As with most announcement's I will put it here on the main forum for a day or two then move it. As the more eagle eyed of you will be aware the adds came down yesterday,basically what happened is google banned us.I am not sure why as they do not tell you.This is a bit of a pain as while the cash was not great it had just got to the stage were it was meeting the majority of the running costs of the site. There are other network's out there aswell as selling adds privately (which I have done a few times before) I will look into both when I have time.So this post is just to keep you all aware of whats going on.
Is there a reason they dont tell you? Maybe there was an over excess of clicks on certain days then none on others so it looked like you were telling people to click?
it's probably because of the thread the nicest bird you fancy,. they monitor everything now and again. I'm in the process of setting up a site, and they refused to put ads on it, because of some of the content that will be on it. They won't do porn and what they consider porn is in that thread,.
Could be that. Them Google folk are no fools. They could have noticed a spike in clicks that looked suspicious and went from there. What is the cost of running the site per year (if you don't mind my asking)? Would an annual "donation drive" bit worth looking into? I'd be happy to throw 10/20 quid your way a year to keep the site going. What about official memberships (like they do on boards.ie) that offer a few perks.... personalized tag line (instead of admin, mod, first team etc.), larger pm box.
It could be any number of reasons,I am not sure why they don't tell you maybe they don't want there security measure's made public. A lad who posts here also runs a Poker site and they would not let him have an account as it was gambling related,so it could be our gambling forum,could be the odd pic of a lady. I am not going to change the site so if it was for any of those reason goodluck to them we will solider on without them.I am not going to have google tell us how to run the site and what we should and should not have on here for a few euro a month.Its a football site if we want to talk about the odd bet or 'easy to get along with girl including pics' I think we should be free to do it.
Nobody here wants you to be out of pocket. Can you pay yearly for the running of the site? If so we will do a collection once a year to cover the costs. I'd have no problem throwing a few quid in a Im sure alot on here are the same. The rattle do it that way and it works.
You left out the vital part of that line, thats what they consider porn. We'll need some people to test it out and give feedback in a few weeks, so I can pm you with details during the week if your interested. Also I like your idea about paid memberships or a donation drive.
Exactly, same reasons they wouldn't give me an account, they dont allow gambling, "porn", and even some religion and politics they will refuse over. As Jaza said, we don't want you out of pocket. I'd say if you could let someone know total expected running costs. I'm sure we'd raise that over a weekend.
I totally agree with this, and have said it before. There should be no reason for Paul to be out of pocket running this site. In fact, it's a shame that a forum business model like this is rarely profitable - because I think not only should Paul not have to foot the bill, but it would be nice for him to make something from what he has provided for Irish Reds. Might be a good addition to the (spontaneous) paypal donation system - have a specific fundraiser once a year. We've hit 500k posts, have a load more members, people are helped left, right and centre from Tickets & Travel to things not even related to the club. Been helped out by many on here over the years.
what about a fund raising night like pam's in the sub that time and auction of so gear and get a legend over to help raise money for the site
The running costs are not mad,I would estimate about 500/600 a year so its not crazy money.My fear has always been if the site gets bigger,I would like a system in place than can handle it going forward google was part of that but sure I am sure I will work something out.
This may be a bit controversial but... considering what F@ces mentioned about Paul providing a service for fellow reds... some forums could be made access only to paid members. Now, you couldn't do that to the chat forums as the site would die... but you could make the tickets forum access only. That wouldn't affect the general chat on the site but would be an extra enticement to members to become paid members. There could be a negative repercussion though where someone who has tickets that are no longer needed, wants to offer them on here but isn't a paid member and therefore can't access the ticket forum. I think for a minimum tener a year membership, it's not too much to ask of people who would like to use the site for help getting tickets. Of course, the usual post count rules should still apply.
I would not go as far as restricting forums.However I have been think of trying to offer the lads who do donate something a bit better then a bigger PM box.Maybe a private forum and other benefit's.Is anybody here on foot.ie,I believe they have something like that in place.
Playing safe, say it's €700 a year. €10 membership would only need 70 members. You could also make it €10 minimum and I'm sure there are people here who would throw an extra €10 on top of that. As F@aces said, it'd be nice for you to get a little something out of it too, not just breaking even. Do you get many donations these days or did it trail off after the initial drive?
what about for irishkop trips put an extra 2 euro on the price 97 people last time would of raised nearly 200 euro 3 trips like that and your laughing the trips are cheap enough so it wouldnt be a major issue for people i wouldnt think
Pm box and personalize tag lines would be nice. A private forum might disrupt the nature of the site splitting the conversations into two tiers.
Then what about doing that with a premium paid subscription service, something like the method used by Paul Tomkins on The Tomkins Times. So members pay a rolling monthly fee to IK, in return for the benefits you describe above. Cancellation can be done at any time. You're not going as far as The Tomkins Times in restricting "articles" (or sub-forums) for non-paid members, just providing a bit extra on top of the cake - a "Premium Membership" service.