What happened to BOI????

Zack, maybe you should read thread very thoroughly...

Originally Posted by Zack319

So is this all about not having enough money to pay for the site when you retire?
How much can the hosting possibly be, I'm sure the contributors this has can easily cover the cost of hosting this site.

What kind of legal issues can there be. As long as the site itself isn't doing anything illegal, what the members is never a problem.

I believe this has been answered before. Just because you are actually innocent and not violating any law is no protection against getting sued. Since the information someone else posts on this site is ON this site, someone may want to sue this site to try to have it removed. Regardless of the fact that I am protected by federal law from liability from third party posts, that does not PREVENT a lawsuit, it just would help me win it. I would still have to pay attorneys fees regardless.

At one time I was thinking about posting some sort of counter on this site saying something to the effect "XX Days since the last threatened lawsuit". Yes, I do get them fairly often......

Can you not protect yourself with a TOS?

I noticed that you can sponsor just about everything on this site except the BOI. The next level above Contributor is $100 (can't remember the name). To be honest I can't afford $100 right now but I could afford to sponsor the BOI if it were available.

It is available...at least in the form of banner ads (which is why I haven't sponsored yet...no banner to put up)
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=134975

Actually I took down the BOI sponsorship section after I only had one person sign up for it. It wasn't paying for the real estate it took up on the page.

I just flat out ran out of things to try in order to make the BOI financially self sufficient. I'm not really a quitter, but there is a point to where I have to stop beating that dead horse before I just look like I have lost my sanity.

Originally Posted by DAND

Rich,

Now correct me if I am wrong, from what I have read recently from your posts (obviously something some haven't done or been doing) that it is your intent to shut down the BOI (pending it can carry it's own weight) January 1, 2010 to the general public but it it to remain open to the contributing members for the following year.

You know, I've been thinking of this ever since I read it, thinking of the repercussions and unavoidable hate mail I'm going to get at that time. Probably pretty much what I went through when I originally set up that paid member requirement for the BOI years ago. Might have to read up on those old threads to get in that frame of mind again.

Anyway, the thought has been nibbling at the edges of my mind about why not just do that NOW? After all, what I am looking for now is financial support to keep the BOI alive on this site. So what more direct way would there be than to just go ahead and make the BOI a valuable tool available only to paid members? Yeah, I'm going to catch flak, but that is coming sooner or later anyway. And if like the last time, it chokes off the BOI into oblivion, then so what? Without the financial support needed, that is going to happen anyway. But I really hate to be crass about this and feel like I am demanding something here. I guess it does look like that to some, but in reality this is just a laying of the cards on the table. Those cards are saying that the BOI is going away if the members here aren't willing to support it financially. That is the bottom line.

Of course, there are the complications about giving free access to someone who is accused of being a bad guy on the BOI that was actually a pain in the ass to administer. My attorney tells me that I am not OBLIGATED to allow anyone access to anywhere on this site if I don't want to, so I am legally in my rights to deny that access. But it just doesn't feel ethical to me. I don't feel comfortable demanding payment from someone to defend themselves from any bad guy accusation, whether justified or not. So I have to think about this some more. But if I go with the above mentioned scenario, maybe all I will be doing is delaying that problem instead of resolving it.

Man, I wish I could find SOME problem on this site where there was an easy answer to it....

Oh, and if anyone has in mind to come in here and bash me for my considerations, it's a different ballgame now then it was a while back. I've have hardened myself quite a bit to where I have no qualms whatsoever about banning someone. From past experience, troublemakers never really get better. And at this point in my life, I intend to remove as many headaches from my environment as I possibly can. So keep the discussions civil, please, if you want to stay here. If you don't, well, let's have your parting shot and get it over with. I think this site will be better off without some of the negativity some people live by anyway, so it will all work out in the long run.

In the meantime, I'm going to be thinking about this while slinging critters around. At least that is mostly mindless labor, for the most part.

I don't think you need to give anyone a free ride to defend themselves on the BOI. If the BOI is only available for viewing and posting by Contributors, I would think that if the accused cares what's said on the BOI about them, they would take the initiative to support the site and pony up the $25.

There really isnt a way to make it any easier Rich. Its the very nature of the BOI that makes it kind of hard to really nail down a specific method for.

I try, all the time to think of ways to suggest to you how something might help, but then i start looking at it from YOUR perspective, and i say to myself... no... that just wont work.

I try thinking of utilizing the GGC more... because the voting system is a good idea, kinda like ebay, but that just brings in a bigger world of verifying REAL sales, versus opinion based votes, and that just wont work, and its a pain/would be a pain to moderate.

Paying for the BOI, that is good... and i would pay just for that, but, again like you are saying..... Youd have to either allow these people who are accused on the BOI to defend themselves for the duration of the threads active life, or they will just not respond, leaving the other half of the story out of the picture, and more than likely driving people from bothering with that section of the site. I DONT want to see that happen.... Look at how crazy the BOI drives people like Allen to post the way they do to you Rich? .....THAT right there, is WHY we need the BOI to stick around. Those people WANT that section of the site GONE/ERASED.

Its a tossup, im not really sure WHAT to suggest to you other than "it works how it is" But that leaves you open to having to worry about how to pay for the site/closing it down, and i just dont want to see all these years of data/information GONE. That would be absolutely devastating IMHO because of the wealth of information contained on this site.

Ionno rich..... I just dont know. I hope that what little my contributions to this site have been help, and and really hope that my signature pulls in more people to help contribute as well.


I want to see the BOI succeed.

Y'know, Rich, that's a great point: why NOT make it contributors only if it's probably going to go away for good anyway? I feel kinda dumb for not thinking of that myself.

As for people wanting to defend themselves.... How much of a headache would it be to have a request form or something of the sort for people to request access to the BOI to defend themselves? I'm guessing the biggest problem would be sorting out who just wants to read it without paying and who is wanting to defend themselves. Even a "please only submit this form to defend a claim" comment won't stop the stupid people. Hmmm.... Maybe make the access application have a lot of required information, including the full name of the person whose account it is (since they need that to post anyway). Maybe limit which access request gets submitted based on the full [real] name of the person requesting access to only those who have been mentioned as possible "Bad Guys" in the BOI?

Oooh, or maybe this: In order to post a new thread on the BOI, the person submitting the new thread must input the "Bad Guy"'s name somewhere in order for the thread to be submitted. Then, this name gets put in a directory where anyone requesting access to the BOI with that full name can get temporary access? It would be more automated this way (less time you guys have to spend going through access requests). Granted, it is easily abused (someone lies about their name just so they can post on the BOI). But (1) don't make it public that this is how you can get access and (2) limit the period of time that the "Bad Guy" gets access to the BOI (this also ensures that the "Bad Guy" get his act together and not continually put off the person who has an issue with him).

I know these have a lot more problems than I'm babbling about here, so feel free to point any out and/or take it with a grain of salt.

As to Zach319.... Um, you need to pay more attention to what goes on in the world. You are very, very naive. Just like with the BOI here, no one likes to take responsibility for their actions; they'd rather sue everyone and their dog when they do something stupid. For example, back home, a high school golf team was practicing, and one friend was standing too close to someone driving [the ball]. The driver swung, and the club struck the friend, blinding her in one eye. Her family sued her "friend," the coach, and the golf course, despite that it was the girl's fault for not paying attention to what was going on around her. Do you really think a scammer, say, wouldn't sue the person accusing them, the site where they were accused, and the person who owns/runs the site?

Wow, that's a lot of :words: . Sorry about that.