BRS to the next level?!

[Forsaken]

question...

i was on saltwaterfish.com and noticed that the forum was exactly the same as this .. looks and opperation wise...

and then i was reading on the bottom of the RC homepage saw the powerd by something or other v3.0...

is RC just based off a template? if so, has there ever been anythought to a BRS Forum? like its own seperate entity?

that might help BRS gain more financial support also.. hte more the merrier right? with all the members of BRS i think it would be a nice start..

RC is great i just think having a brs forum would be sweet.. get our own sponsers and help the club thrive...

i'd like to help and be involved if something like this could happen.. I think it would be a great new level for BRS to rise to..

[Forsaken]

no thoughts?

[Dubge]

these fourms are all basicly the same and there is some free ones out there I think.
I have another question.....why don't we have a member moderator?

Ray

[Heavydc2]

We do have a member moderator on this board, its Moe I think. We have thought about building our own forum on the brs website, I htink part of the reason why we did not go that route s because beyond the BRS forum here is a ton fo information that we would be witrhout. It would also not be a huge draw, we get a lot of our members from RC, people who find RC then find the BRS section would not neccesarily knwo to go to www.bostonreefers.org to get to our forum. I am not saying its not a good idea, I think it might be tough to really get it to bite.

[moe_k]

Reef Central is a private entity. The owners select the moderators. No BRS member is a moderator of RC. I've asked to be granted the powers to make stickies or lock threads, but the only way to do that is to grant me moderator pivileges. That's something they don't want to do - they have no idea who I am, and probably feel there's no need. If there's a problem, I contact the moderators listed at the top of the page, and they handle the issue in a resonable amount of time.

PHP bulleting boards can be created pretty easily, I understand.
With sizeable effort from some of our members who are web developers, we could have a forum of our own. That'd be a double edged sword. On one hand our sponsors and members could post items for sale; on the other hand, we might lose a lot of the visibility we get by being such an active forum here on RC.
FWIW, we do want to develop our own forum where those with commercial interests can post info for our members to browse. It'll take effort from some new volunteers, as ScavDog and the usual BRS web people are already too busy.
Wanna help?
Thanks,
Moe

[joefitz]

These forum packages are indeed very standard. They are also relatively cheap -- a few hundred dollars. Implementing one takes some effort becuase you'd want to use your existing user information but it isn't that hard to do.

The bigger issues are hosting and the potential difficulty in getting the traffic to the site. We already have hosting problems -- not sure if you noticed but the site isn't always available... In addition, forums use a LOT of bandwidth. I'm not sure how efficiently the popular forum systems caching algorithms are but I tend to doubt they're great. Bandwidth = $.

The other downside is probably even bigger -- getting traffic to the site. RC draws in a huge amount of non-local traffic and occassionally those people participate in our forum and I think that adds value. Our own BRS forum would also mean we'd all have yet another system that we'd end up using and visit regularly... Pulling the BRS forum out of RC would definitely have negative consequences...how serious they would be, who knows.

On the other hand, if it were successful, we may be able to generate some revenue through it. We'd also be able to create different forums so we could separate some of the traffic a bit (not 100% sure that would even be necessary/wanted). We could have our own moderators enforcing our own policies.

There are pros and cons. I'm not really sold that it makes a tons of sense at this point.

Joe

[Scuba_Dave]

I think RC provides a huge resource to users. To try to duplicate it would be a major undertaking. You need to constantly monitor, adjust, and buy more equipment as the site grows. I maintain a small website for our dive club, and keeping that up to date during the dive season is a task
I think we have a great home here. I think an added value to our BRS site would be a sponsor area for group buys, specials, daily shipments from our sponsors.
I think that would give us more value and would be time well spent

[Forsaken]

well im not saying pull BRS out of RC .. and how does RC pull in all its members? .. Our Forum wouldnt just be for BRS people it would just be run by BRS people .. to help the club.. Theres gotta be a place that can host that isnt as unstable as RC's host seems to be ... I cant even remember how i came to RC .. but if we did all the web search submissions we could be as easibly reached...

and agian i wasnt saying that the forum was just for BRS people .. Its like going to a baseball game.. you dont have to be on the team to go the game .. but your gonna wanna be on the team when you see what its like.

if there is anything i can do just let me know .. i dont know where to start .. thats y i posted this.. sponser should be relatively easy to get .. it would be sweet if we could get enough revanue to "sponser " a store too .. we could sell at good prices to customers and have huge discounts for members .. its like sams club.. everything is like 20% more if you arent a card holder .. but if you are you get bennies and get that 20%+ off...

[Forsaken]

these are prolly just crazy pipe dreams that are going through my head.. heh heh

[Forsaken]

now if brs doenst want to do it .. i would like some help cause i would like to start one either way.. i think it would be fun to do..and i would favor BRS on the site .. being local and a supporter in a few ways...

is RC non-profit?

and to be non profit do we just need to put whatever money we get back into the club?


i dont know how we would handle the biz aspect of it.. i have has a few ideas on that side of the site .. but i'll wait a little casue i dont want anyone stealing my ideas just yet

[Forsaken]

even if it is a large undertaking .. wouldnt it be worth it? we have the members to spread the responsibilty so that its not crazy on upkeep .. if it go large enough.. well i dont doubt that RC has a couple paid employees .. someones gotta keep it all up and running

[mantishunter]

RC is a more valuable and respected partner than most realize. It is also the way we communicate with the global population. You have no idea how many visitors we get other than Boston area hobbysts. Can you imagine this hobby without RC? I couldn't. Re-inventing the wheel is not worth anyone's time imo and there is too much involved already in our partnership with RC to even entertain diluting our presence. While RC does have a few competitors that offer slightly different product (and we partner with them too) I wouldn't want to close off our dialog from the rest of people that drop in from time to time. Lastly, we do benifit from our visibility on RC and much more so than if we were to be on our own. I don't and can't get into the metric, but we do monitize our RC presense and reap significant ROI from our relationship. Anyone is certainly able to start up a speciality site and I am always interested in the product personally, but I am not infavor of another BRS sanctioned/ or official forum other than RC.

[Forsaken]

its just a thought .. theres no reason we have to think that we cant get the numbers RC has.. i Know Rc is an asset and i wouldnt want to lose that .. RC has been occupying my free time since i signed up...

question .. other than RC giving us a forum .. we dont get any finacial support right?

it would be cool to setup a forum where some finacial support was given to applicable clubs ..

and it would be awesome to do a huge mother BOARDWIDE group buy.. or if BRS would get a wholesale license we could order a cost .. which is painfully lower than what everyone is paying now..

[Greg Hiller]

After dealing with all the group buy problems I STRONGLY favor the BRS setting up a section on another site that we can control that will allow BRS sponsors to compete as they choose to do so for group buys. I've spoken to Jake (the group buy guy for BRS) about this and his feelings are the same. We think it's quite likely that we could get any sponor interested in group buys to pay some set, small fee that will allow them to post as they like, directly onto a page that would be for group buys. The problem now is that they cannot post directly on RC because they get into trouble. The fee that they pay out should easily pay for someone to set up a site for this purpose. I think we should continue to have our discussions, etc., here on RC, but all group buy BS should be moved to another site. This would also get the LFS's to stop looking at this site with a microscope. I can tell you now that there are a LOT of them watching us.

[mantishunter]

You have made your point, but your discussion as to BRS buisness is not for a public forum.

I think your missing the point. I think you aren't understanding monitize, ROI and partnership. This is for off line discussion. BRS is an organization and as such has Officers that conduct business. Some of it is private and not for forum discussion.

Again as you are not aware of BRS business relations it would be a mistake to assume.

Thanks and feel free to PM me for any clairification.

[Forsaken]

understood

[dad300]

Greg, when you get that 460 up and running I want a looksee. I have a spot in my house that I was looking at putting in a 700 gal FW. If I ever hit megabucks its going to be a reef.

[Forsaken]

how many posts do i need to get my own avatar.. is it 50? im almost there

[Greg Hiller]

Ron,

Sorry, you're right I don't know all the details. We can talk off line.

[Greg Hiller]

>understanding monitize<

You're right, I don't even know what it means!! It took me a while just to figure out ROI. In any case, I myself would prefer to keep the club from getting too involved in the $ side of things. I realize that the $ side of things are and will be necessary for MACNA however.

[Forsaken]

whats roi? lol im done pretending i knew it

[Aneille]

I believe it is Return On Investment.

[joefitz]

ROI = return on investment...if you put $100 in and get $150 out you are netting $50 return on your investment.

Monetize means to put a dollar figure on something that doesn't have an easily/obvious identifiable value... Goodwill for instance. How do you put a price tag on goodwill? In business, sometimes you need to do that...and doing so, while being (hopefully educated) guesswork, is important.

Joe

[Forsaken]

ah

[ME2003]

"You have made your point, but your discussion as to BRS buisness is not for a public forum."

On many discussions this statement is made. This may
be another reason to have a BRS forum. To discuss BRS
policies with its membership. It has always seemed to be an
open society. I do not think that you should not use the RC.
Modifying the the home page for a membership only BRS forum.
There are a lot of web programmers in BRS. Doing a local set of pages with who to call in an emergency, LFS info and group buys
sounded like a good idea. Has the ISP provider issue been resolved?

[drmooncricket]

Originally posted by Forsaken
how many posts do i need to get my own avatar.. is it 50? im almost there

What did u have like 30 post today or what? Are you Scuba Dave relative or something?

[Forsaken]

a brs forum would be sweet .. i'd still like to see it happen

[Forsaken]

im addicted to this stupid forum .. i have made like 45 posts today so far! lol

[joefitz]

Yes, we do have a bunch of members that are capable of adding some sort of a forum system to our site. For me though, there are more issues to consider.

If people are suggesting that we 'roll our own' system then we become somewhat reliant upon that/those developers. This is an issue that we currently face to some degree with the main website. I'm not sure there is any really viable alternative for our main website but it is something that needs to be considered, I think even more strongly, for forums which would most likely be used as much for (and possibly only for) 'internal' communications.

Buying a system isn't generally an option unless you have your own server because most hosting providers won't let you install these software packages. You can 'rent' forum software...but that still costs money and will likely have all the reliability problems we're experiencing with the main website.

I like the idea of having a forum system for the club but probably restricted for internal communication and other issues that either aren't appropriate for RC (either because they are internal or violate a usage policy). But unfortunately the reality is that it just isn't an easy decision to make.

The club faces similar choices with the main website as well. Does it really make sense for the club to take a step up in terms of ISPs so the site is more reliable? I'm not sure. There are a slew of pros and cons to these decisions. I'm just glad I'm not an officer so I don't have to make them!

Joe

[Tobyt]

Donate to RC and become a contributing member. Funds will hopefully go to adding more user capacity and better up-time (it's not been that bad, really).

I think internal communication can be done /should be done via normal email.

Is RC going to be at MACNA? I think they deserve a special award from BRS for being such a great resource --- not least, for being a great community site contributing to helping BRS grow to where it is now.

[moe_k]

Fitz wrote:
I'm just glad I'm not an officer so I don't have to make them!
No Joe, but you are a great person to offer advice to the group on these matters. You carry a lot of weight.

[ME2003]

Tobyt
Ok I will I still do not know how many posts before I can get my own icon. I hope it is a 100

[Forsaken]

i have 12 more to go! hopefully

[Forsaken]

this morn i was at like 30 posts lol

[ME2003]

It is a 100
If you have more than 100 posts, you may also specify your own custom avatar.

[Forsaken]

yes 10 more to go .. 9 after this one!