futureal

Hi all,

The advertising policy here is in need of serious inspection and repair, and rather than try to come up with something on my own to satisfy everybody, I thought I would ask you, the users, for some feedback.

As most of you know, this forum is 100% supported by advertising and donations, with anything left over coming out of my pocket. Some months I come close to breaking even on the costs (server, software, bandwidth) and others I make up the differences myself. As the site gets more popular, the costs go up, as we move to bigger servers, a faster network, and consume more bandwidth.

So here's where things get tricky: there are a number of folks who pay R/C Tech a monthly fee to have us host a forum for them. But beyond that, we have been very lenient in letting them start threads in other forums announcing products and such, and letting banner advertisers do the same. However, in recent months, the line has blurred between the two and these threads are popping up everywhere.

Making this more complex, there is a fine line between advertising and user-initiated discussion. If an advertiser has a thread for XYZ Racing, what happens if a user asks about ABC Racing and a new thread is born? Is it fair to the paying advertiser that another company can make a thread? But in the same vein, do we really want to censor what users can talk about?

It seems that there are two real options: either (a) eliminate non-banner advertising fees in the forum completely, or (b) draw a line somewhere between what kind of threads are acceptable and which ones aren't.

Since option (a) would hurt me tremendously, I have been trying to find a solution for (b): drawing a line between what is and is not acceptable. Which brings me to where I need your help.

There are some things to consider:

• We don't want the forums to be overloaded with "What's New..." and advertising threads.
• We (hopefully) don't want the site to go bankrupt, so these threads should still be allowed in some capacity.
• We don't charge for topical threads about the Losi XXX-S or AE TC3, so why should we charge for the Acme Cool Car?
• We don't want to strain the moderator staff with having to constantly move/kill threads and warn people when they post things that could be considered advertisements.
• We don't want the users to feel that they are restricted in what they can talk about.

There are probably others, but that's enough to get the point across.

So what do you guys think? I'd like to accomplish two goals here: a tighter advertising policy, and a better forum experience overall.

Thanks.

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

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SpeedTech

iTrader: (5)

Shane,

Please email me, I have some suggestions for you, or if you like, give me a call.

Steve Wang
[email protected]
909-869-9443

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

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fatdoggy

MDawson - I agree, paying a user subscription fee is a good idea. I personally would not be opposed to paying a subscription(as long as it wasn't too much) to keep the forum rolling. It could be something as simple as 30 days free, then you either pay so much per month or a yearly subscription that is slighly cheaper. I think this is a much better idea then having more advertising. A few dollars a year from each user could even yeld a profit, but it couldn't be so much that people are turned off by the price.

futureal

The problem with subscriptions is that it would stunt the growth of the site. Sure, a good number of people would be willing to pay a small fee, but I think a much larger number would rather go somewhere else.

It is something I have thought about, but I'm just not to the point yet that I want to force people to pay to use the site. Especially not when there are so many alternatives out there.

A more likely scenario would be to add members-only areas for paying subscribers. Forums with car setups, chats with pro drivers, articles, and that sort of thing. But that requires a lot of work (and time!) which is something I am notoriously short on. I get offers from people to help out, but in many cases either I don't feel they are knowledgeable enough about how the site works to do things correctly, or they would want some sort of compensation, which I can't afford.

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

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futureal

And I do agree that another non-advertising revenue stream needs to be found. I really don't want to force ads down the throat of the users (hence this thread) but I do want to see the site grow.

Imagine if I had enough money to go around to more events and do more live race coverage (Snowbirds, Reedy, IFMAR Worlds, and so on). That is where I would love to go with it. A one stop media outlet for everything in the R/C racing world. The groundwork is in place, for sure.

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

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Jimmy Fukuyama

Please contact me via PM. Thanks.

Jimmy

elnitro

iTrader: (1)

Don't forget that the popularity of this site is also due to the fact that it is very informative and most of all FREE. You bring in traffic, and the advertisers will follow.

I don't think people will pay the fee just to:
1) Post ( don't forget a LOT are just lurkers)
2) Enhanced signature (who really cares to have a nice sig)
3) Email notification (do you really read all the notification emails that you get?)
4) Access/Posting to sell forum (who will know that you are selling something if nobody's there to see it?)



I don't think you can really compare this site to WSJ because of their nature. We are drawn to this site because of our....HOBBY.

The idea of voluntary donation like PBS and NPR is a good one. Maybe with the minimum pledge, you get an RCTech t-shirt. Go up to the next pledge level, you get a shirt, a cool hat, or even have your forum handle printed on the shirt. Advertisers can pay if they want their company logos on those shirts. So on and so forth.

Just my .02

MDawson

iTrader: (27)

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Intermision

I agree somthing similar to PBS or NPR would be the way to do it. Probably 1/4 of the people on these boards would donate a couple of dollars to help the site get better, I know I would.

BigDogRacing

iTrader: (12)

Here's a thought- all of the club and oraganizations that use this site could pay a yearly donation. The MSRA uses this site for our forums exclusively and we wouldn't mind making a fair donation. We have discussed putting our own forum software on our website since we have unlimited space (within reason), but it's been proven maky times that stand-alone club forums aren't used much, and also our newcomers have instant access to rctech not to mention everyone else on rctech has acces to the MSRA's threads in case they are interested in visiting us. RCTech is a valuable tool for us and we are willing to show our appreciation with a collection. In fact, I will take up a collection at our next race and make the contribution myself regardless of whether a club donation is put into effect or not.

saints1115

While on one hand I`d like to see this site be supported,I wouldn`t want to pay a subscription fee to read what`s becoming all to common on this and many other sites. The problem is people using a thread or forum for personal msgs to each other. It starts out as a thread on cars or setups and the next thing you know it`s guys chatting about personal stuff that should be PM`d or e-mailed privately.