State of the forums - January 2021 - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > State of the forums - January 2021

madsushi: Apr 19, 2009; Baller.
#essereFerrari

Extrapolating from available data, SA will be unsustainable by March 1st. It has been a pleasure posting with all of you.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 19:56

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 23:52

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Avicus posted:

How does a paypal subscription option compare against patreon? I haven't seen it mentioned here.

I'd be cool either way; place deserves my money.

i'd guess that it would be slightly cheaper, just pp fees instead of patreon + pp fees

# ? Jan 27, 2021 19:57

mizbachevenim: Jul 13, 2002; If you fake the funk, your nose will grow

I can�t find DPPH and am confused by this monster truck talk

# ? Jan 27, 2021 19:58

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

madsushi posted:

Extrapolating from available data, SA will be unsustainable by March 1st. It has been a pleasure posting with all of you.

gonna short the forums p hard and be a bitte coin billionairey

# ? Jan 27, 2021 19:58

Musical_Daredevil: Dec 23, 2008; Need some backup NOW!

I would absolutely contribute to a forums patreon. Some of those proposed projects sound awesome and I'm glad to see they're in the works.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 19:58

bradzilla: Oct 15, 2004

Waltzing Along posted:

If the previous owner had been this transparent about the sites income, no one would have given him $$ during one of his begging sprees.

almost as though he was scamming us

# ? Jan 27, 2021 19:58

Cannon_Fodder: Jul 17, 2007; "Hey, where did Steve go?"
Design by Kamoc

When am I getting my loving spaceship pictures?

# ? Jan 27, 2021 19:59

Seik: Apr 15, 2006; Yes, I am indeed purple.; Pillbug

I hope you're compensating yourself for the cost your labor. I wouldn't want to preside over this sounder of swine for free.

Would also kick in a few bucks to a Patreon.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:00

GABA ghoul: Oct 29, 2011

maybe we could save on hosting costs by encouraging people 2 not pst so mny fckg lettrs & wrds. jst a thght

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:04

Populon: Mar 1, 2008; What's the matter,scared?

ChubbyChecker posted:

lmao at how much lowtax lied

I bet he never even had a spine!

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:05

Antifa Poltergeist: Jun 3, 2004; "We're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you"

Put the sites profit into a financial vehicle managed by cumshitter: the Something Awful hedge fund.don't actually do this.

But yeah, keep the 10 bucks reg fee,and go with the patreon idea.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:05

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Cannon_Fodder posted:

When am I getting my loving spaceship pictures?

While I have purchased the assets of Something Awful LLC, I have not purchased its debts. My hands are clean.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:07

Rhymenoserous: May 23, 2008

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

I've been looking into this and it's hard. I certainly don't like the idea of paying patreon a cut though, clearly, the credit card companies take their cut as well. Subscription code would have to function differently from existing code, because I don't want to store any payment information on our side, and we'd need a way to set and expire your subscription status without you personally making web requests to do it. It's something I want but, imo, it will be a long time before the gains actually outweigh the development and maintenance cost. Unlike the forums I am not attached to our current store software and am going to be evaluating alternatives.

With modern carts and payment gateways credit card information should be on the gateway level, even for recurring payments. An updated cart would allow you to leverage PayPal which is great for folks who for whatever reason can�t or won�t get a CC.

I�m willing to bet lowtax wasn�t doing his pci compliance poo poo because he seems like a lazy rear end in a top hat.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:09

Asterite34: May 19, 2009

GABA ghoul posted:

maybe we could save on hosting costs by encouraging people 2 not pst so mny fckg lettrs & wrds. jst a thght

If Wheel of Fortune has taught me anything, it's that vowels cost money

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:10

Bicyclops: Aug 27, 2004

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

While I have purchased the assets of Something Awful LLC, I have not purchased its debts. My hands are clean.

Great. Now who am I going to harangue about the CITY NAME SPORTS TEAM t-shirt I ordered in the mid aughts?

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:11

HugeGrossBurrito: Mar 20, 2018

Cannon_Fodder posted:

When am I getting my loving spaceship pictures?

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3943531

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:12

Cowcaster: Aug 7, 2002

i saw this thread because rope kid tweeted about it

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:12

frodnonnag: Aug 13, 2007

October 22nd - October 31st, 2020:
Raw store revenue: $8,401.55
Processing fees: -$509.30
Goldbelly cookies: -$5000
Hosting cost: -$1,127.33
Office rental: -$2000
Car Payments:-$750
Spineshard realignment:-$1000

someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my forums are dying

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:13

Cannon_Fodder: Jul 17, 2007; "Hey, where did Steve go?"
Design by Kamoc

HugeGrossBurrito posted:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3943531

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:13

Full Metal Jackass: Jan 22, 2001; Rabid bats are welcome in my home

frodnonnag posted:

October 22nd - October 31st, 2020:
Raw store revenue: $8,401.55
Processing fees: -$509.30
Goldbelly cookies: -$5000
Hosting cost: -$1,127.33
Office rental: -$2000
Car Payments:-$750
Spineshard realignment:-$1000

someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my forums are dying

Spend less on cookies.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:13

frodnonnag: Aug 13, 2007

Full Metal Jackass posted:

Spend less on cookies.

No.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:14

i am a moron: Nov 12, 2020; "I think if there’s one thing we can all agree on it’s that Penn State and Michigan both suck and are garbage and it’s hilarious Michigan fans are freaking out thinking this is their natty window when they can’t even beat a B12 team in the playoffs lmao"

If you want �forum goer market share� you�ll need to figure out how to position SA as the anti-Reddit that is also worth spending $10 on. The $10 should be understood to gate the community off from the worst kind of internet posters. You should purge your mod teams of the shittier ones, ban them from posting, and do away with the probation entirely. Sometimes mods act like salty cliquey dorks and aren�t really quality posters.

If someone posts something bannable then ban them. Quit probating people it�s weak

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:17

dolphinbomb: Apr 2, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Cowcaster posted:

i saw this thread because rope kid tweeted about it

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:20

Phlegmish: Jul 2, 2011

Good job Jeffro

Voted 5

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:22

Alan Smithee: Jan 4, 2005; A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms, enthusiasms...

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

As promised, I figured I'd give an update regarding the forums finances and where we are at. I want to be open about such things - the money we make is to be managed by me on behalf of the community, rather than funding my own lifestyle, and as such there is no reason for me to keep these numbers private.

Income:
October 22nd - October 31st, 2020:
Raw store revenue: $8,401.55
Processing fees: -$509.30
Hosting cost: -$1,127.33

November 2020:
Raw store revenue: $7,903.01
Processing fees: -$635.22
Hosting cost: -$1,126.40

December 2020:
Raw Store Revenue: $5,549.14
Processing fees: -$463.28
Hosting cost -$1,138.45

Credit card processing fees are pretty harsh. Hosting costs remain relatively stable for now, but in the next year, costs will go up. We have some modernization projects that are going to require spinning up new servers and migrating to them, and, in the interim period, both new servers and old servers will co-exist. In addition, some of these new costs will be permanent and represent things that provide new functionality or development resources. It's wild that we don't have a dev database instance and I plan on keeping one around.

Other costs we will incur include bills for legal and accounting services. These will be for the purpose of keeping the business in good legal standing and are 100% unrelated to the initial transaction with lowtax - I gave my word that forums store purchases wouldn't go to him or making a deal with him, and I meant it. I have kept a strict separation between forums finances and my personal finances and that is how it will stay.

I would like to congratulate Skyl3lazer for spending the most the first month - he will get to permaban lowtax! He spent enough to pay for an entire month of hosting costs, super cool.

I think this has the potential to be a really good year for something awful. I intend to be proactive in growing this place, be it be enticing old users to return or attracting new ones, and I intend to do so without compromising the culture here. I think old-style internet forums are the best way to communicate online and I think a lot of people who have never posted on a forum would use them if they knew they were there.

Forums tech has been progressing nicely. I am still in the process of doing the legal legwork to hire Astral (it is more onerous than I ever realized to do this right.) We have some big improvements planned even if many of them are under the hood. There is a tech forum now that I expect will get much more active over the coming year as more stuff changes.

Overall, while we are covering our costs just fine, I could use more money for development work. I am not going to pretend that we're on our last legs, or struggling to pay hosting costs. That said, I am going to spend money on modernizing the software and software process around here. Developer hours are expensive and there is a lot of work to be done to modernize this place. It would be nice to have some sort stable base of revenue that doesn't so much depend on people making purchases each month. I am considering starting a patreon for this reason - recurring donations are difficult to implement in the store software we have, and it would be nice for planning purposes to be fairly certain we're gonna get at least $X/month. Please let me know what you think of this - my impression from the emails I've received is that a number of people are willing to contribute each month, and they currently don't have a way to do that.

I still don't have an update on the front page. There has been so much to do for the forums themselves that it's hard to even start thinking about the frontpage. I managed to get lowtax's name off of it, eventually.

how many goldbellies does this buy you

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:24

BIG NORTH: Jul 7, 2007; I THOUGHT YOU WERE THE DEAN

100% on board for a small subscription to fund improvements. this place owns and I hate the rest of the internet.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:27

AdmiralViscen: Nov 2, 2011

Black August posted:

I think the best use of the front page would be to condense it into an approved feed of forums content, with plenty of forum links. Which is something that should come AFTER the forums themselves are cleaned up and improved- it should be the last thing done. I think that way the front page could serve as an advertisement for the forums. Include a small timeline about it being 20 years strong and better than ever. Show off things SA is famous/responsible for. Advertise it as an anti to social media.

Agreed

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:27

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

BIG NORTH posted:

I hate the internet.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:28

Bicyclops: Aug 27, 2004

w/r/t the front page, one thing to consider, maybe, is redirecting somethingawful.com to the forums (or maybe just the goldmine)? If the goal here is attract new users, I think an ancient looking article collection page with a "pardon our dust" message at the top is a major stumbling block. You can always keep the front page as somethingawful.com/weirdoldfrontpagerelic and bring it back once we have a clue what it should be for.

Almost everyone here bought an account because of something they saw on the forums anyway (I can remember the thread that brought me on board), it's not like Lowtax's ICQ pranks are bringing people in.

e: i think highlighting good forums threads is fine, but typically the articles that try to walk people through them are cringe, so it probably takes more thought than that.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:28

Rotten Red Rod: Mar 5, 2002

Please do a Patreon. I'd subscribe a small amount per month in a heatbeat, with or without perks.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:29

Arrhythmia: Jul 22, 2011

How do you plan on growing the forums?

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:29

dee eight: Dec 18, 2002; The Spirit
of Maynard

Arrhythmia posted:

How do you plan on growing the forums?

lots and lots and lots of fertilizer

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:30

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

i am a moron posted:

If someone posts something bannable then ban them. Quit probating people it�s weak

6ers can be funny, day probes are a fine way to tell people to knock it off, but I definitely agree that people shouldn't get week/month probes and that should jump straight to ban

(I have no idea if long probes are even a thing anymore, I feel like I haven't seen many)

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:31

Inzombiac: Mar 19, 2007; PARTY ALL NIGHT

EAT BRAINS ALL DAY

Keep the Nazis out (not quarantined but completely out) and I'd gladly support a Patreon.

SA is really important to me, I've seen it evolve in to a really great community and ensuring that it stays afloat is pretty high on my list.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:31

Tei: Feb 19, 2011; Can't post for 5 days!

Rotten Red Rod posted:

Please do a Patreon. I'd subscribe a small amount per month in a heatbeat, with or without perks.

This. Or getting bought by Yahoo.

Yahoo Something Awnful.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:31

Quackles: Aug 11, 2018; Pixels of Light.

I like the idea of a Patreon. Thumbs up from me.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:34

FLIPADELPHIA: Apr 27, 2007; Heavy Shit; Grimey Drawer

I will contribute monthly to a Patreon. Post a link!

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:34

Fashionable Jorts: Jan 18, 2010; Maybe if I'm busy it could keep me from you

Inzombiac posted:

Keep the Nazis out (not quarantined but completely out) and I'd gladly support a Patreon.

SA is really important to me, I've seen it evolve in to a really great community and ensuring that it stays afloat is pretty high on my list.

I second this.

I'm poor, but I'd throw a few bucks a month at SA. This is one of the best places in the internet, and I'd be down for supporting it.

Not to sound like a total nerd, but SA has genuinely made me a better person and has helped me though some bad times.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:35

Elephant Ambush: Nov 13, 2012; ...We sholde spenden more time together. What sayest thou?; Nap Ghost

Black August posted:

I think the best use of the front page would be to condense it into an approved feed of forums content, with plenty of forum links. Which is something that should come AFTER the forums themselves are cleaned up and improved- it should be the last thing done. I think that way the front page could serve as an advertisement for the forums. Include a small timeline about it being 20 years strong and better than ever. Show off things SA is famous/responsible for. Advertise it as an anti to social media.

FWIW I agree with this. All the best front page stuff was basically "best of the forums" summaries. And I love the idea of us being the alternative to social media since it's very quickly become a toxic wasteland.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:35

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 23:52

Full Metal Jackass: Jan 22, 2001; Rabid bats are welcome in my home

dee eight posted:

lots and lots and lots of fertilizer

We're gonna need you to post more

# ? Jan 27, 2021 20:35

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