WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON ?

[Switch Kit]

I just don't get it anymore ? What is it with these Forums of late ? (thank God not this one as of yet) What's with all the banners and advertisements on these Forums ? Why ? I got to the for sale section on given Forum and they now have a ticker tape of Ebay items !! WTF !!! :banghead:

I've seen Forums torn to shreads over the years , I've seen them change where half the members went elsewhere , I've seen them all of a sudden want your money after years of pertisapation by given members. Jesus Christ !! You talk about screwing up a cheese sandwich !! .......and that ain't to hard to do. :banghead:

Help me understand ? , do these Forums get kick backs from all these freaking advertisements and bull shit ? IM just trying to make heads or tails out of the nonsence IM seeing.Then want your money on top of it ? I've heard the gripes from others that were members on given Forums where they felt like ,after years of membership , getting it shoved up there asses ! It's no damned wonder they made like banana's and split ! WTF !!

You would think these Forums cost a arm and a leg to have up ? and from what I understand , they don't . Although they do take some dedication in being run , that much I do understand. Wow !! People just ain't happy unless there screwing something up I guess ? Or maybe there just looking for reaction ? :drool:
IM just trying to understand all these ads all over the place and then a ticker tape of Ebay items ? WTF !! ???

 

[NorthStar]

Switch,

The google and ebay ads do generate some revenue if clicked on.
To answer your question this forum does cost money to operate I dunno exact amount but I can tell you it is over $100 a month with software cost and hosting added in. This particular software is far from free. Yes their's free places to have forums but poor security and lack of features and slow loading is just many of the things the free sites offer.

 

[Happy_Hamer]

This forum changed to this software because of better features. This forum software is not free.

We were on a free server in the past if everyone remembers the slow pages?

This server is not free.

We offer an option for premium membership to offset the costs.

This has not been so popular.

So the ads do help pay for the server. Everytime someone clicks on a google ad or an ebay ad, the forum will get .02 to .04 cents

That is not alot of money but it will help.

 

[Switch Kit]

Thank you Bill for spelling that out for me. I appreciate your time . Wow !! This Forum has changed BIG TIME from the years past. And what I do remember is that it was never really that bad until the end of last year.

I guess in many ways Ole Peddler was right , Change can really suck at times but I suppose it's just a way of life. So if I click on 50 of these things a day I would generate 1.00 for the Forum ? Man dude !! That's alot of click'in It's all good. 100.00 bucks a month ? I think I might start to lose interest in my own hobby. :headbang Thanks

 

[Moleculo]

I've seen them all of a sudden want your money after years of pertisapation by given members.

I don't really think that it's appropriate (nor certainly required) to get into the costs of running a popular forum. However, I assure you that it takes much more hard work than most people realize to keep it running smooth. This site has gone through many changes over the years...How many remember when we started out on EZBoard? Everyone complained about the performance of that site and the constant hacker attacks. So we moved the site and converted over to another cheap host with free software. The performance of that host was worse and the software got hacked even more. So many hours were spent restoring databases, re-installing software, complaining to tech support....

So we finally bought the best forum sofware you can buy and found a decent host. But that's not the end of the story. Promoting the site takes a lot of time and effort. Doing the constant upgrades to the software and plugging security holes takes time and effort. Constant attention warding off the spammers takes time and effort. There are costs for promoting the site to make it relevent to search engines.

Beyond all the effort and cost, we do all of this because we think it's important to promote the radio hobbies and also to give back and help a hobby that we think is important. Every day this forum helps at least one person trying to find an answer or solve a problem that they need help with in some radio hobby. The very small amount of money that is generated from ads goes right back into helping promote the site and (let's be honest) helps give some incentive to keep doing all the work. Besides, what does it really hurt? I know that everyone here looks on ebay for radio deals and also searches google for info. So why not provide some of the same content here that people are already looking for? IMO there are only a few useful sites on the internet that provide quality, accurate radio information. Is it really that big of a problem if folks want to collect a few bucks passively while providing good information? This is the same model that broadcast radio and TV have followed forever! Even pay cable and satellite TV do the same thing!

Anyway, I hope some of this answers your and others questions. Here's a brief anecdote that sort of sums it up: I had a economics professor in college that opened up the first day of class with this statement: "I don't care if you learn anything else about economics if you learn this one truth: There is no such thing as a free lunch".

 

[Happy_Hamer]

Someone say free lunch? I'll take 2

 

[psycho]

I just don't get it anymore ? What is it with these Forums of late ? (thank God not this one as of yet) What's with all the banners and advertisements on these Forums ? Why ? I got to the for sale section on given Forum and they now have a ticker tape of Ebay items !! WTF !!! :banghead:

I've seen Forums torn to shreads over the years , I've seen them change where half the members went elsewhere , I've seen them all of a sudden want your money after years of pertisapation by given members. Jesus Christ !! You talk about screwing up a cheese sandwich !! .......and that ain't to hard to do. :banghead:

Help me understand ? , do these Forums get kick backs from all these freaking advertisements and bull shit ? IM just trying to make heads or tails out of the nonsence IM seeing.Then want your money on top of it ? I've heard the gripes from others that were members on given Forums where they felt like ,after years of membership , getting it shoved up there asses ! It's no damned wonder they made like banana's and split ! WTF !!

You would think these Forums cost a arm and a leg to have up ? and from what I understand , they don't . Although they do take some dedication in being run , that much I do understand. Wow !! People just ain't happy unless there screwing something up I guess ? Or maybe there just looking for reaction ? :drool:
IM just trying to understand all these ads all over the place and then a ticker tape of Ebay items ? WTF !! ???

To be honest with you I would be more concerned about the nuts in the Political forum that want to see the president elect assassinated. Some of them seem quite Timothy McVeighish! I could live with a few advertising inconveniences that make this forum possible.

 

[mackmobile43]

To be honest with you I would be more concerned about the nuts in the Political forum that want to see the president elect assassinated. Some of them seem quite Timothy McVeighish! I could live with a few advertising inconveniences that make this forum possible.

You are hilarious. take your stump back to the political section.

 

[Switch Kit]

Well , some of the best things in life are free (but now IM hearing nothing is free ?) I suppose that's just the way others look at it ? This thread wasn't designed to piss anybody off , I was just looking for some understanding.

I think I got it to a point anyway , the rest has nothing to do with me directly. (or does it ?) I do remember the old format very well concerning this Forum , Lord knows I spent enough time on it. I always thought it rolled very well for many years the way it was , I didn't really get the just of the sluggishness until the end of last year end the change over to this Format.

but it wasn't just about software and what not , it was about some major changes in the format to the Forum itself. Tim , you paid for that Forum for years (or so it would seem), you made the changes within. Your house dude. IM now guessing this is just a sign of the times ? Why pay out of your own pocket when you can have all these advertizers help take care of costs ? It's the American way aaayy ?

I can see from the members list that you have a dozen or so supporting members out of almost 1300 "guests" I tend to think we are more guests then members , and plus those whom have supported or donated to the 6 month program of membership around here , I'd say that was a good hunk of change right there towards costs.

After all of this , I will be looking for more of this elsewhere with other Forums , weather I like it or not ? It certainly makes sence, IM still posting for free .......or so it would seem ?.

Psycho ? IM kind of missing your point here ? Whatever the case maybe , IM sure the CIA and the FBI have there eye's on the KKK and the Aireon Brotherhood about now along with the Nazi Skinheads of the world. or so I would think. It's not against the law for these guys to blow it out there asses ....or is it ? Last I heard was , one might be be careful about what they say out there mouths. You can be locked up real good for what they would call terrorist threats.

 

[MisterFatty]

You could always run Firefox as a browser, it has an extension that will perma kill specific components of a web page..

 

[mackmobile43]

Psycho ? IM kind of missing your point here ? Whatever the case maybe , IM sure the CIA and the FBI have there eye's on the KKK and the Aireon Brotherhood about now along with the Nazi Skinheads of the world. or so I would think. It's not against the law for these guys to blow it out there asses ....or is it ? Last I heard was , one might be be careful about what they say out there mouths. You can be locked up real good for what they would call terrorist threats.

Yup and how he's making slanderous accusations is unlawful also, alot of things have to come together to prove someone has intensions of offing another person and that persons position is government should not hold anymore priority over the common mans'.

I think Psycho is making a mountain out of a mole hill and if we're in the business of making false accusations one could say he is diverting attention away from himself and toward others to give himself an alibi if there is an assasination attempt.

See how unfounded information serves the public Psycho? it can be your friend or it can be your enemy.