[Misc] Beginning to agree with Palace

[wellquickwoody]

The bandwidth has to be paid for as this is one of the busiest football forums around. Bozza chose Google ads to fund it. Google dictates that there is a swear filter and certain things are allowed on the main board.
That's why there is the Other stuff, so censorship isn't part of the forum overall.

The only other way is to pay to use it, unless you want to pay the hundreds of pounds it costs, wellquickwoody?

I was voicing an opinion about how NSC has changed. You for some reason known only to yourself decided to come up with some daft idea that I should find funding methods. Your statements about funding have been shot down in flames since then, any sign of an apology?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

A history lesson for those that are interested...

The Beginning
Back in the mid-late 90s, NSC was invented and owned by Gary Crittenden, aka Manx Seagull (as he lives on the Isle of Man). The web was young and a bit of a wild West. Hosting websites could also be pretty expensive. It got to the point where the cost of running NSC from his own pocket was getting to a level that Gary was no longer able (or willing) to fund.

When this happened, which would have been around 2000 or 2001 (I'm not sure) I offered to take it on, because I thought NSC had been vital in securing the lift of the football club we all follow, and I was happy to pay for it, initially, but I hoped to find a way of making it pay for itself sooner or later.

The Middle
At some point a way of helping to fund the site was found, and that was Google Adsense - Google's platform to allow publishers to monetise traffic predominantly through banner ads. The Adsense programme comes with a host of "rules" but, broadly, the site has to family friendly in terms of content both written and visual.

Being a site that serves a large number of men who go to football, the site would repeatedly fall foul of Google. Google didn't and don't analyse the site manually, they have bots that scrape sites, analyse content and issue warnings where required.

NSC frequently got warnings due to the nature of the site and often these were accompanied by Google ceasing serving ads on the entire site, causing NSC to not earn any income for a period of time. Sometimes these were well-warranted, sometimes not. For example, on one occasion I had to educate Google that although fag got is an offensive term in the States, here it's a food.

Google operated a strike system, and NSC got to a last chance saloon, which was a worrying time. To deal with this, I created "The Other Stuff" and in the SQL database that sites behind NSC I mass-moved all threads with images and all threads that contained every bad or sexual-oriented word I could think of. This is why that sub-forum contains so many threads, the majority of which are very probably "clean". In that sub-forum I turned off all advertising code so Google would never be serving ads against stuff they didn't like.

The End
Over a period of time, I looked at other advertising solutions to reduce the reliance on Google and the risk of them pulling the plug. We've been through a lot, often several at once and I moved ads again a short while ago to a company called StreamAMP, based on the recommendation of a chap I've come to know who runs a similar site for Ipswich.

Adsense is still on this the site but only when the main partner has a space they can't fill. I still get warnings from Google, in fact I had two today for these two threads:

https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showthread.php?92457-My-sister-is-a-porn-star
https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showthread.php?37020-Mutu-Sucks-Blood-In-Sex-Game

In both cases the warnings are for "Adult: Sexual Content"

NSC does also earn from:

- Amazon affiliates - this is where you click on an NSC affiliated link to Amazon and buy something. Clicks themselves earn nothing.
- Sponsored stickies - where a local firm, generally, wants to advertise their offerings.
- Taboola - this is stuff at the bottom of a page but only appears to guests - if you are logged in you'll never see them.
- Tapatalk - they inject ads into the views of NSC that people see and pass on a small kickback for that.
- FootballWhispers (and associated sites) - I get emailed links to articles on FW and similar sites for me to pass on. I only pass them on when I think they add something to the discussion that I've not seen elsewhere, and are a good read. Others Albion sites do the same I believe but share everything regardless of quality. Each to their own.

All of the above do not add up to enough to fund NSC's costs - it's the banner ads that are the bread and butter of paying for the site to run.

I was voicing an opinion about how NSC has changed. You for some reason known only to yourself decided to come up with some daft idea that I should find funding methods. Your statements about funding have been shot down in flames since then, any sign of an apology?

Has it? What do I have to apologise for?

 

[Bob'n'weave]

I think we need a new 'bin zone' for threads that just do not warrant one solitary ****.

Like this one.

 

[andy1980]

I've just been PMed to be told that elsewhere in Palace-messageboard-land recently I have been called a paedophile because I like to go to Orlando and Disney World.

It seems that as a Dad who goes to Florida with my kids and I've tried to give tips to other Dads planning a holiday with their families is conclusive evidence of this.

So some of them make anonymous threats to my son, and others seem to think I'm after other people's children.

There's not enough hours in the day...

That's disgusting how they act towards some people but you are in good company. If you believe what they write then, Tony Bloom is a tax cheating fraudster who made a large portion of his wealth preying on gambling addicts.

 

[Klaas]

Bit odd complaining about NSC changing when in front of me I see a shit thread started by wellquickwoody. Standard.

 

[BBassic]

2011 - 44,800,000
2012 - 45,500,000
2013 - 45,700,000
2014 - 46,400,000
2015 - 35,600,000
2016 - 36,900,000
2017 - 39.300,000
2018 - 35,000,000 (est)

I don't monitor this stuff at all from day to day or even month to month, so I don't know what happened from 2014 to 2015 - this is the first time I've noticed that when getting these numbers. Was it the Sami Hyppia effect, or was that when social media really took off and folk took to twitter and Facebook for some/all of their Albion chatter? I really don't know.

Those numbers are interesting. Do you have page view data going back to 2008? A ten year look would be interesting to see if there's a jump up with all the people like me signing up in 2011.

 

[dazzer6666]

By and large, it's not a huge amount of hassle these days. Trying to think back to the most recent incidents, the two that spring to mind are:

- Recently departed poster reporting NSC to the ICO in relation to "right to be forgotten" and GDPR, even though I had committed to fully remove all data per the request well within the timescales demanded (and something I've always done since before GDPR).

- Being reported to the ASA by an anonymous user (if you're reading: thanks for that!) in relation to the Profit Squad sponsored sticky on the site. Being involved in their subsequent investigation took a huge amount of my time.

I enjoy using NSC as much as many others and I drift in and out based on other demands on my time and my Albion mojo, and I intend to keep running it until such time as there aren't enough people using it to keep on bothering. Traffic HAS fallen back - these are page view stats for the past few years:

2011 - 44,800,000
2012 - 45,500,000
2013 - 45,700,000
2014 - 46,400,000
2015 - 35,600,000
2016 - 36,900,000
2017 - 39.300,000
2018 - 35,000,000 (est)

I don't monitor this stuff at all from day to day or even month to month, so I don't know what happened from 2014 to 2015 - this is the first time I've noticed that when getting these numbers. Was it the Sami Hyppia effect, or was that when social media really took off and folk took to twitter and Facebook for some/all of their Albion chatter? I really don't know.

Football is one of the few niches that still seem to thrive on old-tech forums, so who knows how long things will run for...

Suspect your comment re other forms of social media is closest to the mark.............I'm on a few other Facebook BHA Groups and the general perception there seems to be that NSC is full of whinging old gits. Probably true to an extent, but it's a million times better than having every thread hijacked by some angry teenage fool

 

[Bozza]

Those numbers are interesting. Do you have page view data going back to 2008? A ten year look would be interesting to see if there's a jump up with all the people like me signing up in 2011.

Afraid not - looks like I only tinkered with Google Analytics a couple of times before using it consistently from late 2010.

 

[BBassic]

Ah shame, thanks for looking [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION].

I think you could be onto something re: the Hyypia effect. 2010/11 you've got the excitement of the new ground, Championship football and the Gus Bus still roaring along at 120mph. Then we have the Palace playoffs, Poogate, Hyypia and the rest. Numbers drop and stay steady for a couple of years before another mini-surge in the promotion year.

 

[Bozza]

Ah shame, thanks for looking [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION].

I think you could be onto something re: the Hyypia effect. 2010/11 you've got the excitement of the new ground, Championship football and the Gus Bus still roaring along at 120mph. Then we have the Palace playoffs, Poogate, Hyypia and the rest. Numbers drop and stay steady for a couple of years before another mini-surge in the promotion year.

I’m often asked about how much busier NSC got when we got promoted to the Premier League and as you can see from the stats - it hasn’t at all. If anything I suspect the first half of 2017 was busier than the second half.

My gut feel is that having the team pushing for promotion from the Championship, with eight more fixtures and rivals seemingly playing nearly every day, there is far more to talk about than with the club in the Premier League.

 

[Stat Brother]

I’m often asked about how much busier NSC got when we got promoted to the Premier League and as you can see from the stats - it hasn’t at all. If anything I suspect the first half of 2017 was busier than the second half.

My gut feel is that having the team pushing for promotion from the Championship, with eight more fixtures and rivals seemingly playing nearly every day, there is far more to talk about than with the club in the Premier League.

People come on here to talk about football?

Mercy me, wonders will never cease.

 

[seagulls4ever]

I'm not sure the Companies House listing tells you anything about NSC's income (accessed from here if anyone cares: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07930882/filing-history) as:

a) It doesn't actually list income (or not that I can see).
b) Even if it did, Blue Seagull Technology earns most of its money from me doing stuff that has nothing to do with NSC at all.

It doesn't list income but I inferred from between year assets that NSC was doing alright. But I did not realise BST involved stuff other than NSC, so I got that one wrong. The reason I thought it was all to do with NSC was because I seem to recall you mentioning some time ago that you set it up for NSC's finances to go through to give you more legal protection or something along those lines. But as you say anyway, NSC brings in more than enough income to cover its costs.

Has it?

Yes, you were wrong. Bozza basically repeated what I said but in more detail - that is NSC is not as reliant on Google as it once was. As I said before, you seem to be confused by what the situation was in the past and what the situation is now - when there was a mass purge in the past there was initially no advertisements in the forum where the threads were moved to (if I recall correctly). Now, however, there are. There's no point repeating what I've said but the easiest way to show this is to look at this thread, in 'The Main Board', and compare it to the thread that was moved to 'The Other Stuff': https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showthread.php?366754-Mark-Lawrenson-cancer

You should be able to see that if you don't have any AdBlock enabled that the kind of advertisement banners in this thread and in that thread are pretty much the same. In any case, as I already said, a mod already gave the reason the thread was moved - and it had nothing to do with advertisements.

Traffic HAS fallen back

Disappointing. I hate what Facebook has done to many traditional internet forums. Their version is not open to the world, is not anonymous, has a terrible organisation and has no proper archiving system. The discussion's usually pretty limited and poor as well. Although it has its own problems, Reddit is an improvement and has counteracted it to some extent. Some clubs, like Liverpool for example, have a hugely active subreddit.

Anyway, I believe NSC is vitally important as an independent branch of BHA for free and relatively intelligent discussion and to hold the club to some sort of accountability. I hope it never becomes irrelevant. There are some ways you could drive more traffic to the site and retain more of that traffic, although I appreciate time, motivation and resources are issues.

 

[Bozza]

It doesn't list income but I inferred from between year assets that NSC was doing alright. But I did not realise BST involved stuff other than NSC, so I got that one wrong. The reason I thought it was all to do with NSC was because I seem to recall you mentioning some time ago that you set it up for NSC's finances to go through to give you more legal protection or something along those lines. But as you say anyway, NSC brings in more than enough income to cover its costs.

Glad I've got someone auditing that shit! Let me know when you spot things that could be improved!

You are quite correct, when the company was set up, it was an umbrella for NSC alone, but I gave up proper big company employment a few years ago and now work for myself doing bits and bobs. My accountant suggested the most practical way of dealing with that was to just invoice from the same limited company so that's what happens.

 

[LlcoolJ]

Glad I've got someone auditing that shit! Let me know when you spot things that could be improved!

You are quite correct, when the company was set up, it was an umbrella for NSC alone, but I gave up proper big company employment a few years ago and now work for myself doing bits and bobs. My accountant suggested the most practical way of dealing with that was to just invoice from the same limited company so that's what happens.

And your accountant was correct.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

NSC must be an incredibly difficult balancing-act for [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] and the mods, what with Google AND Barber and now that loser Timmy on their case. IMHO NSC should tell all of those three afore-mentioned parties to Frak. Right. Off. Tho personally will accept any two from three.

 

[lost in london]

I’m often asked about how much busier NSC got when we got promoted to the Premier League and as you can see from the stats - it hasn’t at all. If anything I suspect the first half of 2017 was busier than the second half.

My gut feel is that having the team pushing for promotion from the Championship, with eight more fixtures and rivals seemingly playing nearly every day, there is far more to talk about than with the club in the Premier League.

8 fewer league games as well.

 

[drew]

8 fewer league games as well.

Isn't that what Bozza said?

 

[LlcoolJ]

The OP could just f*** off?

Quite.

If I wanted everything to stay as it was in less enlighten times, I'd move to Australia as well.



Boom

Only bantz

There is a certain irony in someone who expresses disgust at "the dumbing down of society" going to live in Australia.

 

[lost in london]

Isn't that what Bozza said?

Christ, you're right. I really need to learn how to read properly.