What Does "Lifetime Member" Mean?

[Guest hellsten]

Thanks Sanjeev. I didn't know there was a way of donating. I found the "hidden" link and sent a small donation your way...

 

Note that after donating I was redirected by PayPal to https://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca. "Stronger. Cleaner. Greener." is the tagline on that page. I guess your hosting company needs to fix this.

 

Regarding repetitious work, there are ways of automating various tasks with browser extensions. I'm not sure if these tools will help you or be a waste of your time:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/imacros-for-firefox/

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/chickenfoot/quickstart.html

 

And you're right about Google. You can't trust them. The sooner you find a way of monetizing your site without them, the better. Maybe finding a sponsor, like for example http://www.gurufocus.com/sponsor.php, would be an alternative?

[PatOfThePig]

I sent a small donation, if that can help. Thank you Sanjeev for your good work.  Maybe one time a year you can ask for donation.

[Liberty]

I sent a small donation, if that can help. Thank you Sanjeev for your good work.  Maybe one time a year you can ask for donation.

 

I think reminding people of the donation option once in a while is a great idea. It doesn't even have to be done by Sanjeev. I'll set up a calendar reminder :)

 

I agree that a way must be found to stop the spam. The fee would work, though I suspect that $1 would work as well as $50 (spammers will never ever pay anything, and if they are stupid enough to do and give you their real email/name via Paypal, you just ban them as soon as they spam and keep their money, and report them to their ISP). But better spam-catchers OR getting trusted volunteers to do some admin duties would also work. Most really popular forums end up with a team of admins/moderators, so it would probably be a normal evolution here to delegate some tasks.

 

Just food for thoughts.

 

Update: I agree with others that we should keep spam out without erecting too high barriers to entry because it would be tragic if they kept out the next great contributor. In theory a small fee shouldn't keep anyone out, but in practice, people are so used to not paying on the internet that it irrationally might do just that, and we'd all lose out a lot more in value than what that fee would bring in...

[NormR]

I sent a small donation, if that can help. Thank you Sanjeev for your good work.  Maybe one time a year you can ask for donation.

 

I think reminding people of the donation option once in a while is a great idea. It doesn't even have to be done by Sanjeev. I'll set up a calendar reminder :)

 

I agree that a way must be found to stop the spam. The fee would work, though I suspect that $1 would work as well as $50 (spammers will never ever pay anything, and if they are stupid enough to do and give you their real email/name via Paypal, you just ban them as soon as they spam and keep their money, and report them to their ISP). But better spam-catchers OR getting trusted volunteers to do some admin duties would also work. Most really popular forums end up with a team of admins/moderators, so it would probably be a normal evolution here to delegate some tasks.

 

Just food for thoughts.

 

Good ideas. 

 

Perhaps a hybrid?  A one time fee for newbies plus quarterly donation drives, sort of like PBS?

[Parsad]

I sent a small donation, if that can help. Thank you Sanjeev for your good work.  Maybe one time a year you can ask for donation.

 

I think reminding people of the donation option once in a while is a great idea. It doesn't even have to be done by Sanjeev. I'll set up a calendar reminder :)

 

I agree that a way must be found to stop the spam. The fee would work, though I suspect that $1 would work as well as $50 (spammers will never ever pay anything, and if they are stupid enough to do and give you their real email/name via Paypal, you just ban them as soon as they spam and keep their money, and report them to their ISP). But better spam-catchers OR getting trusted volunteers to do some admin duties would also work. Most really popular forums end up with a team of admins/moderators, so it would probably be a normal evolution here to delegate some tasks.

 

Just food for thoughts.

 

Good ideas. 

 

Perhaps a hybrid?  A one time fee for newbies plus quarterly donation drives, sort of like PBS?

 

Yeah, that would work too.  And that would take care of the main problem of spam registrations.  Paul at Watermelon Webworks is already looking at a solution for the spam registrations.  Cheers!

[MVP444300]

Are you saying the times I've hit on the ads doesn't go to you as revenue?  I was under the impression that each click generates guaranteed revenue.    If thats the case Google stinks.

 

 

 

[bargainman]

Are you saying the times I've hit on the ads doesn't go to you as revenue?  I was under the impression that each click generates guaranteed revenue.    If thats the case Google stinks.

 

I'd be interested in the answer to this too.  I know for a fact that for adwords (Google's search based ads), an advertiser definitely has to pay per click (sometimes big big bucks...).  I wonder how adsense works especially for revenue sharing.  Is it per impression, per click, per conversion?

[Parsad]

Are you saying the times I've hit on the ads doesn't go to you as revenue?  I was under the impression that each click generates guaranteed revenue.    If thats the case Google stinks.

 

I'd be interested in the answer to this too.  I know for a fact that for adwords (Google's search based ads), an advertiser definitely has to pay per click (sometimes big big bucks...).  I wonder how adsense works especially for revenue sharing.  Is it per impression, per click, per conversion?

 

All of the above.  You get paid based on viewership (impressions), clicks and conversions.  But you have no idea whatsoever what the ad rates are, if you are getting paid relative amounts for similiar ads, which or why clicks or conversions are eliminated, or virtually anything else about how you are compensated. 

 

I've seen days and months were impressions were identical to other months, and number of clicks were significantly higher, yet somehow my revenues were half of what they normally would be.  There is no way Google's rates would have been cut in half.  These were non-high season periods as well...so not Memorial Day, July 4th Week, Thanksgiving or Christmas.

 

The one consistency at the Google Adsense in Your City was that every single publisher I spoke to thought that Google's publisher support, disclosure and transparency were non-existent.  They control everything and you either deal with them solely on their terms, or you don't have to deal with them at all.  Unfortunately, their competition is about as impotent as publishers...doesn't matter whether it's Clickbank, adBrite or whoever else...Google Adsense is king!

 

Presently, the way online advertising is structured, I believe Google's moat is stronger than Microsoft's was with Windows.  So "Do no evil" is actually about as inaccurate as you can get.  Publishers have little idea what their value is unless they go out there and market their sites themselves.  Adsense is an amazing cash cow for Google and I would bet publishers are on the wrong side of that trade!  Cheers! 

[shalab]

>Presently, the way online advertising is structured, I believe Google's moat is stronger than Microsoft's was with Windows.

 

Don't know if it is stronger, but it is right up there. It is not search but it is search + advertising.

[Parsad]

>Presently, the way online advertising is structured, I believe Google's moat is stronger than Microsoft's was with Windows.

 

Don't know if it is stronger, but it is right up there. It is not search but it is search + advertising.

 

Put it this way...I just can't see anyone making even a small dent in Google Adsense's market share for the next ten years.  They have almost 80% market share of the top 1M websites, but they only have about 28% market share of the top 1000 sites.  The bigger you are, the more independent you can be of Google Adsense.  But I don't see more top 1000 sites...it is what it is...but I do see millions of smaller sites being added regularly over the next decade.  And no one can take those away from them.  Cheers! 

[Liberty]

Each CPC ad has its own rate determined by auction. Some ads for keywords where demand is high but supply low can pay tens of dollars per click (I think the most lucrative term a little while ago was for a rare form of cancer that trial lawyers were advertising against, it was probably hundreds of dollars per click). So it's definitely possible that if one month you are lucky and get even a few very high-paying ads that people clicked on, the numbers could be much higher than a month with a similar number of impressions but only lower-paying clicks.

 

Google has a lot of anti-click-fraud counter-measures and that whole system is basically a black box because if they explain how it works, there will be more fraud. I doubt you'll ever get details on how it works and what the exact CPC is for each ad.

[rkbabang]

Along with the spam filter and CAPTCHA, I have three questions registrants have to answer...they still somehow get through!  It's a pain in the ass, but I'm still impressed how programmers do it.  Cheers!

 

You may enjoy this article, it goes over this very topic.

 

Artificial Intelligence Will Defeat CAPTCHA — How Will We Prove We’re Human Then?

 

 

[Vish_ram]

Parsad

 

During registration, why don't you ask the user to enter the S&P's closing value the day before? This value changes often. You can have a javascript to check if user entered value is different from S&P 500 index (from google finance API). If different you can ignore the registration.

 

you can also open up registration only during certain time periods of the day (and keep changing it every month randomly).

[racemize]

I'd also be willing to help look through SPAM submissions to ease the pain from you, should that be a viable option.

[Parsad]

Parsad

 

During registration, why don't you ask the user to enter the S&P's closing value the day before? This value changes often. You can have a javascript to check if user entered value is different from S&P 500 index (from google finance API). If different you can ignore the registration.

 

you can also open up registration only during certain time periods of the day (and keep changing it every month randomly).

 

Hi Vish,

 

Hopefully Paul will end up using something like that, since the three different questions I have don't change often.  Cheers!

[mranski]

i'd have to say i concur with the comments of Stubble Jumper.

i'd add that i would not like to see 2 classes of board members if unavoidable. (annual payers and not)

however, sanjeev's issues need addressing.

i too was unaware of the donation tab and would support a periodic drive.

To me, the TMF board membership has been hurt the most by obnoxious repetive posters. There have been alot of complaints about the posting (posters) and then the freedom of opinion arguments prevail. I am just speculating but I think this negatively affected that board more than we think. 

 

[cwericb]

One only has to look at the Stockhouse or Yahoo boards to appreciate having a moderated board.

 

Some time ago I suggested charging for membership but there was a legitimate concern that a membership fee might restrict some younger people from joining. So why not make it a nominal fee of $15 - $25 to join and $10 per year thereafter for all members? Would that not achieve the objectives?

 

I sometimes wonder if the newer members realize that it is Sanjeev who is responsible for creating, supervising, and the overall quality of this board? While I personally don’t always agree with him when he banishes (rarely) a poster, but in the end he is the one who takes responsibility for the quality of posters and he is also in a better position to ascertain the motives of those few posters that he excludes.

 

When this board migrated a few years ago, when it was attacked by a certain “coincidental” virus, and when various improvements were made, it had to involve a lot of time and/or expense on Sanveev’s part. I don’t think it unreasonable that all members should contribute to help compensate for that and I think few, if any, would disagree.

 

Keep up the good work Sanjeev and be proud of what you have created and know that the members respect you for what you are doing.

[stahleyp]

Couldn't we just have some moderators also? They could help look through the new accounts and also delete inappropriate messages.

[zippy1]

Couldn't we just have some moderators also? They could help look through the new accounts and also delete inappropriate messages.

I vaguely remembered that this idea was tried once either on this board or one the previous board.  It did not work for one reason or another. At that point, my guess was that it just seems too hard to find people with Parsad's temperament.

 

Some other board members may still remember this.  Or am I dreaming?

[Liberty]

I vaguely remembered that this idea was tried once either on this board or one the previous board.  It did not work for one reason or another. At that point, my guess was that it just seems too hard to find people with Parsad's temperament.

 

Some other board members may still remember this.  Or am I dreaming?

 

Moderating the forum posts itself is more complex because you need really trusted people.. But this forum has so little drama that it's probably not what is taking Parsad's time.

 

Moderating submissions for membership is probably more factual: Is this obviously spam, or a real person? Yes/No.

 

But I still think there's probably a technological way (a better captcha or human-test) to reduce the spam numbers by a few orders of magnitude. But even after that, having a few people going through the submissions might still be a good idea.

[Martian]

I was thinking like this..

 

1. Let the users register as usual.

2. Apart from registering the site, they need to send a mail to the moderator with specific text

3. This text can be made as a sticky topic and changed when required.

4. Parsad can filter his mails using this text and approve.

 

So he just has to check what is in his to-be approved folder and ignore others.

[Parsad]

I was thinking like this..

 

1. Let the users register as usual.

2. Apart from registering the site, they need to send a mail to the moderator with specific text

3. This text can be made as a sticky topic and changed when required.

4. Parsad can filter his mails using this text and approve.

 

So he just has to check what is in his to-be approved folder and ignore others.

 

Yeah, I thought about that, but then the spammers may start inundating my mailbox, instead of the registration box on the website.  I get enought crap already!  ;D  Cheers!

[Martian]

I thought you had a mail specifically for this purpose ..anyway this will only reduce the automated registrations !

[twacowfca]

Sanjeev, my day job is direct marketing publishing.  One simple change should increase donations by one degree of magnitude if not two.  Simply make it easy for board members to donate by putting a large click on button right above the general category box and another button above the info box.  Be sure to use short directive language with each button such as:

 

YES!  I want to do my part to contribute to the expense of maintaining my favorite investing forum, The Corner of Berkshire and Fairfax Message Board.  Please accept my donation.

 

After you do this, I'll help you improve the options on the donation screen.

 

Thank you for all you do, Sanjeev.  :)

[Rabbitisrich]

Maybe one way to weed out spammers is to ask for a stock thesis, with some plagiarism check.