The Story Of This Forum

[sparsely]

we could create & sell a "Hot People of FST.com" calendar to raise funds....but I think there&#39;s too many months. >_<

[namzuf9]

Originally posted by J&#39;Pol@18 May 2004 - 22:49
Point is let&#39;s enjoy a good steady fast board. That&#39;s what we all want. If Brian can recoup his costs, or even better make a profit from things that the members are happy with then cool. Banners, donations and merchandise seems OK so far. Other ideas would probably be appreciated.

We just don&#39;t want to be associated with the sort of scam that we have been fighting against all along.

Long live the board :beerchug:

Well said that man.

[Sparkle1984]

Originally posted by Sparsely@19 May 2004 - 00:01

we could create & sell a "Hot People of FST.com" calendar to raise funds....but I think there&#39;s too many months. >_<

LOL&#33;&#33;&#33; I love that joke&#33;



By the way,I think ordinary ads are ok, just not scam ones. Other filesharing boards with heavy traffic such as Zeropaid and Slyck have never found it necessary to put up scam ads, so why should this board?

[RealitY]

Well better you than 7th is all I can say. I suggest you do add a Pay Pal donation back although it may draw to little to bother. Also if possible can we have the ad put back in the top right corner as it was...

[brenda]

good luck Brian I hope it all comes good for you in the end. I think you have a lot of support from people here.

[rookiecrd1]

I really do appreciate everyones support.

Brian :-)

[shn]

Originally posted by rookiecrd1@18 May 2004 - 09:16
Hey all. I thought it was everyones right to know a brief history of this forum. I have been very stressed in the last few weeks, and apoligize for not being here more often:

This forum was initially created by Paul and VB who ran the site like clockwork. Due to server costs he gave the forum to 7th free of charge in order to have the forum run for free.

A couple months ago 7th offered to sell me the forum. The amount of money I paid was extremely high. Lets just say it could have paid for one years tuition of college. Why did I pay this much? Because 7thelement (Marc/Mario) showed me revenue statistics that were extremely inflated. He actually fabricated a bank statement showing me this. I bought the forum with the promise that it will make me money, but most of all because I loved the community. Well 7th screwed me big time. I found that instead of making over &#036;1000 per month according to 7thelement, it was costing over &#036;400 per month to run.

7th element has ignored all my emails for the past month and I am stuck in a very awkward situation. In addition to spending a huge amount of &#036; on this forum I also am stuck footing this huge server bill.

Anyway I was considering selling it for about half of what i paid, but the new owner was quickly turned off by all the complaints when he added the new banner.

In conclucion I have decided to keep the forum for myself and remain in charge of it, as i think thats what is best for the community.

As for the antispam script, I am sorry that it has not been removed, but 7th obviously never got back to me. In the coming weeks I will try to get someone to remove it while also try to have an arcade installed at this site.

Please understand I do need banners on this site to help me pay (although only a small fraction of) the server costs and management fees.

If you have any questions just ask

Thank you making FST such a great community
Brian

sure 7th.

Tell me something I don&#39;t know.

[Samurai]

Ok...

Firstly I just wanted to say that I am proud that Brian has decided to come out and tell us all the details. I know sometimes it can&#39;t be the easiest thing to do, so you now have gained alot more respect from the majority of our board members who have already posted. Once more, thank you for the honesty.

Secondly, I agree with whoever mentioned setting up a paypal link somewhere on this site. If every single user donated just &#036;1 or whatever currency they use, it could recoup some (if not all) of the lost income from Brian.

I&#39;ll be the first to contribute You have my word on that.

Samurai

[RealitY]

Originally posted by rookiecrd1@18 May 2004 - 07:16
costing over &#036;400 per month to run.

Please understand I do need banners on this site to help me pay (although only a small fraction of) the server costs and management fees.

Well now that we know your costs are about &#036;400 per month maybe we can know about how much the Google scam sites bring in to offset that, if its as little as you say then maybe we could find an altenative since maybe such a small amout of revenue is not worth shitting on the image of this site and its ideas...

[Samurai]

Afterthought...

Would it be possible to have a breakdown of the pricing structure you&#39;re paying for, an itemised bill if you would for a better word.

There are plently of members on this forum for instance who could provide extensive knowledge on web hosting.

As an example, FST is currently usingInvision Power Board which in my understanding is paid for? Why not use phpBB?