Ownership of forum content and community

[yorkie_chris]

One of the diving forums I'm on has just changed hands, it was very similar to this place in that it was a small group of individuals who started a small community that grew. There had been some real coups over the years on there with people helping each other out.
The place was non-commercial, except the reality of being a bit bigger meant they had a few ads but a lot of private donations as well.

The owner has just sold the place to a company that "does forums", they try to attract content and make a profit from selling ad space.
Their first act was to change the T+Cs to remove any members rights over their own content, and remove the ability to edit posts. The next step in this company's past performance is to make the classified adverts chargeable, and to start charging members for access to say, the tech section... The next step, don't say anything negative about one of the advertisers or get banned. (see how well that works on SVrider!)

Needless to say this has put a lot of the "old guard" membership's noses right out of joint. Especially ones who have contributed their intellect or even cash to make the place.



It got me thinking, this place is great being a community rather than a commercial endeavor. Forums run commercially don't seem to have half the spirit. Possibly because people are less inclined to help when they are worker bees in someone else's profitable "content generation" machine, rather than it being a metaphorical pint on the bar from someone you might meet on a ride.

The whole thing seems to reflect the general development of the internet, from a gloriously anarchic phenomenon of freedom in information into the 'web we see today where everything is financially driven to show ads to the masses, information carefully meted out and well intended advice becoming someone else's method to extract profits.

Long live the enthusiast-led, independent forum!




(Well what a meandering diatribe of bollox that turned into... sorry... don't worry off to the pub soon, normal service will be resumed...)

[Specialone]

The triumph sprint forum is free for some basic bits but some sections, including the for sale section is only accessible to members who pay £20 a year.
You can't send pm's, can't put a sig or upload your own avatar without paying either, really pee's me off tbh, bikers oracle is huge, not sure they need the money.

[MisterTommyH]

:smt038

[xXBADGERXx]

I used to be an Admin on a fledgeling Xbox site many moons ago , I did the graphics for the first ever page , was the second visitor and member , created a lot of intital content that attracted people to the site and wrote reviews etc to get it all started off . The girl that "Owned" the site did not have a penny to spend on it in reality . It managed to survive and even ran online leagues and started to attract a lot of attention from the industry . We got lots of interest in the MotoGp 2 game that was the first online game for the old Xbox and things went ballistic . Good site , great people on it , but the behind the scenes politics soon started to aggravate . There was a lot of posturing from young pups wanted a bit of the action and what cheesed me off was that I was spending HOURS upon HOURS every week in keeping this place smooth and also being the BALL BUSTER on anyone that really stepped over the line .

It soon transpired that this "Owner" was getting free stuff and handing it out to lesser peons on the site , she also started making money from it .... no problem for me . People were being sent on jollies and events and it was still not an issue for me . Donations came in to make the place paid for and that was what got to me , she was earning from it but asking for donations . She was doing well as I was told they had Plasma TV`s ..... every console known to man in their home . They soon had a new car and a woman that was notoriously shy of pictures was appearing on the early days of Facebook and was far from the poverty she was pleading . I pulled her on this and stated that I did not appreciate being lied to when obviously they were doing well . This was behind closed doors over MSN . Next time I tried to log in , my password to the Admin features was reset without me knowing and when I logged on to the actual board itself i was down as just "Member" and without the ability to post .

Needless to say she was confronted over MSN , she tried to blather her way out of it and I was having none of it , I never darkened their door again . Blocked all forms of comms from her and let a load of people know what and why I was not returning , I wanted no part of a site that was begging for money when doing so well and pulling the wool over the eyes of it`s members . I understand that revenue and servers need paying for , I even contributed myself for this labour of love ..... but never again will I do that . And a site that ends up wanting money for certain things just leaves a nasty taste in the mouth ..... damned if you do , damned if you don`t .

[Runako]

It would be difficult to argue ownership of content, other than having a moral claim to it but it sucks to put heart & soul into something, only for it to be corrupted or removed from what made it good in the first place. So I suppose your post will remind people just how good it is here as its easy to take it for granted after a while.

[Biker Biggles]

One of the diving forums I'm on has just changed hands, it was very similar to this place in that it was a small group of individuals who started a small community that grew. There had been some real coups over the years on there with people helping each other out.
The place was non-commercial, except the reality of being a bit bigger meant they had a few ads but a lot of private donations as well.

The owner has just sold the place to a company that "does forums", they try to attract content and make a profit from selling ad space.
Their first act was to change the T+Cs to remove any members rights over their own content, and remove the ability to edit posts. The next step in this company's past performance is to make the classified adverts chargeable, and to start charging members for access to say, the tech section... The next step, don't say anything negative about one of the advertisers or get banned. (see how well that works on SVrider!)

Needless to say this has put a lot of the "old guard" membership's noses right out of joint. Especially ones who have contributed their intellect or even cash to make the place.



It got me thinking, this place is great being a community rather than a commercial endeavor. Forums run commercially don't seem to have half the spirit. Possibly because people are less inclined to help when they are worker bees in someone else's profitable "content generation" machine, rather than it being a metaphorical pint on the bar from someone you might meet on a ride.

The whole thing seems to reflect the general development of the internet, from a gloriously anarchic phenomenon of freedom in information into the 'web we see today where everything is financially driven to show ads to the masses, information carefully meted out and well intended advice becoming someone else's method to extract profits.

Long live the enthusiast-led, independent forum!




(Well what a meandering diatribe of bollox that turned into... sorry... don't worry off to the pub soon, normal service will be resumed...)

STOP PRESS STOP PRESS

YC becomes a raving lefty:D:D:D:D

[widepants]

All that will happen in my opinion , is that the older members of the site will simply leave the site and go else where.Some bright spark will then start another site and all the old regulars will hopefully then gravitate towards this site.It happens in every aspect of life.
Many years ago 5 of us got to gether and used to meet up on a sunday morning for a private fishing match.More friends started to join and before we knew it friends of friends were starting to tag along ,then complain and then moan and eventually try to take over.The thing that we started became a differant animal and the original 5 just left them to it.

[Bibio]

one of the reasons i admire John (admin) is that he has not succumb to advertising and or selling even though he has had offers.

well done John and may it long last.

[chris8886]

one of the reasons i admire John (admin) is that he has not succumb to advertising and or selling even though he has had offers.

well done John and may it long last.

:smt038

[garynortheast]

One of the diving forums I'm on has just changed hands, it was very similar to this place in that it was a small group of individuals who started a small community that grew. There had been some real coups over the years on there with people helping each other out.
The place was non-commercial, except the reality of being a bit bigger meant they had a few ads but a lot of private donations as well.

The owner has just sold the place to a company that "does forums", they try to attract content and make a profit from selling ad space.
Their first act was to change the T+Cs to remove any members rights over their own content, and remove the ability to edit posts. The next step in this company's past performance is to make the classified adverts chargeable, and to start charging members for access to say, the tech section... The next step, don't say anything negative about one of the advertisers or get banned. (see how well that works on SVrider!)

Needless to say this has put a lot of the "old guard" membership's noses right out of joint. Especially ones who have contributed their intellect or even cash to make the place.



It got me thinking, this place is great being a community rather than a commercial endeavor. Forums run commercially don't seem to have half the spirit. Possibly because people are less inclined to help when they are worker bees in someone else's profitable "content generation" machine, rather than it being a metaphorical pint on the bar from someone you might meet on a ride.

The whole thing seems to reflect the general development of the internet, from a gloriously anarchic phenomenon of freedom in information into the 'web we see today where everything is financially driven to show ads to the masses, information carefully meted out and well intended advice becoming someone else's method to extract profits.

Long live the enthusiast-led, independent forum!




(Well what a meandering diatribe of bollox that turned into... sorry... don't worry off to the pub soon, normal service will be resumed...)

100% agreement here. I've seen it happen to sites before. Something of a reflection on the way society is headed as a whole. Everything being seen as an opportunity to enable people to trouser sums of money.

one of the reasons i admire John (admin) is that he has not succumb to advertising and or selling even though he has had offers.

well done John and may it long last.

Again, 100% agreement.

[a_monkey_hint]

Another forum I'm a member of has just sold to a commercial forum company based in Canada. They've put all annual prices up for traders by over 400%. These guys do it for a little bit of pocket money, so can't afford to pay these trader prices.

So much for a small community forum.

[yorkie_chris]

Another forum I'm a member of has just sold to a commercial forum company based in Canada. They've put all annual prices up for traders by over 400%. These guys do it for a little bit of pocket money, so can't afford to pay these trader prices.

So much for a small community forum.

Verticalscope by any chance?

[Sid Squid]

(Well what a meandering diatribe of bollox that turned into... sorry... don't worry off to the pub soon, normal service will be resumed...)
True.

Notwithstanding the above:
Long live the enthusiast-led, independent forum!
Agreed, well said that man!

[a_monkey_hint]

Verticalscope by any chance?

No it's an Astra forum

[yorkie_chris]

No I mean the company that's bought out the forum.