Sponsors And Tff Specials

[Bloo]

that's new ?

Curious to know what it's about !

 

[William]

I have been recieving increasing numbers of requests from companies asking about sponsoring the site. In order to help pay for the associated costs of the site it makes sense to have them on board. We hope that many of them will offer special TFF member deals or discounts. So everyone wins

 

[Bloo]

Sounds great ! Can't wait to see

 

[William]

As I have not been proactive in searching out sponsors, initially it is likely that we'll only have a couple. However, over time we hope to have a much wider spectrum. If you use and can recommend a company who may be interested in this, then please feel free to ask them to contact me.

 

[AMS]

As TFF grows it makes more and more sense to have sponsers. Will all the sponsers' money go to the associated costs of the site or will yourself and other moderators recieve some cash. LOL if TFF gets big enough moderatos could quit their jobs and work at TFF for a living Not likely but would make a fun job.

We hope that many of them will offer special TFF member deals or discounts.

Sweet. It would be fun to have raffles and things like that too.

 

[Torrean]

I remember an upgrade around 6 months ago that william posted a paypal thing so that people could donate to it. I liked this idea. I think he should have kept it open so that people who got some really good info on here could show there thanks by donating a bit.

This is probably a bad idea. What if individual members had paypal accounts that other members could donate to. If I were to answer a question with a well thought out and generally accurate answer the person who asked the question could thank me by donating to a paypal account. Other members could too if they felt so inclined since many members learned what they know from browsing through questions and seeing new material. Then a portion of this donation could be divided off into a TFF paypal account.

Another idea: A rating system. Rather than having the 5 fishes system that we have now (which tends to lead new members to believe that a high post counts means a wealth of knowledge as well as motivating people to post a lot of frivilous stuff just to get there post count up.) we could have a rating system. Say I post in a thread, each member that comes along could rate my post on a scale of 1 to 10. Then my average rating for all of my posts would be shown where the fish things are now. I'd also like to see the post count moved into the profile.

Sorry for the ramble.


Now back to the issue at hand. Sponsors are good they help keep the forum alive. Good for will.

 

[john5748]

As I have not been proactive in searching out sponsors, initially it is likely that we'll only have a couple. However, over time we hope to have a much wider spectrum. If you use and can recommend a company who may be interested in this, then please feel free to ask them to contact me.

I believe this to be an excellent idea and with the selection of Mods on this forum, they are likely to have used any prospective sponsers in the past.

I would only hope that sponsers are selected and approved by the Mods on the basis of the products/services that they offer and not on how much they are willing to spend for the advertising space.

A lot of people who initially come her are new to the hobby and stay because it is so friendly and almost all members are very willing to help with any problems and make people welcome.

I would hate to see the integrity of this forum diminished like so may others through blanket advertising.

 

[andywg]

Another idea: A rating system. Rather than having the 5 fishes system that we have now (which tends to lead new members to believe that a high post counts means a wealth of knowledge as well as motivating people to post a lot of frivilous stuff just to get there post count up.) we could have a rating system. Say I post in a thread, each member that comes along could rate my post on a scale of 1 to 10. Then my average rating for all of my posts would be shown where the fish things are now. I'd also like to see the post count moved into the profile.

This would inevitably end in a popularity contest and could get ugly. The present system is the lessor of the evils at the moment.

Sponsers on TFF eh? Won't be long and we'll have to pay just to be able to search, like on RC... Now there is a forum that makes a lot of money!

 

[@ombomb]

I just hope the site doesn't get weighed down by adverts

 

[Bloo]

That's right I guess Flashing banners etc. would drive me nuts. I really like the way TFF is at the momemt - very low key in terms of easy reading and non-distracting.

I would perhaps prefer the donating option to raise money for upgrades - I think that worked really well last time ?

 

[juanveldez]

actually I have seen it on several other sites where they actually give them their own sub forum in the buy sell forums and they can offer their goods there, and in return they help with the costs of the forum by either offering certin goods to forum members only or through donations. they will also cooperate in offering goods for raffles and such.

 

[AMS]

Maybe there could be TFF merchandise? Things like TFF t-shirts, bumber stickers, key chains, and other forum promoting items.

 

[Torrean]

something like this? with fishforums.net on the back. I'd be happy to offer deals on my pottery to members...I don't think I can afford a normal advertising fee though...I might be able to do something like if a member buys something from me and they heard about me through TFF then I could donate a percentage of the profits to tff...



EDIT: might I suggest a pinned article composed by a mod stating the advertising rules and who can post in this new forum. I was about to post in there stating that a member buying a piece from me can recieve a 20% discount on the first piece. But I thought better of it.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Sponsers on TFF eh? Won't be long and we'll have to pay just to be able to search, like on RC... Now there is a forum that makes a lot of money!

Agreed. RC is huge. The only reason why you cannot use the search function is its popularity. There is just too many people. You dont have to pay, you pay money to get "prioritised" search fuinction capability. I still use the RC function all the time, Im lucky, because im online when the majority of RC members are dreaming about a bigger reef (AKA, asleep)!

This idea is awsome, and one which could have been done ages ago with the size of this place. I think juanvaldez has got the idea. There are sub forums for sponsers, who pay a monthly or yearly fee.

Torrean, the idea is above, your company pays a certain amount to TFF for the right to have a subfolder advertising your product. You dont start threads in that forum.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Like this maybe...