc. Though it might be hard finding posts that make sense out of the context of the thread, and even harder picking out 365 of the best ones, without some kind of rep system.....

I think this is a great idea,
I would buy one.

Farls

I think the calender is a very good idea and the boards merchandise. Tshirts, baseball caps, jackets would be cool.

How about boards mouse mats?

Also to speed things up a bit could you not get rid of a few of the forums that haven't been used in say 6 months?

I'm a happy subscriber anyway and will be renewing my subscription.

I do miss the "new posts" link tho

Farlz

Boston

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

I'd cost the A4 wall calendar for you if you wanted. I could do it in my spare time - possibility is that I could even get cheaper printing costs for it (being uk-based), and as long as they're offset by shipping it could be worth it. As with all of these things though, the fewer you print, the more expensive it is. It's more cost-effective to print 10,000 of something than 10 of it.

If you really like the calendar idea, we should investigate how it should be done. I'd envisage it as follows:

1. Cost printing - note, black & white is cheapest, and you pay more for each colour, so we'd have to do a b/w vs. one colour, two colour, three colour etc.
2. Pre-production commitments taken. These would have to be with some degree of seriousness, since the outlay on the calendars would be, erm, financial.
3. Deadlines for everything, including images and final proofs, need to be listed to fit with the printers.
4. Colours are specified, threads on the photoshop forum for 12 images of boards.ie begin.
5. A vote on the 12 desirable images
6. Anniversaries and important boards.ie events noted, e.g. first post anniversary (unlikely I know,) anniversary of DeV changing company name to register the url, that sort of stuff

I think the Calendar should have a cover with the wee chappie from boards.ie doing something funky, then one page per month with a boards.ie image. Establishing what to print against important dates isn't a biggie cost-wise, since it's only text to be included.

For an extra [insert sum of money] we could issue a 1-page list of shapely stickers with "my birthday", "boards beer", "queer beers", "boards event", "my subscription should be renewed" and "EVENT: ______" on them so people could personalise their calendars further.

Go with me here people, I'm on a roll...

Sounds excellent, shame I'm going away for the forseeable future as I've some experience with this sort of publishing ( produced two school year books in quark express).

I think a 2006/2007 style calender would be best, as it would give you a lengthy lead time to sell them. Also as much content as possible would be good. Maybe littles bio's on the admins and history of boards (thinking the type of stuff that is on biki). And include word of the day for each day going back through that thread.

The Sweeper

Much as I love the idea of a day calendar, that requires 365 pieces of output instead of 12. Also, on the year calendar, we could do two; calendar year 2006, and academic year 2006/07. Problem with putting piles of stuff into the calendar is that it becomes more complex to compile and therefore more complex to print.

Simple is best first time around. That said, there could be an admin bio at the end of the month in which the admin has their birthday...

Talliesin

DeVore wrote:

Its just as well we put up the Sex & Sexuality forum (even if it is a bit.... saucy, at times!) as the number of subscriptions it generated helped a great deal financially!

*boggle*

And they all said I was mad.

ecksor

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

Simple is best first time around. That said, there could be an admin bio at the end of the month in which the admin has their birthday...

DeVore and I have the same birthday.

The Sweeper

Oh okay cancel the whole project so.

Lordie Jerry sometimes...

ecksor

Sorry, I'd have waited a few days if I'd known.

thos

What about selling advertising ? Banner Ads.

Other option is to go down the sponsorship route, look to an Irish ISP's, in return for hosting / bandwidth / managed service. You've got a pretty big audience of Irish internet users, that I'm sure they'd be more than interested in.

Or else a 'Support Boards.ie' text number, one of the 53xxx numbers, €2 per text or something. Small money, but extremely hassle free. Again sponsorship here, win an iPod, or year free broadband with company X.