I completely understand if this makes you want to vomit...

Not a terrible idea. Not a great one either. I doubt the willingness of anyone to join if they have to suffer through an ad. I mean, no other forum requires this. I guess I am for it since I am already registered so it doesn't apply to me =P

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Posted by: NottaMiata

With the understanding that the site is new and still rumbling to life, this is an idea for a future phase.  I presented it to one of the mods, and he was kind to me, but didn't want to present it, because the topic is just that taboo.  But I have a thick skin and I'm a glutton for punishment, so here goes:

There are two goals that are important to the survival and enjoyability of the site: keeping the lights on, and keeping the frickin spammers at bay.

My idea (as I said to the moderator, stay with me here) is to embrace advertising to accomplish both of the goals above.  However, I do not suggest <blink>Chimp-Attract</blink>.  EVER.  Here is my proposition:

When a user registers, they must first watch a lengthy but relevant video ad.  Like a Toyota ad, or something related to the Spyder, cars, racing, parts, whatever.  You know, something actually relevant.  Yes, we have to watch an ad. A long, and therefore lucrative ad.  It's one frickin ad, people, and as horrible as they are, try to keep some perspective.

You can think to yourself the whole time: "this is my donation to the community, this is my donation to the community, this is my donation to the community..." if that helps. Meanwhile the site gets a buck, or a nickel, or whatever.  We could go further and have links to sponsors, that good citizens can go watch those too as further donations to the cause, but each revenue idea should be considered separately, so I am focusing on just the Registration Ad for now.  It's easily extended later as minimum funding needs dictate (stay calm, dammit!)

Now, perhaps more importantly, and certainly more FUN: consider the rich, sickly-sweet irony of forcing a spammer to have to watch an ad (and give US some revenue) before they ever even get an opportunity to spam us the first time. I absolutely love that part of it.  This might even be effective enough to entirely get rid of the minimum post limit for more privileges like posting pictures and such.

I know there are more pressing concerns at the moment, but please consider it.  I also really do understand how reviled ads are and what a sore subject it is and how it is essential to the genesis of this site.  But remember the epic irony of fighting the spammers with spam, and please consider the thought of very simply donating five minutes of time once, instead of (or in addition to) also sending money.

(Mods, you can ban me now. I totally understand.)

Here's the thing, running this website and forum has almost no cost to either myself or LT. We're not in it for the money. I have other websites and two businesses for that. One of my "Side Gigs" is web design and web hosting. This is outside of my day job as a SysAdmin. My web hosting package allows me to host X amount of sites with the only additional cost being domain names and SSL certs should I chose to use one. Now, I'm not the one hosting the site, LordTakuban is, but it is my understanding that it is a similar scenario for him. Him being a software developer and having a hosting package, this site costs him(Next to) nothing. 

To me, having a website that invokes a pleasant user experience, void of ads, is worth the nominal cost. And, that nominal cost is one i'm more than willing to absorb for the very community that has helped me time and time again. Furthermore, should there be a time where it were no longer financially viable, I can almost guarantee the community would come together(As it has in the past) to make sure the doors stay open until the car is no more. 

Thankfully, we're in a technological time where you can purchase a one year hosting plan for under $20 and a domain name is less than that for a year or two. The primary cost is our time. 

EDIT - I should have read the full post. I saw the keywords of Ad and Cost and jumped the gun. Regardless, my comment stands true.

The standard Spam control is asking security questions, email verification, or some sort of CAPTCHA;  you as a developer are probably all to familiar. All of them work to a fault. The problem we ran into last time (mr2-spyder.com/forum) is that once the bots got a hold of it, it was game over.. Not literally, but myself and the other Admin had other priorities and weren't aware it was going on until it was to late... When I attempted to clean it up, the DB server couldn't handle the Querys being run to clean out the spammers(Some of the accounts had upwards of 50-80K posts). I was able to clear out some of the posts and accounts, but it was to much at the end of the day. 

I'm not opposed to other means of Spam control such as what you mentioned, but with only a fundamental knowledge of PHP, I would be of no use. LT is well versed in PHP and could do something with it, but for now, I do not see an immediate need. In the future, something like that may be something to consider.

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Posted by: NottaMiata

I respectfully disagree. It will certainly put off spammers, and I think that if somebody truly wants to join a forum for a decade or more, they will suffer through a 90-second commercial or two.  We do it all the time for far less reward, such as seeing the rest of a TV show we are watching, or just listening to the next song on a music stream, which is far less rewarding than being in a community such as this for years to come.

It's like a form of non-violent hazing.  If you aren't serious enough to do that, maybe you aren't MR2-Spyder material and you can keep your lazy ass on FB or over at the other site where you are gonna see fourteen metric shit-tons more ads, every feggin day, than just this one anyway!  Cost of admission, whatever you want to call it. It's a bargain at 10 times the price.

And so what if nobody else does this?  Is it our problem that other sites are so cynical about their users that they think nobody will do it?  And yet they still ad-bomb them mercilessly anyway.  Are we going to start off being that cynical (and hypocritical)?  And yes, I do see that the idea carries its own whiff of hypocrisy.

But, for the sake of argument, if this did actually get implemented, and again for argument's sake everyone had to do it even if they already registered, would you really leave over it and never come back?

To be fair, I will admit that maybe I really didn't fathom just how strong the ad-free attitude is here, and if so, please forgive me.  I still love the anti-spam part of the idea, but that's just my own form of impotent revenge on spammers and ad bots.

You have valid points and I admire your dedication to the community. I don't watch tv nor do I stream music. I only suffer ads on youtube. But you're right, I would watch an ad for our forum. Luckily, looks like the cost to run this place is next to nil. If spam gets to be a problem, maybe we can address it then.

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Credit, Debit, Paypal, Venmo, Stripe, etc. All are extremely easy to implement. Same with a monthly/yearly subscription plan. Plugins take care of it all; WooCommerce can handle all of that. No need for it  though as money would complicate things for now.

Posted by: NottaMiata

I would not be offended if this entire thread were deleted.  Or not, because I think there's still some humor in it even if I went off in the weeds.  I like to brainstorm. I get attached to ideas that are only partially good, but I rarely have trouble letting them go when they just aren't practical or popular.

But this idea could be deemed dangerous and might need to be squelched.  Dunno... If so, just kill it. <Shrug>

Are there any plug-ins that let you take credit cards, charged on a monthly or other periodic basis? That would take a lot of the PIA out of the donation process on both ends, people will not have to remember to donate, and the input (I don't want to use a bad word like "revenue" or "income") would be more regular and predictable.  Just another brainstorm/solution to your non-existent funding problem.

I would fight anyone who deletes this thread. Regardless of the value of the idea, you have demonstrated your love for the community and that's priceless.

If you feel charitable to personal causes as well, I am more than happy to take "input" for a second MR2 =P

Do NOT delete this thread...we need it as evidence when we want to give NM a hard time...LOL

As he discovered, the idea isn't necessary, thanks to 2, truly dedicated, Spyder "guys"!

One of the traits I appreciated about the golden age of SC was the ability to have intetesting discussions without without fear of censorship when there were diverse views.  There was freedom of speech.   One element that I did not enjoy was flaming folks -- even if deserved because of their trolling.  I never perceived the flaming as useful to get the trolling to stop.  It just seemed to fuel the trolling.  I know that some folks found it entertaining,  but I did not.   I believe that there were times that kind of banter turned into cyber bullying.  As much as I disliked that type of banter, I found it healthier for me to consciously choose to quietly avoid those threads -- rather than complain or ask for censorship.  I may not always like what I hear when there is free speech, especially when taken to that extreme, but I would hate to loose freedom of speech.  The task of a censorship is not, nor should it be, an easy task when done correctly.  The stupidity of VS to censor disparaging comments about their company and references to this or any other MR2 Spyder site is evidence of their lack of wisdom and business acumen.  I apologize for digresing.   The primary point I wanted to make was, in my opinion,  there would be no need to delete or lock this thread because of a divergent view or idea.

I have been told that the person who came up with the idea for FedEx and submitted it for their master's theses was told by their professor it was a stupid idea.  Making people watch a video before they can "join" is not a stupid idea -- it's just an idea.  Then it's just a matter of deciding whether or not we want to implement it.  Decide whether or not it works for us.

Free speech is a fundamental human right.  What SC wants  to do should trouble anyone.  

When I read in the rules a few years ago as they started to creep in they wanted to start policing speech.  This should trouble anyone because it means  they know they suck and don't want you to know they suck. 

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For my part, I'd rather spend money than watch ads.  I'm not getting any younger and my time is far too valuable to waste it watching commercials.

I never, ever watch live TV.  Everything is pre-recorded.  If something is coming on a commercial station and I want to watch it, I hit the record button on the DVR and turn to another pre-recorded show.  Period.  I don't listen to the radio.  At all.  

I think I've made my point... now stay tuned for messages from our sponsors.

Sorry for my delayed reply (I should have that be my default message prefix for the rest of this month...  haha).

I'm hosting this site and it is not costing me anything extra.  If this site outgrows what I'm able to provide in my current hosting plan, then I'm fine upgrading or moving it to a different host.  Like PL said, both of us have other side jobs and this is a side of that for me.  My day job is a technical lead / developer at a company that I get a paycheck from on a regular basis.  my Motorsports business and other Takuban Enterprises businesses are all side ventures.  It just so happens that along with those side ventures, I'm able to help with this site.

Instead of advertisements, I would be more on board with sponsorships or donations.  The kind of thing that the other site used to be about before greed set in.  However, none of that is necessary unless traffic to this site becomes too much for my existing plans.

I am also not opposed to paying for a license to vBulletin or whichever professional forum software that is easy to use and blocks spam well.  I would basically just donate that to the community.  It's not free, but it's also not a huge amount of money either.

I welcome ideas for combatting spam or adding features to the site.  But I don't want to see ads on here at any time.