blonde poker forum

Anyone else find themselves going to this page to have a mooch.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?action=stats

I love looking around but do worry about the lowering post counts! Tikay loves his Y-O-Y figures December has gone from 17k to 11k to 7k over the last 3 years. Difficult to revive things I know but Blonde misses the DTD updates I think I still check blonde every day but mainly the betting threads.

Big surge in new members last month so lets hope we can pull these guys in to post more! The post figures are up slightly this month as well so lets hope 2015 can be a better year in terms of posts on blonde! I know things are moving towards Facebook etc but I feel like a right loser when i come on here refreshing looking for new things!

Also anyone price up who will win the race to 100k posts and when they will pass that mark?!?

TightEnd      90549
tikay      86078

didnt know that page existed.  Interesting reading.

Whenever i think... oo blonde feels quieter at least the stats back it up!

live updates is a huge lose for post count each update would have over 500 posts
and while people were on the forum looking at updates they would post elsewhere aswell

Pretty sure Tikay has been round the clock already.

Booder wins the internet.

I'll have a small bet on myself.

If you offer me a decent price

Looking for 66/1

Probably need an escrow too

Any volunteers?

Ok max bet 50p  ;slavedriver;

Thanks Callum.

I visit that "Forum Stats Page" every day, proper saddo, eh?

I'll reply to a few questions, as it is something that greatly interests me, for obvious reasons.

"....Big surge in new Members last month?...."

Well no, not really.

To sign up to blonde, but prevent bots signing up, we have a "Captcha" code thing, which works quite well.

Unforch, in December, the code must have failed, or been "cracked", as we had a suddden influx of new Accounts one night, all spammy ones, which we immediately banned.

The Captcha code was repaired, either by Iron or Kinboishi iirc, & it's fine at the moment. 

I've been waiting with some interest for our latest new Member to Post, he (or she) signed up several days ago, but has yet to grace blonde with a post. Generally, someone who signs up with the alias "MikeHunt" is going to be an interesting one.

Most online - 482- July 2nd, 2008!
Anyone remember what was going on that day???

Nothing particular, as it turned out.

We investigated the sudden upsurge, as we wanted to know the reason.

It turned out that the IP Addresses were all identical - it was traced to a University or College in the American Mid-West as I recall.

We sort of assumed they were given some sort of thesis or project, which involved researching UK Poker Forums.

The traffic always spikes when there is a bit if a scandal going off though.

Yes, the January Post count is running 36% above last month's number, though last month was the lowest monthly total since July 2005.

It's, hopefully, a sort of controlled descent.

After it fell to a very bad number in August, I (& others) made a concerted effort to "pump" the Forum, resulting in much improved numbers in September & October. I could not help with that in November or December though as I was very busy with work, mainly getting the UKPC nitty gritty sorted, & the numbers rapidly dwindled again. It just needs that bit of "priming" to arouse interest. 

It's easy to say "we are not doing much wrong", but no matter how critically we self-examine, the truth is all UK Poker Forums are in rapid, perhaps terminal, decline. We could do a few things better, I suppose, as we are frequently told, & they may be right, but it's not for want of effort.

Our traditional "rival" used to be The Hendon Mob, but then Joe & Co sold it. It is, to all intents & purposes, dead now, very very low post count, almost unmeasurably low.

They then opened, for commercial reasons, "Poker Mob". No disrespect to my very good friends Joe & Barny, but that's "very quiet" too. At this exact moment, as I write, it has "6 Users" Online. The biggest ever "Daily Users" there was 56.   

AWOP is struggling too. Right now (as I write) they have 61 Users Online, 50 of those are "Guests", & 11 are Members. (On blonde right now, this minute, we have 106 Users, of which 23 are Members).   

Gutshot has long gone, & Newcastle Poker Forum closed last year.

APAT Forum, which is very focused, is doing OK, as they particularly "engage" with Members for Events. As of now,k they haver over 200 Online, of which 17 are Members. In total, all-time, they have 230,000 Posts in 14,000 Topics, compared to blonde, which has 1.98 million posts in 62,000 Topics. (For context as to size). 

I dare not look at Betfair Forum, it just makes my varicose veins flare up.

So there seems to be a decline across all of them.

Twitter, facebook, da de da have obviously changed the whole dynamic of course.

Good threads, & good thread starters, are key.

And we do have some good threads here, just not enough.

You may be surprised to know that Mr Camel is, probably, the most inventive & successful of the Thread Starters, leaving aside Tighty's daily efforts.  

Some of Camel's threads are very enduring & extremely popular - "What Happened to?", "Fred" & several others prove that.

But mostly - & perfectly understandably - regulars cba to start threads, they prefer to read "ready-made" threads.  

I'll try & address the contentious subject of "diaries" shortly.

in addition to all the issues discussed (updates, social media competition, lesser recreational involvement in poker from long time blonde members, not enough controversy etc) it is now easier to lurk on the forum rather than post than it ever was via mobile phones

For example when we first started people would have been looking at the forum on desktops and laptops. i know myself that these days that has changed a lot to tablets and phones

personally, when on the phone, its really easy to view every post in chronological order but not as simple, time consuming and fiddly to do a long post on a phone

easier on a tablet, but not as regimented as it was in 2005-2006 when everyone was using the forum in a more "static" manner

structurally, i feel this hurts post count too

the number of people who i see who say "i read it all, but i am not a poster" has risen a lot compared to a few years ago 

as one example..because i seed the forum all the time or attempt to

i posted on saturday a topic

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=64744.0

it may or may not be interesting, but its a "think" type thread

546 views, not so bad

5 replies. Bit of a headscratcher

things soon take off when there is a ruck though :-)

Blonde is holding up really well, imo, compared to the other forums you mention.  The poker area of the betfair forum is virtually dead and awop is literally just a G casino sponsored NW poker blog with hardly any interaction from outside of the NW hardcore fans they have always had.  The lack of live updates have definitely affected the forums in general, esp blonde and awop, in recruiting new members but the general decline in poker in general is the main cause for me as casual people just leave poker for good.

With regards to mobile i certainly fit into that category of always reading but never making anything other than a one line post on my ipad.  All my bigger posts are done via laptop just because it is so much easier to type.

Losing posters like Jason Herbert etc also cause post counts to fall massively.

I think that's a a huge factor.

When blonde was in it's heyday, such as it was ever, there was no "mobile".

I view it on Mobile a lot - throughout most evenings - but almost never post from a Mobile device, for the reasons you mention.

I also switch blonde off completely when a bad ruck is going off, I don't populate recreational forums to get involved in bad blood, my recreational time has a very strict label on it - FUN.

Work is for pain, forums are for fun.

Each to their own, of course, I believe many others enjoy it when it kicks off.     

AWOP is going to be quieter now that Grosvenor have decided not to do 25/25 updates.

Diaries.

There is a view that these are, generally bad for blonde. 

I've thought long & hard about this, & I disagree. Sure, they have negatives - everything does - but the pros outweigh the cons by some distance, imo. 

The strange thing with them is how many people "view only" the Diaries, but rarely post. It's by far the majority. I guess it's easier to read, & requires less effort, than to write. Perfectly reasonable.

Specifically (this is not to criticise anyone)......

Conky

At one time, his was easily the most popular diary here. Then he moved abroad, & time differences meant that "convos" became stunted, & he got less feedback. He recently made it clear that without feedback, he was less interested in writing. I feel exactly the same, feedback is key. I don't blame him at all, but it's a fact in the decline.

Posh Alex

Similar thing, very very popular indeed, & a LOT of feedback. But then, for reasons of his own, & not connected with blonde or critical towards blonde, he chose to stop it, & do a standalone Blog. Lot of posts went down the swanee, just like that.   

He has returned recently, & he gets great feedback & bounce. 

Plinop

A hugely popular Diary.

Yesterday he announced he was closing it.

Bugger. I say, bugger.



These things are outwith our control, it's life, progress, it is what it is.

There are several other excellent Diaries, Up/Down'Middle Eso, Pretty Boy Russell, & many more. They all help.  Oh, & the "How to Make a Cup of Tea" Diary, too.

The other forum that I post on is much smaller than Blonde, and it's gradually gotten quieter over there, too.

That said, we've managed to engineer a Ladbrokes reunion of sorts in April, and that should have upwards of 100 people there.

Our member base isn't very geared towards online poker, but they love a good drink :D

Fred

Far & away, & not even close, it tops all the blonde stats.

This, in itself, brings problems, because it can detract from other Sports Threads.

On balance though, the "Fred Effect" has livened up the Betting Boards overall, & that Board is now the (all time) 2nd most poplular Board on blonde.

It's quite a task to keep everyone happy though, no matter how hard we all try. It's already in decline, has been for a while, for a number of different reasons, mainly it's sheer size, which inevitably creates conflict & departurtes. It's the internet, that's the way popular threads go. Personally, I'm completely content that I left nothing on the table, I gave it my all. It would die within days if Tighty abandoned it, that's for sure. 

Pretty sure that without Fred, blonde as a Forum would be facing a severe problem now, because there has to be a "lower limt" post-count after which there is no point persevering.

We have to be mindful, too, that Flushy invested a bunch of money to save blonde, & so, up to a point, we have to try to protect blonde as much as possible, & the major decisions, if push ever comes to shove, sit with him.

I'll try & address Live Updates later. For the moment, don't be giving up, they may return, & quite soon, but they require time, effort (by Updater/s)& money to finance them. Maybe we overdosed on them previously, & they would not be taken quite so much for granted in future. Remember, someone pays for them, & they expect something in return for that cost. I'm not convinced the various sponsors got value for their money. Not many readers, when following an Update, actually convert into sign-ups.   

Yes, it's a "market sector" thing really.

The internet changes our habits so quickly. Twitter only began 7 years ago, now it has 500 million accounts.

You have to remember that back in the day we didn't half post a load of crap.

Also someone would start a 'Blonde is dying' thread every couple of days so that would keep things ticking along.

Forum Competitions

We still have a few, but nothing like as many as previously.

They are up to Members to start, & run.

We had one on Tuesday evening, & it racked up 172 replies in just over a day. Great stuff.

They take a bit of time & effort though, & need someone to start them, & others to spread the word.

Mere generally runs a few each year, too - Cheltenham, Royal Ascot, WSOP, & they get huge traffic.

We used to have that "Sheep" quiz thing, but it lost a bit of buzz, due to familiarity I suppose, & the increasingly difficult way the questions were phrased. 

Deffo a net loss to blonde, but we can't expect Tighty, Mere & Scott to start them all. (Apologies to any I omitted due to memory failure).

there was a thread "One word Story" that was in the top three of posted on threads until 2010 and top ten until earlier this year

it ran 2005-2007

all you had to do was post a word, then someone else followed on with another

it ran for thousands of posts

looking back, it seems incredible that people were energised by it

was that post count or forum traffic that meant anything? is it likely to be repeated? no and no?

there are plenty of other examples too where post count now compared to post count then is like comparing apples from Mars with Oranges from Saturn

things have moved on in t'internet world a long way...technological change, people's viewing and posting tendencies, why people view the forum, what they do instead etc etc

lol I remember seeing a 'last post wins' thread on a forum before, ran forever and ever and was one of the most popular topics.

Ha, I'd forgotten those - there was a 3 word version, too.

Juist proves it's not all about Post-Count, is it?

Anyway, if the 1 word or 3 word thread was our only salvation, good luck to everyone, but count me out.

Last man standing has an incredible 31 runners, 28 last time round. its a rollover, so £1240 first prize. Such a simple format, but generates some decent banter and anti railing. Think Sovietsong is responsible for introducing it to blonde.

Yup, that's one of those I forgot, sorry Sov.

Very popular, because people had to engage.

EDIT - Just had a look - not dissing it at all, but it's taken 6 weeks to generate 270 Posts. So it averages about 6 posts per day. Every little helps, of course. 

Were the blonde poker leagues and competitions not popular?  They seemed to be at first that's for sure. Doesn't need to have added value necessarily but were popular especially when the names associated with blonde played in them.  

never especially popular, by which i mean they got 50 runners or less and usually a lot less

the best one ever was a team league on virgin, 80 runners in teams of 4 for a few months and plenty of craic around that

I am not sure, to be honest, because latterly (the last 8 years) they were a bit awkward for me to puff or partake in, my hands were a bit tied elsewhere. 

Next Door, we still have "Community Nights" such as the blonde Cardroom used to have, & they remain immensely popular there. It's mostly "little" players, like me & you, just having fun.

blonde is a bit peculiar in that respect, as we have a disproportionate number of Big Boys, to whom that sort of stuff holds no interest.

Do you think this is a reason why so many people read but don't post because they feel 'out of their depth' or 'nervous' about posting to the big boys?  I know this isn't the case as everyone is totally sound on blonde and would never make anyone feel like that but as a newbie or micro stakes player some people must love reading the high roller stuff but feel a bit in awe to actually post in said diary/thread?  Just putting it out there as an idea.

Some very interesting points made by tighty and Tikay and they all add up for me.

Sorry to go into detail but I have just sat on the loo reading the thread and then im returning to my desk to post. Most if not all of my "longer" posts come from a laptop or PC. I will post on my phone or IPad but its a lot more clunky and i can type much faster on a keyboard. (its also easier to spell check and because my spelling is so bad that helps!)

I do browse a lot, in fact i pick up my phone, get rid of all my notifications, facebook, email, texts, whats app, missed calls etc then i go to blonde. Whenever i go the loo, I go to blonde. Its interesting because my dad historically took his paper to the toilet, now he takes his ipad with his paper on it with him. How times change.

I read TFT, Tikays diary, betting board etc every day, but dont necessarily post. Sometimes I feel I have nothing to add so whats the point but then i suppose that can be self harming.

It is sad but i get very excited when I see a thread has "taken off" whether that be TFT or any other thread. Unfortunately nowadays im placing more and more bets from different sources, very rarely doing any of my own work. Often i have forgotten where a tip has come from and I need to remember to say thank you more often!

Overrule

I would say this does have some effect yes. The hand analysis section on blonde has always been one of the best i have read, Facebook 2+2 even skype chats get a lot of people bickering, blonde does always seem to avoid this. A lot more constructive feedback and then constructive feedback on the feedback.

TFT i very rarely post bets, I dont know why! I really should do more I think I have ideas for bets and then tend to back them for small myself, I have no idea whether I am up down or indifferent on my own bets, I really should but i just dont have time to keep a spreadsheet!

:)

Probs hits the nail on the head there Mark, in the old days it was certainly newbi/rec heavy and of course poker was still in its boom period so everyone was keen to learn and interact.
A lot of these newbies either became good, or moved on as they bored of poker. Just look at the top posters on the stats page, half of em are no longer active on the forum

Generally only busy on a Saturday esp round 4.55 pm tho :)

For me it kind of feels like it's changed from Blonde Poker Forum to Tips for Tikay forum. I know there is other stuff going on but just from my pov it feels like a lot of what I enjoyed about blonde has gone know, either directly or indirectly due to that thread. The issue with that then becomes unless you are active all day you come back to 20-30 pages if you've been afk for sometimes less than even 24 hours, and I can't say for others but I just skip that and read the last page or two at most. You could say well why don't you just read the 20-30 pages then, well I could do that but then when it turns out all 30 pages are about bets to place that I've already missed it's a total waste of my time; I could though just have easily missed a discussion on different topics that have no relation to sports betting at all

For example I was really surprised at the lack of a Merry Xmas thread, that's definitely the 1st year I've been on here that there wasn't a thread with a lot of posts in it by Xmas day, I wasn't surprised though to see some Merry Xmas comments in TFT, I wonder how many blondes just completely missed that though.

It's very clear to see that TFT is an extremely successful thread, but I just wonder at what cost to the overall forum.

Maybe I'm just talking bollocks though and it's just me.

PS I'm not trying to make this a smack in the face to people like Tighty and Mere etc who I know put in a ton of work on that thread and are doing so because they believe it's for the good of blonde, this is just my opinion on the current state of things.

There is masses of other stuff though Ray
 

39 threads on the rail have been posted on since Xmas, some will be of interest some won't be

lots of diaries to dip into, some will be of interest some won't be

discussions on politics, religion, race, tv programmes, films, chess, ebola all sorts of stuff

staking threads (admittedly quieter)

hands to analyse (admittedly quieter)

all the sports threads not related to betting


its not as if tikay and i are posting, pushing and promoting tft at the exclusion of everything else, we're not

I often used to post separate threads in the betting section

However they just die so quickly maybe because they were dull im not sure but know i just post them in tft (tbf a hell of a lot of stuff i post in there is ignored probably rightly so)

Same goes for me too.

Yeh gotta agree.

The fact that by far the most viewed, replied to, busiest thread on the "Blonde Poker Forum" is a thread that has nothing to do with poker whatsoever is very strange.

There's also two or three really blatant trolls going about posting in every thread that spoil a lot of it for me. I don't post in lots of these threads because I just don't want to get involved in it. A healthy debate quickly turns into a row which turns into a slanging match. Great to rail and see the handbags being thrown, but post and get involved? No chance.

Can see why people think Tft takesover the betting section (i agree it does a lot of the time)

Do not see how that stops people discussing poker in the poker section?

The reason a betting thread has more posts than any other is simple, because there are so many new topics to talk about every day.

Yesterday: Premier League football, racing at Ascot and darts semi finals.

Today: NFL playoffs, darts final and a Celeb Big Brother eviction.

It is like thousands of threads rolled into one.

think it just mirrors the gaming world in 2015 compared to 2008.  Poker is relatively dying and sports betting is booming.

and the betting board, apart from tft, is very active

10 threads posted on today

40 since Xmas

Tft is dominating the betting board less than it has for two years

today you could discuss, MMA, Darts, NFL, fantasy leagues, tips, boxing, dogs, celeb big brother on seperate threads on that board

have a sport you are interested in? there will be a thread and someone to discuss it with


perception, judging from comments here, is VERY different from the reality

And that's the problem.

Yes but I for one can't be arsed to wade through 30 pages of stuff I have no interest in on the off chance that there might be one that I am interested in.

so find the thread for any sport you are interested in

most sports have active discussions on that board, aside from the tips thread

I though we were discussing the one thread.

the sports discussion board is much more than that one thread

People assume all the content is in there, its not. Lts of sports and events and clubs have threads dedicated to them

The In The Well threads were always good

Could be wrong but the vast majority of posters in tft would not even be serious poker players

A very popular thread attracting posters all the time is surely a good thing

I think the decline in recreational poker has much to answer for.  The game has become hard to beat even at the lower levels so even the players who liked to splash and dash and enjoy banter no longer post. 


I think TfT is also on the decline, the next move might be an actual gambling forum.  I could see this appealling to a number of people.  I have been put of gambling forums in the past though as you get some utter headbangers on them.  The Betfair forum for example just makes my eyes bleed. 

I'm with Tom and Ray. The TfT thread is great for those who are active on it, but there is plenty of other conversation on there that used to happen on other threads, but now it's more confined to that thread.

The example of the "merry xmas" messages is a very good case in point. Many would have missed those messages unless they follow that thread, whereas in the past they'd be on a separate thread that any member would have spotted.  Multiply that out over a host of different small topics and it makes a difference.

It's not the only reason, or even the main reason that the forum has changed. But it's certainly one of them.

Just as a matter of interest, who was responsible for starting a "Merry Xmas" thread? Who are we blaming for that? Those who don't like, or subscribe, to TfT, could just have easily have started it.

We seem to be forgetting that the decline at THM, AWOP, NPF etc is far greater. They don't have TfT, they suffered, just as we have, from the basic decline in forum usage due to other digital platforms, mainly social media.

People seem to prefer to read rather than post, follow threads rather than post new ones.

If people won't start new threads, we can hardly blame blonde, or TfT imo. It just how things are these days.

For me, it's all incidental, of topic banter and side stories that get lost amongst reams of bets and tips.

I'm not blaming anyone, just saying how it is for me.

Think there was one but hardly anybody replied lol

As someone who has read every page of TFT since it started i don't really understand why people think loads of stuff outside of sports betting is discussed on there.  Normally the discussion on there is heavily sports betting to the point of boring even the casual sports betting fan.  Anyone who doesn't read it isn't missing anything 99% of the time other than pretty boring advanced/semi advanced sports betting discussion.  As Horsey said the vast majority of posters on there either don't play poker anymore or much less than they used to five years ago.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=64685.0

642 views

19 replies

ForthThistle wished us a happy christmas

My reply was more general, someone earlier had lamented the lack of a Merry Xmas thread. My point was, well why not start one?

So there was one!

Prob Tft fault nobody saw it :)


Even though it was in the rail

If farce thistle was in the clique, it Woulda got a load more replies.

Good point :)

TfT is in decline, yes, for lots of reasons.

Based on what many are saying - and I am not being churlish, or a smartarse - maybe that is a good thing.

Personally, I think blonde would be much poorer without it, but I may well be wrong there.

Everyone shares the responsibility to start new threads.

I agree. No one could deny it's a very popular thread

Yes I started a thread that made longer then 3 pages without 90% of them being mine!

This is the best 'dying' thread imo

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=59582.0

Anyway, we could all present a series of sophisms to support our particular perspective.

Today, I probably think that social media has sucked up most of the generalist stuff. Forums like this probably/inevitably ? end up trading in the more specific interest stuff like the punting thread

Not bad as everyone says, just different

Ha, well done.

If more people started threads, we would not have a problem. it's that simple, imo.

Some quotes from that first page

"Been dead for 12 months"

"Not much happening"

"And missing member X "

So basically the same as this thread but from over 2 years ago

But it is far worse (less posts) tha it was then, to be fair, so the elderly gent was correct.

I have no real interest in TFT. I go through stages of reading it, but haven't read for a long time now. I do think nlonde would be worse off without it tho.

lol, plenty of life in Blonde yet I hope - definitely remains an interesting enough community to spend some time reading here each day

Excellent post.

This

Blonde  bashes used to be great for promoting forum growth. . They enabled us to spend time getting to know the people behind the username, which in turn resulted in more forum interaction.

alot of the members from back in the day moved on to forums like sky and apat and even facebook

when flushy kept blonde alive by buying the majority shareholding he encouraged more pro players onto the forum who in turn encouraged more pros

but they have no drifted to skype in the main, with no updates there doesn seem to be anything to draw new blood to the forum PHA has been superseeded by the educational sites

there is very little community spirit anymore sunday threads are no longer made when was the last time people went out and railed someone for chits and giggles (we have all grown up in a way) i remember when we would rail the nun is a 5$ comp FT i event got a rail in a PLHE comp with a couple of k prize pool and the rail was so good that my oppo HU offered me more in a deal than first place prize money.

blonde is a different animal nowadays alot of the posters are more into the punting on sports than the poker and those that do play poker do it quietly

the last couple of meet up have been TfT meet ups with no poker involved
gone are the days when we could fill any card room in the UK for a £30 game most of the active members on blonde wouldnt leave there local casino for a comp without a £10k GTD


since the loss of the updates blonde need to find a new place in the market place we are so lucky we have a forum in first place it doesnt make money for the owners and if they didnt keep putting hands in there pockets we would have no forum

its not helped by the constant bickering on certain threads i have been here 10 years nearly now and for a large part of those 10 years i was proud to talk to people about the blondepoker forum when i at a card game or even wear a blondepoker badge on my shirt, i dont even have any badges now and cant remember last time i spoke of blondepoker to anyone as i am often ashamed of my part as a mod/admin in its decline

Who hacked Iron's account?

Some paragraph crazy bastard.

not only forums that are dying..

http://pokerfuse.com/news/industry/26355-bluff-magazines-final-print-edition-will-be-published/

And what is the link between Bluff magazine and Blondepoker?


































(http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/pictures/Tony+Kendall.jpg)



I think we've found our culprit for the death of poker.

The forum needs more pictures of birds. Feathered ones. Tits, thrushes, starlings.

I could probably go into Blonde's formerly hailed 'premier diary' and find some if i perservered, but i might be faced with tales of multimix, businessmen top 10's and pictures of trains and two stroke engines. I can't take a risk like that.

Camel nails it in one.

Next case.

what we really need is another grimming scandal
it needs to be bigger and badder than ever


who wants to stake me in the next 1 million pound wsop event?

i will sell 90% of my action at 3.0

Has anyone ever seen these two in the same room?




(http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/pictures/Tony+Kendall.jpg)       (http://www.fablibrary.com/spaziofotosito/PDVD_065.jpg)

The grim is on.

I've got £3k of the good people of Blonde's money through Fantasy Football entries. I could easily spend that on lapdances and not pay it out in May.

I will post the pictures to soften the blow.

I'm not sure, but judging by the strange look on Tikay's face when that picture was taken, someone had almost certainly got their hand up his bum.

I didn't say anyone was to blame for the lack of a Merry Xmas thread; I was aware of David's thread, albeit after Xmas when Alex made the 2nd post in the thread and his and most of the rest afterwards weren't about wishing a Merry Xmas, stats manipulation ftw though :P

I also didn't say TFT had made blonde worse or better. I just gave my thoughts on the current situation on here.

First print run of Gordon Hill's biography would be a better spend of the 3k

I JUST FOUND OUT GORDON HILL PLAYED FOR QPR!

sounds a plan if you take me with you

I can get you a signed photo of Ali Dia.

which club does she dance in?

Graeme Souness felt like a right tit when he signed him.












(I'm here all week)

Can we get Father Gascoigne in the well?!

Of course, assuming he is agreeable. So to speak.

Will broach the subject and revert back...

I always thought Keith Johnson would be a good man to get in the well. Ask him what it's like to run a big staking operation. And to get half of deadman's winnings... And how to deal with listening to Mitch's hand histories...

I suggested getting Tapatalk enabled for the forum last year.

I'm a member of another forum that uses the same software, and I never browsed or posted before I found they had Tapatalk.  Now I do both.  2plus2 recently added that functionality.  Think it would help.  It's so user friendly for mobile devices.

Think there's a lack of community feel poker wise. Sunday thread being an example- gone. Mondas staking threads- gone.

Also agree with Alex- i Cba to get involved with a few of the trolls on here who just make every interaction unbearable. Seems strange herbie was banned when there's a few way worse than him

+1 for Tapatalk.

Forums evolve, constantly. I do feel that the community side of blonde has kinda withered and died, not from one big thing but lots of little things - members getting banned and their friends leaving in support, people using phones to lurk and not post as much, off-forum arguments/incidents with other members, people forming skype groups and chatting in those rather than on here to keep their strategy hidden etc, plus people not playing poker any more and naturally drifting away.

As for what we can do, I honestly don't have any suggestions. Live Updates would be good but they're expensive and probably don't bring in enough revenue to support them. The only other forum I can think of that is still growing is 2p2 and that's probably because it's more of a general forum than a poker forum. I'd say about 25% of their members dont even play poker, they post in the Gaming/Health&Fitness/Politics forums etc.

"Tapatalk".

We'd have it enabled now, if we could, but we have a few problems with our software, which is old, in dire need of an upgrade, & decidely cranky. And we are a bit scared that, like a very old car or lawn-mower, once we start messing with it, & adding gizmos, it will just fall over.

DTD offered to upgrade the whole thing, completely free of charge, which was very kind of them. However, to enable them to do that, we, literally, have to "hand the keys" of the blonde software to DTD temporarily. Which is fine. Except that means they could, we imagine, have total access to everything on blonde, including the PM's of all Members. We are, of course, reluctant to do that.

We will try to sort this Tapatalk thing though.


(http://www.evilenglish.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/subaru.jpg)

In, perhaps, ironside's first ever post that contained those pesky paragraph things, he said.....

alot of the members from back in the day moved on to forums like sky and apat and even facebook


I don't want to argue with his fine post, but when we write something, it insta becomes a "fact", & everyone goes away believing it, so I need to correct part of it.   

No blondes, not one, have left blonde to go to Sky Poker Forum. As far as I know, only 3 blondes ever post on Sky Poker, & one of those is Tighty, who does so for work reasons. None of the three have diminished their blonde presence.

However, in the last 18 months, several dozen Members from Sky Poker Forum have migrated across to blonde, & most of them remain active on blonde to this day. They are VERY different forums, & groups of people, so it does not always work, & the rules & ethos are very different. The latest to come across to blonde from Next Door is "TeddyBloat", & I think all would agree, he's a very big win for us.

I have no idea if blonde has lost many or any Members to APAT. I'd guess "not many".

Since THM effectively died (sorry THM), several of their regulars have migrated across to blonde.

I am convinced that the main reason for the decline in post-count is just a factor of how we use the internet these days, things like social-media & Mobile devices. 

If the decline in Posts bothers people (& if unchecked, eventually the place will just wither & die), then the way to counter it is to engage more with others, start new threads, that sort of thing. New threads are the seedcorn, from which all else springs.       

I think that would be stunningly good, but he'd be asked a lot of, perhaps, "awkward" questions as to his staking, & finances.

Do you think he'd be happy to do a Well, knowing that? Some of these matters, as to staking etc, are often considered a bit private. I never knew, for example (if you were being serious) that he staked Simon Deadman.

Tighty normally "conducts" the Well threads, gets them started & "works them", but in this case, I think you should do it Ian, you know Father Check-Raise betteer, & have a wonderful kinship with him.

Over to you.....

There has been repeated mention of "trolls" making life difficult.

Think we need to tread warily here, it's quite hard to accurately define what is, & is not, trolling. 

Just because a Member regularly posts extreme & disagreeable views does not mean he is a troll - maybe he just thinks different to the rest of us?

We get a lot of complaints about one chap, & I'll name him, because he is that rarity, a man who soaks up the jibes & stands his corner - KMac. He's thick-skinned & he'll not be overly bothered by me mentioning him. He might put a few fucks into me, mind, but I'll live. Say "boo" to some folks & you'd think you'd insulted their kids or summat, but KMac just spits back.

Do I agree with many of his posts? Hell no. I disagree with at least 90% of them.

Do I like his online personna? Nope, I think he likes to offend way too often. I've never met him in real life, I suspect we'd get on fine, as it happens. 

Is he often rude? Yep.

But I genuinely think that he believes the stuff he writes. He's a radical, bit of an extremist, some might say a bloody nutjob.

Even so, I don't think he is a troll at all, just someone who thinks different to most of us. No crime in that.

We should not ban people because they think & act differently to most of us.

Remember, too, that without exception, when we ban a Member, we lose other Members in sympathy.

KMac is still a Scottish tosser though.

Tikay has said what has caused the "death" of the forum a few times.   The world has changed a bit and blogs and fora are dying.  Always feels to me like when people blame diaries or TfT they are just saying what they don't like on Blonde.  The rail is probably where it has died most, but the diaries and TfT don't "get in the way" of the rail as they are separated out on the front page of the forum. 

I guess most of us that were once crushing simply aren't anymore and the recs who could get by are now losers.  Hard to get so excited about poker in those cases.  If the people who are now crushing have lived their lives through Facebook, Instagram and twitter, nothing is going to change that when they start crushing poker.

I love the interaction on Blonde and the way you can see the history.  Facebook and twitter seem to be very much about me and right now.  I just find it harder to enjoy, but I do realise I am becoming a bit of an old fart on this.  I guess I'll have to move on and enjoy what everyone else does, but am happy plodding on here for now. 

Must all do our bit.  Will go start a new thread and cause a bit of controversy elsewhere to help you out. :)

Some dwindling in numbers is obviously unavoidable. Mobile browsing coupled with Facebook and Twitter etc are just too big obstacles to overcome.

That's not an excuse. It's a fact. There are some things (imo) that can be done to help forum activity a little bit.

This is just some of my thinking out loud:

- Live updates returning & Sunday sweat thread returning.

- Let's perhaps get some blonde badges printed and have blondes wearing them at events and their local card rooms.

- FLUSHY. As the major shareholder, Flushy was maybe the original and certainly most prominent of the high stakes players. Almost all blondes (particularly in the early days) were very keen to read his posts. Him posting again a bit more regularly and enthusiastically could have a good impact, particularly if he tries to encourage his buddies who also used to post but rarely do anymore to continue posting. The likes of Moorman and Pab posting in the sunday sweat thread would be great.

- Mods need to sort the diary section out. Just get rid or lock an absolute ton of them. Too many diaries mean too much interesting discussion gets missed unless you read every diary. Keep the 5-10 longest standing ones and just archive the others. Might not be popular amongst some, but needs to be done.

- TFT. This I'm really not sure of what to say. It's the most popular thread on blonde but one I never even click. It's too much for me to digest though I was surprised to read that the likes of Monda, Celtic and Red Dog feel the same as me about it. I guess it stays but the slight problem I see in it is that the guys who do use it, spend half their forum time there and not bothered about contributing elsewhere or posting in new threads etc.

- More exciting 'In the Wells' are needed. Surely as a DTD sponsored forum someone could pull a few strings and get the likes of Sam Trickett doing one. Would be great.

- Ultimately members who love the forum have to be committed to making more of an effort to post a lot. Pleno stopping his diary is a huge shame. The likes of me, Vinny, Monda, Celtic have all posted in this thread showing our concern for Blonde's numbers etc yet our levels of contribution have also declined hugely so some responsibility falls on our shoulders as members to give a bit back.

I was working backwards through this and was thinking the same.  

Probably because a few people here love to chuck the "troll" word at me.

Having a strong opinion doesn't make you a troll does it? If you can back up an opinion with a reasoned argument, seems more than fair to me, doesn't mean I agree, but doesn't make them a troll.

Its those people that chuck in a name/comment/abuse and scarper without backing it up, I would say are the trolls, and do more long term damage.

I find KMac very interesting. Don't agree with all of what he says either, and maybe a bit too many F-bombs, but defo an interesting guy. However. This place would be poorer without him, literally(he is a genius on Scottish footy).

I think that peoples knowledge of others here gives them a major advantage. I know very few people here irl, but those that do, know I have strong opinions, nothing more than that. I also try my best to make worthwhile contributions in many threads, hardly the work of a troll. Ditto KMac.

Devils advocate, RED, friend to many, will often pop up on TFT and make a joke or comment, mainly taking the piss out of us punterers, but because it's RED, it's not classed as trolling, but were it a newbie, I suspect it would. Bothers me not, but were it a Newbie, I'm sure the "troll spotters" would label them thus.

Can be a tough gig sometimes, this foruming malarky, and maybe the thin skins find other stuff to do?!

I first heard of Blonde cos I'd got to Luton for a £50 comp 30 mins early and there after about 5/6 (tighty/Chompy/Celtic/claire) around a table chatting, including Tikay who I said Hi too as we had chatted pm the Sky forum. By the time the tournie started, fairly sure that 30 of the 80/100 players were blondes.

As Luton was my local, I think I kept posting cos of the Luton thread, which back then was extremely active. I reckon only a few that used to post back then are active now. But I think it's not cos they stopped posting here but continued playing poker. I think a lot of the nice, friendly, interesting recreationals just found something else to do with their spare time, and thus blonde wasn't relevant to them anymore.

I think people are missing the elephant in the room

DTD sponsorship

I know that there may not even be a Blondepoker if it were not for the kind Mr Yong but before the DTD deal, the promotion of the various different festivals surely encouraged a wider audience and more new members especially during the live updates. It was during a Blondepoker live update that I first heard of the forum.

WRT to TfT I agree with Ray, Vin and Red. It's not for me but I totally endorse it and def would not want to see it go.

I was browsing Blonde the other day while playing poker at Luton, one of the guys asked if I posted, I obviously said yes and asked if he was a member. He said he was but "blonde is not what it used to be, it's a lot less about Poker and more a general forum, the PHA area used to have a lot more high profile contributors" hence he rarly posts or reads anymore.  I didn't think anything of it at the time but the reason for that is how blonde is now is how I have always known it. Everything evolves and changes, doesn't neccesarily make it worse maybe just different.

I would have thought the DTD thing would have helped the forum with the amount of people they have through the door.   It wouldn't take a lot for a few flyers for the forum to be put on tables (sit down & relax ones, not the poker tables of course) or some other form of advertising in the club.

Can the homepage not be updated yet?  I know there has been technical issues with this in the past.

Your point of numbers through the door is valid but I am not aware that DTD actively promotes Blondepoker in its club. Might be wrong though??

My point is that variety of festivals/live updates will always encourage sign ups and its up to us then to encourage new sign ups to stay and participate.

I don't know what the answer is just giving my PoV. These types of discussion must surely help though.

I don't think DTD does promote the forum, that was my point.  I would have thought it could do given that it doesn't have it's own forum and it also has a stake in this place.

As far as I am aware Pre DTD no other casinos promoted Blonde it was Blonde that promoted itself via live updates etc.

but we also ended up promoting other casinos and tours for free. they didn't pay for the live updates, they didn't provide anything for the busy threads promoting the tours/festivals

this was Rob's objection to them continuing to have a presence on blonde once we partnerred

now of course DTD is aligned with almost all the market operators (UKIPT/WPT/Genting) so most festivals are pushed on here, Grosvenor apart

Somehow I've managed to miss Kmac being all of the above. Bizarre. Maybe cos I'm Scottish too.

Us regular posters should just try and start 1 topic a week, there must be at least a hundred of us that fall into that bracket?

I get it but no Blonde live updates! Which are generally accepted as the best in the world.

Sometimes in business you have to offer loss leaders to attract more sales. Blonde should see the free casino promotion as this loss leader. Obviously it's different if being sponsored by DTD but that's entirely my point.

i know the updates are a big loss, i lived and breathed them but the economics of them in this poker market are extremely difficult and the strategy of the operators has changed too

hypothetically we are unsponsored, that doesn't mean we walk into a GUKPT or GPS and start updating again.

I am not prepared to do another three years of working 50 hour weekends for an hourly rate of zero, affecting my quality of life, and i wouldn't ask anyone else to do it

so using market rates for a non DTD update of two people (no more single person updates, i was daft to do them) and taking cheap hotels, travel and subsistence day rates you are talking about £800- £1000 for two days (location dependent, depending on distance, london etc). Thats in an era where all the operators do updates themselves and don't necessarily want third parties in anyway

back in our heyday we had a cardroom generating x and x+y went out on updates

they only worked on here from 2010-13 because i was prepared to do them solo, for expenses only and for the love of it, cost for a DTD event £200 because that was the budget (and it was much appreciated that donations funded it for a year too)

I understand all that and I for one don't blame you. Of course Blonde updates would only work if they could be paid for thus meaning generating income from somewhere to pay for them. I don't know what the answer is but if it was my business I would be trying to analyse the problems and how best to deal with them. I'm sure you are all doing this at Blonde but maybe you should set up some sort of forum to ask for help??

sorry to get on my high horse

i happen to believe that the updates are good for an operator, fantastic PR when done well but its very difficult to prove

Its not as if they would be a panacea for a slow forum especially either. Yes views and posts would be up but traffic on the updates first half of 2013 was much lower than previously (viewers during updates being a key measure)

follow through from any link to "push" stuff was non-existent too

i would love us to have more updates (the Ray came third one was one of my favourites, and i was proud of many others i did). Before me some of the snoopy, jen, floppy stuff hasn't been matched since anywhere but as you can see its not as simple as we would like

even before we consider if DTD actually want them

This lol :-)

Bunch of southern softies on here who are far to precious. 

Ha!

EXACTLY the reaction I'd expect from you. I could not write that Post about many without eliciting a nasty PM, for sure.

You're still a nutjob though. And a Scot. Perfect pairing. 

I find it quite strange that I have only briefly looked at the tft thread once I think !

I think we all go thru spells of not posting much maybe we all are at the same times !

IMHO nearly all types of forums are probably dying, clearly we can all agree the Internet was a much more fascinating an undiscoverec place years and years ago, forum interaction with people who were sharing the same broad interests was just new and exciting! no one could physically confront you on your opinions or over talk you, you felt like your words were printed there forever. it was like the freedom of speech all over again, you felt safe to say what you wanted no matter how controversial. you would get more of a buzz just broadcasting your thoughts to people.

But now with the hugely available online social interaction of the web, nearly everything can be directly commented on. Everyone by now has read thousands of people's opinions on thousands of subjects. so now it's just somewhere people have come to understand you can just 'read' a community online, not create. I guarantee for nearly all users It just doesn't seem that exciting to get involved anymore. Whilst when the Internet was starting to boom it was a diff story.

i agree with a lot of this but i think blonde has been successful in staying ahead of the game/having a massively loyal following compared to most forums.  Numbers might be down but relative to most other forums numbers are up in relative terms even though they have fallen in real terms.   AWOP would dream about having TFT.  They haven't had a post on their sports forum for months (1 post in 2 months - tft just destroys this).  Accept the game has changed since 2006.  Blonde is miles ahead of all of its uk rivals.

Well done for starting this thread Calum, it turned into a really useful & constructive debate. Lots of great ideas, & I particularly enjoyed Conky's post.

If we want this place to continue, we all have to make an effort, we can't just point fingers. Starting threads, engaging in threads, it all helps.

TfT seemed to attract a lot of comment, much of it negative. Of course it's a pain to wade through several pages a day, but it's a complete freeroll to earn 4% on your money & have a bit of fun along the way, so a little effort is needed.  

It's clear we are in decline, but relative to other similar Forums, we are doing pretty well. New Topics & New Posts in January are running around 50% higher than December's 9 year low. 

I'll certainly have a word with Flushy, & see if he will get involved a bit more. He paid a fortune to buy his shareholding, but he's out there living the dream, so I suppose it may be hard for him to spend more time here.

Not sure what we can do about reviving the Sunday Sweat threads. If we see anyone going deep, start a thread, & let's see if it re-ignites any interest.  

In The Well - it looks like we may have one or two in gestation.

Onwards & sideways.

I think it was the title that drew them in.

Perhaps your diary would get more hits if you re named it. I suggest 'Blonde Twat's Page'.

I was reading through this thread and deciding how I was going to make my point when thankfully someone did it for me.

Totally agree with all of the above.

It doesn't help that people are walking on eggshells whenever they want to post something even slightly critical about DTD for fear of reprisals, ban sticks, etc.

Having posts removed was pretty much the final straw for me and at that point my involvement with Blonde was never going to be the same. I'm slowly trying to post more as I still like so many of the people on this forum but it's not what it was for me :(

ban plz

What posts were removed Matt?

It was actually an entire thread containing several posts that conveniently disappeared before too many people could see it.

It's in the past so I don't particularly want to go in to specifics and I know that if I do I'll end up just disappearing from Blonde again because it winds me up.

For now I'm trying to post more whilst focussing on the great aspects of Blonde rather than the ones which to me, personally are not so great.

Furry muff.

FYP

Must admit I always enjoyed the sweat threads, especially if a bit of a rail got going. Reminds me of the one on laddies I think it was where Red was on a final table and Tikay nearly got banned from laddies...lol

Have been following overtheborders staking thread and actually been watching his tables when he posts. Don't see much of that anymore.

Not having blonde bashes anymore probably doesn't help the fun/community side, particularly for the recs among us

Whilst i'm part of the bah humbug brigade i'm not surprised at a relative lack of interest in xmas etc after one member ruined one of the best threads on blonde which was the advent calender.

I guess I feel the same as Matt. A policy of removing threads, deleting posts and generally manicuring the forum to achieve a certain 'tone' left me feeling there was little point in making contributions. In addition, the pro-active managing out of outspoken or edgy forum members, again to achieve that certain 'tone', left the place feeling bland.

What's more, taking exciting issues 'off forum' was driven by personal associations rather than objective modding and this was a self-defeating strategy. If mods knew member a, b or c then breaking news was buried and other members were not allowed to even discuss those issues. Once again this produced a certain blandness and a little clique of those in the know. Finally the DTD sponsorship eradicated the variety, such as local festivals and local updates.

Just a quick word about the advent calendar because people simply can't see the wood for the trees. Blonde exists to provoke interaction, posts and views. Without those things the forum does not survive. The 'spoilt' advent calendar was therefore a thoroughly successful thread which provoked an abundance of stats which fulfilled the criteria of a surviving forum. It's just the 'tone' wasn't right. 

This year rather than run a thoroughly successful advent thread which would have provoked an abundance of positive stats for the forum Blonde decided to abstain because they couldn't be bothered with the hassle. And there it is. The drive towards a certain tone & the desire to avoid 'aggro' or hassle seems more of a priority than driving the stats. Hey presto, the result is a really friendly forum without the interest it once had.

The problem is, and this is a fact, the viewing public want aggro, exciting member issues & variety.

This would be good.

blonde didnt run a advent calendar 1 miember did and for past 2 years he hasnt because he has better things to do with his time that write a calendar for people who bicker over it

Yes of course. Not sure if anyone would be interested but hey,yes.

Looking forward to this, sure there will be lots of interest!

I'd watch a TV programme about Mr Gascoigne Snr. if there was one...

+1

Bit of an update on this.

"New Topics", which I think is where it all starts, & where the amount of forum activity comes from, have already exceeded the December Total, & are on track to be the highest since May last year.

The January Post Count will match December's some time on Saturday, (24th) so that leaves a week of "bonus".

There has been a marked increases in New Topics especially, people making an effort to post stuff, this might make an interesting thread. You can't force it, of course, the Topics need to be interesting, but we all (or many of us) seem to be making an effort.     

There have been half a dozen great threads in "The Lounge", & the "Sunday Sweat Thread" on The Rail worked well, too.

Quizzes & Comps always help, too, people interact with them more readily.

Think it's a bit like a relationship - sometimes the partners take each other for granted, & need to freshen things up a bit, do different things, maybe try some adventurous sex or whatever.


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I might take my socks off tonight.

I'm a bit out of the loop - is the forum still sponsored by DTD?

yes.

With January now complete, we can take a quick look in the rear view mirror.

Callum started this thread on January 14th, after which there was a remarkable upsurge in activity, mainly resulting from Members making the effort to start new threads, & a few Competitions (Sheep Quiz, Dog Racing, Super Bowl, that sort of thing).

My rule of thumb for Post Count is 300 posts per day, so around 9,000 per month. December had dropped alarmingly to 6,709, the lowest for neartly 10 years.

January New Threads at 190 were more than double December. (90). This is the key stat. In fact it was the highest number of new threads in a month for exactly a year.    

Post count at 9,291 was 38% above December & the 2nd highest since August. The average number of Posts per day was 299.7.

February is a short month, so 8,400 would be the target. Whether we can sustain the momentum & enthusiasm remains to be seen. If we want to keep blonde, we need to.

Great thread, Callum, you were the catalyst for the revival.  

Some really weird stats, as to how Poker Forums generally are coping these days.

Our traditional major rival was always The Hendon Mob.

Yesterday (31st January) there was not a single Post on it all day. On Friday, they had 5 Posts. 5 Posts in 2 days. We had 717.

"Poker Mob", which sort of replaced THM, looks to have had around 5 or 6 Posts yesterday.

This is not to knock either of those Forums, or those connected with them. But it does seem to suggest that it's uphill these days for poker forums in the UK.     

Diaries.

These have attracted a bit of stick, & that may be fair comment.

I have very odd tastes as to what I find "interesting", so I tended to stick weird stuff on my Diary.

I've changed that now, & just use it for genuinely personal stuff, rather than general (dis)interest. If I see something interesting, I just start a new Thread. If it bombs, so be it, but some of them have garnered a modicum of interest which, if they were in my Diary, they may not have.

Fair kop, guv.

Thanks for your kind words tikay, but it has been the people of blonde old new and current picking up the baton. As you said we all needed a kick up the backside to realise "use it or lose it" I've not been able to keep up with all threads at the end of the month which is how it used to be.

Looking forward to seeing February  going in the same direction!

While you're at it - submit your choices in the blondepoker survey!

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=64896.0

:)

... and/or enter the Super Bowl competition.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=64863.0

So nearly a month after I made the post, the activity has seems to stay pretty high! Lets hope it continues :) Ive not been able to keep up recently, partly through being busier in work but mainly due to more posts which is how I like it, I can pick and choose what i read again!

Looking forward to hopefully a blonde bash as well which should boost some life into the place.

Bumped for reference, February update follows.

We lost a bit of ground in February.

It was a short month, so we expected less, & the number came in at 7,243.

Measured by Posts per day, that was 258.7 posts per day, down from 299.7 in January, but still way ahead of December (216.4 per day).

New Threads (134) at 4.8 per day dropped from January (6.1 per day), but again, much better than December (2.9 per day).

So, in short, far better than December, but a disappointing decline on January.

We were way ahead of target in early February, due to the benefit of Super Bowl (attracted a lot of interest), & a Sheep Quiz, and we ended with a bang, with the Live Update. The Live Update alone generated 796 February Posts (most, of course, by Tighty), which was 11% of the month total, which suggests, in reality, that those aside, we had a poor month.

With Tighty stuck up at DTD for a week, & me for a fortnight, & of course Red was away most of February, so new threads & "pumping" took a hit. It does need pumping these days, people do interact on new threads, but most prefer others to start them.

March will be interesting.

It's quite possible that "Fred" will cease (which some will welcome, as they feel it was damaging blonde overall), & in it's place, we'll work a lot of separate threads for punting on individual sports. Be interesting to see if that works. It may be that Fred continues, and we do the individual threads, too. Fred was responsible for 1,110 Posts in February, some 15% of all blonde Posts in February.   

I've changed my Diary focus, too. I used to put a lot of odd stuff on there, but now I stick such stuff in The Lounge. Some of these threads take off, some bomb, but it was in response to criticism that Diaries don't help blonde. My Diary continues, but now it's just personal stuff.

Forums, especially poker forums, are gradually dying, as I think we generally agreed, & we have done superbly when measured against similar forums such as THM.

We will have to see how March progresses.

If Members want to see a healthy, thriving, blonde, then they need to share the load, & make an effort - as many already do.

If they are not fussed - which is fair enough - then so be it. If it drops much below 300 per day long-term, there's not much point continuing imo.   

Worth remembering that it is a free facility, open to all, a genuine freeroll. On that basis, we ought to look after it if we want it to continue.

Tikay,

I also found interesting the "most online" stat. It was at a year high in Feb, soley down to updates in my opinion.

The New members stat is down, i thought the update would increase that and it hasent. I joined here because of updates and it took me about 3/4 that i followed before i signed up.

If we can pull some strings and bring them back it would be a great help!

Wasn't it fabulous to see the updates back again though?

I haven't played live poker since last August, but after following the updates I'm bursting for a game.

When is the next DTD deepie?

this weekend

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=64954.0

I'm only going to consider it if tighty is there ;)

lol i am not

(it doesn't need to be me doing them anyway, but there are a variety of issues to sort)

Hi Tikay,

You mentioned recently that the Blonde server costs are £220 per month paid by yourself. I have a friend who hosts websites free for me. I'm not sure if he could host Blonde for free because I'm not sure of the capacity required, but would you like me to ask him ?
I understand you might be reluctant to move because of reliability issues.

xx

Ugh, sorry Lisa, only just seen that Post.

Yes, we'd certainly be interested.

How come he can do it for free?

Have to say, the blonde forum software is very rickety & fragile, it badly needs upgrading, but we don't have the internal resource really.

We can't just give it to someone to upgrade, either, as they would need Admin passwords, & that gives them access to the Mods Board, which has all sorts of delicate stuff in it - when Members write to the Mods, alleging malpractice by others, or to have a chunter about one of the Mods, or another blonde (we get a ton of that sort of thing) the Posts all go on the Mod Boards, so that's a bit delicate. In theory, I think they may have access to Members PM's, too, if they have Admin rights, so that is unthinkable.

DTD offered to do the upgrade for us, free of charge, which was extremely kind of them, but after much hand-wringing, we had to decline, as some stuff needs to stay private.

Anyway, yes, I'd be interested in what your man has to say. Tighty is probably the best man to discuss it with.

Thank you very much for the offer, much appreciated. 

Quick mid-month update on the stats so far this month.

So far, we've been very busy, which may be unsustainable, but as it stands, at the mid point of the month, we are averaging....

Posts per day - 340.5

New Threads per day = 7.4

If we continued at that rate, it would be blonde's busiest month since June. 

People really seem to have been making an effort. We can't force it, but at least we are trying.

December was the worst month for almost 10 years, January was much better, February was pretty bad again, March looks like being a great deal better. Soon as we take our eye off the ball, it'll slump again.

was just about to update the other day but dithered and did not get around to it.I think i check the stats page more than the boards but hey ho thats me!

The feel about the place has been better, almost like a little break and then a kick up the backside has done us well.

You may well be right, Callum.

Some latest stats to follow.

It's pretty boring stuff, be warned, but to those who want blonde to continue, it's important that we know where we are & what each of us can do to help, assuming we are so inclined. The numbers we dropped to in December are just not sustainable.

Beware, your eyes may bleed at how boring this may seem, but stats to follow. 

March - Topics 207, or 6.7 per day (Feb 4.8 per day)

Posts 9747 or 314.4 per day (Feb 258.7 per day)

December, our lowest month since June 2005 had 2.9 threads per day & 216 posts per day.

So quite a bounce-back.

Before we get carried away though, our busiest ever month was January 2006, when we had 1,325 new threads (42.7 per day) & 27,720 posts (894 per day). In fact on January 25th, 2006 alone, we had 63 new threads, compared with 90 for the whole of December 2014.

Why the increase in March?

I think much of it came down to....


1) More new Threads - many of us made a bit of effort to kick-start convos, so to speak. I'm convinced that a regular diet of new threads is the key. If everyone could manage a new thread per week - without forcing it too much - it would make a huge difference.

2) We just seem to be interacting more at the moment.

3) Diaries. There was criticism that the Diaries detract from blonde as a whole. That may have been true. For my part, I've addressed that, & tried to post my "interesting" stuff elsewhere.

Fred is, in a way, a problem too - the same criticism was levelled at Fred as the Diaries.

For a variety of reasons though, Fred was responsible for much of the March increase - it had 1,005 posts in February (36 per day) & a whopping 2,580 in March (83.2 per day).  

We have tried to mitigate that - a good example was a new F1 thread - but that lay dormant for a month, with not a single reply.

Quite a conundrum, that, both good & bad.  

If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know.

Be good to see 10,000 posts this month, but we won't achieve it without a bit of effort.  

We don't make any profit, effectively it is a Community, so we all share the responsibility.

Cheers for the update and I agree about the new Threads will endeavour to help the people out a bit more that are making a real effort!

2 days before i joined the forum - the fact it's been downhill since then is purely coincidental :D

Quick mid-month update, if anyone is interested.

Based on the first 15 days of April, & doubling the numbers to get a month-ised view.


Posts 8,200, or 273.3 per day

New Threads, 156, or 5.2 per day.

So, a good bit down on March, though that was our best month for a year, but still well up on December & February.

Everyone seems to be making an effort, it's almost as if we are managing a gentle decline.

I'm not sure what else we can do really.

We ended April with 8,006 posts, which is 267 per day, & 132 new threads, which is 4.4 per day.

Bit disappointing, a big drop compared to March, but better than November, December & February. Stabilised, I guess. I don't think it was down to lack of effort by anyone, the interest is just generally on the wane.

Fingers crossed the WSOP will liven things up.

Will Mere be running on of them WSOP competition things ?

We've not asked him yet, but we will, so yes, I hope so.

Lot of work to run, but I think he enjoys doing it. Does it with perfect feel and touch, too. Nobody argues with him, he exudes authority. And grumpiness.

PS - "one of them WSOP competition things"? Dereham speak, one assumes. Fearfully common.

It seem's we have reached a levelling point.

Shame there arent the updates anymore that would probably boost posts by about 20-25% nowadays but nearly 10,000 post's a month I think is good enough to keep the forum going, its just if it drops below 5,000 it gets worrying when you refresh and nothing is happening 300 odd posts a day works just but 100 is tough going i think!

Not done one of these Updates for a while, due to Vegas, & this that & the other, so best get up to date.

Did we get attacked in August!

Most Online 4772!!
   
Monthly Summary   New Topics      New Posts   New Members   Most Online
 August 2015            119              7340           17                   4772

May 2015, 9380 posts, = 303 posts per day. 129 new threads, = 4.16 per day.

June 2015, 9146 posts, = 305 posts per day. 115 new threads, = 3.83 per day.

July 2015, 8281 posts = 267 posts per day. 131 new threads, = 4.23 per day.

August 2015, 7,340 posts = 237 posts per day. 119 new threads, = 3.84 per day.

Yup, amazingly, we suffered a DDOS attack. Who'd have thought? May have been random, or someone having some sport with us, we are not sure to be honest. 

Numbers seemed to have plateaued a bit (and dropped a little!) in 2015 and August especially. Having a quick look back over the year's though August is always a quieter month hopefully we can get back on track with 9000 post's in September.

They could have hung around and posted a little!

Dont think that is anything to be to worried about. Summer lul still enough new threads being created!

I've been unable to stoke things up as i normally do

if tikay and i don't do that, we tend to lack thread starters (though thanks to those who do regularly)

add to that the seasonality (holidays) and august was always likely to see lower volume

So the gentle decline continues.

With the WSOP, the WSOP Updates, & Vince's WSOP & Royal Ascot competitions, I had hoped June & July would get back above 5 figures, but it was not to be so.

August, never a good month to be fair, but it was our 4th worst month all-time. Ugh.

Whilst those 4 months neither prove nor disprove it, my theory that new threads are the key still holds good imo.

Tighty has been doing his best, as have a few others, but not enough. I've been a bit distracted, too, so have not started as many as I would wish. We can't force people to start interesting new threads though.

Pleno, one of our most popular posters, suggested yesterday he won't bother with blonde much longer, so that's not good. It's a bit of a vicious circle, as he feels we don't have enough poker content, but the likes of Tighty & I can't really help much in that area, it needs the poker guys to do that.

We do have a few new Diaries though, & a few of the older Diaries have sprung back to life. 

The Betting Board is the star performer at the mo, it's going really well. Unfortunately, some of the guys there get a bit out of line, with an excess of rudeness & unfounded allegations against the world & his wife, which I don't like to see, but that's how things are these days, not much we can do about that.   

The Lounge is going relatively well, too.

     

I do have this fear that you & I "force it" too hard at times, it can look forced, but I'm not sure we have any option.

I met a kid at UKPC - smashing kid, & we get long famously - but he complained that we don't have enough new threads, along with several other well-intended criticisms. I gently reminded him that he had never started a thread, not one.

He said "but why should I have to?"

He was serious, too, he just did not see why he should have to. He wants free entertainment, & the right to complain.

Fair enough mate......

Another chap - again, wholly well-intended - said he loved Tighty's WSOP Updates, but was miffed by the plethora of DTD threads. If people think that, well so be it, but it felt a bit harsh to me.

my main challenge is to rev up the rail

we do lack breadth of poker content. a few more meaty debates on there (the re-entry one is a good one, HUDs was another) would do wonders

i'm not too well placed to do it though, not an online grinder, not on the live scene as much etc etc

Basically we all gave up poker when it got hard and started punting instead :)

certainly some truth in that, but at the same time we lost some grinders/pros, for whom the forum probably became too recreational

this follows a period where we lost a lot of recreationals because the grinders made it too serious and in a few cases lacked inter-personal skills

so it goes in cycles. people come and go. mainly go, tbh lol

Circumstances meant  (I assume) the UKPC updates couldn't be publicised in advance, which was a shame. I suspect they slipped under a few people's radar, meaning we didn't get the interaction the updates normally do.  

I hope that was the case, as I remain of the view they were a big draw for the forum.

they are yes and undeniably would be a big boost on a regular basis but there is no immediate prospect of them returning, apart from one offs

I/we only decided to go double (sky poker forum/blonde) on UKPC updates a couple of days beforehand. To really push them was a bit awkward as Sky Poker was paying me, and I was doing updates on there, so to wholsesale throw everyone across to blonde (where updating is far easier) seemed churlish at best. So i didn't.

Anyway, if anyone has any constructive comments to assist in halting the decline, hit us up please. But if you have never started a thread, feel free - they all help.

I do have a few ideas, it's just finding the time.

The Competitions that folks run - Scotty, Mere, Tighty & occasionally others (apologies if I forgot you) are a HUGE help. Scotty's "Greatest Mind" comp already has 450 replies, which is over 5% of a typical months total. From one thread. 

Fred had 1,740 posts in August - 25% of TOTAL blonde Posts in August. It's a double-edged sword, of course, but I fear without it, we'd be buggered. Proper buggered. 

Anyway, there you have it.

200 posts per day (6,000 per month) would seem to be the lower limit to make it worthwhile continuing, & we are a-heading in that direction.

We shall see. 

The whole subject seems not to interest many - only 3 people regularly post on this thread. 

I was gutted to have missed the updates as as good as the updates are the interaction is also massively important!

Saying that I was very drunk that whole weekend so my interaction probably would not have helped.

I need to post more when im browsing, I will set that as my target for the month. I probably make 90% of my post's from my PC but spend 90% of my time on blonde on my Ipad/Mobile.

You & I just don't have the ability to do much with the poker Content, we are off the radar these days as to what makes people tick in poker.

I think one of the problems is that the next generation of poker players don't look to far past facebook/youtube etc.

I keep seeing story's that poker is in decline and guess that must be true at certain levels. However, I play in a local pub once a week and we have had upto 25 players at times and they play most days of the week now. The majority of the players are young (early 20's or younger) and hardly any have been to a casino to play, which means that potentially at the moment this forum probably has little to offer as they are unlikely to play the big tournaments and cannot easily get to DTD.

Online poker is in decline, even though most remain in denial.

Live Poker? I have no idea, there's no way to accurately measure it. I suspect it is holding it's own, but that's just a guess.

For now, I think blonde MUST diversify. 2+2 seems as vibrant & busy as ever, but that apart, every poker Forum I know is in decline.

Probably doesn't help that you're not allowed to mention any of the UK tours that make up the other 95% of poker that happens in this country.

People are strange though. For instance, I abso lurrve the "On this day" thread, but I rarely post on it.

Plenty of people posted when the thread originally started though.

I can't see why they'd regularly come back to put across the same point again that nothing had been done about since the first time they mentioned it.

So what?

What?

Tighty sums it up perfectly there imo

One thing that i have noticed is how quiet the forum is at night, certainly when compared to busier times. This is also probs due to the more serious players no longer posting.

there is a child board attached to the poker hand analysis section called "learning centre". i think this could be a very popular thread , the begginers section on 2plus2 really is excellent.

the most recent posts are almost 2 years old. nobody ever posts there. why?

i think that due to many of the posters on blonde being "name" players, or at least a good bit above average,people are worried about getting the piss taken out of them.

on the pha board ,most stuff goes way over my head, but i can appreciate what a great resource it can be for some people.however i have lost count of the times that somebody has gone to the trouble of writing a detailed post with hand history, asked for some advice, to be snap answered with "50p" or "tldr".

i have only posted on there once. to be fair i was helped out quickly by doobs and greeky plus couple others which i was very grateful for. on the flip side, after i posted i kept an eye on who was reading the thread and2  people who have popular blogs on here read the post for a while and couldnt be bothered to answer what was ,in hindsight, a pretty simple question that they could have helped with in no time at all. same people i have sent a pm to regarding something they have asked about in their blog, offering my help in a small way. again no answer.

i know that some people think they are charlie big spuds, but if you are gonna be arrogant,at least have something to be arrogant about. stick to being ignorant please, it suits you much more.

anyway mini rant over. i guess the only way to try to revive that particular board is to post on it. so look forward to some very basic poker questions coming soon.

be great if somebody helps, i cant be the only fish on here.

tl/dr

Think you summed it up pretty well. From recall, think a lot of people were getting grief from more established players, so stopped posting. Probs around the same time recs etc were getting grief in lots of posts, so most of us left.

Well there's a thong - there were around 500 posts & 6 new threads yesterday. That would equate, if monthised, to double last month's rate.

Is that a word?

That's the word that caught your eye in his post?

Close your eyes & imagine this is me.


(http://mlm-s2-p.mlstatic.com/rio-thong-11-joe-snyder-3083-MLM3887146670_022013-O.jpg)

I saw you mention the Hendon Mob over on another thread so I wandered over for the first time in ages - wow, it is completely dead. Nothing happening at all - no one logged in, moribund boards.

We're Piccadilly Circus in comparison.

betfair poker forum is the same.  AWOP the same.  I think blonde is holding up pretty well in comparison to it's uk rivals tbh.

there aren't any uk rivals (not in an arrogant way)

the rivals are facebook, twitch etc

Maybe Blonde should have their own video service. Is this something you've looked in to?

no it isn't to be frank. i'm all ears.

PM sent

That would be helpful for an audio service, but he said video...

I always thought that a blonde podcast would be good. Poker based but lots of off topic stuff like on here - sports betting etc.

Unless I have missed it, there isn't a regular UK based poker podcast.

Weird you say this.

I mentioned it to Lil Dave before and think to Pleno too.

I'd be up for doing it with either or both of these two once a week and having guests on etc and somehow hosting on blonde/through blonde.

The Liverpool thread is the 5th most popular thread of all time by posts and views.

Concerns about trolling in the thread was voiced and ignored. The majority of the main posters are fed up of having their complaints fall on deaf ears and now don't post anymore resulting in a hugely popular thread now being dead.

It wasn't ignored. I stopped posting ages ago.   ;)

The fact that you stopped posting doesn't mean people feel their complaints were heard.

How many other 'loltrolls' were there apart from my occasional appearances?

not ignored, listened to and discussed publically with you, i also spoke to arbboy about it.

the sensitivity on some football threads is massive, but thats inevitable because the subject means a lot to the fans

the betting tips and sports threads in general are extremely vibrant.

Their was no discussion

Why do you think one of the longest running and most popular threads on the forum has totally died.

The Liverpool thread is also more than 10years old, so of course it scores highly. I bet it's no more than average for posts per day for all threads contributed to within the last 30d.

Liverpool fans, or contributors to old or longstanding threads, or any one else aren't some protected class. It's football. Expect comments like lolapool etc from fans of little clubs and get on with it.

Or don't.

But don't make your first post in ages outside that thread a complaint about how 'I'm a special flower and my complaints weren't listened to and here's some totally irrelevant information about why my flower is so special'

i could get it going in a flash.

in fact i will when there is something relevant

last thing that was relevant was sterling transfer yes or no and the thread was busy

threads come and go, even long standing ones. i'd rather you, aaron and a couple of other liverpool diehards did post, of course.

currently the man u thread is more active than the liverpool one, the issues are more germane
 

If you read up tikay asked why people are leaving threads are dying and counts are down.
Yes it's. Long running thread but I'd say it's running well below its usual monthly average esp if you take away the few pages of arguing over goatboy.

Jim you are also factually incorrect

the liverpool thread had 20 posts in august, from a dozen or so posters including 8 liverpool fans

quieter of course, but not telling me that everyone has taken their kenny dalglish signed ball and gone indoors

If argueboy and his antics caused a couple of pages of discussion then I'd argue it's good for the thread and good for blonde.

Ask people such as the baron kinboshi MC bolder that aren't posting in the thread anymore.

Most of the posts in August are fantasy football related.

A question was asked as to why people are posting less. I have voiced an opinion and your trying to prove me wrong rather than listening to what I'm saying. Maybe that's another reason for the decline.

i am just giving you facts. it has not completely died.

i respect your opinion and would like you to post more

try the liverpool thread again

its a constant balancing act

He's a pillock at times. He upsets people at times. this might lose posters.


but he is a very frequent poster, he promotes discussions, he's intelligent and makes robust points, sometimes over-robustly which is back to the downsides above

he's not alone in this either, though


arbboy wasn't on here for 3-4 years, but i was in the vanguard to get him back over several face to face discussions and i know the risks and rewards

Bring back herbie .....
Post count  won't be a problem anymore 😉

One man's robust pillock is another man's ban

Thanks Mark, & Mr Fashion Policeman,

Will reply to this in the morning. 

Thanks for this suggestion, & the offer of help.

For starters, what I like & what others like are different things. I've never listened to a podcast, & would not know how to make one. Others, though, may love them, so yeah, we are interested.

What would we be trying to achieve by running Podcasts? (Not a dig question, just trying to see the strategy).  More interaction on the Forum maybe, a sort of post Podcast Q & A as to why you check-raised in a certain spot or whatever?

Free to view?

Do they have to be poker only? We have some realty interesting folks on blonde in areas away from poker.

Costs?

No negativity from me at all, but Podcasts are not my era, I still have a wireless.

We'd be interested in anything which increases interest & interaction.

Back in the day the diversity of poker action, updates from different venues, news and stories was very rich. I would enjoy tuning in and reading about some crazy antics in Luton or catching up with an update from Birmingham. The sponsorship from DTD has killed a lot of that variety, that colour. Personally I don't play at DTD and so find the relentless focus with what goes on at a single card room very boring. Whenever this point is raised all you get is a deluge of DTD fan boys saying how much this Rob fella has done for poker and what a great card room DTD is, again all very boring. The Rail used to be quite alluring but now it's just a wall of DTD spam so I just flick on and flick away again, all very boring. So my question would be what other sponsorships, what other ways of working, what other options are you guys investigating? It seems you are trying to force the issue onto posters to solve when that's not the only option or indeed a strategy which is sustainable in the long term.

these are fair points, and i know what the downsides are

the simple answer to your last point is that an alternative is not being investigated

you have also to bear in mind that we owe DTD a lot, Rob specifically

After the horror that was the blonde cardroom, where we locked into a terrible contract with all sorts of onerous provisions the site was close to closure. Rob's support meant we kept going, and it is getting on for four years of sponsorship now (in two spells) which is some going for a poker partnership

the two entities are close, on various levels, and that is i think something to be nourished if possible

as to DTD Spam, well yes. in part its because i do my job assiduously and in part its because DTD has so much going on whether live or online. initiatives coming out of their ears. sometimes rob wants a sperate thread. try to keep the number of stickied threads down of course

but the answer is not necessarily an "anti DTD" one but for a wider range of posters to start threads on the rail. in part that may be because there is less interest in poker generallly that it looks one sided with dtd content and not much else.

when we do get a meaty thread...antonius or huds being recent examples, the threads are lively, good debates and plenty of contributors

as to posting stuff on other live tours/online offers, i get that entirely but there was always a very firm view from DTD, simply expressed, that other organisations had posted on blonde for years and never supported us, that DTD would be supporting us and that meant no more freeloading to our eyeballs.

in the round, accepting that there are gripes inevitably, DTD is more good than bad for blonde imo

without them, the future for us in this poker industry environment is bleak

Fair points? Not sure I agree with that, tbh.

The fundamental is that UK poker forums are mostly extinct, so yeah, blonde is a bit uphill these days. Given the social-media backdrop, & changing social patterns, I would not expect anything else, & we - all of us - have done well to survive a decade, especially after we got shockingly shafted back in 2007 by I-poker over the blonde Cardroom, & our founders & successors went AWOL.

Anyway, give me a mo, & I'll go do some finger wagging. Might take a while, as it'll be a lengthy Post.

"wall of DTD" spam indeed.......

 

Bit of rhetoric there Lord Mantis.

"Wall of DTD spam"?

The Rail had 46 active threads in August, of which 10 were DTD-facing.  

9 of the "non-DTD" threads were discussing other Cardrooms, Poker Rooms, or poker events elsewhere.

There is no ban on reports or updates from any room anywhere, just a lack of people prepared to post them. We don't allow commercial spam for other venues, that's all.

Even so, 98 (42.9%) of all active threads in August were poker-based. Poker is not confined to "The Rail". The Boards were split that way in response to requests from Members.  

In all, there were 228 active threads on blonde in August, of which around 10 were DTD threads. That's 4.3%.

Not the biggest wall I've ever seen.  



(http://www.myjapanesegarden.com/images/mezz3.jpg)

Remember the chap I mentioned who complained to me about lack of interesting threads? He'd never started ONE thread in 7 years as a Member. He wants free entertainment, spam-less, & does not want to make a bit of effort. How that work? He made zero effort so he lost his complaining rights.

It's more a Community than a business, & it's a freeroll for everyone. If we have no tolerance for ten threads a month, in amongst 228, then perhaps we need to look at tolerance levels.

blonde is what you make it, not just the Mods & shareholders. Have you viewed the forums on THM, Betfair or AWOP recently?

It's not easy for us (Mods, Tighty & I etc) to provide enough poker content, but if people want it, they can post it.

I genuinely don't know how to monetise blonde better, & it's a bit late now. Anything which monetises it better will require spam though. And more than 4.3%, fo sho.

There you go Mister, finger wagged.

(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh159/dcmayo2/35.gif)
 

Lol ok Tikay maybe it's the arrangement of subject matter because that's how I perceive it when I click on the Rail. And as we know from the HUD thread pros like yourself can prove things on paper but it's the perception of amateurs like me that count.

It does seem a shame that the Liver poker board isn't alive any more. I know it's against DTD's wishes but it'd be nice if cardrooms were allowed their own thread and that was the only place they could post about their card room. It's what got me and I imagine others into blonde in the first place. A thread to discuss the latest goings on in Leeds doesn't on the surface appear to clash with DTD in any meaningful way. Could even drive traffic as more people are exposed to DTD's threads.

On a more serious note, if Blonde closes what will become of Tal?

He'll flourish, I recon we hold him back.

I personally have 8 podcasts that I listen to on a weekly basis and another 4-5 that I listen to periodically. There is a podcast for just about every topic you can think of.

Let's hypothesize and say that the Blonde Poker Podcast exists sponsored by Dusk Til Dawn. Off the top of my head the podcast content looks something like this:-

- UK Poker re-cap – recent results, what is coming up etc.
- WSOP, EPT updates. Brits doing well outside the UK.
- Online update. WCOOP stand out results, Party Poker Team Challenge update etc.
- Threads of the week – chatter
- Guest Interview
- Sports Betting Segment
- Strategy Segment
- Dusk Til Dawn Update - phone call with Rob/Simon - what is on at the club this week - future direction etc.

Lasts roughly an hour, perhaps a little longer. Once a week like clockwork.

It is a neat little marketing tool for the sponsers - DTD/Party Poker can promote events softly.

It could benefit the forum by creating a virtuous circle. The content on the forum drives interaction and discussion on the podcast which in turn drives new people to the forum and more interaction.

Most definitely free to download. Certainly not just poker focused. I keep coming back to the same podcasts as much because I like listening to certain people than the content.

Costs wise – you can do this on the cheap in a back bedroom quite easily. A basic microphone from Amazon and some free editing software. The best podcasts are better produced than that though, in a proper studio, being edited by someone who knows what they are doing. Need a willing sponsor for that.

Easiest comparison is the 2+2 Podcast.That is a ‘poker podcast’ that has been running for nearly 400 episodes since 2008. Directly linked to 2+2 and sponsored by Pokerstars. Aside from it being a good listen, I suspect that it has been a really good marketing tool for Pokerstars and the forum.

Good ideas here ^

there are yes

andrew/bobalike sent me some good stuff through too

where on the forum can i post about non-dtd events?

as discussed above in the last few days and privately today, its DTD and their partners only. certainly no promotion of other cardrooms/GUKPT freerolls etc

this has been the case since the DTD Sponsorship began.

I know its not ideal for some posters but i explained the reasons why a couple of pages ago.

i may wish to complain about a cardroom in another part of the country where is that section for that

please stop saying that with have discussed things, you sending me a PM isnt a discussion

there isn't a section for that, as you know.

It is the blonde forum sponsored by DTD and their wish is to promote their events, live and online and those of their partners only.

This is why the Live and Internet poker boards were removed.

so I'm not allowed to talk about bad experiences that i had at a casino recently to warn other poker players?

Try Poker Doctor facebook page

well there is a difference in that and posting "xyz has a great new room opening, here are pictures and by the way this event is coming and here's details about the freeroll".

which you know, its common sense. there is no section for it but if it was posted on the rail we'd consider such things case by case

i think its laughable that you think im posting in this thread because i am holding a grudge about the liverpool thread. im posting because im trying to talk about a poker event on a poker forum.

no i don't think that, the Liverpool thread issue is a seperate one

i'm just trying to address (i did in detail in reply to a post by Mantis the other night on this thread) why discussion of non DTD events and rooms is specifically not allowed under the DTD partnership

Dave stop causing trouble. You are well aware you are only allowed to talk about certain things.

Now schnell ver ist deine paperz!!

ixnay on the utonlay ardroomcay.

Lol

Do we think that the much delayed Blonde Bash might re-invigorate some posters?

Yes, it is a shame, but blonde costs money to run, & DTD pay 80% of the running costs, so it's Hobson's choice really.

Personally, I think it would be a bigger shame if we lost DTD's sponsorship, as it would likely spell the end for blonde.

So no, there cannot be dedicated threads to other rooms, but with a little thought & nous, they could exist. Just be a bit subtle about it.   

Touche Mr MANTIS. 1-1.

Morning Jim.

I was pokering last night, so could not reply, but I'm happy to discuss the 5 or 6 posts you made about this last night. I'll also address your Liverpool thread disquiet, but I'll do that on the Liverpool thread if I may.

So, as to promoting other rooms, I've not spoken to Tighty about your Post, but he would have PM'd you, rather than discuss it on the Forum, because that's how we moderate these days - quietly, under the radar, to keep it cool. It's usually easier & more effective that way, but if you want an open discussion about it, fine, let's do it. 

This is what you Posted. (It was removed by us).

Thread Title -

Luton G - brand new poker room

Post -

Luton G is opening its brand new room tomorrow ahead of the GUKPT next week.

Next Friday their is a freeroll with 5 main event seats on offer, first come first served to get into the comp.

Ill post some pics of the room when it opens.

I'm sorry, but that's never going to be acceptable, & I think you knew that.

A little subtlety would do the trick though. A little Diary, "Balla in Beds" or whatever, in which you talk about where you play, what went off last night, & slip in a few mentions of what's coming up would be ok.

Or you could have gone on my Diary if you wished, & as I was a Luton regular, sharing fun tables with you on hundreds of nights, & said "did you know Luton G have got a fancy new room now - why not come down one night?" That way, at least 2 people will have seen it.

We do NOT ban mention of other rooms or Tours - there were 9 threads in The Rail in August in which others rooms or Tours were the topic. These included EPT, Goliath, poker rooms in Cardiff, Full Tilt, Ladbrokes, APAT, & a directory of PLO & PLO8 "Live" Tournaments wherever the venue was. Your Post was pure promotion of a Venue, so that kite was never gonna fly.

A little subtlety is not beyond us, is it? That post was way OTT imo.

Sorry, but it's a fact of life here now. We need sponsorship, so we need to respect our Sponsor who, thus far, has been very reasonable with us. 





 

 
Possibly, but the real reasons have been well-documented with facts. I've set out my views on what we can do to arrest the decline. If people want to interact more, or make an effort to start new, interesting, threads, as many clearly are right now, fine, but nobody has to. It's not a threat, it's a fact, if we can't liven the place up, it will have to close, it's as simple as that.

Anyway, I'll discuss this on the Liverpool thread, as that was the basis of your comments.

You might not like my views, but you wanted a discussion, so let's do it.

If we need to liven things up don't we think banning the likes of Herbie was an error? It's kinda like Jose Mourinho saying he needs goals before releasing Diego Costa on a free transfer!!

No, I don't believe it was an error. He was high maintenance, & between Tighty & I, over 300 PM's went back & forth with him, whole weekends were lost, clearing up problems. I don't have the time or inclination for high maintenance. 95% of our Members have never troubled the Mods. 95% of the Mods time is spent modding the high maintenance 5%.

If Herbie wants to come back, & Members want him back, I'd not argue. But if High Maintenance Herbie wants to return, no ta.

For the record, in case anyone is wearing their troll hat, I get on fine with Herbie.

A lot of blondes have been doing their bit to rev things up, so a quick update, one week into the Month.

The daily Post average is 391, & if we monthulated that figure (we won't) that would be the highest for 15 months, & far & away the highest in 2015. 

New Threads are running at 5.7 per day, which monthulates to the 3rd best number in 21 months.

Why won't we be able to sustain that? Some hot threads have chipped in with big numbers - the HUD debate, & the Syria disaster, in particular. These threads will slow down, of course.

Lots of new threads, too. Some of them bomb, but so what? At least people tried. The Comps that guys like Scotty2hatty & Sheriff Fatman are running really help, too. Scotty's great quiz is nearing an end, so if anyone has any ideas for further quizzes & the like, feel free.

If we could get to 10,000 posts in September, that'd be the best month for 15 months. 315 posts per day from now until the month end gets us there. Posts for posts sake are no good, need to be worthwhile posts, but we might just have stemmed the bleeding.

Big thank you to everyone who has helped.

+1

;) sorry missed the bolded bit.

Start of the NFL may help, that's always popular around here.

Full football fixture list etc.

It's good to see a mini revival it makes the place a lot more interesting.

This is also my most successful thread ever, although it's not hard to compete with my staking threads

We are now half way through September how are the stats looking for the month so far.

No need to thank me for the extra traffic I've created this month.

I will report on the September Stats tomorrow morning, as midnight tonight is the halfway point, so we need to include today.

For now, it looks like being, at mid-September, some 62.3% ahead of August, & heading towards the best month since August 2014.

We have lost the early month momentum, when we were running at even higher numbers, but we are still coming in every day at far higher numbers than for over a year.

I'm working tonight, so will leave it at that for now, but I'll do a full mid-month update after work tonight, or tomorrow morning.  

I was going to post but didnt want to tempt fait with the place being much more noisy.

Also didnt want Camel to get angry re momentum

Teaching two lessons on momentum tomorrow.

Will ask the kids if they think it can be applied to an Internet forum :p

It's a metaphor. Tal said. He knows everything.

As at midnight last night (the halfway point for September) the numbers looked like this;

5,750 Posts = 383 posts per day. 113 new threads = 7.53 per day.

Some context to those numbers follows.

Stats for September at the halfway point..

To give context, I've taken the stats as at midnight on the 15th, & then doubled them to extrapolate how they would look when the month completes if they continued at the current rate. They may not, of course. The rate of daily posts & threads is erratic, so it could go either way.

I've also shown the stats for the previous 4 months, I've also included the March stats, as March was our busiest month in 2015.

March 2015, 9,747 posts, = 314 posts per day. 207 new threads = 6.68 per day.

May 2015, 9380 posts, = 303 posts per day. 129 new threads, = 4.16 per day.

June 2015, 9146 posts, = 305 posts per day. 115 new threads, = 3.83 per day.

July 2015, 8281 posts = 267 posts per day. 131 new threads, = 4.23 per day.

August 2015, 7,340 posts = 237 posts per day. 119 new threads, = 3.84 per day.

September 2015, 11500 = 383 posts per day. 226 new threads = 7.53 per day.


It should be remembered, if comparing with August, that August was our worse month for over 10 years.

So, Posts per day v last month are up 62%. Threads per day v last month are up 96%.

For better context, against March, our busiest month in 2015, Posts per day are up 22%. Threads per day are up 16%.

These numbers assume we'd continue until the end of September at the current rate. If they do so, or even at a slightly more sedate rate, it will be the busiest month on blonde since June of last year, & by some way.

Where has the uptick come from?

The regular busy threads have remained, largely, constant. Fred was a bit quieter, & with a greater post total overall, it contributed some 12% of all posts, down from 17.3%.

There have been a few busy threads - Syria, HUD's, Politics, but nothing exceptional.

The increase seems mostly to be from The Lounge, where 68 new threads (over 60% of the new threads) were started, & 95 threads were active.  One new thread - Top 3 TV Series - was started at Noon yesterday, & ran up 50 posts (12% of the days total) in just 5 hours.

Some members have really tried hard with new threads - in some cases, perhaps, too hard (one over optimistic fool even started a thread about creosote of all things) but it matters not, the new threads are the seedcorn.   

On one thread (NFL Fantasy League), the subject of alternative ways of financing websites arose, as one NFL Fantasy League site uses "pop up ads" which open every time you go to the site, or move to a new thread. It's horrendous, & I can't see many finding that tolerable.

Plenty of ideas in the pipeline as to new threads to keep the pot boiling, many will fail, but we'll try.

Daily Best & worst, September (up to 15th)....

Most Posts - 574, 8th September

Least Posts - 214, 6rth September

Most new threads - 20, 8th September

Least new threads - 2, 5th September.


You'll see that the day we had the least new threads was followed by the day with least posts, & the day with the most new threads was the busiest day for Posts.

the 5th-6th and 12th-13th were weekends

by far our slowest days are sundays (6th september a case in point)..presumably sleep, family, doing things and in soem cases the sunday grind mean less time for posting

saturdays, unless the sporting world delivers a lot of interest..can also be slow...people out doing things, sport, poker etc etc

this can, as tikay says, follow on to sluggishness on a monday..midweeks wednesdays, thursdays tend tio have the highest post count

Plus Monday -Friday o have more time to post in work when I'm on the loo

Quick update, as at close of play on SUNDAY, as that was a nice cut off point - exactly two thirds of the way through the month.

Posts at 7,380 (369 per day) have already exceeded all of August, although August was really bad. If - if - we continued at this rate, it'll be blonde's busiest month since June of last year, some 15 months ago. 

New threads at 150 (7.5 per day) are already 25% higher than the whole of August, & already exceed the full month total of all but two of the last 18 months.

Momentum (sorry Keith....) is dropping slightly, & is probably unsustainable, but if we can keep up at this rate, or something near it, it'll be a great recovery.

Many thanks to everyone who have put their shoulder to the wheel.

To my mind, the key is a constant flow of new, (interesting) threads.

So that's all pretty good.

Except.......

There are bound to be ups & downs, but if we take our eye off the ball, it'll soon fall flat again.

Yesterday was a great example, this was the day after the numbers I referred to above.

Just 200 posts, & 1 new thread, all day.

Both those numbers are the worst of the month.

To be fair it was Monday yesterday and that has a tendency to be a busy day back in the office, and also the day when I for one seem to have the least inspiration not sure why.

Yes, & it's wrong to take one day out of 21 as typical, but as I had just said how well we are doing, I thought I had better balance my range a bit. It's what poker pros like Pleno & me do.

Ah is that where I am going wrong then, I thought if I had an Ace I couldn't lose and therefore should never fold.

its tricky

i was unavoidably busy elsewhere much of yesterday, and much of today is similar. when neither you (tikay) or i are there to prod and poke it feels quieter than it should be but unfortunately at the moment i cannot chain myself to the laptop 16 hours a day. At other times i have done.

Well it should not totally rely on you or I to seed the forum, & it does not, lots of regulars are working hard, but it's true I was unavailable yesterday, & may continue to be due to my day job.

I suppose it could be said that the shareholders & Mods are entitled to be at the front of the queue in revving the place up, but it just needs everyone to help, really.

FWIW, yesterday was one of the quietest days on record at blonde.

If we ranked the last 100 days by post count- including the dreadful month of August - it would have come in at #98. 

I was out.

I'm out again today.

Tine removing, presumably.

Body parts all accounted for? Mouth functioning normally?

Is this the key to getting the post count up? Find something that annoys the regular posters and prod them!

What, like un-necessary exclamation marks?


Behave 'yerself Bates, you are in a mischievous mood this morning, causing trouble all over the internet.

I see you won another Tourney on Tuesday. How many is that this week?

The suggestion that Ambo was bad mouthing people is pretty laughable!

I keep doing well in the £55bh speed but it seems to be getting fewer runners these days, is slowly getting me towards the target.

It was astonishing. What is the matter with people? They don't seem to think before writing these things. People almost want to take offence.

It was my birthday so I think everyone was off celebrating!(!) (Second one just for fun)

I should learn how to post pics. Then I would contribute more. I have steam trains and other exciting things to share with you all.

when you click reply there is a list of icons above where you post

one of those, two to the right of the youtube button is a picture frame

when you click on the picture frame it shows you

(http://)

right click on the image you have and copy image

right click in between the img tags and paste the image in

post

voila


--

alternative

click additional options below the place you are posting

click browse

find the image in your list

click on it

post

but not too many steam engines please

moderation in all things

Think there is a far easier way than that.

Simply cut & paste the link, then highlight it, then click the photo Icon (the one two to the right of the You Tube icon).

As easy as that, look.....



(http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y522/Gordon-Hodson/MACBOOKPRO/PhotoBucket/image-arcade%20site/Loco06_zpsqrjctey7.jpg~original)

thats what i just said

use the img tags two to the right of the you tube icon

We may be at cross purposes here, but you don't have to click in between the image tags.

Just post the link, highlight it, & then press the image tag.

Look, here's the score. (Can you name the match?)


(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/4/15/1397578199959/Bosser-Martin-013.jpg)

no you've taught me something, saves me a click each time

the oval ashes 1938. len hutton 364

Good - it really is much easier that way.

1938? Wow, thought it was far older than that.

Maybe a new mod or 2 might liven the forum up a little. I'm not even sure who all the mods are these days and what their roles are.

Are spoiler tags possible? Would be good for the TV and movie threads.

I don't read the book, TV or movie threads because of spoilers.

I have only just discovered that the very same trick works with You Tube videos. Much simpler.

C & P the link.

Highlight it

Click the "You Tube Link"

No need to faff about moving brackets & the space bar.

Spoiler Tags

It is not really possible to add these at the moment.

Moderators

There are no plans to appoint additional Mods. 

A brief explanation as to why software changes are so difficult for us at present. 

DTD as part of their sponsorship agreement, have offered to help upgrade the blonde software.

However, to do that, they need what is, in effect, "the (software) keys to the front door", & that would give them the ability to see parts of the site which are private. We can't allow that.

Apologies if this has been said, out of interest is there much movement day to day in terms of numbers. Eg more popular days, what kind of increase do you expect on most popular day of the week compared to least popular.

there can be a 200-300 post swing

200 on a bad day, 500 on a good day. 270-350 central case

around 300 most days, though that can take a lot of work. i would prefer it to be more organic and less pumped to have to get there   

we threw in a 165 for no reason that i could see midweek last week

Morning Matt.

It has been mentioned before, but only briefly, a few days ago.

Tighty believes (on a small sample) that there are regular quiet days, (usually weekends) but I'm not convinced.

From what I perceive, there is no rhyme or reason to the ups & downs. The daily numbers just seem to bounce up & down unpredictably. This month we have had swings in consecutive days like this


391-352-214-466-674

And....

322-200-323-165-324

It just seems unpredictable.

Question for you actually - can you, as a "regular" Member (i.e., not a Moderator) see the Forum Stats, which are at the bottom of the page when you first open up the Forum?

From those, can be seen the stats for every single month & every single day. If you can't see them, I can reproduce them if need be. Quite interesting, if you like that sort of thing......

We can see the stats, yep.

On the forum main page, at the bottom:

                             blonde poker forum - Info CenterForum Stats

Total Topics: 63951

Total Posts: 2060272
Latest Post: "Re: Blonde Stats Page" (Today at 10:39:50 AM)
View the most recent posts on the forum.
[More Stats]

It's the More Stats bit in square brackets.

So you can see the daily stats, yes? They are under this....


Forum History (using forum time offset)

Why was this mod idea dismissed so quickly?

I've been looking through the post history of the mods and the first 2 names I chose have made around 45 total posts in 3 months.

Moderators should be very active IMO. With the post stats I'm seeing most of the mods are borderline just lurking members.

Ask a few mods to step down and add in the likes of Camel and Alex imo.

How do mods get appointed and when was the last one added?

Might be a good idea

Yes.  307 yesterday.

Thank you Mr Costa.

It was not dismissed quickly, I gave it considerable thought before replying.   

Firstly, the Moderators role as such is very limited these days - the place largely self-moderates.                             

Is it really the jobs of the Mods to help generate extra traffic, though? I make that point for two reasons, mainly.

1)  They are all unpaid volunteers. Not sure we have the right to ask more of them. They get plenty of stick from one or two, & I don't think they deserve that. Sacking volunteers (that's what it is, in effect) is not something that should be considered lightly.

2) It's a community these days, rather than a Business, & I hold the view that it's the job of all Members of the Community to help keep the place lively & fresh, rather than just the Mods.


Would I like to see them all contributing more? Yes, of course I would, but that could be said of anyone.

Our mind is open on this, but that's the current thinking.

Good - that's what I hoped, that everyone could see them.

They used to be added by concensus, & general suitability, iirc.

I don't recall when we last added one - it would be some years ago I believe.

Was about 5 years ago, tikay and tighty must have been on the crack pipe one night and added andrewt, CF and myself.

Why not just create a subgroup of members - "Retired Mods" or something like that, they keep their access but people who join don't expect them to be mods.

IS there a list of Mods anywhere btw? I tried going through the memberlist but as a bog standard member I don't have access.

admin (red, can mod)

tikay
myself
ironside
kinboshi

mods (blue, can't admin)

tom
celtic
andrew
sheriff
cf

i couldn't get a list easily from the members list either

I appreciate that, for the most part, that questions about the Mods are well intended, but that - IMO - is going down the wrong road.

The problems affecting this, and other forums, have been well documented in this thread, and revolve around user behaviour, changing trends in social media, and new technology (mobile etc) which are not favourable to forum use. Moderators have no ability to impact on those matters.

Has anyone thought about a blonde app that could be developed to make it easier to post from a mobile device?

Not that I am aware, no.

Personally, I don't really know much at all about how Apps work, to be honest. I do know that for businesses to get them approved by Apple is a bit of a rigmarole.

App development can be relatively cheap nowadays especially if you use sites like;

https://www.elance.com/

https://www.freelancer.co.uk/

They do all the apple rigmarole stuff for you too.

Thanks - will have a proper look at that on Monday.

Get an android 'phone.

Works fine on mine.

To clarify, no, Robert is not currently a Mod.

Instead of building an app - just get Blonde added to Tapatalk.

September WILL (should) hit 10,000 post's. As Tikay alludes to there has been a lot more "seeding" this month but in general if we can keep at 10,000 or in the region of a month I think that is a great number for the forum. At 300 posts a day the place works at 100 its a bit meh!

October Stats

Posts 10,355, or 345 per day.

This is 41% higher than August, which was our worst ever month. It is the first time since June '14, 15 months ago, that we have exceeded 10,000 posts in a month. 

New Threads 215, or 7.17 per day.

This is 81% higher than August, the highest since January '14, & is the third highest in 2 years. 

If we look in isolation at the last 6 months.....

POSTS

March 314 per day

April 267 per day

May 303 per day

June 305 per day

July  267 per day

August 237 per day

September 345 per day

New Threads

March 6.7 per day

April 4.4 per day

May 4.16 per day

June 3.8 per day

July 4.26 per day

August 3.84 per day

September 7.17 per day.

Finally, for context, our best ever month was January 2006, when we had.....

Posts - 27,720, = 894 per day

New Threads - 1,325, = 43 per day.

A much better month, then, with the key stat clearly being new threads. There were no especially hot, or busy threads - just a whole lot of different threads, so that's good I suppose. The quizzes are very important, as they force interaction & engagement & some of the Diaries have re-awoken.

The Lounge has been the most improved Board, with all manner of topics. 

Be hard to repeat August, but there's no shortage of topics, just the time to get them posted.

Been great to see so many different people really putting their shoulder to the wheel. It was like we had forgotten how to interact, a product of the internet age.

The whole poker forums market in the UK seems to have collapsed, there has not been a single post - not one - on Hendon Mob's Main Board since Saturday. It was going along OK until Joe & Co departed. Quite surprising we have not picked up any of their regulars, lots of them used to post on here, too.   

I'm going to ask Cos to develop the idea of Podcasts for us. I don't really get how Podcasts will help the numbers much, simply because it's something I've never been interested in, but if it helps, let's try it.

Big thanks to everyone who made positive suggestions & helped with new Threads.  Now we have to try & do it again, & increase those numbers. Can we? I doubt it, but we'll give it a try.

some people with great diaries starting topics in the lounge rather than putting it on there diary has helped alot IMHO
problem with the topics on a diary is after a few posts people move on but with there own threads people will still post
on the topic for a good few days loving RedDog's work

Probably fair comment, I stopped my Diary for 3 months for exactly that reason, but now I'm trying to do both. I still very much enjoy writing a diary of personal stuff, which would not work on The Lounge.

Haven't been over to THM forum for ages, (used to post/check a fair bit)..... but looked last week and saw it was a now ghost town. As you say, once Joe and Co went, the writing was on the wall.
I've only noticed one "come across" to blonde, unless of course others are using different alias.

Quick update, just over halfway through the month.

Numbers are pretty bad, especially this week - Thursday, Friday & Saturday saw these total number of daily posts......


122

183

160

That's less than half what we need, really. The figures are far worse than they look, too, as they include the "Daily Sports Quiz", an experiment designed to see if we could improve interaction. They accounted for over 25% of the posts, so masked a far worse situation. 

A chap came on one of the Sports Boards earlier this week, & floated an idea for a bet. It was patently obvious it was a conversation starter, something that should get some debate going, & his question was a good, well-reasoned one.

The first reply he got was.....

"No"

That was it. "No".

WP m8.

It's no different to the PHA, where we still occasionally see, even from the pros, "fold" or "call", with no explanation.  No wonder forums like ours are struggling. 

Bump

This must be looking good for June '16
Have bumped it so you can find it easy to update ;D

Does blonde really lose money? It must be one of the only forums in the world to do so.

:)

Full report to follow after the month end, but yes, we are on a mini upswing at the moment. May was our busiest month since last October, and June will beat that and be our busiest month since last September.

There are specific reasons for this upsurge of course, which I will outline after the month end.

Yes, it really loses money, and does so every year.

I would disagree strongly with your second sentence. Very few forums make money. In the little world of poker, I would imagine just 2 forums in the entire world make money. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of poker forums globally.

Overall, ( not just poker) the % of forums that make money would be less than 5%.

I'm really curious where you found evidence that most forums make money. Care to enlighten us with your source?

We did experiment with advertisements "in thread" a few years ago, but the members went apeshit, so we abandoned that.

From my experience in online gaming I have seen/used a bunch of the free forum software and all of these were at least breakeven to significantly profitable and varied from smaller than blonde to 5x the size if not bigger. Maybe it is just the change in consumers attitudes to adverts (with the advent of things like Adblock) that have really hampered blonde but I really like you could move to the equivalent of invasionfree (zetaboards now?) forums and it would look the same as here and be hosted for free. You might be right about the 5% figure but I wasn't particularly thinking of sites like THM or something. Maybe I am way underestimating the moderation cost as that is something that would have been done for free, but this is a much more serious environment. I probably did overstep the mark by saying all forums are profitable but they are so easy to set up and so cheap to run. I know 14 year olds that were making $3k a month hosting a free gaming forum. Blonde wastes a bunch of server space on the forum games/front page/blondepedia and all that malarky too.

I guess I overstepped because I know its possible to set up a very cheap forum so it surprised me so much to hear this. The more googling I've done makes it sound that they aren't very profitable, but no way is hemorrhaging money either. Some people have struggled to monetise (like blonde I'd guess) but I didn't see anyone running a sponsored forum claiming to lose money.

Like the NPF http://www.newcastlepoker.com/forum/ Can't really be losing money surely? It can't cost more than £10 a month to run? I guess its less a business than blonde.

Thanks Adam.

Sometimes, a post or posts are made which really get me doing a "double take", & this certainly comes under that category. I don't mean that in an offensive or hurt way, it just surprises me greatly, unless I'm being whooshed of course, which is quite possible.  ;)

You say, for example....

".....Like the NPF http://www.newcastlepoker.com/forum/ Can't really be losing money surely? It can't cost more than £10 a month to run? I guess its less a business than blonde....


NPF closed in May 2014.

They were unable to find a buyer, &, presumably, it was costing too much time & money to run. I'd surmise from that it was costing a good deal more than £10 a month. I doubt they would have closed it if it was profitable, or only costing a tenner a month.

 

There are no standalone UK facing poker forums which are profitable, or none that I am aware of. Poker forums are near dead in the UK.

2+2 must make money, ditto Poker Strategy, though Poker Strategy is not standalone, it is part of something much wider (Affiliates), & I doubt much if any income arises from the forum. Dave Shoelace may be able to enlighten us on that.

Bear in mind a part of the cost of running a forum is labour resource - someone has to seed & run the thing, & it takes up a lot of time. In discussing how much blonde loses, it takes no account of the cost of time it takes to run it. That goes in for free, & no complaints about that. 

The blonde Moderators don't get paid a bean, & never have, either in money, or kind.

Almost all forums, (by volume) sponsored or otherwise, lose money. As an estimate, (I have no hard evidence) I'd put the proportion losing money at 95%.

I'm not sure I "claimed" blonde is losing money, I just stated it as a fact. The losses on blonde are not huge, probably, including server costs, incidentals, accountancy & Company House Annual Report costs & fees, around £5,000 per year. It's not an easy site to monetise without destroying what remains of the community ethos here. We have a lot of regulars (a lot, but nowhere near enough) who have been here a long time, & we are all now friends & kindred spirits. It's a bit like the Snug Bar down the local pub I suppose. Think I'd rather keep that ethos than alienate many by monetising blonde.

The losses - as long as I am working, & in a position to fund them - don't bother me overly.  What DOES bother me is the falling post count. There could come a point when it's just not worthwhile or cost effective to keep it going. If it falls below 5,000 (worthwhile) posts per month, I'll probably step away from it. Flushy may, or may not, be prepared to pay it when I disappear, I have no idea. (He owns 70% of blonde).  It did fall to 4,841 in April, but has improved by 50% since then, largely due to Tighty, Mere, & the wonderful Politics thread.

I could increase the post count by seeding the forum with new threads every day if I had the time, but I don't, I have a job to do, & have to give priority to that. When my working life ends - which will probably be very soon - that'll be it for me, as I won't have the funds to pay for blonde. That's not a moan or a complaint, its a fact.

As a complete aside, "Fred" has, in effect, paid for most of the losses in the last 3 years.

Yes your correct, I really should have used more qualifiers in my original post. I'm very surprised by this tbh, its the complete opposite to my own experience. I wonder if it is the willingness to advertise or the lack of an option to pay much beyond a very small start up cost originally that have made so many of the forums in my experience profitable. They also wouldn't have had to face any of the accounting/companies houses expenses. This amount might even account for the difference in our opinions( i guess experience is a better answer?) I certainly didn't mean "claimed" as in I didn't believe you, I absolutely did. I'm amazed to find out NPF shutdown. The forum itself is still being hosted as is the website? Do people hosting forums need to register a business in this manner? I guess if the goal is to monetise instead of make a community like the gaming forums it isn't needed. I hope my nativity didn't cause offence and I'm surprised by how different our experiences are.

Absolutely no offence taken, I was just extremely surprised (I often am....), & then when you backed it up with the NPF thing, I wondered if I was dreaming the whole thing. Truly. ;)

It is odd that NPF can still be found via google, but as you can see, it closed in May 2014.

Accounting costs & Company House - well if it derives income as a Business, I'd say they were obligatory & unavoidable. To be fair, I expect a lot of Forums are not street legal as to accounting & Company House stuff. blonde is 100% street legal, & files it's Annual Accounts on time, every year.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think Tighty paid this year's Accountants bill.

Flushy owns 70%, we get along just fine, but we almost never speak or communicate, in writing or orally. By chance, last week, I ended up sat next to him in an O8 Tourney in Vegas, so we held an impromptu AGM. ;) It was the first time I had seen or spoken to him in a year.

I'd rather like Flushy to post more, he's a genuine face & character, & that would help a lot, as he knows so many poker people, & he paid an arm & a leg to buy his blonde shares. (Around £70,000 I seem to recall).  I can't force him to though, & it's his train set, so he can do - or not - as he likes. I do feel an obligation to try to protect his investment as much as I can though. Bit of a fail, there...