Charging for sponsored worklogs? Not us!!!!!

[Oneslowz28]

A modding / enthusiast / overclocking site is now charging $79 per thread to be able to post a worklog in which you have sponsored items for the build. I will not name the site as who it is, is irrelevant. The thing I want to discuss is how you would feel about being charged to post a build in which you has sponsored parts for.

No worries though. TBCS is not thinking of charging you to post a worklog sponsored or not. We love our members too much for that.


I will play devils advocate here and say that these forums cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand a month just in server fees. Top that off with Vbullitin licenses, time spent keeping things running and fresh, the cost can be very high. I know of a very popular car forum that has a huge member base and a few years ago it was costing $5k a month just for their server due to bandwidth usage.

On the other hand... A forum is a community.. A community can not survive without its members. A forum is also just like every other website. It lives on hits and visits. 9 times out of 10 the only revenue generated comes on a per click basis of the sites advertisers. The more visits that site can draw the better the chance that someone will click on the advertisers banner or link. Sponsored builds draw in visits from all over the place because they usually contain the latest and greatest hardware or custom one off pieces that are made just for the mod. With out those builds there is a chance a site could lose a great deal of their unique visits.

Now I am not saying that people will not buy into this and chose not to post on said site. I am sure there will be some who chose to pay the fee and post away. But what if that person is only sponsored with a $40 cpu cooler or a $10 laser cut fan grill? My bet is that they would not opt to post their worklog on that particular forum.

Edit: Now that I have looked deeper into it, They are charging for any sponsored build period. Sponsored Overclocking, Sponsored Folding, Sponsored Reviews, and Sponsored Benchmarking!

[chaksq]

If I were to be sponsored, and then charged for posting my worklog I'd probably be insulted. Sponsorship comes with visibility and reputation. That visibility and reputation comes for many from being able to freely share something those who do the work are passionate about. For me personally any projects I do are for myself. I choose to share them online because other people might find them interesting, but I could really care less if they like it or not. It's for me after all. Sponsorship as I see it is an opportunity given to those with great talent to allow them to stretch their creativity without being as limited due to budget concerns. Yes this does help the sponsoring company advertise, but that is how our economy works. Charging someone to post work logs because they are sponsored is an insult. If hypothetically I were a carpenter and I use my skill to build you a house you don't charge me for it, you reward me for my effort buy paying me. The same concept can be applied applied to casemodding and sponsorship.

If I became sponsored and a site I choose to post my work logs on in the interest of sharing were to charge me to post those work logs I would leave the site and remove prior work logs for non-sponsored as well.

[Oneslowz28]

I agree. Its like a slap in the face to modders who posted worklogs for months or years to all of a sudden be recognized by a manufacturer and then the site they love suddenly say "Ok you got yours now we want our cut!"

[Trace]

Yup, this is why TBCS is the best site on the web

[d_stilgar]

A website should be self sustaining if it's going to cost a lot of money. If someone gets a big sponsorship from XFX then the website should be smart about placing a nice XFX ad on the side.

I'm not sure how much money is made or lost a month from this site, but we've never been asked to pitch in and I'm sure there are at least 20+ members who would be willing to if needed. That said, if we were charged to post a worklog for which we had sponsorship I think most of us would get pissed and go somewhere else.

[NightrainSrt4]

Some sponsorships only consist of small discounts on product, or just simple little things. I would stop posting there if I had to be charged for a sponsor. I already know who it is by looking at the picture showing the fees for different things, and I don't post there anyway, but will know not to with future logs.

Makes me want to make a post that has a section: Sponsored By: , with a banner saying Nightrain Modding, lol. See if sponsoring yourself, even if you aren't a business counts, hehe. I wouldn't but would be curious if mods would count that.

I understand the costs can be extremely high. But for sites that revolve around modding, with modding being the life force/driving force, its frustrating to be milking the people that garner you with traffic/hits/views/ad money.

You've got to make money to cover costs and such, but I would think a Donate button would be better received with the community than that. Not everyone donates, or not much, but it has got to be a better overall outcome than a mass exodus that could occur by charging that much per thread.

Edit: I'm way cooler with charging $5 a year for random chat forums, like [H], than doing that.

[x88x]

A website should be self sustaining if it's going to cost a lot of money. If someone gets a big sponsorship from XFX then the website should be smart about placing a nice XFX ad on the side.
This seems like a great idea to me. IDK if the logistics would be difficult, but especially if it's a high-profile component that was sponsored, I think it would be really effective.


I would think a Donate button would be better received with the community than that.

And here, I think the nail is hit on the head. If a forum has done its job well, a community is formed around it, and I think that charging a member of that community to contribute to it is just a dick move, especially since, from what I've seen, the sponsored mods tend to be some of the most impressive. I for one would be much more receptive to the mods asking for donations than charging for posts.

[Zeroignite]

And that's why I love TBCS. For a while I was active on another modding site, but it began to feel like it was just another revenue-generating apparatus. In response, I moved here, and couldn't be happier. This really does feel like it's all about the creative work the members put in, not about the newest product releases or biggest sponsorship deals. And for that, I'm thankful.

Thank you to all the staff and moderators who make this community what it is.

[chaksq]

Thank you to all the staff and moderators who make this community what it is.+1

This is seriously a great community. Tons of useful information and staff and members to help everyone out.