Why was the Forum down for so long?

[Sarge]

Sounds good, although I still think a Donator/Contributor tag is a must...can't see anyone complaining about that.

I can. It would be just another way to elevate you and your bluehat above the common working man. Not on my GRcade.

Bluehats wouldn't get the donator/contributor tag, it'd be for others who donate.

[outoftime101]

The best thing about this place is the way in which it was set up to be, and remains, essentially a community driven affair. I'd like to keep it that way by avoiding advertising and generating any funds needed from the members themselves. We have a sufficient number of people to make the contribution quite a small one.

As for the notion of recognition for those contributing, I can't say that I'm in favour as it seems to me that it will inevitably lead to a situation whereby one member is given elevated status over another simply because they can afford to pay.

I've never been a great fan of the bluehat idea, nor of the way in which mods, however inactive, offensive, or arbitrary, are effectively unaccountable to wider forum members. Having yet another tier of membership is something I think it best to avoid.

If anything, status on the forum should be judged by overall contribution, usually in the form of how often a member posts, and the quality of such posts. That's why people like Sarge, Rik, Suzz and Canton are well respected: bluehat (or any other colour of hat) status really has nothing to do with it.

So, anonymous self-funding is the way to go I think.

There should be some form of proper feedback on the general running of the forum though. We don't need to have elections for Mods like that in which Mr. Hours scraped home to glorious victory ; however, experienced members (by number of posts) should be able to have a say in how the forum is run by, for example, being able to trigger action against a particular mod or forum member who the wider membership consider to be detrimental to the forum. If that sounds like it would create a two tier system, then there is an obvious answer, post more and you'll have more of a say in how the forum is run.

I suppose I should end this little manifesto with a cry of "Viva Fidel" or something

Also no one commented on Mr. Hours' "pepsi" joke earlier. I laughed my ass off at it!

[Songwriter]

Star Trek badges.

[Hexx]

Sounds good, although I still think a Donator/Contributor tag is a must...can't see anyone complaining about that.

I can. It would be just another way to elevate you and your bluehat above the common working man. Not on my GRcade.

Bluehats wouldn't get the donator/contributor tag, it'd be for others who donate.

I don't know. Some of them didn't do anything to get a blue hat...

I don't mind paying. A redhat/"super member" thing like rllmuk would be nice - but it's not a deal breaker if it doesn't happen. It sounds like it would be easier and not fuel the flames of peoples inferiority complexes if it didn't though

[Earfolds]

The best thing about this place is the way in which it was set up to be, and remains, essentially a community driven affair. I'd like to keep it that way by avoiding advertising and generating any funds needed from the members themselves. We have a sufficient number of people to make the contribution quite a small one.

I will agree with this guy. We could generate £200 a year if we put our mind to it. £1 each from 200 people, or £1 a month from 16 people.

[akijones]

strawberry float me yesterday was boring in work, I managed 4 repairs yesterday though so I have a nice an emptyish workshop, I even went on Rllmuk and Neogaf they are proper gooseberry fool like.

[Extralife]

I'd be more than willing to contribute a bit towards the cost of the forum, I don't see any need for a special badge or anything. Surely the continued existence and smooth running of the place is reward enough?

[John Galt]

My only concern with affliate links is that we've got a special arrangement with lewiep.

Does that arrangement involve money? Because if not, I'm sure lewiep will realise that you've got to do what's best for the forum. Also, lewie's blog mainly concerns older games but somewhere like Amazon is bound to have the cheapest prices on release day, so with around 30 forum members buying a brand new release each week you'd probably be looking at around a tenner a week, which is enough to keep the place going.

[Commander Jameson]

The best thing about this place is the way in which it was set up to be, and remains, essentially a community driven affair. I'd like to keep it that way by avoiding advertising and generating any funds needed from the members themselves. We have a sufficient number of people to make the contribution quite a small one.

As for the notion of recognition for those contributing, I can't say that I'm in favour as it seems to me that it will inevitably lead to a situation whereby one member is given elevated status over another simply because they can afford to pay.

I've never been a great fan of the bluehat idea, nor of the way in which mods, however inactive, offensive, or arbitrary, are effectively unaccountable to wider forum members. Having yet another tier of membership is something I think it best to avoid.

If anything, status on the forum should be judged by overall contribution, usually in the form of how often a member posts, and the quality of such posts. That's why people like Sarge, Rik, Suzz and Canton are well respected: bluehat (or any other colour of hat) status really has nothing to do with it.

So, anonymous self-funding is the way to go I think.

There should be some form of proper feedback on the general running of the forum though. We don't need to have elections for Mods like that in which Mr. Hours scraped home to glorious victory ; however, experienced members (by number of posts) should be able to have a say in how the forum is run by, for example, being able to trigger action against a particular mod or forum member who the wider membership consider to be detrimental to the forum. If that sounds like it would create a two tier system, then there is an obvious answer, post more and you'll have more of a say in how the forum is run.

I suppose I should end this little manifesto with a cry of "Viva Fidel" or something

Also no one commented on Mr. Hours' "pepsi" joke earlier. I laughed my ass off at it!

I like this post.

OOT101 for mod.

[JV]

Can I ask, perhaps this may have been done already in this thread, but what exactly is the point of 'bluehats'? What exactly was their involvement in the creation of the forum that has meant they are elevated to their own little group?

[Mr Thropwimp]

The only problem with using post count as a measure is that it'd give people like MCN a greater position of authority simply for posting more bullshit than anyone else has.

[JiggerJay]

How do other forums generate money?

Well, DVDFORUMS have a sponsored topics....from small independant online shops.

RLLMUK have a small advert banner at the top of the page.

NEOGAF seem to have affliate links.

My only concern with affliate links is that we've got a special arrangement with lewiep.

Rllmuk and Ntsc-uk both do donations/super-members.

[SEP]

The only problem with using post count as a measure is that it'd give people like MCN a greater position of authority simply for posting more bullshit than anyone else has.

Well I like the idea.

[eclectic]

I'd pay for a super memberage.

Try Gaydar.co.uk

[The Alchemist Penguin]

Why not start with an anonymous donation, or a donation with no real benefit, and go from there? If enough money isn't raised through that then it can always be expanded to "Buy a colourful name!" at a later date, which gives Garth & Steve a nice fall back if money starts to dry up again.

[Extralife]

We could copy Microsoft and charge people £8 to change their user names.

[Red Devil]

Aneurin would be bankrupt within the week.

[jiggles]

The cheapest virtual private server with our current host is about £210 per year, next cheapest is about £315 per year, and the other one is £420 per year.

wat

Just to reiterate, I'm not saying this in surprise, I'm saying it in disbelief. That is way too much to host a forum.

My hosting plan has unlimited bandwidth and storage (which I don't think yours does), and matches your host's uptime, without using this shite Zeus technology that keeps failing. For £40 per year. You're paying for a business-level package, which you absolutely do not need for just a PHPBB discussion forum.

[Hexx]

Can I ask, perhaps this may have been done already in this thread, but what exactly is the point of 'bluehats'? What exactly was their involvement in the creation of the forum that has meant they are elevated to their own little group?

You're gonna get re-educated

[Garth]

The cheapest virtual private server with our current host is about £210 per year, next cheapest is about £315 per year, and the other one is £420 per year.

wat

Just to reiterate, I'm not saying this in surprise, I'm saying it in disbelief. That is way too much to host a forum.

My hosting plan has unlimited bandwidth and storage (which I don't think yours does), and matches your host's uptime, without using this shite Zeus technology that keeps failing. For £40 per year. You're paying for a business-level package, which you absolutely do not need for just a PHPBB discussion forum.

We're not paying for any of those packages, we're on a shared hosting plan which is significantly cheaper than any of those. This isn't an issue of bandwidth or storage BTW, those are both plentiful on shared hosting for a forum this size with the majority of hosts these days.