Author: Peter Skinner
Date: 23:32:03 10/12/05
Go up one level in this thread
On October 13, 2005 at 01:50:46, Ray Banks wrote: >Another message board I post on is provided free by an on-line computer vendor. >On that board, mention of any competitor is against the rules and will result in >a ban. That company provided the server, the bandwidth etc completely free, and >it is a reasonable and understandable rule. > >But where it gets murky - ICD explicitly asked for donations to keep this board >going otherwise it would be closed, so in effect we pay for this board... >The issue probably isn't 100% clear, but I respect the decisions of the >moderators. They give their time to try and keep the board running smoothly, and >have a diffuclt job. One I certainly wouldn't want to do. I did not look at this situation as a "promoting Fritz 9" thread. This was _purely_ a thread that was promoting ChessbaseUSA over _everyone_ else, to the point of even blatantly offering a discount if you mentioned someone there so "they can get the credit". That is complete crap and will not be tolerated. If this were on my own forum, it would have been deleted immediately and the user banned by ip address, regardless if I had a sponsor or not. On the subject of the donations. Steve and ICD Chess have hosted this board for a number of years and to my knowledge never asked for financial help before. With the number of page views and number of users this site deals with, the costs are going to be extreme. Once you factor in the cost of a server, bandwidth (I would factor in about 80-90gb/month between both boards), staffing, and the possibility of having a lawyer on retainer in case something goes really wrong, you have a HUGE bill. If anyone else would like to step up and do all that Steve has done, please do so. He setup these boards, allow the membership (moderators) to admin it for the most part, and _pays for it all_. So if he required donations to help out with the financial end of things, then so be it. Many other sites/forums on the internet ask it's membership for donations to help out, so really it is not uncommon. Personally I wish there was a yearly fee for this site, even if only $20. This would eliminate many of the problem users here as their behaviour would ultimately have an impact on their pocket book. And with enough users it would allow some spending money to upgrade the board to a newer system that is easier to administrate, or pay for advertising where we can generate even more money for the club to use. All in all I am very thankful that Steve does all he does, and is one of the reasons I _wanted_ to be a moderator. I feel being a moderator by donating my time and energy is just a small thank you to Steve and the users here for the amount of threads I read. So please remember that just because you might have donated to the board, I really don't think you can say you "pay" for this board. I think that you helped keep this place open for everyone to come talk about a sport and science they love. Maybe that was your way of helping out. :) Peter
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