Sean Malone
01-14-08, 11:37 AM
There is a board I’ve been a member of since it debuted 3 years ago that is dedicated to owners of the same make of boat. It has 247 members but I think only about 8 people have ever posted anything and it’s usually just the mod, a guy in England and myself that post. Well, the mod informed us yesterday that the owner emailed him to say that due to the costs and lack of activity on the board, he is looking to sell. His asking price…$5,000.
The mod, a really nice fella, doesn’t want to see the board go away (he is a retired old sea dog that just wants to shoot the &^&* about boats and he doesn’t know the first thing about message boards i.e. how to make one, host costs etc.) so he is asking if $5K is to high of a price because he is thinking about paying it!!!. The English guy and myself immediately and emphatically told him that he needs to put the check book down and step away. It’s not worth 5 pennies let alone $5,000 dollars!
English guy said he knows of popular message boards where it is a full time, lucrative venture for the owners. I’m guessing the boards he is referring to have sponsor activates and high traffic and vast reputation. The cost of message boards or any website can get vague due due to reputation or predicted future value. I told him that as it stands right now I wouldn’t pay anymore than $100 for the domain name and personally I would just come up with a different one and start from scratch.
The board is built on PHPBB2 which is open source free software. I informed him of this (which he didn’t know) and also told him that it is the least robust board software. I’ve personally setup at least a dozen PHPBB’s which can be done in under 5 minutes.
It sounds like either the owner doesn’t understand what the thing is worth or more likely he is trying to sucker the mod into a quick 5K never to be heard from again.
Also the owner is thinking about introducing a $75 membership fee per to which you can guess what my reply was to that.
Us OC’ers are long time board members and of all the boards in our little corner of the internet, do any of them support their owner as a full time income. I’m guessing sillyponie probably has turned his into a full time venture. Have any of the others that anyone knows about?
I’m also a member of a motorcycle board also that has ~42,000 members with on average ~3,500 members logged in at any given second. It has sponsorship from two dozen aftermarket companies and they do monthly prize giveaways (great stuff too like a pair of Michelin Power Pilot tires which cost $300 or a $400 Arai helmet). They have a voluntary donation, for $10 a year you get a red R (it’s a gixxer board) on your name and access to the downloads forum where you can get scanned shop manuals (the manuals are about $35 + s/h on ebay). I’m guessing that could be a lucrative site.
I’m toying with the idea of telling the old sea dog I’ll make a message board for us and he can mod it and promote it (he said he wants to find sponsors). Heck, I have host space I don’t even use.
The mod, a really nice fella, doesn’t want to see the board go away (he is a retired old sea dog that just wants to shoot the &^&* about boats and he doesn’t know the first thing about message boards i.e. how to make one, host costs etc.) so he is asking if $5K is to high of a price because he is thinking about paying it!!!. The English guy and myself immediately and emphatically told him that he needs to put the check book down and step away. It’s not worth 5 pennies let alone $5,000 dollars!
English guy said he knows of popular message boards where it is a full time, lucrative venture for the owners. I’m guessing the boards he is referring to have sponsor activates and high traffic and vast reputation. The cost of message boards or any website can get vague due due to reputation or predicted future value. I told him that as it stands right now I wouldn’t pay anymore than $100 for the domain name and personally I would just come up with a different one and start from scratch.
The board is built on PHPBB2 which is open source free software. I informed him of this (which he didn’t know) and also told him that it is the least robust board software. I’ve personally setup at least a dozen PHPBB’s which can be done in under 5 minutes.
It sounds like either the owner doesn’t understand what the thing is worth or more likely he is trying to sucker the mod into a quick 5K never to be heard from again.
Also the owner is thinking about introducing a $75 membership fee per to which you can guess what my reply was to that.
Us OC’ers are long time board members and of all the boards in our little corner of the internet, do any of them support their owner as a full time income. I’m guessing sillyponie probably has turned his into a full time venture. Have any of the others that anyone knows about?
I’m also a member of a motorcycle board also that has ~42,000 members with on average ~3,500 members logged in at any given second. It has sponsorship from two dozen aftermarket companies and they do monthly prize giveaways (great stuff too like a pair of Michelin Power Pilot tires which cost $300 or a $400 Arai helmet). They have a voluntary donation, for $10 a year you get a red R (it’s a gixxer board) on your name and access to the downloads forum where you can get scanned shop manuals (the manuals are about $35 + s/h on ebay). I’m guessing that could be a lucrative site.
I’m toying with the idea of telling the old sea dog I’ll make a message board for us and he can mod it and promote it (he said he wants to find sponsors). Heck, I have host space I don’t even use.