Do we close the Off Topic site Social Australia (.com.au)

[Admin]

I am running both the Recreational Flying (.com) site and this one here for Off Topic conversations. The users here just use the forums and nothing else so my take is that we only need forums for off topic.

 

This site is continually bombarded with spam threads and posts from users all around the world plus new users here in Australia that join the site just to promote their own business.

 

The software per site costs $150 USD per 6 months, that's around $500 a year in AUD, or nearly $10 Australian a week to have this site in just software costs. Hosting costs are basically fixed due to the Recreational Flying site whilst costing a lot more in software costs, I still have to have the hosting costs of around $3,000 a year whether there is 1 site or 10.

 

So, what do I do...I am no longer working, have no income other than the pension which is the reason I am throwing all this out there for suggestions.

 

I could merge this site with Recreational Flying and have a separate section for Off Topic, including a separate What's New area for new Off Topic threads and posts but there is a risk that some pollution of off topic content landing in the Recreational Flying content. Some degree of edits would need to be made to the menu system there perhaps making the What's New menu area a bit confusing etc.

 

Or could I just move this site to Facebook?

 

i am sure there are many different options so what options do YOU think there are...thanks for your help

[old man emu]

PLEASE !!!!! Don't go to Facebook. I for one only use it for Messenger to communicate with my kids, so if Off Topic goes to Facebook, I've lost my only means of social contact with my peers.

 

I think it's time I stop bludging off you. I've been a member for seventeens years and have obtained great benefit form both Off Topic and Rec Flying. I've never kicked the tin to assist with the costs of operating the sites. IN the past, I was pretty skint and didn't have the ability to make a donation. However, in the past few years, despite being on the pension, I find I have a modicum of money to dispose of as I choose. 

 

My suggestion is that you and those of us who hog Off Topic, come up with a suitable subscription fee. Afterall, Off Topic has created a little group which has provided a place for discussion; a place for learning new things, and a place of entertainment. For me, it has also been a big help for me to deal with the loss of my wife and the subsequent upheaval in my life. Without Off Topic, I think my mental health would be very poor indeed.

 

So, I'd like to hear what the other regulars think of my idea of paying a subscription fee. I suggest that you initially post a questionnaire to see if my suggestion is acceptable, then based on, what I hope would be positive responses. work out how much per fortnight that subscription might be. You have our emails so you could send us BSB and Account No details for subscribers to arrange regular payment.

[nomadpete]

Firsty, I  thank Ian for all the work and money he has put into both forums.

 

I acknowledge that there is not a really big following on Socialaustralia. For a long time I have wondered about the viability of providing the forum when there are not a lot of users.

 

However, I  also think that our group has really reaped a lot of personal benefit. Most of us have had substantial trying times in our lives, and the forum has been a valued place for us, on several levels, as already noted by OME.

 

Ian, if it is possible, let us know a ballpark figure to keep the forum active. I'm happy to subscribe.

 

Otherwise, should you decide to close it, I'm sure the active forumites will understand. We respect your right to reclaim your time and energy.

 

[spacesailor]

Thank for this , ( man's shed ) social forum . 

It has helped me considerably. As it has for others. 

I hope you do get a return for your time spent , looking  after us .

Yes, by all means put a price onto our membership. 

spacesailor

 

 

[red750]

Hi Ian. I'd like to echo the others statements. This forum provides an emotional support to members much in the way the Men's Shed movement does, as pointed out by spacesailor. I know it has become a major part of my life. Aside from the guys I see in person at the Shed, the members here are my mates. I used to belong to a forum called The Men's Shed Online, which was sponsored by Beyond Blue, but it closed a few years ago and I have only kept in touch with two of the members since. I am only able to attend the Shed three days a week because I was accepted as a volunteer to assist the members with things computer and photography and can attend free of charge. I would be happy to pay a membership subscription. I am within sight of clearing all debt even though my only income is the age pension.My only difference with OME's statement is that I am on Facebook,which is the source of all the jokes, silly signs and pictures which I post on this forum. It also supplies me with a source of aircraft to highlight on RecFlying. 

[pmccarthy]

I have forgotten how it all worked before when it was one site but it was ok. I think merging would be ok. If people want to support this separate site then I would chip in.

[Admin]

Thank you so much for your input so far, it has opened up many more ideas to consider...I didn't realise, for example, the assistance that a site like this can have on us. Perhaps there is opportunity to steer the site in a more helpful direction instead of just being an Off Topic sister site to Recreational Flying. The following is just a quick brain dump...

 

The domain names TheMensShedOnline.com.au and MensShedOnline.com.au are available

 

@red750 don't suppose you could help in trying to resurrect that old site that we could use?

 

I am looking into how I could lock this site to Just Australian and New Zealand users

 

Do we open the site to say just 10 advertisers at $20 a month? When a user registers there is a message saying No advertising unless they take up this offer OR do we still stop advertising. I don't think a subscription cost is the way to go if we leave the site as it is.

 

How do we get many more new users and friendships?

 

A lot to think about and your help thus far has opened my eyes a bit so thanks for that

[red750]

3 hours ago, Admin said:

don't suppose you could help in trying to resurrect that old site that we could use?

 

I'll make some enqiries.

[old man emu]

Don't use anything with the words "Men's Shed" in it due to some copyright.

 

This isn't up there with the great names, but what about something like "Bloke's Corner"? 

 

I didn't know that you allowed advertising here. If I see any thread that's advertising, I Moderate it off. 

 

If no subscription, how can we finance it with regular contributions?

[Admin]

4 minutes ago, old man emu said:

I didn't know that you allowed advertising here

No advertising is allowed, there have been many new registrations just to post about there business to get free advertising and not post in the general forums

[old man emu]

Is that "NO ADVERTISING IS ALLOWED", or "No. Advertising is allowed"?

[Admin]

The first one "No advertising is allowed"

[red750]

I kicked one off just after this thread was posted, a guy advertising his auto servicing business.

[onetrack]

There used to be a social forum called The Blokey Shed (www.theblokeyshed.com), it was an offshoot of the Woodworking forum, and was designed to discuss everyday blokes stuff, which wasn't allowed on the Woodworking Forum.

I was on there for some time, it started about 15 years ago I think, but it died for some reason unknown to me, a few years back. I suspect it was because there weren't enough users to continue funding the website.

 

One of the problems associated with forums is that the social media sites offer a lot more instantaneous gratification, and this appeals to the younger set.

Then there's the problem of trying to encourage new members to a forum, and how to get the word out to the people who might use it.

 

Then, once you have members, you have to moderate the ones who want to dominate it, or who become abusive to others. You may recall the member "Dax" who became quite abusive to another user, belittling his opinions.

I personally think that members of forums become like club members, with most of us knowing that clubs usually only survive, because a few people do all the work and promotion of the club, and a lot of club members do very little.

 

I must say I'm surprised at the cost of maintaining the website and forum. I really don't understand how it costs so much, but I'm not a tech person, so I don't know what goes on, as regards site hosting and maintenance.

I'm a member of a tractor and machinery forum that is set up and run by one American bloke, and he's paid for it solely, and runs it and maintains it smoothly - and has done, since 2007.

 

He never asks for any money for the site, and he seems happy enough to keep the site going, because he likes it as a repository and source of tractor knowledge and stories.

He's no millionaire, but he must have some costs in running the site - however, they must be reasonable costs that he can afford to pay out on annually. He is an IT guru, based in Florida, so I guess he's on good money.

But the bottom line is, we've found the number of frequent users of the tractor forum has declined steadily since 2007, and only a handful now use it regularly. A lot of good contributors have simply passed on.

 

Naturally, just adding "Shed" to a forum name is guaranteed to garner a lot of interest from a bunch of blokes doing Google searches for their favourite thing - a shed!

 

Edited September 5 by onetrack

[pmccarthy]

As in”real life” relationships, we all get to know each other’s foibles and enjoy the differences, sometimes getting a laugh out of one another. We miss the members who drop off or move on.

[Litespeed]

Man Cave?

 

Black mutt shed?

 

Black Dog kennel.com.au?

 

BlackdogLounge.com.au

 

BlackdogBar.com.au?

 

BlackStumpBlues.com.au?

 

BrainBoxBluesClub.com?

 

OldMate.com.au?

 

Blokes are Y.com.au.   As in Y chromosome.

 

Beyond grumpy.com.au?

 

Men's muster.com.au?

 

GreyandBroke.com.au?

 

Chewing the fat.com.au?

 

The back fence.com.au?

 

GrumbleBum.com?

 

 

Just some site name ideas I came up with. I have not checked if they exist yet.

 

I guess it depends on the "mission" of the site, and the potential for growth if wanted.

 

I am open to ads if they are paid properly to allow growth and money for Ian's time etc. but they must be moderated for truth at least.

[spacesailor]

OH .

None from the " politicians " then .

spacesailor

[nomadpete]

Like OME I don't do Farcebook. I deleted my account long ago.

 

Ian, if you do ddcide to shut it down please give me time to exchange phone numbers with the mob so I can stay in touch.

 

Thanks.

[old man emu]

I have been working on my arguments against going to Facebook, but keeping this site going by contributing to the cost of maintaining it.

 

1. Some of us simply do not use Facebook. We communicate using older methods such as email, texting, or, Dog forbid, making voice calls. 

 

2. Because Facebook is not used, switching to it would require going through a whole new learning process to best use its facilities. It has taken me quite some time to learn how to do some things on this site. Just look at Spacey's trouble recently trying to unlock a link that referred to a point someone was making.

 

3. Not being familiar with Facebook, I wonder how easy it is to write and edit a long post that some of us create while deep into a discussion. Similarly, how easy is it to post pictures? What happens if a link to a video is posted on Facebook. Can the video be viewed as easily a it can be on this forum? 

 

Let's face it. We are using a service provided by Ian at a cost to him. At the moment I don't see that he is being reimbursed for providing it. As much as I hate the phrase love by governments, "user pays", I strongly believe that we users of this forum should pay for access. 

 

Ian said that he did not realise the hidden benefits this forum provides. On top of the list I would put the mental health aspect. I reckon that because we are anonymous to each other, we are better able to speak about what is worrying us than we could if we were meeting in person. Also on the list are the practical help, the tips and tricks, that are shared. Then there are the history and the science-related items that may educate or simply add to one's store of trivia.

 

So, 

[onetrack]

OME, don't leave us hanging!! What's the conclusion? 😄

 

I find it quite interesting that Google Search is now picking up on the level of use of this forum, and it's starting to produce links to posts on here, and even link discussions on Social Australia, with videos and sites it wants to project.

In other words, Google algorithms and AI programming are picking up that this site has serious social media value.

On that basis, "monetising" (ahh, our favourite tech word of this century) this site in the form of some small and non-intrusive Google ads is probably the way to go. Another Heavy Equipment forum I frequent, has done this.

 

This is a screenshot of my recent Google search for "Social Australia".

 

[old man emu]

3 minutes ago, onetrack said:

OME, don't leave us hanging!! What's the conclusion?

At the moment, I all I can do is give my opinion, which is "user pays". 

 

I think that Ian would be pleased to know if a similar opinion is held by others. If so, he can start crunching the numbers to come up with a costing for the implementing a user pays system. On the other side of the coin, if my opinion is not hared, then he and us go looking for another proposal.

[red750]

As a regular user of Facebook, I would like to address the points raised in OME's second last post. (He posted again while I was typing.)

 

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

I wonder how easy it is to write and edit a long post

Posts on FB are generally no longer than one sentence. OME's last paragraph is about the largest post seen. Multiple paras are not simple, because if you press Enter, it has the same effect  as our Submit Reply button. Facebook is open to anyone on the planet. You can find the profile of a friend or relative, and select them as a "Facebook Friend". Then you can make you post available to "Public", "Friends", "Specific Friend", "All Friends Except" or "Custom".  You can search for people you know, and send them a "Friend Request". People are suggested based on mutual friends, or common things in their profile, such as attended the same high school.

 

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

how easy is it to post pictures?

Actually, it's quite simple.When in the comment entry panel, an icon (as shown below) opens the Add photos box, where you select the file to upload.

 

 

As for videos, usually short video clips are uploaded in posts and show as a freeze frame with the circle and arrowhead "Play" button.Clips such as you would take on your phone. I cannot address Youtube type videos, I've never tried to upload one.

 

Negatives.

 

There are plenty of negatives as well as the positives. With items flagged as public, you get inundated with trolls. There are complaint groups for things like Australia Post and Foxtel. They are not run by those organisation, but there are a number on each group who appear to be employed by them and refute the complaint, sometimes abusively. If yhou want to waste an hour or so, check out those groups. However there are plenty of aviation groups, Vintage Bonanzas, Short winged Pipers, Cessna 172, to name a few. Private groups can only be viewd by members.

 

Adverts. Absolutely littered with adverts. AI monitors your web searches then bombards you with adverts that are barely related.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[octave]

Just on Facebook, you can have private groups that can only be seen by members and have no adverts. I am in several groups that operate this way. We often make a group, especially for an event for example we are planning a holiday to NZ next April so we have started a private group called NZ 2025, there are only 2 members, myself and my wife.  

 

 

 

Here is an example of one of the many groups I am in,

 

 

These private groups do not have ads.  Also, editing is allowed (this could be both a pro and a con).    I realise that perhaps most members here are not on FB and perhaps feel uncomfortable about it and that is fine, whatever happens, has to suit the majority.    I do think it is important however to be aware that much of the criticisms of FB are based on the worst uses of it. A private group will not mean advertising, short posts or trolls.  Many private groups I am in require a new member to ask to join and to be approved or not based on whatever criteria the members choose. 

 

A downside for some people may be that on FB people usually use their real name and perhaps some folks value anonymity.   

[onetrack]

I don't trust FB any more than a black snake. It's a harbour for criminals, online abusers, trolls and scammers. It has a zero level of moderation, and we can see this with the current criticism of FB allowing children to view violent and psychologically-disturbing content.

I've previously notified FB moderators of scam ads and their fake user profiles, and the answer always comes back the same - "We see no reason to delete this ad or this user".

The owner of FB is a devious individual with a low level of ethics, we've seen that with his performance in Congressional inquiry interviews.

[octave]

15 minutes ago, onetrack said:

I don't trust FB any more than a black snake. It's a harbour for criminals, online abusers, trolls and scammers. It has a zero level of moderation, and we can see this with the current criticism of FB allowing children to view violent and psychologically-disturbing content.

I can 100% assure you that private groups are in fact private and have no advertising. I am not making this up and I am happy to post screenshots from my groups. Anyone who joins and is a troll or otherwise anti-social is quickly tossed out. I have been the administrator of a few groups and I do know how they work 

Edited September 7 by octave