The Worst Month Ever

[tikay]

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

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. 

[BorntoBubble]

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.

[atdc21]

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.

[tikay]

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.

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.   

[tikay]

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.

[exstream]

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?

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.

Yeah, lots of effort put in on the forum, but to attract new members/advertise/update a outdated and bland home page.

[The Camel]

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?

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.

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.

[BorntoBubble]

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?

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.

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

[BorntoBubble]

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

[The Camel]

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?

 

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. 

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

[Graham C]

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?

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.

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.

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.

[WotRTheChances]

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

Reallllllly? I will call that bluff

[RED-DOG]

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?

 

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. 

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

Because it's expensive?

[cambridgealex]

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

Reallllllly? I will call that bluff

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.

[Graham C]

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.