Boards.ie: non comercial. Why?

Evil Phil

I was at the zeriously thingy in the sugar club in Dublin on Wens. night. Gerry McGovern seemed quite upset at the lack of a business model for selling to online communities. DeVore pointed out that a lot of online communities do not like to be advertised at. Sooo:

1. Do you like the fact that Boards.ie isn't a marketing vessel?
2. If so, why exactly do you like that?

To answer my own questions:
Yes I like the fact that Boards.ie isn't a marketing vessel
Why? Well personally it's one of the few places I can meet my mates with out having advertising thrust down my throat. Other than Battle of the Planets dvd's, which I've been looking for anyway. It seems to me that you can't really get away from marketing/advertising, sit down on a public toilet and there's an add staring you right in the face. They even have them low down on the toilet door so it's at eye level.


And finally if Regi and DeVore were offered 4.5 million € (approx. this weekends lotto jackpot) for Boards.ie, by Richard Branson, would they sell?

/me thinks they would

Monkey

what I don't like about boards.ie is this page : http://www.boards.ie/top.html

Updated monthly? And aren't some of those sites run by boards.ie people? Hmmm

Baz_

Way to go off topic monkey.

To try and bring it back on topic, I have to say that I love the fact that boards.ie is not commercial.

I enjoy coming here posting a message and not being redirected to an advertisement before being redirected back to my post (I've never actually seen that model of advertisement before, but it is a really good idea I just had). Also the reasons evil phil himself said. Nearly went way of topic meself their. I'll leave it that so.

Shinji

Boards has evolved into what it is now while I've been using it, which probably colours my own opinion that it would not work as a commercial concern, either from a commercial point of view or from a community point of view.

That said, this opinion is mostly coloured by the fact that I know what state the 'net is in regarding advertising and revenue models. Nobody is making any money; and if you aren't going to make any money anyway, why go through the pain that comes with running the whole affair as a business concern?

Samson

Originally posted by Monkey
what I don't like about boards.ie is this page : http://www.boards.ie/top.html

Updated monthly? And aren't some of those sites run by boards.ie people? Hmmm

I agree with Monkey.
However, as Baz says, it is way off topic.

Monkey, you should post that on the Admins board.

I do realise that I have also gone off topic.

Boston

ive seen sites bigger then this with 20,000 + member grow dependent on add, and when they fell away the site had to close.

yellum

Boards.ie to me is non-commercial and I'm happy with that. The ads that are on the forums are not a bit intrusive, I wouldn't even consider them commercial ads.

If it was more commercial but didn't interfere with my viewing pleasure and didn't slow down the loading of pages I would not have a problem either.

It would be nice for the boards owners if the thing payed for itself. I think the way that boards.ie might make money is merchandising, extra services that you pay for and special events that bring all the members together.

Merchandising:

Boards Collectors Cards
T-Shirts, Mugs, the usual stuff.
Amp Test T-Shirts 12 Clicked T-Shirts

Extra Services:
Email addresses
Webspace
Customizable Avatars

Events:
Boards Xmas Party
BoardsCon or something.
Boards Gaming Events
Boards Music Events

jmcc

Originally posted by Evil Phil
I was at the zeriously thingy in the sugar club in Dublin on Wens. night. Gerry McGovern seemed quite upset at the lack of a business model for selling to online communities.

McGovern clueless regarding online communities. He never understood how they work and made a complete hames of local.ie specifically because he did not understand. Basically he tried to copy the AOL/Compuserve model of communities without a: understanding the revenue model and be without understanding how communities work. The AOL/Compuserve communities where funded by the subscribers to AOL/Compuserve by a subscription fee/initially a per minute connection charge.

Communities on the net form because people have a shared interest. Then a peer structure begins to develop where eventually the most respected tend to be made moderators.

There is a very sharp difference between a commercial online community and a hobbyist online community. The commercial one is built on money and the hobbyist one's only commercial interest, if any, is on recovering costs. There is a point at which a commercial online community ceases to be a community and becomes an online service.

Regards...jmcc
(Other stuff about online communities (based on the stuff I posted to the Zeriously forums) to follow in an article about online communities on HW late tonight.)

Stephen

I'll be happy with boards.ie as long as I never see one of those shítty "SPANK THE MONKEY!!" style animated ads

Monkey

charging for customizable avatars would suck some serious ass

yellum

Avatars are not customizable now, so if a small fee allowed you to create your own one would you go for it ? I might.

Monkey

Oh I thought you meant paying to be able to pick your own avtar

yellum

Heh, no that would be a major inconvenience.. but a good way of making money. Everyone gets the same horrible avatar unless they pay some money.

DS

Paying to have a little picture under your name is a bit pathetic innit?

Originally posted by Stephen
I'll be happy with boards.ie as long as I never see one of those shítty "SPANK THE MONKEY!!" style animated ads

lol, have you seen the "SHOOT THE DUCKS!!" one?

Shad0r

Originally posted by Monkey
what I don't like about boards.ie is this page : http://www.boards.ie/top.html

Updated monthly? And aren't some of those sites run by boards.ie people? Hmmm

Jesús H Christ wearing a parachute, there is always someone moaning.
Monkey do you have any idea what it takes to run a web site the size of Boards?? not only logistically but also financially?

Your getting it all for free...and still your complaining...if that page annoys you, then dont look at it.

Back to topic:
The main reason that Boards is as successful as far as subscription goes imho is because it ISNT commercial. It wasnt set up (like other communities) to try and get its members to buy things or to sell ppl's e-mail addresses to marketing companies.

I dont think that the customisable avitars would be a big seller, but the idea of the official Boards events that Yellum suggested there has merit. Mainly because its not blatantly commercial but at the same time may actually make some money for the guys to get things like a faster server etc.

Shinji

McGovern clueless regarding online communities. He never understood how they work and made a complete hames of local.ie specifically because he did not understand.

McGovern? Clueless? Good lord, never! Controversial.... er, well, not really.

What's he up to these days anyway? I've kinda lost sight of a fair few of the clueless noo-meeja types who were gathered around a few of the Internet ventures like flies on sh1te since I left the country... I take it McGovern did a convincing impression of a rat when the local.ie ship sank?

jmcc

Originally posted by Shinji


McGovern? Clueless? Good lord, never! Controversial.... er, well, not really.

What's he up to these days anyway? I've kinda lost sight of a fair few of the clueless noo-meeja types who were gathered around a few of the Internet ventures like flies on sh1te since I left the country... I take it McGovern did a convincing impression of a rat when the local.ie ship sank?

Warning: Strong Message/Sitrep Follows. Contains Some Off-Topic stuff.

Well he kind of re-invented himself as an expert on content management. He has also co-authored two books on writing for the web and content management.

The clueless technology journalists who believed that he was a thought leader seem to have been badly burnt. While I have no mercy for technology journalists of that ilk, I do feel that the git hung all those Nua/local.ie people out to dry by failing to lead and making bad decisions. This resulted in the people he had 'thought led' (brainwashed really) being led right over the cliff into unemployment.

Local.ie was slashed in April I think but Jeery remained on as the CEO. Eircom had bought 90% of the farce a few years ago. One of the funniest threads on that site's fora was about how they could all protest with credit cards and the fact dawning on the posters the site had nothing for sale so they could not protest by giving the site money. I think they had an S&M affection for the site since Eircom was the site's operator - you can see the logic.

McGovern is still doing his weekly Nua Thunking piece - adding in just enough of his own words to escape the allegation that the real content consists of other people's quotations. Recently amid the Code Red/Nimda virus outbreak, McGovern's site www.gerrymcgovern.com was actually trying to infect with the virus. I guess that was taking the phrase "viral marketing" a bit too literally.

On the happy-clappy noo meeja types: Karlin Lillington won the IIA Journalist of The Year award. This award was sponsored by a PR agency. Since most of what passes for technology journalism is really recycled press releases, this was particularly apt.

The editor of Ireland.com won the IIA Net Visionary award for her contribution to the Irish internet industry since 1996. This confused the fsck out of the Irish internet industry since ireland.com is a dot.com wreck losing £3M5 a year and most of its subsites seem to have crashed and burned. (But the people that the IIA e-mailed seem to think that these people were worth voting for.) Computimes was cut due to the Irish Times having to implement cost cuts though the Friday Fluff Stuff still runs albeit in a smaller format. The interesting thing is that Ireland.com also tried to implement online communities but failed abyssmally. At first it looked like it was a software problem - really flakey Windows commenting script but it really was a complete lack of a clue about how to run an online community and or the lack of intent in setting up online communities.

If the lusers in IIA had any clues they would have given the Net Visionary award to IrelandOffline which has done more in the past few months to highlight the lack of broadband than the IIA has done in its entire existence.

The IEDR sponsored the IIA award for social inclusion. This was somewhat ironic since it had allocated about 300 medically related domains to a cyberwarehousing operation and made about £15K for this fire sale. Irish charities would have had far better claim to many of these domains (eg deaf.ie, blindness.ie). The IEDR has tried to kill off the IEDR forum. Ironically, the IEDR mob want to run the .eu tld.

Web Ireland magazine once had an online forum but like the online forum, it too disappeared earlier amid a flurry of court cases and unpaid bills.

The Dublin Media Lab seems to be running into funding problems. Eircom still does not want to roll out ADSL. The big cull of the clueless is not over yet - it may take another six months or so. The Business Plus magazine did a round up of the dot.bombs that went to the wall - it was terrifying reading.

The good news is that the management of Eircom has been removed so there is a possibility of some broadband being deployed. A lot of Eircom employees seemed to have no confidence in the shower of lusers who had previously misled the company. At least Peter Lynch, the guy who slashed Rondomondo, Nua, Ebeon and local.ie had a clue and still works there.

The interesting thing in all of this is that sites like boards.ie are beginning to completely obliterate the attempts at Irish commercial online communities. Online.ie was supposed to have a major involvement in online communities as part of its business model but it failed to implement them due more to lack of ability and lack of an audience. Local.ie - read the HackWatch articles on this one . Over all the Irish internet business is getting stronger as a result of all this.

Regards...jmcc
[1] http://www.local.ie/general/about/about_us.shtml

Baz_

wow!!

learned more about Irish internet in the last 5 minutes, than I ever knew before this, thanks a lot jmcc. What are your sources, or are you just on the inside of the industry. Although I gleaned hackwatch and business plus from that post, I would like to know more. That was quite cool.

originally posted by shadorYour getting it all for free...and still your complaining...if that page annoys you, then dont look at it.

lol...

Who is this Gerry McGovern guy anyway this is really wrecking my head, but the name is so familiar and yet I don't know who he is *me goes to check website*

beaver

He was the head dude in Nua. Probably seen as the face of the future of the Internet in Ireland by a lot of unknowing newspaper readers. His idea pretty much died anyway...

Shinji

Probably seen as the face of the future of the Internet in Ireland

I read this as "the face of the failure of the Internet in Ireland".

Which was both amusing, and potentially revealing

Doc

I Like boards just the way it is! Dont go a changen!

JUST DO IT!

(THIS POST IS SPONSERED BY NIKE)

jmcc

Originally posted by Baz_
wow!!

learned more about Irish internet in the last 5 minutes, than I ever knew before this, thanks a lot jmcc. What are your sources, or are you just on the inside of the industry. Although I gleaned hackwatch and business plus from that post, I would like to know more. That was quite cool.

Most of the sources are confidential though a lot of the stuff is based on open material and watching how people and companies move and react.
As regards being on the inside of the industry I run www.whoisireland.com among other things and I have indexed about 40K Irish owned .com/.net/org domains and websites in addition to all the .ie ones. And of course I have been on the net since before the web.

Who is this Gerry McGovern guy anyway this is really wrecking my head, but the name is so familiar and yet I don't know who he is *me goes to check website*

Dangerous move Baz_ - the guy will mess with your head and use boredom as a weapon.

I haven't put a search engine on HackWatch (www.hackwatch.com) yet so these links should give you some insight as to what happened with Nua/Local.ie/Irish Times.

Local.ie: http://www.iol.ie/~kooltek/localie.html
Ireland.com: http://www.iol.ie/~kooltek/spamarticle.html
Nua's collapse: http://www.iol.ie/~kooltek/nuacollapse2.html

I really must update the index pages - if only to keep Betty Boo happy.

Regards...jmcc