Announcement regarding the site

First topic message reminder :

As you can all see, 606v2 is growing day by day. And for that, we have you all to thank.

The effort and dedication that you have all put in to help this site grow has been nothing short of phenomenal. Every day I am surprised at how you all contribute in making this forum such a great place for us all to carry on the community spirit that was born on 606. And that is only part of the story. I can now see how we have outgrown our beginnings and are attracting new posters from outside our original home.

And I thank all of the new members for this too. Your continued contribution has helped us continue to flourish and become so much more than the original 606. Through the hard work of the moderation and admin teams, we have managed to get some incredible exclusives that were not possible under the BBC banner - interviews, competitions, special offers. These will continue to come and will get bigger and better the more the forum grows.

However, all of this has come at a price.

The original set up of this forum was facilitated by the use of free software. At the time of inception, this was the best and most cost effective solution for us all. And hopefully, you all really like the features of the forum. However, due to the incredible growth in our forum, the costs for housing us have risen dramatically (it’s now 10x what it started at). The owners of the software (forumotion) have to give us more server space, although they benefit from the fact that we generate more advert revenue for them.

The more hits the site gets, the more the forumotion gets from the ads. And it therefore costs us substantially more to remove them (to recompense them for their lost revenue). On top of this, forumotion also charge us more to retain the domain name. All in all, the costs have become much more than we had anticipated, and should the forum continue to grow as we plan, these costs will continue to grow too. So this leaves us with several choices.

1. We continue to pay for the ad removal out of our own pocket.
2. We leave the forumotion ads in place.
3. We introduce ads of our own.
4. We move to a new forum platform

So let me cover these off one by one.

1. The costs are now so great, it is not fair to ask the moderation and admin teams to continue to pay for these ever increasing costs. It’s not fair to ask members to contribute. The moderation and admin teams already give up their time for nothing and to ask them to pay to do this is unfair. For the founders, this is simply not an option.
2. We can leave the adverts in place and pay the domain cost from member contributions once a year.
3. The revenue generated by our own ads will pay for the domain name and removal of forumotion ads.
4. If we move to a new platform, we would lose the historical posts, the name (possibly) and a chunk of our membership possibly. We would also be faced with the same problem as now when we once again get to a certain size. It is merely delaying the problem unless we build our own software. This would cost us money to develop and we would still need to host any bespoke software.

So this means that the only viable option is to go with option 3 - the introduction of adverts that will pay for the domain name and removal of forumotion ads (so hopefully no misleading ‘you have 1 new message’ type). Any excess could potentially be used to advertise the site, as well as potentially paying for our own software to be developed.

So you will shortly be seeing adverts on the site. This is not being done through choice but as a means to better the forum and take away the burden from the members.

Hopefully you will continue to use 606v2 - we have some exciting developments ahead of us. We still aim to achieve our goal of being the best multisport forum in the UK (and beyond) and the addition of adverts will allow us to get there more quickly.

I would just like to finish with a final thank you. When I started this forum, I honestly thought it would be a nice little home for my friends I had made. But due to the work that you have all put in, I can now safely say that it has exceeded all my expectations. From thinking I would keep in contact with a dozen or so friends, I have nearly 3000. So I may not be the next Mark Zuckenberg but I can tell you that I consider you all to be my friends.

Hero

I'm pretty sure all Admins have donated already.

Pr4wn wrote:I'm pretty sure all Admins have donated already.

Oh really, ok then.

No problem with adverts. I don't think many would as long as we still ahve the site.

One of the issues with donations as well is then those that donate may feel they should gain respect and privledges for it.
Why should someone who is a constant troublemaker but chips in £10 be given more sway than someone who's a model poster but cannot afford to assist.
Donations in theory should be just that, a donation, but in practice it empowers the donator and changes the relationship between the two parties.

Hero wrote:One of the issues with donations as well is then those that donate may feel they should gain respect and privledges for it.
Why should someone who is a constant troublemaker but chips in £10 be given more sway than someone who's a model poster but cannot afford to assist.
Donations in theory should be just that, a donation, but in practice it empowers the donator and changes the relationship between the two parties.

I've donated and haven't asked for anything? It's a donation. If necessary, have a maximum. Say nobody can donate more than £2. That way it can't cause problems.

If someone says, 'Hero, here's £100 but i wanna be an admin' that's your choice.

Thats Capitalism for ya

King Beer wrote:

Hero wrote:One of the issues with donations as well is then those that donate may feel they should gain respect and privledges for it.
Why should someone who is a constant troublemaker but chips in £10 be given more sway than someone who's a model poster but cannot afford to assist.
Donations in theory should be just that, a donation, but in practice it empowers the donator and changes the relationship between the two parties.

I've donated and haven't asked for anything? It's a donation. If necessary, have a maximum. Say nobody can donate more than £2. That way it can't cause problems.

If someone says, 'Hero, here's £100 but i wanna be an admin' that's your choice.

It doesn't give you that option to cap it nor does it allow us to choose we allow to donate.

Hero wrote:

King Beer wrote:

Hero wrote:One of the issues with donations as well is then those that donate may feel they should gain respect and privledges for it.
Why should someone who is a constant troublemaker but chips in £10 be given more sway than someone who's a model poster but cannot afford to assist.
Donations in theory should be just that, a donation, but in practice it empowers the donator and changes the relationship between the two parties.

I've donated and haven't asked for anything? It's a donation. If necessary, have a maximum. Say nobody can donate more than £2. That way it can't cause problems.

If someone says, 'Hero, here's £100 but i wanna be an admin' that's your choice.

It doesn't give you that option to cap it nor does it allow us to choose we allow to donate.

Fair enough you can't police it, but if you make it clear you don't want people donating more then you've done your bit.

If someone donates £20 afterwards and expects to be made an Admin then more fool them, providing you cover your backsides you have no obligation to anyone.

You wouldn't throw £5 to a homeless man and then go ask him for his hat 3 days later.

You wouldn't throw £5 to a homeless man and then go ask him for his hat 3 days later.

Damn, wonder why he wouldn't give it me back.

Are you expecting a cash for honours scandal?

say we wanted to donate how would we go about doing that?

With respect, I don't believe this is about ' admins ' or ' honours ' but, rather, the fear that somebidy who has just donated 10 quid might consider himself able to launch into a tirade against somebody who has been getting up his nose without fear of consequences.

Can't you make donating an anonymous process?

Set up a bank account, post the details on here, let people donate that way.

cricketfan90 wrote:say we wanted to donate how would we go about doing that?

Bottom of the page it says 'Contribute', click that, select how you wish to donate, change currency and validate, then enter a value and validate, then finish!

ah right ok thanks, but how does the momey go to the forum, do we need to give bank details or anything like that?

Nope, if you do it with paypal it just takes it from your credit/debit card. It's also 100% secure.

It buys 'credits' for the forum owner who can then spend the money on removing adverts etc, so you're not actually physically giving them cash.

HumanWindmill wrote:With respect, I don't believe this is about ' admins ' or ' honours ' but, rather, the fear that somebidy who has just donated 10 quid might consider himself able to launch into a tirade against somebody who has been getting up his nose without fear of consequences.

This would not be an issue for me if I was made mod, I would have no problem to show them whats what. Just because you may have donated £20 does not give you the right to treat others in such a way.

VivaPaulScholes wrote:

HumanWindmill wrote:With respect, I don't believe this is about ' admins ' or ' honours ' but, rather, the fear that somebidy who has just donated 10 quid might consider himself able to launch into a tirade against somebody who has been getting up his nose without fear of consequences.

This would not be an issue for me if I was made mod, I would have no problem to show them whats what. Just because you may have donated £20 does not give you the right to treat others in such a way.

You've got my vote!

King Beer wrote:Nope, if you do it with paypal it just takes it from your credit/debit card. It's also 100% secure.

It buys 'credits' for the forum owner who can then spend the money on removing adverts etc, so you're not actually physically giving them cash.

This is actually worth repeating. Using the contribute button indeed only buys credits which can only be used for things like advert removal. So anyone suspicious that funds may be being used to line the admin's pockets can be reassured that their contribution is ONLY used for the good of the forum

King Beer

I have the vote of the people but it's the fat cats and politicians I need to persuade.

VivaPaulScholes wrote:King Beer

I have the vote of the people but it's the fat cats and politicians I need to persuade.

£££££££££

Well that's made my mind up for me, I won't be donating anything.

Deleted post?

I'm still waiting for Fists to open his wallet rather than his mouth!

King Beer wrote:Deleted post?

Exactly. At least the BBC used to tell you why they deleted posts.

And what makes you think I haven't already contributed?

Fists of Fury wrote:And what makes you think I haven't already contributed?

You're tight?

I think on the whole you've got it right.

Certainly agree you can't ask mods and admins to be "out of pocket" (speaking from experience, I know what it's like to have all your spare time taken up by one activity which doesn't pay, I love it, but wouldn't do it if it cost me) for what is effectively doing us a service (I don't see how being a mod is more enjoyable than being a normal member).

Unfortunately can't afford to donate right now.

Hero,

Would it be helpful to publish exactly what the costs are so eveyone could see? Maybe knowing exactly what everything costs would help people have an idea of what to donate nothwithstanding that management have already made the decision to go with option 3 I think.

At present it is as following to remove adverts...

Add 1 month(s) : 5451 Credits
Add 2 month(s) : 8176 Credits
Add 3 month(s) : 13626 Credits
Add 6 month(s) : 27251 Credits

It’s £3.95 for 500 credits.

How many credits that are required is the thing that is constantly on the up (on a daily basis).

So if we boycott the site for a while, the credit requirement will go down and you could buy 6 months cheaply?

Scottrf wrote:So if we boycott the site for a while, the credit requirement will go down and you could buy 6 months cheaply?

See you on not606.

Looking on the main page, can't you just get rid of a few sports and pages surely that will keep the costs down. The Olympics will be rubbish so that can go, gambling is a vice so that can go and wrestling is not even a sport so surely that can do one, might even encourage the users of that one to grow up and watch proper sports.

rowley wrote:Looking on the main page, can't you just get rid of a few sports and pages surely that will keep the costs down. The Olympics will be rubbish so that can go, gambling is a vice so that can go and wrestling is not even a sport so surely that can do one, might even encourage the users of that one to grow up and watch proper sports.

Well that's just plain mean

Some of the wrestling posts have hundreds of views each. At 20k odd posts that's a lot of unnecessary hits for what is supposed to be a sports forum.

Whilst I have every faith in the mod and admin teams here, and the system that is in place to avoid the contribution of funds being abused by the 606v2 team (the handing over of credits rather than actual money), what worries me is where the actual money goes - to forumotion. Who gets it? Does it genuinely cover any outlays they face? What do they use that money for?

That's why I wouldn't make a contribution - it's a faceless organisation - and am perfectly happy for suitable adverts to appear on the site

rowley wrote:Looking on the main page, can't you just get rid of a few sports and pages surely that will keep the costs down. The Olympics will be rubbish so that can go, gambling is a vice so that can go and wrestling is not even a sport so surely that can do one, might even encourage the users of that one to grow up and watch proper sports.

It's like the 3rd most popular part of this forum. And the forum is founded by fans of it. We don't criticise what you like, do we? I mean 2 men having a pissing contest in the ring is hardly a sport is it?

I made no reference to its popularlity or otherwise, just suggested it wasn't a sport, a position I maintain to be absolutely correct.

rowley wrote:I made no reference to its popularlity or otherwise, just suggested it wasn't a sport, a position I maintain to be absolutely correct.

It's sports entertainment, and furthermore, is not classed in with 'proper' sports. Hence it's own section. Out of the way of those who don't approve.

King Beer wrote:

rowley wrote:I made no reference to its popularlity or otherwise, just suggested it wasn't a sport, a position I maintain to be absolutely correct.

It's sports entertainment, and furthermore, is not classed in with 'proper' sports. Hence it's own section. Out of the way of those who don't approve.

606 v2
From the ashes of 606 emerges a forum for fans of all sports to discuss what matters to them


A thousand apologies but this led me to believe this was a sports fourm, I was clearly mistaken.

King Beer wrote:

rowley wrote:I made no reference to its popularlity or otherwise, just suggested it wasn't a sport, a position I maintain to be absolutely correct.

It's sports entertainment, and furthermore, is not classed in with 'proper' sports. Hence it's own section. Out of the way of those who don't approve.

Had it not been for the ' hence its own section ' bit, that would have served as a reasonable description of Plymouth Argyle.

rowley wrote:

King Beer wrote:

rowley wrote:I made no reference to its popularlity or otherwise, just suggested it wasn't a sport, a position I maintain to be absolutely correct.

It's sports entertainment, and furthermore, is not classed in with 'proper' sports. Hence it's own section. Out of the way of those who don't approve.

606 v2
From the ashes of 606 emerges a forum for fans of all sports to discuss what matters to them


A thousand apologies but this led me to believe this was a sports fourm, I was clearly mistaken.

Blame the owners. Infact sue them for all the credits they have. Thats false advertising.

Go tell sky sports to remove WWE from their website then. See how far you get.

I hope you brought a big net rowley...

Don't get your spandex leggings in a twist.

Don't spit your steroids out. It's just banter.

They're a fiery bunch these wrestling fans, dear god here was I thinking this was a brain storming session, you know one of those blue sky thinking, think outside the box, there's no bad ideas here type gigs, clearly I was wrong.

*Steriods

The irony of criticising boxers for taking steroids.

i think the real only option available is to have the ads as not many will be able to donate etc as long as the ads are safe and approved i dont real see what the problem is

Scottrf wrote:The irony of criticising boxers for taking steroids.

I irony of denouncing a 'sport' when the biggest draw in your 'sport' headlined the biggest event in our 'sport'.

Also, notable stars of our 'sport' have led notable stars of your 'sport' to the ring.