Changes for 2019

[Hall]

I do believe there is something wrong with the business model if it requires that Scott has to come begging to his Pub members for donations to his business to "keep the lights on." Time for a serious review.

Websites have very limited options for generating revenue. The three most common are sponsorships (from businesses), ads and membership fees. A third would be selling "stuff" - t-shirts, hats, drinking glasses, etc. Personally, I think that 3rd option is a big mistake. Sure, people will say they'll buy stuff but I bet the majority don't follow through and the casual visitor will not be buying anything.

On the ad revenue side, that keeps changing it seems (for the worse for website operators). I'm not sure that more ads are a good solution either. Visit the site without logging in and see what I mean. I may have lost track but I see (16) ads !! Many are repeats too. Registering does eliminate a lot of the ads it looks like (down to just (1) if I'm not mistaken). (16) ads is really a turn-off and might turn people away as they might not realize registering gets rid of most.

I don't think the site has sponsors anymore. I do remember that Scott said the sponsors covered the cost of running the site and Pub member fees paid for the "extras" (Christmas gifts, trips to CES, etc).

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Sorry guys, I was away for a few days including some time in the hospital for kidney stones. The pain meds they had me on had me very tired. I tried checking in on my phone just making sure all was still running but that was about it.

Today is the first day I am upright and back in my office.

Not sure how this changed from a new software thread to a SatelliteGuys income thread.

I am sure we could make a lot more money here at the site.. if I wanted to make more money with the site. At the moment I just want to pay the bills for the site and we are doing that.

Its complicated of why I dont want to make more, but dont forget we (Eva and I are in bankruptcy currently) and making more money causes issues for us... but as long we are paying the bills we are good. This bankruptcy is taking forever ad i wish it would be over as I am getting tired of having to explain why I had McDonald's for lunch one day instead of bringing lunch from home, or why I took my son to see a movie... I hate doing all these financial forms and accounting for every penny we have spent.

We are paying the bills here and that is and has always been my goal. If we made money on top of it, well that was always gravy. But I have always reinvested in the site. And I will continue to as well. The cost to moving us to 2.0 will be a costly one and we will loose a lot of features some enjoy. I am more worried about losing those features that are not available for 2.0 and not necessarily concerned about buying add ons. There are a lot of features which have not been converted to 2.0 and I can not buy them as they are not available.

My goal for SatelliteGuys has always been to create a place... or as I call it a home, for people to talk tech.

I have NEVER liked talking money or asking for money, that just not my thing. I have only pushed Pub Memberships a few times over the past 15 years. Running this place is an honor for me, and I still love it as much as I did when I opened the place up over 15 years ago.

We will survive.

Thanks guys.

 

[Tampa8]

 

[charlesrshell]

Sorry guys, I was away for a few days including some time in the hospital for kidney stones. The pain meds they had me on had me very tired. I tried checking in on my phone just making sure all was still running but that was about it.

Today is the first day I am upright and back in my office.

Not sure how this changed from a new software thread to a SatelliteGuys income thread.

I am sure we could make a lot more money here at the site.. if I wanted to make more money with the site. At the moment I just want to pay the bills for the site and we are doing that.

Its complicated of why I dont want to make more, but dont forget we (Eva and I are in bankruptcy currently) and making more money causes issues for us... but as long we are paying the bills we are good. This bankruptcy is taking forever ad i wish it would be over as I am getting tired of having to explain why I had McDonald's for lunch one day instead of bringing lunch from home, or why I took my son to see a movie... I hate doing all these financial forms and accounting for every penny we have spent.

We are paying the bills here and that is and has always been my goal. If we made money on top of it, well that was always gravy. But I have always reinvested in the site. And I will continue to as well. The cost to moving us to 2.0 will be a costly one and we will loose a lot of features some enjoy. I am more worried about losing those features that are not available for 2.0 and not necessarily concerned about buying add ons. There are a lot of features which have not been converted to 2.0 and I can not buy them as they are not available.

My goal for SatelliteGuys has always been to create a place... or as I call it a home, for people to talk tech.

I have NEVER liked talking money or asking for money, that just not my thing. I have only pushed Pub Memberships a few times over the past 15 years. Running this place is an honor for me, and I still love it as much as I did when I opened the place up over 15 years ago.

We will survive.

Thanks guys.

Thanks Scott for all you do for us. Hope for speedy recovery.

 

[Bobby]

Keep in mind if Scott were interested in making big money off of the site he has had the opportunity to sell it for big money and he hasn't done that. We all know Scott is passionate about this site and his dream of a home for tech talk as he calls it. It's a noble goal and he has accomplished it for more than 15 years. I am indebted to him for all he does, this is a great place.

 

[TheForce]

A third would be selling "stuff" - t-shirts, hats, drinking glasses, etc. Personally, I think that 3rd option is a big mistake.

No! I need a new one as mine is worn out.

PS- My T-shirts and hat are fine.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I have a hat, where it every summer since they were first offered...

 

[Hall]

No! I need a new one as mine is worn out.

You missed the point. I'm aware that these things have been sold in the past but it's not an ongoing thing, i.e. there's no "Online store" link up above. That would typically require purchasing quantities of coffee mugs and hoping they sell. Shirts are even worse since there's multiple sizes. Order the wrong number of shirts in a particular size, have them 'printed', there's no returning them. In the past, I believe people ordered what they wanted and the size and then Scott went to a supplier and bought just that (probably had to round up the numbers in some cases too).

A straight donation makes much more sense as the website gets 97% of that probably (credit card fee, Paypal fee, etc will take a cut). Buying a t-shirt for $25 won't help near as much 'cause the website won't get all $25. Might get 50% after costs are factored in.

 

[charlesrshell]

No! I need a new one as mine is worn out.

View attachment 136992


PS- My T-shirts and hat are fine.

Where can I get a SatGuys Mug?

 

[charlesrshell]

Yep no multiview in 2.x...........but we think we may have a solution. Not exactly the same, will have to test it out.

Have y'all found a solution to replace Multiview in the new Xenforo 2.0 platform? Presently I have six forums in my Multiview. I use it all the time for me to get to the new threads or post fast. I am thinking that I can reduce down to following four forums with an icon on my desktop for each forum. What does everyone else use to get to your favorite forums for new threads and post fast? I presently use email notifications with one icon on my desktop for the Multiview folder. Is there a better way?

 

[mackie99]

When I log into the beta, it shows the most recent posts are Jan 5, 2019. Are they not updating anymore? Did I miss a mention of this in this thread or the one on the beta thread?

 

[KE4EST]

No things are not mirrored over there unless Scott refreshes it with a backup from here. If you post over there to test it out, then it will change to Feb 3.

 

[raoul5788]

No! I need a new one as mine is worn out.

View attachment 136992


PS- My T-shirts and hat are fine.

You put your cup on the bottom rack of the dishwasher, too, didn't you!

 

[navychop]

....Mine aren’t much better.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I got to look in the basement, I think I have a box of them, somewhere.

I knew where they were before but then we cleaned the basement... and now I don't know where ANYTHING is.

 

[navychop]

And the moral of the story is...





Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[Tampa8]

Any movement on ?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes... just moved DISH Retailer off the server last Friday. That was holding us back as the version of vBulletin wouldn't work on anything higher than Php 5.

So I had to update DishRetailer to the newest version of the software and moved it off this server... and its now on a. different server with PHP 7 and its running great.

We want to totally wipe this server clean and do a fresh install then upgrade the Xenforo. And we are now closer to doing that.

 

[dishdude]

Yes... just moved DISH Retailer off the server last Friday. That was holding us back as the version of vBulletin wouldn't work on anything higher than Php 5.

So I had to update DishRetailer to the newest version of the software and moved it off this server... and its now on a. different server with PHP 7 and its running great.

We want to totally wipe this server clean and do a fresh install then upgrade the Xenforo. And we are now closer to doing that.

Gary and Bernie make up most of the DishRetailer traffic, wouldn't it have been easier to just create a private section here for their sandbox?