Adshare+Forum theme+other announcements.

[PalmerTech]

Hey guys! Time to let you guys know what is up, and ask for some feedback.

1. In the next week or so, I hope to be able to put together a custom PHPBB3 theme for the forums. Yay.

2. We have made $30 this month! Yay! However, we need to figure out what to do with ad money. We have not had any "massive" threads like the 500,000 view Sifuf one on benheck, or even the very common 100,000+ views that most portables on engadget get. We are still a new forum, so it might be a whole before we fully finalize the ad system, but we may as well have a trial run of something for now to figure it out fully. Here are the options:

1. All ad money goes to me, you guys get absolutely nothing, I can do whatever I want with it.

2. All the ad money goes to me, and I will use it to pay for hosting first, and use the rest to buy prizes for contests.

3. All the money from completed projects threads goes to the people who posted the thread, according to a formula based on exact views.

4. Half the money from completed projects threads goes to the people who posted the thread, according to a formula based on exact views.

5. Have the adshare system set up so that people can get ad money for threads, but only if it gets to the point where it matters. To be honest, I do not want to be managing $3 micropayments to people.

I was thinking of a system along these lines: I get the money from the ads, use it to pay for hosting first, then all leftovers go into a "general fund". Whenever someones gets a number of views that actually matter, say, 50,000, they get a payout from the general fund. They will get another payment at 100,000, another at 200,000, and so on. The payout will be based on the average ad revenue per view. So if we are making, say, $1 for every 10,000 views, you would get a $100 payout at 100,000, $200 at 200,000, etc. What do you guys think the view limit minimum for payment would be? The rest of the general fund will be used to fund prizes for any contests we have. Any other tweaks to the system?


And finally, what do you guys think of an official modretro store? I was thinking it would be good for things like those "100 screens" deals that pop up on eBay from time to time, they could be bought, and then sold from the store at a small profit (The goal would be to help modders). In addition, people that have products that they make and are relevant to the community could get an account on the store. For example, Jleemero could have PS1 modchips, and robm could have his OBPD system listed for sale. People also seem to want polarizers for gameboy backlights, and it is hard to get new film in low quantities, so that could be sold, along with LED backlight strips and the like. I also found a 3.5" LED frontlight panel for $17+shipping that I could get a LOT of, those could be sold for $25-30 shipped anywhere in the world, and it would help a lot of people (still cheaper than scavenging from a dead GBA SP).

Thoughts on the above are good! Go! I put a poll, just vote if you are in favor in general, I will make a seperate poll for the adshare thing at a later date, in case you guys propose alternate systems.

 

[Mario]

Also, add 3mm LEDs to the store! You can get them from ebay for CHEAP!

 

[XCVG]

I like your idea for the adshare, but the significant number should be lower, maybe 10,000 views or so. Also, an official ModRetro store would be cool, if done right. Member-made products could be sold, and you could search for lots and buy them if the price is right. Also, maybe portable-specialty supplies that are kind of hard to get. I think a custom theme is a waste of time, there are other more important things.

Also, how come nobody has posted a review or worked on the wiki? Both could be excellent resources and bring more people to this site. I'm posting a review every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I haven't worked on the wiki recently. Also, tell jlee to fix the wiki, I can't upload images.

 

[J.D]

I prefer the theme. I think this forum looks too much like Benheck.

 

[snowpenguin]

New theme FTW.

Adshare, Palmer's general idea seems good.

Store: ABSOLUTELY YES!

EDIT: Just voted, it seems the results part is screwed up. It's counting them all as one thing, should count them separately and give them each a percent of how many people checked that box and how many not, maybe 2 more voting threads?

 

[Tibia]

I do like the idea of a forum store. That has the potential to be quite a resource.

At this point, I'd love to see any ad money pay for hosting, then be set aside for store inventory. Building and maintaining inventory costs quite a bit. It will take a significant amount to get started.

 

[snowpenguin]

I do like the idea of a forum store. That has the potential to be quite a resource.

At this point, I'd love to see any ad money pay for hosting, then be set aside for store inventory. Building and maintaining inventory costs quite a bit. It will take a significant amount to get started.

I like that idea for the money from the ads unless the money from one completed portable gets in excess of, say, $10, then the money can go to the person, or maybe 75% of the money to the person. I like the idea of having money left over and using that to buy things to put in the store and make a slight profit, then you will still have money to fund things like compos.

 

[Zero]

New Theme: I think this is a really great idea, we need to really give ourselfs a unique look, and this is the perfect thing for the job. Just be sure to keep the old theme as an option for members in the UserCP and you'll have the best of both.

Adshare System: This seems like a really good plan, although I think you should at first keep everything and devote it to modretro (hosting, advertising, new items for store, etc.) and then distribute it eithier in the form of cash or prizes. Another really cool thing you could do is have a points system relating to the amount of views in your project threads, and then you can use those points for prizes or use them as payment in the MR store.

MR Store: As you can see above, I think this is great as it will bring profit to the site and it would be especially awesome if integrated with the AdShare system. That way, we would get cool prizes for our projects, and the money is also distributed back to MR so the site can be expanded further.

 

[themadhacker]

NO NEW THEME!

I think it is best to look like benheck, as all other forum themes look like crap. not one forum theme have I liked except BH. Well, that and our current theme here.

Oh, and I am all for the money going to the modders. Even if it is 3 bucks.

 

[snowpenguin]

TBH TMH, I would rather anything under $10 headed for me go straight to the prize fund, or the store fund.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Idea: How about a PayPal link that lets people who are so inclined make a donation to the site? Funds can go to the modders or toward paying for site expenses or prizes for competitions. Could be a good way to make a few extra bucks.

 

[snowpenguin]

YAY I spwaned an idea out of T_W!

 

[PalmerTech]

Donation link is a good idea, but I refuse to implement if until we have a really good system for where it goes; I do not want to be seen as a money monger.

I am reading your replies, but not gonna respond till moar people have a chance to chip in with their opinions.

 

[Tibia]

I like that idea for the money from the ads unless the money from one completed portable gets in excess of, say, $10, then the money can go to the person, or maybe 75% of the money to the person. I like the idea of having money left over and using that to buy things to put in the store and make a slight profit, then you will still have money to fund things like compos.

If someone is going to sell a completed portable through MR, I feel that they should get MOST of the money. As for a stock of screens, regulators, LEDs, etc., who's going to be willing to front the costs for that? That's where having a store could get quite expensive. Eventually, it'll get to a point where there's a nice bankroll. Then, the funds could also be used for contest prizes, etc. Initially though, it's going to need a lot of help to get started.

 

[snowpenguin]

Yes, it will need some money to get started, but that's where the ads come in.

As for the 75% thing, I was talking about the ad money coming in from views on a portable, not selling anything.

 

[Mario]

I like that idea for the money from the ads unless the money from one completed portable gets in excess of, say, $10, then the money can go to the person, or maybe 75% of the money to the person. I like the idea of having money left over and using that to buy things to put in the store and make a slight profit, then you will still have money to fund things like compos.

If someone is going to sell a completed portable through MR, I feel that they should get MOST of the money. As for a stock of screens, regulators, LEDs, etc., who's going to be willing to front the costs for that? That's where having a store could get quite expensive. Eventually, it'll get to a point where there's a nice bankroll. Then, the funds could also be used for contest prizes, etc. Initially though, it's going to need a lot of help to get started.

Shouldn't they get ALL the money?

 

[Tibia]

Well, e-Bay works with listing fees. Perhaps a more reasonable system could be implemented here to help pay for the exposure the site gives?

 

[jleemero]

Selling Through ModRetro
I think the idea of being able to sell items through ModRetro, store-style, would be great.
Portables and other electronic devices.
I DO think, however, that ModRetro needs to make something off of this.
Not a lot.
And to be honest, probably not even from the sale itself.
I'd say that money would have to come from something else that's simple.
Like, let someone Pay to not have ads on their items page.
Or perhaps making people pay a small (Think <$2) sign-up fee to be able to sell on ModRetro, etc.
Something along those lines.

ModRetro Merch
The idea of a ModRetro store, with ModRetro stuff.
I think it's a bloody cool idea.
Sure, the usual, T-Shirts (which I personally wouldn't buy), hats, mugs (which I'd buy in a heartbeat), etc.
That's all simple, and it'd be cool.
But also outright products, stuff that's not necessarily "Merch", but just COOL stuff that Retro Gamers would love.
This is ModRetro after all.
Anything from old games and accessories down to Merchandise related to Retro Gaming.

Ads Outright
Ads, their needed, they're worth a surprising amount, their good for the forums.
The money from Advertising on this site really ought to drive this site as a whole.
Or at least, that's a nice idea, isn't it?

Ad Revenue
Now, what can we do with Ad Revenue?
Let's make a quick differentiation here. Ad Revenue is free money, essentially.
It's support from the user base.
Money from a Shop, etc, is VERY different, and not at all what I'm talking about here.
I'm saying strictly Ad Revenue.
Right now, we already make enough to pay for this site, which is WONDERFUL.
Even a little extra.
As we expand, gain more users, content, etc, our Ad Revenue will go up, that's simple to understand.
If we were to be as extreme as doing something like an Ad-Cow to draw in large numbers of users, we could increase our Ad Revenue TREMENDOUSLY.
As far as I'm concerned, this should ALL go toward supporting the site itself.
Paying for hosting, etc. BUT, of course, there's extra. I don't expect that to change.
As far as I'm concerned this extra should be put toward benefiting the community.
Fun and Games and attracting traffic all at once: Contests.

Contests
They've already been mentioned, thankfully.
I can speak from quite a bit of experience, Ad-Revenue piles up FAST as your traffic increases, and you can quickly afford some pretty sweet prizes.
Doing large contests, ESPECIALLY effortless ones, drive traffic, and are frikkin fun.
Obviously, contests involving modding of some sort (Case-Mods, LED Contest, Portable Making, etc) are great too, and relevant to the community.
But small, fun prizes, issued for effortless enter-and-win type contests are GREAT for traffic.
As well as simple stuff. "Guess the Game", showing a tiny portion of a screenshot from a classic title. Winner is drawn from people with correct answer.
Stuff like that is EASY.
And contests do well, for the community as a whole.

Ad-Share - How & Why it Can Work
I don't know if it was originally Palmer's idea or not, but it's a great idea regardless.
Adshare, being able to earn revenue from your threads alone.
For those who don't know, the idea here is that users can earn a portion of the Ad-Revenue gained from views and clicks within their thread.
Factoring AdShare into my previously discussed topic of Ad-Revenue is actually very simple.
It's simply a matter of calculating how much of the Revenue was gained from a user's thread, and givin' 'em the cash.
But, of course, that wouldn't work as-is.
Everybody would be getting pennies and nickels here and there, and the Index and Forum pages would be all that accounts for ModRetro's Revenue!
So that's not quite how it would be done.
Now, there are two things I can say would honestly work.
The first would be the Minimum Method.
Simply that a single thread must generate a minimum amount of revenue (my preference), OR a minimum percentage of revenue, in order to collect their share.
That way small threads that make up a few cents don't pay out, where as high-traffic threads with many posts that actually make a few bucks, contribute to the Poster's wallet.
The second method, honestly, wouldn't work without the first. It "could", but you'd hit the same problem as straight-up division.
The idea is submission.
People must ASK for their thread to be added to the Ad-Share program, which it's part of for a set or variable amount of time.
So long as the thread is accepted into the Ad-Share program, they will receive their portion of the revenue at the end of the month.
Now, employing these two methods together, I would consider ideal.
Only the first method, and, well, there's not much wrong with that.
But employing both methods, users with proper threads that are driving traffic can collect earnings, while others who aren't generating traffic, OR simply would like to allow ModRetro to keep it's share, don't have to be paid.
Putting these two methods would be ideal for ModRetro as a Community, as far as I'm concerned.
Only the first method, well, we'd see quite a few happy users.
Regardless, what matters is that it's managed in a set way.
Straight-division would run ModRetro into the ground, and land a number of people with $0.05 PayPal Payments that they pay $0.12 fees on.

 

[Basement_Modder]

[slightlyofftopic]
Heres an idea to go along with jlee's "Modretro merchandise" idea- put our logo on game consoles! We could set up a system in which we have somebody (I could do it) take commissions to modretro-fy their systems (paint 'em white and slap a logo on or summin') [/slightlyofftopic]

ADSHARE
I vote for Palmer using the money solely for paying for the site/ improvements until somebody gets 100,000 views on a "completed" thread, at which point, adshare will take effect. However, I think people should only be able to "cash-out" once a year, but may do so whenever they like, so choose wisely.
THEME
I think a new theme, if done right, would be great. Nothing dark; that scares people away. Definitely custom, as none of the pre-set ones that come with PHPBB3 are very good. Perhaps a circuit/ schematic-esque design in the background, sort-of like the old POD background as far as transparency.
STORE
I think its one of those great ideas that we just have to make before we can work out the finer details. That is how we learn, after all.

 

[grossaffe]

I like the idea of money going towards prizes and hosting fees.