This forum as a business

Impressive
How did vBSEO Buy a Young Entrepreneur a BMW M3 Luxury Car? - vBulletin SEO Forums

Being a little melodramatic IMo.
I said is before, this is not a democracy.
If Brian wished so, he could have no posts and it wouldn't make a bit of difference.
He doesn't have too. But he does afford us the opportunity to do so, for free as most will attest.
If it was truly work i don't think we'd be here. Posters don't create much value when whining, IMO.
Entirely up to you.

Not by me.

So who here makes money off this?
When was the site sold to Brian?

I guess I am kind of a CraigsList type guy.
I feel uncomfortable that Brian makes money off a site on which he does not even participate in.

Yur entitled to feel the way you want, not that it matters?

I purchased this site just over a month ago (March 29th).

79 posts a month is not a bad record IMO. thats over 2 posts a day average. Plus, i've recruited Cameron (Silverchild79) to help out on the administrative side. As stated in the original thread, I am more of a 'technical admin' where as Cam will be the 'main guy on the board' and he has 229 posts as of this wiritng. Collectively, thats an average of 10 a day. Out of a total of 150 post a day average, we are hitting roughly 10% of the posting content.

To say we are not participating is just an outlandish comment.
http://www.conflictingviews.com/t1062/


Websites cost money to run. My current server fees tip the scale at $404 a month. Some people's rents don't cost that much.

Without income generated from sites, sites would not exist.

For the record, this site has been less than profitable to say the least, and if anything, it's costing me money to run it at this point in time, not to mention the initial purchase price that i fronted out of pocket ($1000 USD).

As of right now, i'm $987 in the whole on this site.

You are free to post here, or you can leave. It really makes no difference to me. You can start your own site, or start a blog. Most likely, you'll get bored of talking to yourself.

everything on the web has a financial aspect in it, but Brian's Internet history has helped many many people.

His Honda website has provided research material and mechanical assistance to help 100's of people with projects if not thousands. And it's provided for free. If he makes a dime off of it good for him.

In the coming months we will also begin providing a service beyond simply a forum of debate. Our "Election 2008" section is still in it's conceptual phase, but will offer biographies on candidates, links to further information, and even access to online voter registration. We hope to use this to educate America's netsavy youth and increase voter turnout for the election. While we are small, we are growing, and helping a small amount of people is far better then helping none.

Do you criticize your favorite coffee shop for generating a profit? Our product doesn't even cost money.

Well - Good Luck to you!

By the way - GoDaddy hosting is less that $10 . month.
I use it for some stuff I got going one for a blog.
More than enough space and bandwidth for a discussion forum website.

See hosting plans
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/shared.asp?app%5Fhdr=&ci=5652

Excuse but I must ask, how much do you pay per month to use this forum? Nothing? I thought he was making money off your efforts? He makes money from exposure, if you don't want your ideas out there why may I ask are you posting on the internet? You might not be getting paid in money, but you are getting your dues from the fact that the harder HE works, and the more HE difuses his website, the better YOUR ideas are spread. That is just one benefit you reap from HIS hard work. Also if you are going to apply that argument in which he makes money off of our ideas, you should also consider that you are also recieving information, which nowadays costs money, now I ask how much are you paying per question asked? He recieves money, we recieve information, and you are complaining why?

when you run "real" websites, you can't use godaddy or any "insert host here for $10 a month" plans. I use the extent of that monthly plan in about 3 hours. I have a full dedicated quad processor machine in a colo which i manage.

godaddy does have dedicated options:
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/dedicated.asp?ci=722&display=dedicated

but nothing they offer is half the machine that my sites run on.



he has every right to state his mind. If he doesn't want to be "exploited", he should cancel his internet subscription.

google makes money off ads, and you use their search.
hotmail makes money off ads, and you use their email
i make money off ads, and you use my board.

its the way the internet works.

I guess the thing that irks me is that someone who is not even an active contributer to the discussions is making money off the whole thing. This site was not even Brian's brainchild - he just bought it. I guess it is the commercialization of the whole thing.

Note - I was online back in the early 90s and did not like AOLers - I was online when Brian was still in a stroller - so that gives you some background.

Diffusion and popularity of the site is dependant on the users and the quality of the conversation.

I know - if I am not happy with the situation I can always go somewhere else.

The situation reminds me of the story at InsanelyMac website which the web developer sold for big $

The story is here - Semthex's Propaganda - InsanelyMac Forum

To summarize - InsanelyMac is a support forum for people that build Hacintosh boxes (home made Mac computers). The key contributers were the developers that hacked the kernel and made it possible to install Mac OSX on an intel box. The developers and all the other experts contributed the Intellectual Capital that created the value of the site. The developers and other experts that spent many hours laboring and helping did not make any money. The web developer which created the forum and nothing else made all the money. The question was about fairness and equity.

why do you say i'm not active?

ZoZo:
Join Date: 12-22-2006
Total Posts: 381 (2.81 posts per day)

Briansol:
Join Date: 03-28-2007
Total Posts: 83 (2.07 posts per day)

I'm a HAIR behind activity than you are. Plus, half the time you are posting, i'm am doing some admin option which takes time out of my posting per day.

Cam is blowing you away.

Silverchild79
Join Date: 03-30-2007
Total Posts: 231 (6.08 posts per day)

Your claims of inactivity are unfounded.


To say that the site is not my brain child is accurate, but i knew about it long before you did. I've been e-friends with brent for a long time now.
In fact, the skin you are looking at was done by a designer that i referred him to.

Frankly, i'm not very interested in politics. I'm very set in my ways, and trying to convince me otherwise is a waste of keystrokes. I pipe in where i see fit. Otherwise, I have the maturity to shut my mouth and carry on.


I was online with prodigy in 1991. I assure you, I was fully able to walk by the time i was 11 years old and had long kicked the stroller to the curb. I could even wipe my own ass!!!
I'm senior developer at the firm i work at 9-5, run a small department of coders for fortune 500 level companies online stores. I can code circles around you. Your age means nothing to me, and if anything, it shows that you've failed to do something with yourself for all these years, where as I have stepped in, made business decisions, and have profited from my hard work at half your age. How that makes me look like a failure is beyond me.


do you use youtube? that sold for 1.6 billion to google.
do you use myspace? that sold for 350 million or some thing like that to fox media
do you use Flickr? that sold to yahoo for some odd millions.
do you use winamp? that sold to AOL for some figure i don't remember

i can go on...

nearly every major site has been sold at some point.

That's how you make money-- be it online or in the real world.
you come up with an idea, you build it, get it going, and then you sell and move on to come up with a new idea.

The buyer looks at it as an investment (as of right now, i'm in the hole... but in a couple years, it will turn profitable, should the site remain active) and hopes to return his money and then some over time.


The story of Semthex has nothing to do with this at all and is not remotely related. I am not a team. You are not part of my team. I am me. if this board gets ripped off, its because i robbed myself. I can't be unfair with myself.

you do no "work" here. You spend leisure time here, because its something you enjoy doing. You can do it here, or anywhere else you want as you see fit to register, but you're going to run into the exact same thing.

Look at the board above, that you linked. vbseo. I don't get paid to promote their product, nor do i get paid to help out other users. Yet, i have 1700 posts there, and i have purchased multiple licenses from them at 150 a pop.
Am i being exploited?

No.

Helping other people is something I ENJOY doing, at my leisure, and if i should decide to never post there again, or never help anyone else out again, it is on my own accord.

You've paid me nothing to use my bandwidth, my database, or domain, or my hard drive storage for your thoughts and words, yet somehow, i'm the bad guy here?

Wow - very defensive.


My posts come in spurts. I post a lot then I go away for a while so the average post count is not worth much.

Anyways - it was fun while I thought this was a grassroots thing. A "debate site" run by a non debater - ha ha ha - too funny.

Good luck. Hope you make a ton of money to buy another car from the work of all the posters here.

zozo I notice your still posting

if your so opposed to us, why continue to support us?

I'm a businessman, not a politician.

paramount is run by business men, not actors or directors.
colleges are run by boards of directors, not teachers or professors.
walmart is run by people who probably don't own a single thing ever sold by their store in their homes or wardrobe
the RIAA is run by businessmen, not musicians.
clearchannel, is run by businessmen, not disc jockeys

i run an arcade site, and have 0 interest in games.
i run a honda site, and don't own a honda.
i run a political forum, and have little interest in debating.

Again, you're claims are unfounded.

and after all this, i click the link in your sig to your site... and what's on it? Ads.

My site is run as a passion site.
My site is about my content.

You are just in it for the money.
Making money of our work.

Like I said - good luck in the endeavor.

If you - the person that will be making money off the site was an active user then I would stay - but since you are not then I will not.

k, cya.

tisk tisk tisk. Some time's it's hard to see the forest through the tree.

I think ZoZo is only jealous.
My own forum makes no money at all and might not ever do so. I started it due to an interest in the subject and to fill a niche I had seen poorly served by other sites. I find it rewarding in ways unrelated to money. That said, Brian has bought this forum and has improved it in a short time. He should be commended , not condemned.
ZoZo , Brian has shown you statistics that prove that Administration here IS active , but you don't want to believe the truth.
He has given you a few examples that refute your position . Are you still unconvinced?