Quote:
Originally Posted by ben voyonsdonc
Let's look at a few of your gems:
"I can't say any of this is certain or true, but when significant amounts money are involved, I have a hard time believing that the decisions are genuinely made for the benefit of society and not for the benefit of the owners' pockets.
Obviously if I had a huge issue with it, I wouldn't be a member here and I am completely on board with the forum making money any way it can. I just don't buy all the cuddly crap and and I get a good chuckle at it because I feel money is corrupting the genuine nature of the recent decisions."
"Well nothing you say with respect to the revenue of the forum holds any wight unless you open up the books; that's assuming you've ever seen them and are not talking out of your you know what."
"I don't believe much of your mod jibber jabber with respect to the motivation behind decisions and the true revenue of the site and I'm not required to in order to be a member or to enjoy the CP community just like you don't have to give a rats butt about anything I say nor do you need to address it. "
"Sounds like jibber jabber when you have no evidence to support your statements."
Each and every single quote indicates that unless Bingo and the moderation team "open the books" that they are lying about their revenue. They don't have to do this because they don't owe you anything.
I hope Bingo makes a fantastic living off of Calgary Puck - he (and the moderation team) have provided a wonderful forum that I've enjoyed for 8 years. I am grateful for that. Are there times where they make decisions that I disagree with? Yes. However, it is not a democracy here. It is often quite democratic but that doesn't make it a democracy.
The moderation team decided to take steps to help Calgary Puck more inclusive because there are some amazing women contributors here and I think it would be good to have more of them. They've challenged posters to be more cognizant of what they post and how their posts will impact others. I think that is a great thing. If you don't like it, it is your prerogative to leave.
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Since I know they won't discuss their financials, nor should they because its none of his business, let me attempt to give an honest view on what running a site like this is like.
I am a part owner in a site that ranks in the top 500 message boards in the world, has many millions of visits a month, and our hosting bill alone goes as high as 5000 usd a month.
We actually went and sought out sponsors that wanted access to our unique and specific website to advertise, we did not use some generic ones which most websites use, those do not bring in much money at all, even on bigger sites.
I can tell you with this website's traffic and the type of ads and deals I assume they made for some of the sponsored forums like the realtor one, this site is likely just making enough extra to save up for upgrades to the server(s).
They could make potentially a lot more money, by reaching out to specific businesses in the Calgary area that would want access to Calgary specific market, but they don't, which tells me these guys are not in this for the money, just the love of the community.
Hell even if they did go more into ADs, good on them, you work hard to build and grow a site like this they deserve nothing but good things from it, not snide and suspicious jabs by people like stanathan who don't have a clue what kind of money is behind a site like this.... *spoiler* its not much.