Can we not have ads please
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@brad I think that's fairly obvious, and the relatively light-hearted nature of the product also lends itself to that purpose IMO. I think it's cool that it allows places like these to exist. like you said it's not marketed as something exclusive.
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Running a website can be expensive. There is nothing wrong with an ad or two.
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@CO3 I second this
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@Charlie ah yeah thanks for the advice squints mod from the Ray Peat Forum
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@brad any plans for a "premium" subscription?
doesnt necessarily need to add much functionality but as more of a way for people to support the forum if they want to -
how about just allowing donations and doing the occasional fundraising drive? I'll donate
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@eric Not saying there shouldn't be an option to donate, but extremely few projects are able to run on donations alone.
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Merch store
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@CO3 Too bad you're not the one in charge.
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The forum is currently running about $300/month in hosting costs. It may become more expensive over time. I don’t really wish to rely upon donations but if we end up selling ~20 more bags of BLOO a month it should cover our costs. I have no need or desire to profit from the forum, but it would be nice if it was a financially self-sustaining endeavor.
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@brad, being open about current costs and the will to seek agreement with members are good signs on your part.
In my opinion, it's more straightforward to cover expenses through voluntary donations without conditioning to product sales. Nothing prevents you from promoting your products indirectly at the same time. If the cooperation isn't enough, it's fair to resort to pushier means.
But do what it takes to make it sustainable. I don't think that the community is against profit, but oppose abusive practices. The more you can keep members informed, the more likely it's for everyone to understand the difficulties that you may face. And in case you build a cohesive group, people are expected to support and help each other thrive.
If at some point you would like to devote to the project, but a given amount would be needed to justify doing this, what would be wrong in requesting it?
I suggest you to not cling to the non-profit idea too much because we're all greedy capitalists and life without a Rolex is shallow. Profit can be an incentive factor somewhere along the way and it can be challenging to reconcile narratives.
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@brad I'd love to try bloo, but I'm curious why so many people are getting banned. Looking through my threads and other people's threads, there's lot of users who have been banned in the replies. I'd like to understand why before becoming a full on bioenergetic forum supporter.
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@Sugar Who are you referring to in particular? Have largely only banned people for engaging in violent speech / violent threats, as it’s against the TOS for the forum hosting provider and could shut the forum down. I’ve also banned people who appear to be trolling. Based on the feedback of people here I may tighten the content policy further but for the time being I’m trying to keep it as tolerant as possible.
I also want to reinforce that I don’t plan on soliciting donations for the forum. I do plan on having a single non-intrusive advertisement. If you would like to buy some BLOO that will help me out but it’s not a requirement to post here.
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@brad I wouldn't ban people based on the belief that they're trolling and or anonymous. There's a whole sector of peating with a comedic edge to it on X/Twitter. I've just seen far too many accounts with the red BANNED next to their name, even on people I was having a conversation with. It's fine if you want to ban lots of people, but I'll just take myself back to peat twitter if that's the case.
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@Sugar People are free to post anonymously. The trolls were for example someone who posted the same image 100 times. If you give me a specific example of someone I can clarify why they were banned.
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I'm hopeful that the traffic this site gets would yield to donations, but I know realistically most people won't donate.
I hate to be the contrarian but I don't see any issues with a few ads if it helps with hosting costs. I'd rather deal with a few ads and have the site, then rely on donations (which may not come) and lost such a rich resource.
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@Sugar who are you even? please do go back
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Unrelated ads should be understandable; and may be acceptable, depending on the context. First and foremost, the admin should be completely open about the cost of running this site, and share that with the members of the forum with each significant change of cost.
The problem starts when either the admin or forum members who sell things online start using the forum to advertise. That should not be allowed. No one should even be allowed to share what they sell, with a link to their website, in a forum post; so much so that even sharing what you sell, and your website in a private message should not be tolerated, if this is to be truly a good forum.
This is my opinion.
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L Logan referenced this topic on Feb 5, 2024, 5:35 PM
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Okay everyone. I've installed the unobtrusive ad. Feel free to pile on now.
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@brad As for others advertising or discussing products in the forum, I have no issue with that as long as it's informative and not done in a "spammy" way. If there are more than a couple we can even create a section of the forum for merchants that's dedicated to this (and not allow such posts outside of it).