Bad Manners and Brimstone

Many of you may have noticed that there are no ads on the site.

That's because we have a deal where the forum is getting 30 days ad free.  After 30 days, there will be ads on the pages.

Now, because there will be ads, the hosting site will begin to censor profanity, replacing those words with ****
 
As far as I can tell, the word damn and the word dick would not be censored.  Also, none of the shorthands like WTF, FFS would be censored.

We can continue in that manner for free.  Or, we can buy up $5/month, $14.95/month or $19.95/month.  This price is for the whole forum, not per individual.

At $5/month, we would get 25,000 ad free pageviews.  And on this page views there would be no words censored.
At $14.95/month we would get unlimited ad free pageviews and no words censored.
At $19.95/month we would get unlimited ad free pageviews, no words censored and also some other features:
Chat Room
E-commerce
Classifieds add-on
And Ad Seller Pro where we could place/sell our own ads.

You can take a look at these options here at the bottom of the page: https://www.createaforum.com

Some have said that they would be willing to pitch in $$ to keep the site operating so I am bringing it to you all.

I think a chat room could be a nice addition.  And in terms of e-commerce, there may be ways we could brand "Bad Manners" and sell T-shirts or something that would pay to keep the lights on instead of having to have folks make donations.

But, we could also just keep it free--but there would be ads and there would be a word filter.

Please discuss!

It's the whole forum.  I edited my post to make that a little clearer.  We would all be chipping in to raise $20/month total for the highest level.

Oh I thought of something else. How much would everyone pay? Do regular users like me pay the same amount as the administrator and mods? Does equal pay mean equal say when it comes to moderation and how the forum is run? Do banned users get refunds?

There's over 400 members.  If everyone gave 75 cents that would be more than enough for a year!

I would encourage people to make small donations if they can.  And it would be voluntary.

I'm trying to figure out how to make this work without a lot of privacy concerns and personal liability!

My advice would be to keep it simple starting out.  There's a lot of enthusiasm for the site and that's great, but proceed cautiously until the board takes off.  I understand that, unlike other 'new' boards, this is just a migration of an existing board to a new home with a chance to start fresh and for that reason, you will start with a lot members who are equally as enthusiastic.  Just be cautious about investing too much, too soon.

The ad free fees are definitely reasonable and it may be something that you decide to do in the future by either charging a nominal fee to join the forum or asking for voluntary donations.  It could also turn into a burden to manage if the board doesn't take off/sustain like we expect or posters are uncomfortable donating if they can't remain anonymous.

If I were in your shoes trying to kick off this site, I would likely choose the free option for now and accept ads and censored words.  As things progress, if you feel there's a market for product and a willingness for members to pay to avoid ads and censored words, then make that decision at that time.

I run a business and my husband is a business owner and the best advice I can give "Go slow to go fast." 

Good advice.

I'm just trying to let everyone know what the options are.  I had forgotten that we got 30 days ad free.  It suddenly occurred to me last night when I was thinking about how there were no ads on the pages I was looking at.  I thought it was possible that my husband had an ad blocked installed on the browser but I could see them when I looked at other forum pages on Create a Forum.

I didn't want everyone to be caught off guard at some point when ads started showing up and words started being censored to ****.

But, I know that some folks had offered to chip in if we needed it.  I don't want to see us requiring subscriptions.  If the ads, the censoring or the desire for something like a chat room becomes a thing, people can make their will known at that point.
 
I would want it to be a "donate" button via PayPal that wouldn't necessarily reveal personal information of posters to me or my personal info to other posters.

There are also some features on here that I haven't explored yet that I have seen hinted at--like being able to buy your way into being a Sr Member or some such thing.

With the $20/month you also get the option to add custom smileys, etc, do a newsletter.
 
Any of you all can go through the Create A Forum site and explore the various options that could be available to us as a forum.

In any case, come June 15 or so, there will be ads on the forum.

Oh I thought of something else. How much would everyone pay? Do regular users like me pay the same amount as the administrator and mods? Does equal pay mean equal say when it comes to moderation and how the forum is run? Do banned users get refunds?

I would actually think that the moderators shouldn't have to pay anything because they are giving up so much personal time to act as moderators. I'm not aware of any forums where all members have equal say. I think of that as the responsibility of the moderators.

And I would say no, banned users wouldn't get a refund. If I get kicked out of a movie theater or a theme park because I violated the rules of the park or theater, I'm not given a refund. Hopefully, the $1 a year investment lost wouldn't be too much of a concern for anyone.

But overall, I agree that it would be best to go with a "free" site for awhile to see how things go.

Quote from: Once a Lurker on May 16, 2018, 01:39:51 pm

Oh I thought of something else. How much would everyone pay? Do regular users like me pay the same amount as the administrator and mods? Does equal pay mean equal say when it comes to moderation and how the forum is run? Do banned users get refunds?

I would actually think that the moderators shouldn't have to pay anything because they are giving up so much personal time to act as moderators. I'm not aware of any forums where all members have equal say. I think of that as the responsibility of the moderators.

And I would say no, banned users wouldn't get a refund. If I get kicked out of a movie theater or a theme park because I violated the rules of the park or theater, I'm not given a refund. Hopefully, the $1 a year investment lost wouldn't be too much of a concern for anyone.

But overall, I agree that it would be best to go with a "free" site for awhile to see how things go.

A movie theater or theme park owns the space and you pay them to use the space according to their rules. If everyone pays for the forum then everyone owns the forum and whether it's one dollar or one thousand you are entitled to get your money back if you are denied access to something you own. I would hope it wouldn't come to that but I like to know the fine print before I buy something.