Unfortunatly

[vorlord]

I thought this would happen. It was mentioned that if you do not post, you may be "blocked" from the video section. So what happens...alot of people now post one word posts and one pic posts. This, to me detracts from the enjoyment of the forums. It is also, IMO a cheap way to get your post count up. I apologise for the negativity, but this is a current trend that I think many will not like.

[Alex]

vorlord,

This trend shouldn't last too long. Getting into the video forums will not be based solely on post count. People are going to have to be willing to post photos and videos to be considered for the upgrade.

Thanks,

[Logain842]

What about the people who actually have stuff to say and contribute? Is your system going to automatically let us into the vid. forums after we hit x number of posts? what's the number?

[Alex]

No there is no automated system in place to upgrade members yet.

We will post information next week when we decide how to handle upgrading members to have access to the video forums.

Thanks,

[whatisdrew]

I'm not entirely sure if this is the best solution and here is why - I only have 1 or 2 posts, haven't been counting, because I'm a lurker and don't have any content to add. But I'm sure that there are plenty of people just like me who have 5 posts, but they spam up the boards with "thank you" messages.

I consider "thank you" messages, especially from people who leave them all the time, to be spam clogging up the board. They add extra pages and for people with slower connections, they get only one video per page (sometimes none) over a 17-page thread, in the most extreme cases. No one reads the thank yous except for the poster - and if the person doing the thanking is truly that sincere, then they should thank on a one-on-one basis, by email or so forth so the rest of us doesn't have to skim over it.

I don't think it's being ungrateful to speak so bluntly, because I'm glad that people who have the time and resources find all this great content. Some of us don't post content here, for whatever reason, and if you penalize us I guess we'll go find something else. This board was created, it seems, because there were problems with the E_N_F group. Over there, the posters didn't get so angry towards the rest of the members. Now this site is getting into similar problems, and I guess us lurkers will just move elsewhere, again.

Delete the post if you prefer, but thanks for making me forget about Yahoo Groups for a couple months.

[giggywatts]

Originally Posted by whatisdrew

I'm not entirely sure if this is the best solution and here is why - I only have 1 or 2 posts, haven't been counting, because I'm a lurker and don't have any content to add. But I'm sure that there are plenty of people just like me who have 5 posts, but they spam up the boards with "thank you" messages.

I consider "thank you" messages, especially from people who leave them all the time, to be spam clogging up the board. They add extra pages and for people with slower connections, they get only one video per page (sometimes none) over a 17-page thread, in the most extreme cases. No one reads the thank yous except for the poster - and if the person doing the thanking is truly that sincere, then they should thank on a one-on-one basis, by email or so forth so the rest of us doesn't have to skim over it.

I don't think it's being ungrateful to speak so bluntly, because I'm glad that people who have the time and resources find all this great content. Some of us don't post content here, for whatever reason, and if you penalize us I guess we'll go find something else. This board was created, it seems, because there were problems with the E_N_F group. Over there, the posters didn't get so angry towards the rest of the members. Now this site is getting into similar problems, and I guess us lurkers will just move elsewhere, again.

Delete the post if you prefer, but thanks for making me forget about Yahoo Groups for a couple months.

I agree with some of this post, in that I'm not sure if only allowing those who post pics/videos access to the videos is a good thing to do. I know this will come across as a "lurker who doesn't contribute" post, but the thing is I have no clue where everyone gets their content. That's the whole reason I come here is because I can't find this stuff for myself on the net. Anything I find on the net is usually a)from other similar sites as this or b)already posted here. So for me, personally, the reason I'm not contributing is because I simply have no access to this stuff and simply do not know where to find "original" content to contribute.

But I do understand why this rule is in place. I can understand wanting to filter out those who don't really contribute anything, but I figure people can contribute positively in other ways without having to contribute actual pics or videos.

My 2 cents.

[jake dog]

Originally Posted by whatisdrew

I'm not entirely sure if this is the best solution and here is why - I only have 1 or 2 posts, haven't been counting, because I'm a lurker and don't have any content to add. But I'm sure that there are plenty of people just like me who have 5 posts, but they spam up the boards with "thank you" messages.

I consider "thank you" messages, especially from people who leave them all the time, to be spam clogging up the board.......

The "thank you" messages that you consider spam pay the bills for the host. Each posted reply causes a new page view for the advertising banners. You may think of these posts as spam, but they generate the ad revenue that helps keeps this site free.

[whatisdrew]

The second reply, from jake_dog, makes a good point but in doing so confirms at least part of my argument. While he has 8 posts (which is, of course, more than 5) none of those 8 contained any video or picture content.

His good point is that writing pages of "thank you" messages boosts ad revenue, since "each reply generates another ad page view." I didn't even think of that. I felt bad complaining about having to skim page after page of annoying "thank you" lists because I knew that the video posters appreciate it when people express their gratitude (in fact, some get pissed off when they aren't thanked: check out "A Lurker"s signature). I suggested, therefore, that people should thank their favorites individually, and there is even a capacity to do that on the website: click on a member's name above their post, and you can send them a private message through OCC. But if clogging up the video forums with pages full of "thank you" notes creates more ad revenue, then my argument is effectively destroyed.

So, I ask Alex: which way can we lurkers make you the most money? Maybe if you told us how the funding from the pay sites works, then we can help you out. I'm not above clicking the "refresh" button a couple of hundred times, as long as it's free.

(P.S. I don't want to have my point destroyed by anything 'ad hominem' because I haven't sent any private messages expressing my gratitude to any of you. Please argue against my idea and not against me.)

[stony]

Originally Posted by giggywatts

I agree with some of this post, in that I'm not sure if only allowing those who post pics/videos access to the videos is a good thing to do. I know this will come across as a "lurker who doesn't contribute" post, but the thing is I have no clue where everyone gets their content. That's the whole reason I come here is because I can't find this stuff for myself on the net. Anything I find on the net is usually a)from other similar sites as this or b)already posted here. So for me, personally, the reason I'm not contributing is because I simply have no access to this stuff and simply do not know where to find "original" content to contribute.

But I do understand why this rule is in place. I can understand wanting to filter out those who don't really contribute anything, but I figure people can contribute positively in other ways without having to contribute actual pics or videos.

My 2 cents.

Some very good points are raised in this thread. I know how you feel as it took me a long time to get into the posting mode and, to be honest, this is really the only board that I visit reqularly. I drop in on others now and again, but for most of them I'd consider myself a lurker too. If those boards vanished, I don't think it'd impact me in any major way, but if OCC went bye-bye, I know I'd have to spend a lot more time hunting for vids and pics and probably would never be able to find the same level of quality that we see here.

[Alex]

Thanks for sharing your opinions and keeping this discussion civil.

I'll clear a few things up about how we get support from having sponsors. We don't generate any money from ad views or even by people clicking on ads, so there is no reason to encourage people to visit more pages or click on the links if they have no interest in joining a pay site. We do get paid a commission of around 50% of the sale price (and rebills), or sometimes we get a single sign up bonus between $15 and $40 depending on the site. To put things in perspective, the overall cost of running OCC is around $2,000 US dollars a month.

GUBA is by far our best and most popular sponsor. I feel pretty confident about recommending them to people because it is the only pay site I belong to right now. I've also been a member there for the past two years. They truely have something for everyone.

These last couple of weeks have been tough. We have been trying to make decisions where everyone will be happy, or have the opportunity to be happy in the future. Sometimes I feel like I'm balancing on a ball.

Things have been very busy this weekend and I'm sure they will get better (and easier) next week.

Please be patient with us and we'll be posting news as soon as it's available. For now, I'm just glad we were able to get the video forum back open and our server problems under control.

Thanks,