What Do You Think About Board Skinning?

[Lee]

Simple enough question

The reason i ask is that over the past few weeks we are getting more and more requests from companies wanting to 'skin' GWW with their brand / company name.

Personally i dont have anything against making additional revenues as a company however, my only concern would be that our community members wouldnt want this to happen.

So if we did allow a company to 'skin' GWW how would you feel about it?

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

okay I am being blonde, just how would this work and impact the members here? would it simply be that they'd have a copy on their own site or something?

hey, its monday, i am always denser on monday...<g>

[Lee]

Ian..

Basically, the entire forum of GWW would look completely different, kind of like what GFY looks like now.. a company pays to have their brand name plastered all over the place on the forums.

Of course, it would be done to the extent that GFY does

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

okay, hey I said i was dense on mondays <g>...well in that case for me, i'd hope it would never be like GFY in any sense of the word, not in style, looks, conduct, attitude, or anything. but that being said I know you gotta make it pay too, so i'd say if it was tasteful and fit in,


guess as long as it wasn't shall we say 'hetro' looking.

just my 2 cents

Ian

[Lee]

Originally posted by gaystoryman
so i'd say if it was tasteful and fit in

Oh of course

We wouldnt just throw anything up hehe.

Thanks for the feedback Ian i appreciate it

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

Just a question here, how would it affect the forum load time?

I know over at AWH the small banner ads really can screw that up at times, specially when a lot of people are on at the same time...

that might make a few people uh, annoyed?

just something to consider before going that route.

hmmm, guess that makes it 3 cents worth now? haha

Ian

[Lee]

Well we run on a balanced load and well, the graphics we have in place right now, by average standards are quite high on the file size end so i dont think it would cause any major issues.

Of course that would depend on who the company doing the design work for the skinning hired to do the graphics work but as of right now, i see not problems with load times : should anything like this happen

Regards,

Lee

[D-man]

I think it's gay

[Squirt]

The way it's done on GFY is tacky. It could make GWW seem less like a community board and more like a place that's just about an advertiser getting your business. Not to mention we'd be jealous you are making money and we're not :-P You could pay per post he he

[Lee]

The way it's done on GFY is tacky.

It could make GWW seem less like a community board and more like a place that's just about an advertiser getting your business.[/QUOTE]

Good point.

Anymore feedback? We want to make sure we have as many opinions on this matter as possible, its as much your community as it is Garys or Mine

As for PPP (Pay Per Post) itll never be a standard feature of GWW

Regards,

Lee

[cj.]

>>As for PPP (Pay Per Post) itll never be a standard feature of GWW

well in that case ......

LOL ;-)))

I remember the first one on GFY, everyone absolutely hated it and while it had impact for a few days and probably got some webmaster signups, I can't remember who it was ... LOL

I think the value of it is greatly reduced, but the adult gay market in general is 50 times better at traditional marketing, branding, corporate identity etc so perhaps in this market it would be a high quality or entertaining or classy looking or well designed version of the GFY efforts.

But if someone wants to pay for it, I think as a board owner you have to look at what you could use the revenue's generated from the skin for. ie, rather than being concerned that the community will feel cheated, look at how it can be of benefit to the community overall & only choose advertisers based on that ...

my 2c recurring ;-)

[Chilihost]

When one of the bigger sponsors (whoever it was???) took over a lot of smaller boards for a week, it made them go extremely slow and I personally just did not visit those boards for that week.

If you go ahead with it for obvious financial reasons, please also make sure your servers can handle the extra load!


cheers,
Luke

[dirtygeek]

I like how we are right now. GFY is for spam and posting stupid stuff for clicks...

Not really business, unless you’re looking for someone that might steal your wallet when you turn your back. There is a big difference between quality and quantity

[Dzinerbear]

I like GWW just how it is. I think we have more than enough advertising and buttons. I know you guys need to explore new advertising and revenue options, but I would think this one would change the face of this community, literally and figuratively.

dzinerbear

[Gary-Alan]

Well let me add my two cents in to this fountain.

Ad revenue is at play here, of course. And, when it comes to the 'company' I must consider the bottom line. If this is something that would effect the checking account balance I have no choice but to consider testing it. BUT in considering it, it wouldn't be just any company that would be allowed to come in here.

That being said... I don't want to do it, personally. I think we have done a lot to make this place what it is. And, anything that would effect the community in a negative fashion, even slightly, is a move in the wrong direction - As far as I'm concerned. We are not just any other board and that has to be weighed heavily in such a decision.

Gary-Alan