Happy Camper
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2015
- Messages
- 3,164
- Reaction score
- 2,389
This forum was purchased from Bob. Once it happened, I had many messages asking for membership fees and or donations. There were a lot of ads and whatnot. It has toned down over time.If this forum valued only those who could pay for membership, they would structure it that way.
That of course was an attempt to recoup the initial investment, and create cash flow and income generated by the site. So it was a natural progression going from someone that didn't really start this trying to generate income to someone that bought it with monetization in mind.
The more clicks and page engagement on a site, the more revenue it can generate via ads.
This isn't off topic. When the site changed hands, it seemed (to me) they were trying to attract higher end van life types while retaining the legacy members for good information and content. In the process they did lose a lot of contributing members. I feel like buying the site didn't quite work out the way it could have, but they are making a go of it.
For a long while I was extremely active trying to post on just about any thread to keep them active until other members could chime in. I felt like if I could help keep engagement, the numbers might work for the site. I have not paid anything to the site. But I have contributed towards is continued existence in the best way I could.
While traffic on the entire site is down, and engagement is somewhat low, this new section of the site gets more action and engagement than the rest of the site combined. Which can increase their revenue generating options, or raise the value of the site itself.
This section could be better, sure. But this section is also helping this site survive. It's one section. Keep the old rules for the original sections. Let loose in this section. They are two different animals living under the same roof.