• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Future of the Forum

madurobob said:
Not much different at all if you ID the T-Shirt store as specific to funding TAM scholarships or other short-term goals.
Click to expand...

There is a massive difference. One is an auction of a rare item. One is a flat payment for something everyone can have.

Auctions are pure profit. T-shirt sales are maybe $2 out of $20.

This doesn't even touch the psychology of donating to a cause, either.
 
RemieV said:
There is a massive difference. One is an auction of a rare item. One is a flat payment for something everyone can have.

Auctions are pure profit. T-shirt sales are maybe $2 out of $20.

This doesn't even touch the psychology of donating to a cause, either.
Click to expand...

They are both pure profit. The forums have no spend on either to net against the revenue. One just has a lower amount of revenue allocated to the forums.

But, thats just me being a pedantic CPA - I know what you mean.

Keep in mind we're not talking about ongoing funding of the forums, we're talking about other, targeted fund raisers. It shouldn't be difficult to keep the two separate.

If some members want to buy forum T-shirts, you are leaving money on the table by not offering T-shirts. I think you're fear of eroding sales of items that bring in more revenue to the forums is not entirely valid. Folks interested in just chipping in a little and getting a shirt or a mug aren't likely to be dithering between that and bidding on the custom made guitar or the zirconium encrusted tweezers imported from Montana, and they are not going to be confused between these targeted fund raising activities and donating to the ongoing running of the forums.

Of course, transparency in important. Make it clear how much of a member's purchase goes to support the forums for any item being offered. We're not dummies (mostly), we can be trusted with this decision. If the member only wants a T-shirt and the forum only gets $2 for that, then thats $2 the forums would not have received if it didn't have T-shirts available. But, if the member is more interested in bang-for-the-buck to the forums, perhaps they'll bid on some of the other items donated for auction.

Unless there are folks who are going to be donating simple, low price items like t-shirts and mugs that would be in direct price competition with t-shirts and mugs, its a good idea to consider offering t-shirts and mugs.
 
Darat said:
According to the JREF there will be an official statement made after they have considered the proposals and chosen one. I'd rather they not simply rush something out half cooked.
Click to expand...
I did not ask for the JREF to rush out something half cooked. They could just give a status: "the deadline for new proposals had been closed, and we have got x new proposals which we will consider during the next month, thanks for your patience". Is that so difficult?
 
steenkh said:
I did not ask for the JREF to rush out something half cooked. They could just give a status: "the deadline for new proposals had been closed, and we have got x new proposals which we will consider during the next month, thanks for your patience". Is that so difficult?
Click to expand...

It is when you don't care.
 
zooterkin said:
icerat said:
Current operating costs (server, licencing, firewall etc) is around $7000/yr. I'm fairly certain we can do a lot better than that and get better performance, but we can't be certain until something is up and running. Personally I'd also like consideration of some kind of compensation to admins/mods as some of them put an awful lot of time in to the site. That poses a risk of changing the character of the site however. Aforementioned t-shirts and coffee mugs might be an appropriate way. :)
Click to expand...

Personally, I'd be opposed to this, for a number of reasons I'm not quite able to articulate at the moment. :)
Click to expand...


I think your salaries should be doubled, at the very least.
 
I wonder when the last time was that any administrator looked at the JREF website. Does D.J. have anyone to help with this kind of thing? It really has become a bit of a disaster to be frank.

  • About the foundation: meager uninspiring description of JREF, with no mention of the forums (no surprise I guess).
  • Our Team: Randi and D.J. Grothe--that's it! No mention of or credit given to anyone else nor any hint of volunteers?
  • Research fellows: 404 Not Found!
  • Press Center: Does not appear to have been updated recently.
  • Video Library: Invalid token, you are not authorized....
  • Educational Grant Recipients: Last entry, 2012.
  • Amazing Meetings: Last entry: Join us for The Amaz!ng Meeting 2012
  • Scholarships: Last entry: 2011-2012 Written by Ray Hall. He needs a spell checker.
I don't believe this website would inspire the casual browser to "Join JREF". It has that tired look of so many unenthusiastic sites asking for money. I've never seen D.J. or Randi request volunteers to help with the site, but I don't look at the main page very often.


Then there is this disturbing thread about such a simple request that just goes unanswered.

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281538
 
Olowkow said:
I wonder when the last time was that any administrator looked at the JREF website. Does D.J. have anyone to help with this kind of thing?
Click to expand...


It's not difficult to find out:

It's not news that the randi.org website is overdue for a makeover. The JREF is working on that as a high priority. I've just come on board as a Creative Consultant for the organization. ...

Loads of unique and exciting content from new contributors will be forthcoming. Bear with us while we build the new platform and expand content.
Click to expand...

Link.
 
LashL said:
It's not difficult to find out:



Link.
Click to expand...

Hm, Sharon is only mentioning the JREF Facebook and Twitter pages. Like many others these days, the JREF will probably concentrate on the 'social' networks and forget about their web page.

My own ISP tells us on their web page that everything is working fine, even when their Facebook page tells us that the network is down …
 
steenkh said:
Hm, Sharon is only mentioning the JREF Facebook and Twitter pages. Like many others these days, the JREF will probably concentrate on the 'social' networks and forget about their web page.
Click to expand...


That's not how I read it.

It's not news that the randi.org website is overdue for a makeover. The JREF is working on that as a high priority. I've just come on board as a Creative Consultant for the organization. ...

Loads of unique and exciting content from new contributors will be forthcoming. Bear with us while we build the new platform and expand content.
Click to expand...

Only after that does the article go on to mention Twitter etc. in a later paragraph.
 
It's my understanding there's a completely new website under development, so I'm guessing they're not that concerned about updating the current (old) one.
 
Here's the official word:

After considering all the comments and proposals from forum members, JREF has decided to transfer operation of the forums to TribeTech AB, a Swedish company founded by forum member icerat which specialises in hosting and developing internet communities. Icerat, together with the current forum admins (Darat, Locknar, Lash_L, and Lisa_Simpson) have developed a transition plan which JREF believes protects the privacy and interests of all forum members, as well as the ongoing existence of the forum community. All of the current admins are supportive of the transition plan and will continue their roles at the forum’s new home.

The transition team will post a message outlining the procedure in the next few days.
 
RE: the randi.org website.

The website is being redesigned. There will likely be a temporary design to fix the current problems with logins and comments and to make things easier to update.

Because of that, I am not working on updates to the old site.

Sharon
Creative Consultant, JREF
 
Coming back to the thread, and if may have missed this, but someone mentioned the Amazon affiliate as a source of revenue. I managed that you about 1-2 years for the JREF, and promoted it on Twitter, blogs, had Hal read an announcement about it at TAM, personally paid for 1,000 flyers that I distributed at the same TAM. I posted a sticky thread about it every couple months. The most the JREF every received in one month was under $200, IIRC, and usually it was under $100. People didn't use it, or thought they had to buy only the books displayed in the store, no matter how many time I explained how to access the page such that JREF would get some funds.
 
Geek Goddess said:
Coming back to the thread, and if may have missed this, but someone mentioned the Amazon affiliate as a source of revenue. I managed that you about 1-2 years for the JREF, and promoted it on Twitter, blogs, had Hal read an announcement about it at TAM, personally paid for 1,000 flyers that I distributed at the same TAM. I posted a sticky thread about it every couple months. The most the JREF every received in one month was under $200, IIRC, and usually it was under $100. People didn't use it, or thought they had to buy only the books displayed in the store, no matter how many time I explained how to access the page such that JREF would get some funds.
Click to expand...

You should have asked Brian Dunning for some advice :D
 
idoubtit said:
Here's the official word:

After considering all the comments and proposals from forum members, JREF has decided to transfer operation of the forums to TribeTech AB, a Swedish company founded by forum member icerat which specialises in hosting and developing internet communities. Icerat, together with the current forum admins (Darat, Locknar, Lash_L, and Lisa_Simpson) have developed a transition plan which JREF believes protects the privacy and interests of all forum members, as well as the ongoing existence of the forum community. All of the current admins are supportive of the transition plan and will continue their roles at the forum’s new home.

The transition team will post a message outlining the procedure in the next few days.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. Now that the decision has been offically made hopefully things can move ahead more transparently (and with less vitriol :boxedin: ). As soon as the Admins and Icerat weigh in with the official Transition Plan we will be able to see the full extent of Icerat's dastardly ambitions and rebel properly against our new evil overlords.

Seriously, thanks to everyone who has been working to see that there is a transition plan for the forum. This has been a situation that has been dropped without warning in everyone's lap, under less than ideal circumstances. Those involved have had to deal with the situation as it existed and there was never going to be a perfect solution.

I for one am now slightly more confident that the solution we actually get will be one I can live with.
 
Last edited:
idoubtit said:
Here's the official word:

After considering all the comments and proposals from forum members, JREF has decided to transfer operation of the forums to TribeTech AB, a Swedish company founded by forum member icerat which specialises in hosting and developing internet communities. Icerat, together with the current forum admins (Darat, Locknar, Lash_L, and Lisa_Simpson) have developed a transition plan which JREF believes protects the privacy and interests of all forum members, as well as the ongoing existence of the forum community. All of the current admins are supportive of the transition plan and will continue their roles at the forum’s new home.

The transition team will post a message outlining the procedure in the next few days.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, but what happens when icerat gets banned for insisting that we all sign up to Amway or get banned ourselves? :D:cool::catfight::boxedin::eek:

(sorry, just been reading the emoticons thread)
 
idoubtit said:
Here's the official word:

After considering all the comments and proposals from forum members, JREF has decided to transfer operation of the forums to TribeTech AB, a Swedish company founded by forum member icerat which specialises in hosting and developing internet communities. Icerat, together with the current forum admins (Darat, Locknar, Lash_L, and Lisa_Simpson) have developed a transition plan which JREF believes protects the privacy and interests of all forum members, as well as the ongoing existence of the forum community. All of the current admins are supportive of the transition plan and will continue their roles at the forum’s new home.

The transition team will post a message outlining the procedure in the next few days.
Click to expand...


Does this then mean the Darat, Locknar, and LashL have had their administrative roles restored?

Will there be a follow-on joint announcement as promised by JREF and icerat providing more details?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom