[Bubba]

I still owe Beastmaker an advert and the Works have paid for an ad for the last few years. I believe the BMC are also interested in running ads but i've not had a chance to set any of this up on the new style forum yet.

There's definitely people with the tech knowledge on here - it's not rocket science and I can write down a detail log of how to do updates, etc, etc.

[Fiend]

Sell it to 8a.nu 

[Ackbar]

Maybe Stevie Haston could buy it.  Oh, wait a minute, he's skint too 

[grumpycrumpy]

A co-operative is probably the only way forward , 5k is not an unrealistic sum to find as a down payment , and then some sort of scheme to pay the rest off over a number of years through some kind of membership scheme , £30 is really only one night's drinking at The Sheaf and a take-away on the way home  . As for sponsorship I'm not sure anyone would really want to sponsor this kind of site , after all what return would a company get . As previously said we're a pretty disparate bunch who don't hold back when criticising products , personalities etc etc none of which would go down too well with potential sponsors ie a lot of companies  wouldn't want to be linked with a thread entitled ' sporting cvnt of the decade ' ..... 
So can we raise the money ourselves ? I would have thought so  , it's a matter of just being imaginative and being prepared to give a little bit of our  time and energy .
 
As ever I'm not sure if I'm making sense , been a funny old weekend ....
   

[tomtom]

OK, I'll do a poll and see how many people would pay how much....
I figure that if 50 people say we'll pay £20 then we know whats what (or not) etc..
Before that - lets have a little discussion about the options.

I was going to have
1. large up front donation (e.g. £50) then run by co-operative (of people who dontated I guess)
2. Annual subscription (e.g. £10)
3. Donation out of the goodness of our hearts...
4. Pay nothing

Remember - this is not the poll - just trying to figure out what some sensible options for a poll would be.
T

[GCW]

For 20k, a fair few UKB members will have to stump a fair amount of cash.  50 people, 400 quid each.  Or similar.
Mind you, I spend so long on here it'd be a worthwhile investment

[slackline]

For 20k, a fair few UKB members will have to stump a fair amount of cash.  50 people, 400 quid each.  Or similar.

The 20k thats been bandied around is $ (presumably USD) which at the current exchange rate is ~£12-12.5K (very roughly, bargain!

Mind you, I spend so long on here it'd be a worthwhile investment

 

[GCW]

Shit, I hadn't realised we were talking foreign money.

So 25 people, 500 quid each.  C'mon people, let's keep it UKB!! 

[marty]

<<SAVE UKB>>

I would really miss this site if it wasnt around, but if a coop is what it takes it needs to be done properly - people will then be more inclined to contribute, and sponsors advertisers etc will be more willing to deal with the organisation. There's got to be enough "technical" nouse on here to make this a reality - sloper can draw up the articles of association; JS can do the numbers; a "CTO" to manage technical oversight and coordinate the army of techies that delight on posting here.

There enough resgistered users with email addresses in Bubba's wonderful userbase  to assume that you will get more than 25 people contributing - you should be looking in the hundreds.

[Nibile]

hey i can't afford much, but i'd be happy to contribute!

[hairich]

bubba if all site members paid 10 quid each how much would that be

[butterworthtom]

This might sound like a dumb question, but is it a safe investment? How would somebody expect to make some kind of return on it without "selling out"?

[marty]

Two schools of thought:
1) The UKC approach - plaster up the advertising, try and rake in as much cash as possible.  You can guarantee the personalities that make this place unique will disappear overnight
2) Run as not for profit. Bit of organisation and the site can be self funding.

My view - UKB as we all know and love it would  not rate as an investment opportunity - if you want a return stick your money in the post office.

[tomtom]

Two schools of thought:
1) The UKC approach - plaster up the advertising, try and rake in as much cash as possible.  You can guarantee the personalities that make this place unique will disappear overnight
2) Run as not for profit. Bit of organisation and the site can be self funding.

My view - UKB as we all know and love it would  not rate as an investment opportunity - if you want a return stick your money in the post office.

 

But if we can find 100 people who can stick up £50 then we're in the right ball park IMHO.
T

[bigd942]

I agree with the above, this is a unique place and it's the die hard core at the middle that makes it so.  I remember seeing the Hotpod story on tv and have liked the idea ever since (www.hotpod.co.uk) basically guy trying to live the mortgage free dream fails on all his ideas to save money, kids eating dog food etc. Money guru see's the stoves he made for himself and say's, sell 100 of those mate and your mortgage free.

Instead of £50, how about 100 £100 limited edition hoodies (paid upfront) £50 covers the cost of the hoodie (ie you get something physical for your cash which is nice) and the rest goes to Bubba?

[Blunk]

I'll chip in £50, it would be totally worth the money.

Bubba, sorry to hear times are difficult.

[Bubba]

bubba if all site members paid 10 quid each how much would that be

That'd raise £30k (!) which would be rather nice from my perspective but a lot of registered members aren't really regular contributors and I suspect only a small number of them would be willing to pay anything.

I think it really needs to be done as a formal sale and thus handed over to the new owner(s). That way a line is drawn under things and the new owners can start to use the site as they wish.

Just for the record, £5k is too low really (9 years of work, etc, etc)...but neither do I really expect to get $21k (£13k) either so somewhere in between. For example if somebody offered £10k then I'd hand it straight over with no further questions, and so I'm open to offers around that figure.

I'm not looking for much for ukcaving, probably about £3k but I don't reckon anyone on here would be interested in that site anyway. It's the leading caving forum in the UK (and one of the best worldwide) but it doesn't have the same sense of community that this place does.

[grumpycrumpy]

Quick question Bubba , how long have we got to raise the money ? ...... I realise that you need a quick sale , and I am genuinely sorry to hear that times are tough for you ( it's a right shittty world out there at the moment ) , but what sort of deadline are we working to  ..... Fuck my old boots there's 3,000 people on here , never realised ...... Out of interest ,statistically speaking , how many of them are regular contributors ? ......

[fatdoc]

I would do any of the above to maintain this environment.

I doubt that most will work for all the reasons above.

Basically Bubbs quite reasonably wants out. So, if any forums savy peeps on here reckon they can keep the place afloat with a non profit site by the regulars chipping in what looks to be £200 as a one off, and a small annual sub to cover the work of the owners for regular posters than that ticks all the boxes. Personally I would pay more... depends upon the maths / take up i suppose.

Registration should be free, after 50 posts in year you should then qualify for the £10 per year IMO.

What this needs is someone with the time to do the above. I dont, but sign me up for this plan if there is a concensus.

The limited ed. hoody is a very cool idea for the downpayment hardcore BTW
 

[slackline]

Fuck my old boots there's 3,000 people on here , never realised ...... Out of interest ,statistically speaking , how many of them are regular contributors ? ......

Just click on the "Members" link/button on the "dashboard" at the top of each page, most registered members have very low post counts.

The More Stats link from the forums front page has more statistics on the top ten of different things.

[Bubba]

Quick question Bubba , how long have we got to raise the money ? ...... I realise that you need a quick sale , and I am genuinely sorry to hear that times are tough for you ( it's a right shittty world out there at the moment ) , but what sort of deadline are we working to  ..... Fuck my old boots there's 3,000 people on here , never realised ...... Out of interest ,statistically speaking , how many of them are regular contributors ? ......

Cheers for your sentiment, times are indeed rough for many of us atm with redundancies, debt, etc, etc. Another reason for this sale is to raise cash so I can do some job training to earn some more money from trucking and make myself a bit more recession-proof.
 
ASAP really - i'm not going to take peanuts for a quick sale but I don't want to hang around too long either.  If nothing moves reasonably quickly then I'll have to put a deadline on the sale and the highest bid at that time wins.

[Will Hunt]

There are plenty of lump sums ready for the taking. All Mike needs to do is loosen his belt rather than tighten it. In the right part of town of course.

Apologies for very unhelpful response.

[fatdoc]

if anyone seriously wants to take it on who has a presence on here...

get a poll for numbers for the hardcore lumpsum at say £200 and see if the maths works..

I reckon it will.

[dobbin]

ASAP really - i'm not going to take peanuts for a quick sale but I don't want to hang around too long either.  If nothing moves reasonably quickly then I'll have to put a deadline on the sale and the highest bid at that time wins.

Absolutely, and if tomorrow a whopping great offer of £10k arrived noone would expect you to sit around waiting for a disorganised collective to stump up the cash which may not happen anyway.

Someone needs to take a lead on this, and they need to do so with their eyes open - i.e. I think its been proven that it will be difficult, nay impossible to make money owning and running UKB. I have years of experience hosting and running an SMF forum that I would be happy to take over the running of the site, but thats not really the problem - which is time and cash. Neither of which are something I have in spades (nor I imagine do any of you).

I would be happy to part with up to £100 and not see it again, and I would be happy to work for free doing upgrades keeping here going etc. Plus, I could learn in the background and take things forward - i.e. we could make this like bleau.info for the peak?

I think we could feasibly raise £5k between us (50 users x £100 ea?) and I would hope that perhaps the likes of Ben Moon, the works and the beast maker dudes could fill the short fall. What we need is someone with the vision to lead the collective and start getting commitments from people. We need an election! Jasper for treasurer!

[tomtom]

Poll is up  - sorry Fatdoc, was working on it while you typed:

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,13311.0.html