BOI Ultimanium - What do you think?

If you made an additional fee to join the BOI club, would that give you legal protection? As in, this is a private club not a public forum, so you can say what you like?

Dennis and Webslave, thank you very much for your informative posts. I didn't join Fauna until 2005, and perhaps my memory is a bit fogged by the wistful recollections of 'the good old days'. I've administered several websites (including one for 6 years now), so I fully appreciate how difficult it is to run a site, let alone a portion of a site such as the BOI.

I'll be honest. At first I voted to let the BOI die, even though it really is a good resource. I was throwing ideas out there as much for my benefit as for yours, trying to think of ways to improve the BOI to perhaps extend its life span, beyond the most pressing need for money to stave off possible lawsuits. Right now you've got a crusade of people who are willing to donate money in one fashion or other to support the BOI, but the real trick will be to keep getting donations from people once the immediate threat of the BOI shutting down is past.

I just wish there was a way to cut down on the rampant flaming. Beyond what you've already experimented with (and fruitlessly wishing for people to play nice), I really don't know how you could accomplish that.

Honestly I'm surprised that your subscriptions went down when people had to pay to post in the Classifieds section. If I remember correctly, the fee was only $10 a year? Or was it 6 months? Regardless, it was far cheaper than advertising on kingsnake. I know I paid the fee and didn't think much of it at the time.

I'm assuming the money you get for ad placement isn't doing much beyond supporting the site itself?

Have you actually discussed about potential lawsuits with a lawyer? For the most part, the evidence in posts is rather self-explanatory and I doubt a judge would be willing to hold a case. It would be interesting to know how an organization such as the Better Business Bureau deals with liability.

could the BOI be setup more along the lines of a transaction feedback system similar to the one used by the internets largest online auction? seems to be working pretty well for them!

Originally Posted by snowgyre

Have you actually discussed about potential lawsuits with a lawyer? For the most part, the evidence in posts is rather self-explanatory and I doubt a judge would be willing to hold a case. It would be interesting to know how an organization such as the Better Business Bureau deals with liability.

I think the issue is that someone very likely *could* try to sue the site, and the legal fees that would need to be paid to defend said suit is what would cost money, irregardless in the end whether or not Rich won the case. That, I believe, is the catch. (If I'm reading your question right. )

Originally Posted by NUTHNBUTBALZ

could the BOI be setup more along the lines of a transaction feedback system similar to the one used by the internets largest online auction? seems to be working pretty well for them!

What happens to the existing BOI? What about all the people who don't use Fauna? This is why suggestions such as that just won't work.

Originally Posted by NUTHNBUTBALZ

could the BOI be setup more along the lines of a transaction feedback system similar to the one used by the internets largest online auction? seems to be working pretty well for them!

That would make it a closed loop system whereby only transactions that took place on this site would be involved in any feedback system. Quite frankly, I don't believe the percentage of such transactions here related to all other avenues available to buyers and sellers would support such a scheme.

Originally Posted by TripleMoonsExotic

What happens to the existing BOI?

I hope there's a way to at least archive the BOI if it has to go away. Screen shots if nothing else but then it would not be searchable (and that's a heck of a lot of screen shots! lol) Is there any way the archive can be done where there is no liability exposure? Isn't the original BOI archived?

Originally Posted by April Yohn

I hope there's a way to at least archive the BOI if it has to go away. Screen shots if nothing else but then it would not be searchable (and that's a heck of a lot of screen shots! lol) Is there any way the archive can be done where there is no liability exposure? Isn't the original BOI archived?

Nope. When Rich meant he was closing down the BOI, he meant removing everything. Their would be no way to keep any of it online without it being a liability. Gone means gone.

Originally Posted by TripleMoonsExotic

What happens to the existing BOI? What about all the people who don't use Fauna? This is why suggestions such as that just won't work.

it seems to me that most BOI threads that i see are inquiries about people who have ads here on fauna. it may not be a perfect solution but from the looks of the discussion so far in this thread, i don't think there is such a thing as a perfect solution. i definitely think the BOI is very helpful and i would hate to see it go. do you have a better solution?

Originally Posted by snowgyre

Honestly I'm surprised that your subscriptions went down when people had to pay to post in the Classifieds section. If I remember correctly, the fee was only $10 a year? Or was it 6 months? Regardless, it was far cheaper than advertising on kingsnake. I know I paid the fee and didn't think much of it at the time.

The people using those sections were getting it for free prior to that, so any cost, no matter how reasonable it might have been, was an infinite increase in price.

I think there's a great deal of difficulty in identifying specific changes, tweaks, additions or rules changes that might have been responsible for contributor increases or decreases. The various packages offered have been all over the place in terms of costs and benefits as Rich tried out variables that altered exactly what a user would be obtaining for their contribution.

The changes came too frequently though. There were some people who paid in for a year and were then given three or even four different sets of benefits for what they had contributed over that time period. The BOI has been pay to post, the classifieds have been pay to post, it's allowed for more storage space and classified section features, signatures and avatars have been a benefit, there was the community moderation deal, there were people paying fines when they were suspended, there were those who wanted to be able to use the karma system, see the karma system, vote for good guy certificates, forum sponsorships and banner advertisements... volunteer programs for subforums that were rolled over into various membership levels... and different prices associated with the same ranks.

And most of those changes were accompanied by their own round of arguments, temper tantrums, praise, debates and people taking their ball and going home- all for their own individual reasons. Hypothetical User A might have paid into the membership system because he wanted to participate in the member moderator program and then neglected to renew when the benefit was an avatar and classified access. Hypthetical User B could have wanted those classified tools but promoted to renew when given the chance because they wanted to see who left them Karma.

It's just a mess. Too much was changed too often and the durations of memberships often encompassed multiple incarnations where variables were changed, changed back, tweaked, altered again and then left alone.