blonde poker forum

Unfortunately blonde looks set for its quietest month ever (excluding its first few months) after a few months of uplift things have dropped off dramatically.

I for one have been a lot less active but it worries me that across the board the place is quieter, it looks like we are in a spiral that cannot be recovered :(

whats the stats? compared to last month etc? thought this daily 20£ giveaway thing would have made a lot more posts (that thread alone) although ofc i think prob shouldn't include those posts in analytics.

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


Monthly Summary   New Topics     New Posts   New Members   Most Online
 November 2015                 92            5533   5   428
 October 2015                170            7809   7   200
 September 2015                215           10355   2   4999

I think the new member stat is almost as telling as the rest of the stats. Blonde has very little new blood, in the past posters would come and go but now as the natural cycle of people getting disinterested in poker/forum use/blonde in general there is no one to replace that.

Tikay and tighty can if they put the effort in as they did a few months ago, artificially bump the stats but it doesn't change the underlying problems. It's sad to see, but I don't think there is anyone to blame per se just the natural way of things.

I thought people were getting disinterested in poker.. then I played the GUKPT Grand Final at the Vic this weekend.

The place was buzzing and they set a new prize pool record.

Does it matter that Blondepoker is a little quieter than it was?

I don't think the site will ever be sold now in current climate, why else would we need to prop up new thread and new posts stats?

 

Slowly dying as the site is nothing more than a forum
Front page looks so dated and doesn't show much of interest/is regularly updated
As was mentioned about poker events buzzing, the audience being there, they won't come to blonde though as no effort put in to attract people is there?

As a relatively new poster, blonde is sometimes not the most welcoming to new members. You have much to offer and there's some excellent threads on the go - I think we could all do a little more to welcome new voices to the discussions.

Lack of live updates must have been a big hit aswell?

I think the DTD sponsorship which is obviously a great help financially is actually a double-edged sword in as much as very little poker outside of Nottingham is now discussed on here.

Will try & field a few of these comments.

Certainly, it's been a disappointing month from the pov of number of Posts, though "Views" are holding up well, & that is part of the problem, as I'll try to explain.

We were just trying a few different things with those Daily Comps, you know, throw enough darts at the board & we might hit a few bullseyes, but in truth, it was a bit of a dud, as it did not really increase genuine interaction. It cost money, too.

For the most part, they stopped in October, so yes, it cost a few Posts, but not really significant or useful ones. 

Tighty & I try a lot of things, a few work, a lot don't, but we do try.

On which note, you have a big following here, & it's good for blonde to have one of the best online poker players in the world in their midst, so would you be up for an "In the well with Mr Pads"?   

Note the correlation between Posts, & New Topics.

A few of us made a real effort in September to rev the place up, & it worked, we had the best month in years.

Most of the new threads in September were made by 3 individuals, well over half of them at a guess.

Fair to say that Tighty & I in particular, & to a lesser degree, the Mods as a whole, have a responsibility to keep the place fresh & buzzing.

It's also fair to say - imo - that as a Community, rather than a business run for profit, it behoves everyone to make a bit of effort, & I don't think the effort should be restricted to direct stakeholders. If people want blonde to continue - if - a bit of effort is required from everyone.

My input in October & November certainly lessened, due to a variety of circumstances, mainly my work Next Door, lack of time, &, in truth, I felt we were pushing too hard, trying to force the action. I got a bit down about it all, too, sort of the internet & social-Media have changed, & we are peeing into the wind.

It's almost a managed decline I suppose.    

I'll explain shortly how we are all interacting differently these days, but here's a great example that was sent to me this morning. And this was not on blonde, it was on Facebook.

Alex Goulder barely has an enemy on earth, he's almost universally liked, admired & respected.

So on Facebook, he announced his engagement.

Inside 24 hours, it got (I'm told - I don't have Facebook) 364 "LIKES", you know, you press a little button & a "LIKE" symbol appears. And less than 30 actual replies. It's so easy these days to just click an icon & move on.

We have some great threads here, such as "The Week as I saw It", "On This Day", & "Too Much Information". These get much higher Views per post than most threads. But very few Members actually Post on those threads, almost all the Posts are made by a small regular group of contributors. So people find them interesting, but don't feel able or wish to post stuff themselves. If we had a "LIKE" Button, I bet it would get clicks galore, but we don't, & I don't see the point of one.

It's fast & easy to "read only", actually Posting takes more time, & most of us have full lives & better things to do.

Not a criticism of people, it's just how things are these days, we are all busy busy busy.

If I had the time, I would bet good money that I could start a lot of new Threads in December, along with a few others, & we could get the Post Count back up to 10,000. I just don't have the time though, & to be honest, I think if the Members want blonde to thrive, then more of them need to share the load.

Fred was quieter than usual in November, too, for a variety of reasons, & I was debating whether it was time to call it a day, but it sprung back to life in the last week. Tighty has always sweated that very hard, but he was getting nowhere, but the uptick in the last week was broadly based, so that was nice to see.

Incidentally, Camel is superb at starting threads that endure, & people enjoy - such as Fred, & "Whatever happened to?".

Such threads are pure gold, as they create genuine, un-forced, interaction.

And anyone can start them.

Could not agree more.

Don't think there are any fingers to point, it's just how things are.

I had a quick look at a few UK based Poker Forums this morning.   

Betfair Poker Forum - a TOTAL of 5 different threads posted in  the month of November. 5 threads. In a month.

THM General Poker Discussion - a TOTAL of 4 different threads posted on in the entire month of November. Those 4 threads got a grand total of 6 replies between them. (This ignores a dodgy link-spammer who started about a 20 threads yesterday, none of which elicited a reply). 

TalkSport Poker Forum - 11 threads started in the last 6 months, all by the same Member. Not a single reply to any of them. 

AWOP Poker Forum. They work very hard there to start "Information" threads about poker events. 21 threads have been posted on over this weekend, almost all of them new threads. 13 of them did not get a single reply. The average thread length is about 3 posts. And those guys really have tried. 

APAT General Poker Discussion. 3 threads in November, & a total of 6 replies. I would imagine the APAT Tournament section is quite busy though.


I'm not dissing any of those Forums, just placing our situation in context. Compared to all of those, we are doing wonderfully well.

It all just suggests to me, as Lord Longy says, it's the natural way of things.

Typically lateral thinking by Mr Camel.

I'm conflicted really. I'd not like to see the thing die slowly, just wither away, that's what really bothers me. Euthanasiaia would be better than a slow death.

I'm quite fond of the place, & all the friends I've made because of it. 

Where would we draw the line, at what point should we say "well there's no point in continuing"?

There is a hardcore bunch of blonde posters who make a ton of effort to construct good posts & threads, which are a great read, no matter what the topic. Without them, it's gg. 

Looking at all the other UK based poker forums, we are doing amazingly well. 

Difficult to agree with that.

It's free to view, it's a community. If people want it, more of them need to interact, & start new threads. Some regulars, who take a lot from blonde, have never started a thread. Which is fine, but I don't think it behoves them to suggest we don't make any effort. We all own blonde.

Yup, agreed.

We just don't have the people to do it these days, who are willing to give up every other weekend to run the Updates.

Definitely a loss, I agree. Rooms don't get much extra business via Live Updates though, & don't want to pay for them. Can't say I blame them. 

I didnt put this in the other stats thread as I wanted some further discussion.

I would miss blonde greatly if it was not around I read it every single day but dont always post. I spend a lot of time reading stuff all over the internet but always return to blonde.

I very very rarely play poker anymore but still come here every day and I suspect there are many other like me, if we dont make the effort to post we will lose the site.

I have a lot to thank Blonde for firstly it helped me greatly in the poker world, then in the betting world and also have made some good friends from here and had some amazing trips to Vegas, these trips i possibly would not have done if it was not for blonde.

As Tikay says above I really am not sure what the solution is though. Forums just are not the in thing any more.

Hi Tikay,
            I read most of the forum/sites and without doubt , Blonde is by far the best in my view, i dont post on any of the others , just read them.
If i was any good at computer stuff i would deff post more, but i struggle to even copy and paste lol, ( if its nuts n bolts no probs ) horses for courses i guess.
As been said it looks like a general trend for forums to be slowing down, but as Camel says is this a major issue?
Hope it keeps going , some good work gone into making it what it is.

Yes, it has it's drawbacks, but without DTD, we'd have ceased to exist long ago.

We have had, iirc, about 10 different sponsors, & none of them saw an uplift in acquisition from their investment.

Every time I get an e-Mail from Rob or Nick at DTD - & I get a lot from them - I have a little fret before opening it. "Are they pulling the plug?"

And yes, there are a few, but not many threads which major on other poker rooms, but that's because people cba to start & run them. As long as they are not overt spam, conflicting with our Sponsor, they are fine. We have a "Luton Calling" Diary, it's a year old next week. We have never had a problem with it, or similar threads.

If someone had started a thread today congratulating James Akenhead, Simon Deadman or Andrew Hulme for running deep in the GUKPT Grand Final, there would be no issues with that at all. But nobody did.

The Live Staking Board is extremely quiet compared to a few years ago, but that's because the Staking Market has changed significantly for a variety of reasons. 6 of the last 7 staking threads on Live Poker have been for Events which are nothing to do with DTD - GUKPT, UKIPT, Master Classics, Eureka, IPT/EPT. Neither blonde or DTD have a problem with that.

In the Online Staking Board, again, much quieter now then previously, & for the same reasons, but as far as I can see, the last 20 Online Staking threads, none of them were for playing on DTD/Party. Again, that's fine by DTD.

I think they have been very reasonable in these matters.

So yes, I take your point, but the reality is, it's not made much difference, & as we have seen, other forums - not sponsored by DTD - are doing far, far, worse.   

One ex regular poster wrote to us along these lines.

I don't post on blonde these days, I read blonde every day though, love the "on this day" and "the week as we saw it" threads in particular.

There goes him & many others.

I honestly think it's just the way things are now.

Anyway, I hope that answers all the questions & comments. It was good, constructive stuff, for the most part.

Yeah, lots of effort put in on the forum, but to attract new members/advertise/update a outdated and bland home page.

Scrap the home page and just link Blondepoker.com straight to the forum IMO.

+1

and take anything "useful" off the front pages and either link out from the forum or just use the forum instead to hold the info

Why would you want to kill it if, say, 30 or 40 people are still getting enjoyment from it?

Should do something like this at least until new content is on there.  Any prospective new members looking up blondepoker will end up there and could easily be put off.

Reallllllly? I will call that bluff

Because it's expensive?

Good call. Very nice of you Mr. K, but very much mistaken. That guy whose Queens I cracked is the latest addition to the list.

Do you mind me asking how come it is expensive to run?  Webspace is cheap to get hold of and it doesn't look like blonde has anything special behind the scenes.  SMF is free software and easy to host at most providers.

I was very careful in what I wrote, & included "almost"......


PS - I gather you got engaged?

(http://www.hotdogyoga.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/fblike1.jpg)

I always thought that it was strange that DTD never promoted blonde inside the club.  They could easily do a banner, put the logo on the advertising screens, some flyers. 

Think the main site should be auto linked to here.  Whenever I'm using a new device and go the the home page it does feel like a dead site.

Agree with the front page being a dead duck.

Also, if you are going to run the £20 a pop quizes/comps etc, why not have them as tokens to DTD comps/cash etc. Two birds/one stone type thing.

This is asked out of general curiosity as I have no idea- what are the costs involved? I know nothing about the cost of running websites/ forums, can the site not just continue naturally cost free or am I being incredibly ignorant?

Also I very much agree with the previous posts about how people nowadays tend to read and then "like" things with the huge boom in social media over the past few years, rather than engage and put forward an opinion/ response.

Even though I can't access blonde as much as previous months due to living abroad I hope the site continues.

Tony has made about £10k from the TFT thread.

Sure that pays a decade or two hosting costs.

Did you make anything?

How is that relevant? I don't own the forum.

If there was no forum, there would be no TFT. And Tony wouldn't have made 10k.

I don't think Tony owns it either, but I think you making money from TFT is just as relevant as Tony making money from TFT. After all, If there was no forum, there would be no TFT etc.

Your argument implies that if you won money at poker and you used any of the advice you might have received on PHA, then you are entitled to pay.

Tony is the only person that gets on every bet.

Various posters risk losing their accounts to put bets on for him.

The only reason they do this is for for the thread, which is on his forum.

If their was no forum or no thread, he wouldn't make that money.

Hahaha. OK Keith, you win.

Thanks.

Really have no idea what your argument was. Made zero sense.

True. Sorry.

...and maybe some sort of promotion at events such as the GPPT at Stamford Bridge?
 Everyone there had "bought into the tour"....and no finer way to keep up with the latest news/ask questions/ moan  :) etc is here.....never mind everything else we have to offer ;)

Let me put it a different way.

Tony pays the hosting costs for Blondepoker and we are all grateful he does, because if he didn't there would be no forum.

On Blondepoker there is a thread where some very knowledegable and winning punters dispense free advice for bets for him. Other posters risking losing their betting accounts by placing +ev bets for him.

Tony has won a substantial amount of money by following this information. If there was no forum and no thread, he wouldn't have won this money.

If anyone else has won money following this free information, that's great. But it is completely irrelevent, it is a simple by-product of the thread existing at all.

When you put it that way I can't believe he's thinking of killing the forum.

Stingy old bastard.

Are you completely unable to have a disagrement with someone on a forum without finishing on a post dripping with sarcasm?

Silly me. I should have stuck to my resolution of ignoring any comment you made on one of my posts.

the last post was just kinda funny I thought rather than sarcastic, not that I want to come between you 2 girls

Only having this spat for your benefit as you seem to enjoy the drama Mr Nirvana :)

lol, it's not quite up there with some that have been had here but it's some kind of start :-)

From little acorns.....

You have to put a lot of time into a forum to get new members. They don't often pop out of nowhere. When this site had live tournament updates I imagine the new members were rolling in pretty hard.

I have posted on a different poker forum that is run by Matt Dale for the past 10 years. It used to be so incredibly active but it also helped that his old poker skin on boss media had a link on it to "Poker forum". Considering it was a fairly unknown poker forum, it had a lot of members and posts. These days it doesn't get any new members and occasionally the odd regular stops posting. I counted and there were a total of 8 threads made there in November. The forum could have shut up shop 2 years ago but it's still crawling along. I imagine give it a year it's gone.

Blonde poker is here for a looooong time. It has so many regular posters. If I were to offer my two cents I would have some trying to stay involved in team events or see if you can get another blonde bash going. Scrap the main site as Keith said and just link it up to the forum.

Tom's just jealous of all those winning bets I reckon.

Is it rude to ask what DTD put through Blondes bank account every year?

there is a direct link on DTD site to forum
i think i seen blonde on DTD on club flyers in the past also although not recently

obviously DTD are focussed on own and party poker face book groups

I know when i started posting on THMF then Blondepoker times were different, but the reason i joined the forums and posted was the fact i was a fan of Elblondie and THM, would promoting the "names" on blonde help with numbers now a days i have no idea.

What was the original business plan for Blondepoker?

To run an online skin?

Or to build a community and look to sell the site?

just a guess but i think they were looking at being funded by affiliate links

Kinda sad Colclough doesn't pop in now and again.

Maybe brings up bad memories.

dont think he has a share anymore

No I'm sure he doesn't. But that doesn't stop him coming to the forum occasionally.

I often like looking at the who's online section, just so I can laugh when I see things like this;

Guest   12:22:16 AM   Printing the topic "Pick me an outsider..FA Cup special".

99% of the guests are bots,

Crikey Dan, I listed a few forums that had were on their uppers yesterday, & completely forgot that one - Bristol & South West Poker Group was it's snappy title. Think I had a run in with one of their regulars about 10 years ago, but it happens, & we kissed & cuddled eventually.   

And yeah, it used to be pretty lively, & Matt kept the pot boiling nicely. What's he doing now, still working with Des?

As you say, it may as well have closed a year or two ago, & that's my entire point about blonde, I don't want to see blonde reduced to that, & won't be part of it if it does.

On a sad sidenote, I had a look on there this morning & was shocked to hear that Mike Quayle had developed MS, & has now passed away. I knew him quite well, & he had a few nice results. 

There's a similar one I often see, it goes something like


Doing something you can't see

The mind boggles.

We seemed to get a bit off track, in true blonde style yesterday.

Yes, the cost is part of the equation, it'd be ridic to keep paying for it if it became Tumbleweed City, and that was my point throughout - new threads are key, & interaction. If we leave it to the usual handful to start the threads, it feels like its being forced, as has been correctly noted. My circumstances may change soon, too, it must be long odds, given my age, that I'll still have a job Next Door this time next year, it's a young person's game.   

Here's what troubles me most - I don't want us to end up like this.....

http://www.thehendonmob.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1


http://community.betfair.com/poker/go/forum/view/94146/165794/poker


http://www.meetup.com/bswpoker/messages/boards/

At no stage did I suggest the money was the main problem, I never mentioned it at all. It's part of it though, yes, of course it is. 

For the record, as the two things were mentioned, Fred has turned a profit of £8,674, & the Hosting Costs, as far as I can tell from a quick search of my records, have cost £19,679.18 since February 2009. I don't recall exactly when, but Tighty was paying it originally, & then I took over, at a guess, about 4 years ago, but I may be wrong on that. So yes, it could be said that Fred has "saved me" £8,674. I'm certainly not ungrateful for Fred profits, & I recognize how they have arisen. I would hope lots of blondes have benefitted from it, too. In theory, those who follow it should have all made just as much, maybe more if they stake more bravely. I like that. 

My point, though, was if we want to keep the place, we need to treat it as a community, & all make some effort. A regular supply of new threads would be a good start. 

Dave's plan was to build around an Online Cardroom, & that's how our cardroom started. Affiliates, too - remember, in those days, Affiliates were like a gold mine. Times changed though.

The cardroom went fine at first, though most of the profits came from the attached casino.

Then the going got a bit heavy, & the blonde players were, as a book of players, net withdrawers, they were making "too much profit", & so I-Poker closed us down.  We also became liable - don't ask - for "chargebacks", & found ourselves paying as much as $17,000 in a month - an entire month's profit - in chargebacks for dodgy accounts set up from paces like Ukraine, Afghanistan & Russia. I-Poker ran our cage, so we had no control over vetting new accounts,  so it seemed a bit rich that we had to pay the chargebacks - I-Poker MUST have known that blonde could not get sign-ups from places like Afghanistan.

Dave was not enjoying it much, understandably, so he sold his stake & walked. In hindsight, maybe the doors should have closed then, but for Dave, it was the right decision I suppose.   

right at the start there would have been a choice to go down an affiliate model or open up a cardroom

once that decision was taken, it wouldnt have worked to then switch to an affiliate model once the cardroom had to close as by then almost all of our posters had accounts everywhere, our user base was already mature. Hence going down the sponsorship route

-

as to server costs, Bongo put us on a new arrangement 5-6 years ago as the then host was giving us problems in terms of reliability

we are currently investigating if it can be done cheaper (and better), which seems to be the case. perhaps the market has moved on in terms of costing

I agree, & yes, probably bad memories for him, not just the I-Poker mess, but he was having a torrid time in his private life, too.

He & I got on wonderfully before he invited me into blonde, & we get on fine now,  but whilst we were partners in business, it was all a bit strained.

He lives in the Philippines now, I last saw him 18 months ago, & every year before that, at the WSOP in Vegas.

He was, at the time, 10 or 12 years ago, one of the biggest "names" in European Poker, but then everything changed, & the new guard took over.

He's still playing a bit of live poker, according to this.....

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=55

Guess he's pays Online, too.
 

Yes, it seems we could do it cheaper, but it must be said, the current Hosts are very good indeed.  Our outdated software causes us to fall over frequently, but Tighty rings them & they are as good as gold.

Previously, we fell over regularly, & on occasion we'd be offline for a week or more. That's no good at all.

Anyway, the issue is revving up what we have, & keeping the new threads coming. Broadly speaking, 6 or 7 a day does the job & hits the numbers. Reducing the host costs is no good if we have no forum.

Blonde was offline for a week?

For over £300 per month, the hosts should be bloody amazing!  You should be able to get hosting for the forum for a lot less.  You could use the savings to pay someone periodically to update the forum if needed.

Yes, & frequently for days at a time.

We even had an emergency "substitute" site as I recall, set up by Iron.

It's not £300 per month Graham, it's £199.99 + £40 VAT = £239.99.

Can we move on from Hosting costs now, please? The main problem lies elsewhere. If the Forum were busier, we would not be having this convo.

Sample size & all that, but the stats for yesterday, December 1st, were much better than of late.

11 new Threads, largest number in a day since 8th September.

306 Posts beat 28 of the 30 days in November, & is around 80% above the November daily average.

let me know where to send my invoice for increasing traffic ;)

No need to worry I'm sure latest member compareallsupplements intends to put up a lot of posts  ;D

he will find it hard

I want to find it hard with the help of his supplements!

i think if you take his supplements you might turn into a mrs double up

For those who suffer from stat OCD -  :hello: tighty - another good day yesterday, with 321 posts & 8 new threads, so December is off to a flyer.

If we peel the onion though, we get a better context, of yesterday's 321 posts....

100 (31%) came from the wonderful "Politics" thread. That can't be sustained though, yesterday was a vey big day for Politics, so it will quieten down a little. It's one of the really great & enduring threads here, of which there are only 8 or 10 examples. 

55 (17%) posts came from the 8 new Threads. New threads are the seedcorn.
 
33 (10%) came from Fred.

We can't foretell what may happen in poker, or the wider world, of course, but big news stories always produce a spike in posts. Maybe Oscar Pistorius will be today's springer. 

Fascinating if you are a saddo......