Fourm question for Cruseman

[Retired Army]

Ok more than one question. Who and where are servers that forums use to operate kept and maintained and do sponsors pervide the major funding to keep it all going?

[Retired Army]

I am trying to understand the motivation of the GL1800Riders forum owners. Could it be greed, lust for power or a combination of the two? I thought if I had some info on the basics of forums it would shed some light. I have purchased farkles from the sponcers on that site in the past.

[jmohme]

A lot of web sites are hosted by remote servers that have no association with the owners of a site. I don't know if that holds true for this one or GL1800Riders or not.
The motivation comes from advertising dollars for commercial ventures such as the one that runs the other site. Just follow the money!

[Retired Army]

A lot of web sites are hosted by remote servers that have no association with the owners of a site. I don't know if that holds true for this one or GL1800Riders or not.
The motivation comes from advertising dollars for commercial ventures such as the one that runs the other site. Just follow the money!

Thank you sir

[Fatgrouchyguy]

Usually web site owners of small sites rent server space from a server farm. The "farm" takes care of maintaining the servers, backing up content and such. The owner of a site can pay a webmaster to actually run the site on a day to day basis, or they can run it themselves with help from friends.

[Cruiseman]

Our forum is currently hosted by vBulletin through their vbCloud program. We are looking at moving from this into our own server setup.

@Retired Army - The motivation was provided when I was permanently banned from the "other" Goldwing website with no reason given. I though that it was sick that so many good people were being thrown off a forum that they helped to build. That said, this forum was started as "a business", not a hobby. My company has provided the initial funding for this project, but we expect that once we have enough sponsors, it can sustain itself. As for "greed", nobody gets rich with a motorcycle forum.

[Fred in GA]

Our forum is currently hosted by vBulletin through their vbCloud program. We are looking at moving from this into our own server setup.

@Retired Army - The motivation was provided when I was permanently banned from the "other" Goldwing website with no reason given. I though that it was sick that so many good people were being thrown off a forum that they helped to build. That said, this forum was started as "a business", not a hobby. My company has provided the initial funding for this project, but we expect that once we have enough sponsors, it can sustain itself. As for "greed", nobody gets rich with a motorcycle forum.

Good response........I think we all know you are a business man and it appears you have a good plan. The other site is in it for profit. If you read the VS web site you will see that they have ventured out to all enthusiasts of motor vehicles and the like. As far as catering to any one site, I think not. Do they care or understand the needs of enthusiasts, I think not again. Bottom line is the dollar. As with your way of thinking, having enough sponsors to cover the operational costs it will begin to be self sustaining, that's awesome. With their way of thinking it will generate profit through greed and an iron fist. They need us and we do not need them. In time it will be a dried up ghost town and a business failure. Serves them right.

I know I poked you many times but now I think I see you as someone who really does care about the motorcycle industry. I have said it once and I'll say it again..........Good Job Chris, it could not have come at a better time.

[Kit Carson]

Our forum is currently hosted by vBulletin through their vbCloud program. We are looking at moving from this into our own server setup.

@Retired Army - The motivation was provided when I was permanently banned from the "other" Goldwing website with no reason given. I though that it was sick that so many good people were being thrown off a forum that they helped to build. That said, this forum was started as "a business", not a hobby. My company has provided the initial funding for this project, but we expect that once we have enough sponsors, it can sustain itself. As for "greed", nobody gets rich with a motorcycle forum.

So true, I do have to laugh when I see a post about how much money a sponsor or small business is making off a forum. I would suspect it is a bit of a hobby business, for sure no one is getting rich. If you were to get lucky and sell enough videos to pay for themselves that in itself would be an accomplishment.

Many forms of advertisement cost more than the produced results.

Those who are curious can go search and find various estimates and reviews on the net worth of any forum, almost none are in excess of 20K and most are much less.

If a forum was making millions of dollars, the sale price would reflect that.

In any event, thank you and I think most do appreciate the new forum, as for us members it is a hobby for the most part, a hobby of keeping in touch with friends and help a bit time to time.

Yep, no one is getting rich off any forum..........that is for sure.

[hparsons]

I am trying to understand the motivation of the GL1800Riders forum owners. Could it be greed, lust for power or a combination of the two? I thought if I had some info on the basics of forums it would shed some light. I have purchased farkles from the sponcers on that site in the past.

Personally, I think it's a small combination of the two. The owners, I suspect, are not very actively involved (other than collecting revenues). They're a big company, and I don't fault them for that at all. Most forums depend on a lot of volunteers, and a few compensated folks (and I don't mean big bucks compensated). I suspect their model is the same.

I believe that what happened was that the volunteers selected looked at this as an opportunity to weed out those that they didn't like; whether they were legitimate bans or not.

[Retired Army]

Enterprise is the back bone of this great nation, censorship because of personality is pure tyranny. Evidently the other forum is changing philosophies and in my opinion this is tragic as there is a wealth of information involved and the opportunity to move the motorcycle community forward.