Blonde Stats Page

[tikay]

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.

[tikay]

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.

[Ironside]

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

[tikay]

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.

[ripple11]

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.

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.

[tikay]

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. 

[tikay]

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. 

[vegaslover]

Bump

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

[rfgqqabc]

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

[tikay]

Bump

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

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.

[tikay]

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

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.

[rfgqqabc]

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

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.

[tikay]

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

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.

 

[tikay]

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.

[rfgqqabc]

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.