RS246.com Forum :: The World's #1 Audi R, S and RS Enthusiast Community

Thought I would share this PM from Tombs with everyone. (Thanks Tom for allowing me to post this in public)

Hi Phil,

I think its a shame that this site is being abused, I believe any fan/club or any group of people who start a medium of any sort should try and keep it free and open for those of a similar interest to join and get involved with, but if it grows to the point where it starts to cause stress and annoyance and isn’t fun anymore for those that run it then it must be either stopped or pushed forward with a commercial intent.
If there is anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to contact me, I believe this site is one the best of its kind, it has a wealth of information and great mix of characters who come and go, I would have thought 99% of the guys who visit or join are genuine, I do hope you decide not pull the plug and don’t lose heart!

Best Regards

Tombs

Thanks for the kind words Tom. I suppose we did everything we could to make this site as popular as possible, but the growth has been the greatest shock. The site was designed to almost be self maintaining (Software), but as time goes on we have plans that involve a certain amount of revenue. Currently we have the following:

- Hosting is foc - This may change as RS246 alone did over 200Gb of transfer last month thanks to someone in Latvia!!
- The current machine was donated by myself, but thankfully we have had a brand new £1700 Dell server 'donated' by one of our users.
- Obviously all the upkeep is foc and performed by the Crew.

We would like to ensure that the revenue comes from businesses wishing to support the site(s) in the form of banner advertising, and therefore we need to keep an eye on the people who are not willing to pay. Banner advertising is considered the least intrusive for the users, and most acceptable for advertisers. Just as an idea our top package offers 250,000 displays of a banner advert for £200.00!!

We have no plans to 'pull the plug'; the only thing that will cause this is an increase in running costs that we are not willing to fund from our own pockets. The real plan is to build more sites like RS246 to encourage a larger user base and advertising opportunities across multiple sites. This plan is already underway with the following sites:

www.autowebmedia.com
www.trackdayheroes.com
www.911rennsport.com

As always the focus is to keep the sites focussed on healthy discussions for the owners and enthusiasts. The users come first.

Thanks,

RS246 Crew.

eh? is there some story behind this then? When Tombs says about the site being abused etc and talk of (not) pulling the plug?

Dunc

Good point Dunc!!! All started in this thread - http://www.rs246.com/index.php?name=PNp ... ic&t=49338

Just to add, I'm sure that everyone appreciates the following:

1) We have all enjoyed the benefits of RS246.com (and I am the first to admit it), and this has only been possible by the generosity of certain people as described above. I would like to publicly give my thanks for that generosity, and I will continue to pay some of it back now by doing my job as one of the Crew.

2) As there are enough members here to make it a valid source of new custom for businesses, offering paid advertising is perfectly reasonable. However once the rules for advertising are made, they must be adhered to, because otherwise it is unfair on the advertisers who pay.

3) Classified ads are commonly FOC because those selling are not traders and are generally not seeking profit from the sale. However as noted above, any trader who uses the FOC classifieds to make profit are gaining an unfair advantage over paying advertisers.

4) It is indeed difficult to police misuse of the classifieds, so making them a chargeable service may be inevitable.

5) There is no doubt that some businesspeople here are also enthusiasts and provide a valuable input to the forums. However that is also true for many of us who are not in a related business. But the mere fact that, without overtly advertising, such businesspeople can provide valuable advice here and therefore gain a reputation which will increase their business, is more than compensation for the advice they provide. Therefore for the Crew to moderate their overt (unpaid) advertising is perfectly reasonable.

This place has cost me, saved me, helped me, twisted me, and provoked a lot more conditions not normally associated with sitting in front of a computer

I can't see why the site cannot be funded by the trade, Dippy you're right, we have helpful trade guys here that offer great knowledge, and in turn their reputation becomes valuable - and for the sake of a couple of hundred quid I would have thought it was a no-brainer not to formally advertise?

How can you weed out the abusers? Not let anyone with less than 50 posts use the classifieds?

Not sure what I can offer but if I can, just shout.

All the best lads,

Ben

Thanks 246,

Been around here 2 years now and have meet and spoke to a lot of very nice and interesting people (and done some real crazy <beep> to boot).

Only one thing for me.....Can we have something like our old classifieds back please??

I always felt that it was ran by the users for the users, and in that sense was self moderating 99% of the time. Anyone who wanted to sell something had to make at least one post and become known by the forum from that point onwards. Why should people we know nothing about be benefiting from the system we have now, especially when long term members are trying to sell their equipment at the same time???

Ok, so apart from the cars that were for sale in there it was pretty obvious what had, and what hadn't been sold (i still can't tell, can anyone else?).

Me personally, I would re-open the forsale/wanted forum up again and have it in the registered members area, that way, any other interesting bits and bobs the regulars may have for sale besides cars can be advertised in there without being frowned upon. Anyone who wnats to advertise for commerical gain must then use the banner ads that can be provided.

Just for example.

I currently have a lot of very good diving equipment for sale, possibly someone on the forum may be interested in it, who know's, there isn't an area for me to post about it. Would it be looked upon badly if I posted about it to everyone.....not at all I would have thought, and I would much prefer to sell it to someone on here than to someone I dont know at all.