Hi all,

As some of you saw over the last 24 hrs we've been offline. This has been due to a lack of funds from both me and pulse to be pay for the hosting of the site. Us being back online appears to be from pulse digging deep and managing to come up with some dollars to keep us up.

Unfortunately taking donations has always been a problem with the site (paypal just doesn't like the fact that we have a sister site, porn613). We'll be looking at maybe trying to distance plus613 from porn613 in the hopes of being able to re-launch a donations link for our more loyal visitors and possibly ad-words or some other type of banner advertising to try and cover some of the costs of the server. At the moment we're paying over $300USD a month just to keep these pages up and running (the box plus613/porn613 uses is used exclusively for the sites due to the amount of hits we get).

Although i'm not really happy with the quality of the products sold by metacafe we might also be looking at offering a t-shirt/mug range for people who want to make a donation but want something in return. It's all being discussed by me and pulse but something needs to be done. I'm in the middle of building a house and pulse is seriously looking at buying an apartment so cutting some fat from our expenses is really required.

The site has been running for nearly 4 years now and both of us would hate for it to go the way of the dodo.

--DK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2007 12:41PM by DarkKlown.

Nothin like open and frank dialogue to clear the air a bit, and I thank you for confiding these thoughts DK.

I can understand the dilemna with Pay Pal and their position in the matter though honestly with porn having become as mainstream as it is these days, that's really a bit pragmatic for them to take such a tack. If we could do Pay Pal I'd be outta the loop anyway since I no longer have nor want one of their accounts ... a long story and of no consequence here anyway, so ....

Is there a way to take donations through more conventional credit card services ? I know they take a piece of everything that comes along, but then so does Pay Pal.

I'd think most folks would prefer to donate if they were getting some Plus 613 based product in return, but all in all would this realistically put more $$s in the coffers of Plus 613 or the vendors ? I'd hate to think if we purchased Plus items that most of the funds were actually goin elsewhere instead of helping to keep more $$s in ya'lls pockets so the site itself could stay up.

I really like this place & can appreciate the dilemna of digggin up $$ every month to keep things goin and would do whatever is workable to help out as much as I can.

I'm curious, what happened to the banner ads ? Were they not helpin, or just not payin their monthly due ? I know nobody enjoys the damned things, but the alternative surely sucks !

How about implementing a yearly username fee ? Maybe even auctioning off a list of cool user names ? I know this doesn't address the anons (other than the registered "Anonymous" but would likely draw some measure of acceptance by the ones here that use a registered name and like myself are whores to this place

Just a few ideas, but I'm sure ready to do whatever I can to help you and pulse out, so keep everyone in the loop !

Kim

Ditto!

P & DK: just give us your acct. #'s and we'll direct dep.

Count me in too!I'll even mail you a donation.I also agree with kim,why not try a username fee.

Post Office box address and the method of payment, I'd be glad to give something. ALSO dump Porn613 and just run the Plus side. I was also thinking in general that you might consider writing a script that a sudo moderator can only delete a picture/comment/forum etc only if the post itself has had a certain amount of votes to have it banned. So therefor you can open up Moderation of Plus613 to selected users but no bias moderator can Just arbitrarily delete a Posting with out community concent and then and only then it is still at the moderators discretion.

hmm...that sounds vaguely familiar...

If MrsBlah and I had anything to spare we surely would donate. We're living paycheck to beer can returns right now. Our house mate (God bless her) just hasn't been coming through quite enough lately.

As far as losing Porn613, it might be a good move for many reasons. Lord knows there's enough porn sites out there anyway for those who want porn. I don't think I'd miss it much, to be honest.

WITCH!!
BURN HER!!

I AM A BLACK MAN AND I WANT PARIS HILTON TO LICK AND SUCK ON MY HAIRY PURPLE SCROTUM... I ALSO HOPE SHE IS RAPED AND BRUTALLY DISFIGURED BY PRISON GUARDS WHILE IN JAIL... SHE IS A DIRTY SLUT. WHAT HAS SHE CONTRIBUTED TO SOCIETY? WHAT? ONLY URINE, FECES, AND USED BLOODY TAMPONS..NOTHING ELSE.

uhhh kinda off topic there, dude...
although i have to say, i entirely agree w/ ya

Back on topic.
Where do we send the checks?

The problem with cheques in a foreign currency is they cost something stupid like $25 to cash .. And the problem with you drawing cheques in Australian dollars means that it would probably cost you something stupid like $25 to do Would be much better to have that cash in all of our respective pockets, rather than the banks. That's also the problem with Cafepress or metacafe etc as Mrkim says .. if we were to sell a t-shirt for $15USD, I think we'd get a dollar? So that's 300 t-shirts a month to cover server costs. Just not going to happen.

Maybe we can use one of the alternatives to PayPal, or maybe they'll get off our back now we've removed the "main" link to porn613 off the site.. the problem is to find out I have to go and get ANOTHER new bank account & do the sign up crap & jump through PayPal's security hoops again to be told it's not good enough 24 hours later. We'll see what we can do.

Oh yeah, and to update DK's comment, I have now bought an apartment, and so now really need to find help to pay for the site. I've just plugged in what the server costs into a mortgage calculator, and if I put the money for the site onto my loan instead I'd save 13 years & 3 months off the loan, and $278,000 in interest

So we'll think of something, as that sounds pretty good to me.

Regarding banner ads etc, they don't work on porn613 as they're all pay per signup - it's basically impossible to even get pay per click porn ads these days let alone pay per display. And the thing with people who visit free porn sites is .. they tend not to pay for porn elsewhere.

Also, ads never really worked well on plus613. Google won't let us run adwords for the same reason as PayPal (too closely linked to the porn site), and non-porn banner ads pay even worse than the porn ones do.

We always wanted to keep plus613 100% ad free, but the costs of doing business in real life are starting to take their toll. In the last 4 years I've coughed up in the region of $10-15k USD to keep the site running. Don't get me wrong, I've never minded.. but now we're all grown up and trying to do something with our lives, the toll it's taking is starting to become very high

Thanks for all of your positive words though, and yeah we'll try and sort something out

I figured there would be a problem or two with the different currencies. Just wanted to make the point that some of us value this site very highly and would be more than happy to chip in. Keep us posted (pun not intended, but it does fit, doesn't it?).

quasi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I figured there would be a problem or two with the
> different currencies. Just wanted to make the
> point that some of us value this site very highly
> and would be more than happy to chip in. Keep us
> posted (pun not intended, but it does fit, doesn't
> it?).


Me tooJust let us know what you guys want us to do,i have no problem with sending some dollars!

Kill Porn613. Do what ever you must to survive the Plus side. Really. What is there to discuss about sex that hasn't been done? I mean I like to see naked people doing naked things, but really what is new about that. Plus613 Has many topics for discussion and occasionally naked people doing naked things happens twice in a while, but there is so much more to Plus613 that really would be shameful if lost to the cyber cosmos graveyard. Plus613 has 1774 Pages of posts, PORN613 has 5945 pages of posts just a small crapy math calculation and that is 300% bigger than PLUS613. Or you might see it (of course there are other expenses) Plus613 is 25% of your total cost. I like being a moderator over there on the other side, but really I like spending time on the PLUS613 side. It has close to unlimited potential for communications as to how I see it in it present condition. Pornography will always be around if 613 does it or not.

Charge fossil 5 cents for every post he makes.

Good point, plp. I like porn613 as much as any other guy but what is there isn't anything that can't be found elsewhere. If it stays, the wankers that have made it so large need to quit pulling their puds and pull out their wallets. If the porn side is so damn popular, let it support the more worthwhile side, let plus613 be the pimp for pron613 so to speak.

Thats some massive revenue leakage pulse

First idea of killing porn613 would be a good bandwidth reducer. Then obviously you wouldn't have to jump through so many hoops with google, paypal etc.

I like the idea of having paid membership options. But you would definately need good reasons to be able to pay for such a membership. paid member options such as personal avatars, no image/video size limit and also when being a paid member it will remove any advertising.

Another avenue could be affiliation or server sharing with a similar site. Considering the large amounts of traffic id assume this wouldn't be too hard to get off the ground.

I think adding Google adsense to the main plus613 site would not be a problem at all..as the design of the site is quite simple the ad's wouldn't be obtrusive.

milk Toad for the worthless venom

pulse has been saying for awhile that we should kill porn613. The only reason it's still around is that i believe it protects plus613 from being corrupted with adult images. 'Why post on plus613 this pic of some tits when i can post it on porn613'. The whole reason that porn613 was started was to keep that stuff away from plus613.

Still, it's definately looking like the way forward.

Why post on Plus613 this pic of some tits when you can post it on a thousand other sites and newsgroups? I agree with Pulse. Besides, people still post nudes and tits and actual porn on Plus613 anyway.

in defense of pron it is good that is there, in that it is a 613 style of pron site...
but i am asking the big question if it is really appreciated with a certain group of posts
to see if it really matters at all
the two latest posts there...

It's not that I don't appreciate porn613, but that I appreciate plus613 a lot more, and if I had to choose between the two I'd go with plus613. If porn is getting in the way of plus, then loose porn.

Now we know what it costs to run this,we can all put our twopense in.
Someone above suggested paying to log-in, Pulse wants to sell T-shirts and others want to bury the much abused sibling.
For a once off $300 I want a T-shirt with a ciggy pocket, size L, and the use of my handle. Now where do you want the cheque posted.
Problems solved!
No more kiddy porn, no more limp wrists, no more rock spiders

As it stands at the moment, I'm investigating trying to improve advertising revenue from porn613, and possibly looking at the inclusion of advertising on plus613.

I know it's something we always said we never wanted to look at doing, but since porn613 isn't carrying plus613 like it was designed to (it had 2 tasks - protect plus613 from porn, and raise revenue to allow plus613 to live ad-free) we have to look into it.

I still believe porn613 ads value to the 613 network simply by keeping this site MOSTLY clean (for those who were around before we split the sites you'll remember how bogged down with porn things were getting), so I'm tending to think it's nice to keep it but .. we'll see.

Basically, we have three choices right at this moment..

1. Investigate advertising or advertising improvements for both sites
2. Move everything to a much cheaper hosting provider (slow+ page loads etc)
3. Shut down potentially both sites

Obviously of all 3 of those options, I'm keenest for #1. So we'll see.

We'll also look at taking donations, finding a payment system that isn't PayPal to do it.. because I'm tired of opening new bank accounts only to get them banned days later.

We'll keep you posted.

The bill for the server is due again on the 1st of the month - from that point I plan on giving our advertising an go for a month & seeing what happens. The current caveat of that is currently no advertising networks will allow us to display their ads due to the "adult nature" of the site.

the link to porn613 is missing from the buttons on top left...

no its not. you're goin' blind.
shoulda listened to yer momma.

i fucked your momma

The link was removed in an attempt to appease advertisers.

It didn't work. All the major ad networks are passing on the site, as it's "adult" in nature (despite not being a porn site)..

They're doing their best to not make it easy