TIF: An Inconvenient Truth and Our Future

[Thus]

Fellow TIF users.

 

It is evident how much of an impact these last few days have had upon all of us. We have lost so much valuable time and information with this unfortunate rollback. Instead of bickering about lost guides and topics, (which I do consider important, don't get me wrong) I am going to bring up a point, rather a problem, which has plagued this forum. The problem? Too many posts.

 

 

 

Now, you might be saying "OMFG STFUNUB", but hold on a minute. All forums have posts, that's natural, but the type of posts I am getting at are the insignificant posts. By insignificant, I mean the posts which do not add to the topic at hand. Of course, you are allowed to agree or disagree with the topic's views, but after seeing one word answers and "quote trees", it has hit me. What are we doing to ourselves?

 

 

 

As you know (or may not know), TIF costs money to maintain. The cost of maintenance is covered, in part, by the forum ads. However, when the forums are shut down for three days, no ads are running, yet the cost is still building up. The bigger the size of the site, the more money needed for it's upkeep. This money must be payed somehow, and who else pays it but the high and mighty at tip.it. Now, tip.it and its forums are nonprofit in any way, and a lot is payed for by ads. What adds to the size of our forums is the post count.

 

 

 

What we do to help? We can start by watching what we post. Stop posting one word replies and making huge quote trees just for fun. Stop bickering over petty things and spamming up the forums (hidden updates thread especially). When your topic gets locked, don't keep reposting. Stick to one TIF account; no need to have so many. Finally, STOP POSTING JUST TO INCREASE POST COUNT. Already I have seen a few people complain/comment about their smaller post count. Remember, quality of posts is better than quantity.

 

 

 

I know this is a wall of text, but bear with me. We need to act now to make sure we aren't so greatly effected if something like this happens again. A sticky on this thread mentions that "hundreds if not thousands of dollars were lost". If we pay more discrepancy to our posting quality, I'm sure we will benefit ourselves in the long run with a more intelligent community. It will be a long road to recovery, but let us walk this road together.

 

 

 

Fellow TIF user,

 

Thus

 

 

 

A couple of questions I would like to address:

 

 

 

"Posting well will help post count?"

 

-Well, yes. Instead of posting all over in every topic with one word answers, use more digression. Try adding to the topic, or just posting in one. No one needs to read "I agree." as the only point of the post, and then move on to another topic and have the same thing.

 

 

 

"____ will help the rollback"

 

- At this point, nothing can help the rollback. However, if we simply decided to post wisely at an earlier date, maybe our TIF crew would not have to pay so much money. Less posts = less space = less cost for maintenance.

 

 

 

"Less spam posting, = less ad's viewed = less money earned."

 

-Does not work that way. There are only two ads per page, one on top, and one on the bottom. For this principle to work, every post would either a) have to have an ad in it, or <img src='http://forum.public.cdn.tip.it/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /> have to be on a completely separate page. Yes, more posts = more pages = more ads, but when spam fills one page, that does not work. THE MONEY EARNED PER AD CLICK IS THE SAME, EVEN IF THE SIZE OF THE SITE INCREASES. IF WE USE THE ABOVE PRINCIPLE, THE SITE COSTS WOULD OVERTAKE THE AD PAYMENT. MORE POSTS DOES NOT = MORE CLICKS.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Another point I would like to address. Scroll up, scroll down, NO ADS. Every day is costing money just like when the forums were down. We are still raking up debt. Until the ads come back, we can afford even less to have spam.

[salim123]

I agree even though i havnt been on for 3 months, post count is not life!

[InkofDeath]

Wait, how does posting more intelligently increase the recovery process, or recover money from the ads? I don't see that connection.

 

 

 

I don't disagree though, this is something everyone should be doing, at all times, no matter the situation, yet it doesn't happen.

[War_Junky_91]

Lol, we are making a Green Tip.it, recycle everyone!

 

 

 

I think we all agree we could cut some corners on our posts and save some space.

[Yomyth105]

i see wat ur trying to say, but how will that help the rollback. the rollback want's our fault. just some evil dude who hates us. hopefully this wont happen again so why should we care. it was a onetime thing. us posting bad things had nothing to do with it. so wat we jsut have to rebuild that is all. things like this always happen. we cant do anything about it.

[Lt_Surge]

Wait, how does posting more intelligently increase the recovery process, or recover money from the ads? I don't see that connection.

 

 

 

I don't disagree though, this is something everyone should be doing, at all times, no matter the situation, yet it doesn't happen.

 

 

 

What he is saying is not that posting less help recovery now, but it cuts forum costs (As in upkeep and running), so we should think about our replies to help with the costs of future shutdowns. It could happen again, and, well, it's not cheap. Posting less and thinking more about our posts to make them count for more could only help things, including making our own forum-ing (so what if it isn't a real word?) experience better.

 

 

 

Or, at least, That is what I think he means.

[britonlongbow]

Wait, how does posting more intelligently increase the recovery process, or recover money from the ads? I don't see that connection.

 

 

 

I don't disagree though, this is something everyone should be doing, at all times, no matter the situation, yet it doesn't happen.

 

If you do not post useless, spammy, pointless posts (+1 >.<), and only comment when it is needed and you really have something to say it will reduce post count.Therefore- smaller TIF = cheaper

[n_odie]

Post count does have some weight. Someone can post a lot however and not be known. Quality is what sticks in the mind. Someone can tell you not to eat rocky mountain oysters with no explanation and it would not mean much. Would that be the case with a quality explanation of what they are and where they come from? Most likely no. A major part of Tip.it is the freedom giving. People may not think that to be the case but there are not post requirements for certain boreds. You can almost talk about anything as long as it doesn't push natural boundries! You can even flame the forum and site through constructive criticism.

 

 

 

Yes quality post are nice but sometimes all that comes to mind is.... ya. Quote tree's are going to be a little annoying until the [hide] feature is up and going. :P

 

 

 

It has been stated that cost is not the issue... the community is. When you constrict users it will not help the latter.

 

 

 

Just another thought... i know nothing of revenue from website adds but I would think the more pages the more adds and thus more $. May be wrong on that tho.

 

 

 

~Nic

[Low C]

Why should we take such advise from someone who's name is so immature and quite frankly sounds like it was made by an 8 year old. I seriously doubt if we dont post on here as much, the prices of this forum will go down. I don't know how that could save Tif any money, something that could help the forums financially is if people donated to the site not quit posting.

[InkofDeath]

What he is saying is not that posting less help recovery now, but it cuts forum costs (As in upkeep and running), so we should think about our replies to help with the costs of future shutdowns. It could happen again, and, well, it's not cheap. Posting less and thinking more about our posts to make them count for more could only help things, including making our own forum-ing (so what if it isn't a real word?) experience better.

 

Less spam posting, = less ad's viewed = less money earned. His logic is faulty then, or I'm off of something entirely here.

 

 

 

- EDIT -

 

 

 

Regardless odie summed it up well.

[britonlongbow]

 

Less spam posting, = less ad's viewed = less money earned. His logic is faulty then, or I'm off of something entirely here.

 

 

 

- EDIT -

 

 

 

Regardless odie summed it up well.

 

Spam doesn't effect how many views TIF will get I'm guessing. Ad companys pay more for sites with more views therefore no loss of money. Also I believe the ad would be at the top of the page whether there was no posts or one billion.

[The Observer]

Damn! I didn't even notice the ads were down until I saw this post. I hope they get some up soon. :|

[sohkmj1]

I don't post a lot for my joined date anyway so this doesnt really affect me. :)

[maddudy]

your right

 

i dont see any more ads on the fourm :o

[spooferfish]

We need a Rep System.

 

 

 

Other users can give 'rep' for a good post.

 

They have this on another forum I use for Diablo II. It's pretty cool.

[Maleficus1055]

I agree quite a bit with this. there's too many useless topics like new topics, or "what are you listening to right now?', and other things. I would really like to see every post 3 lines or more, and have some discussion value (yes i do realize this is hypocritical to my post right now and many of my others...)

[Adam007]

Is this really that big of a deal? Sure, there's nothing wrong with the occasional post asking people to try to make replies thoughtful, but does the amount of posts really affect costs that much? Although I find the reason you're making this thread a little weird, I do agree the more thought out the posts are, the better the community gets. I miss having big recognizable names posting intelligent threads/stories.

[unorclan]

I think his point here is that if we cut the crap (crap = spam, posting just to raise post counts, 1 word replies, any post wasting space) we are therefore saving forum space = cost less money.

[Myweponsg00d]

He's right!!! :o :o :o :o

[Macmaster92]

You won't find any one word answers in the Off Topic section.

[SwreeTak]

You're totally right in what you say here. I have also noticed that many users here on this forum "spam" different threads just to get their post count up. I have a fairly big post count myself with almost 3000 posts. And to be honest this post count is made up with not 100% non-spam posts. I have got a few comments from other tiffers about me doing just what you're saying in your post; "Posting in every topic in general just to get post count up." And I must admit that these people have been right at times. I have been posting to much spam on these boards.

 

Now, with the reopening of TIF, I have a chance to restart though. And I'm going to take it. From now on I will really try just to post only where I have got something to add.

 

Finally, thank you for posting this. It's not only me who needed to see this, I'm sure of that. Probably quite a lot of people will ignore this or not see it, but I'm sure a few people did who needed to do so and that you helped them realising spam isn't good.

[InkofDeath]

Spam doesn't effect how many views TIF will get I'm guessing. Ad companys pay more for sites with more views therefore no loss of money. Also I believe the ad would be at the top of the page whether there was no posts or one billion.

 

And you fail to realize that with this topic alone, taking our the spam posts, would reduce it to one page. That second page is generated an ad, which gets counted for revenue. Do this for every single topic on the forums, and you get a lot of money generated just from spam posts.

[FooK-A-Ji]

everyone send silverion $1 right now

[Tijger2099]

Great post, I hope the spammers will realize that what they are doing shouldn't be taken for granted. There's people actually paying for their enjoyment, even though these people might not have a lot of trouble doing this, there is still no reason to post without adding something to a certain post.

[nomadmike]

everyone send silverion $1 right now

 

Hmm...send one dollar for a forum which will give me happiness.

 

 

 

I think I'll be happier with my dollar :twisted:

 

 

 

 

 

Would be funny if the big people in charge made a post = one page and each page has all these borders of ads :lol:

 

:o I've seen it done :shock: