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<blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 1439831" data-attributes="member: 1">I'm just fishing for opinions here...&nbsp;As you know, part of my post-donation plan is to ensure that EN World remains financially stable in the years to come.&nbsp; Donations are all well and good, but they are not a viable long-term business plan (even so, I'll still hold a yearly fundraiser, but it won't be an &quot;emergency&quot; fundraiser like last year!)&nbsp;Anyway, as part of the long-term plan, I'm playing with revenue-generating ideas.&nbsp; I have a few, but there are two which I wanted to discuss.&nbsp;The first, you can see in another thread - that's the move towards making community supporter accounts a little more attractive by including personal ad banners in the package.&nbsp; I may well think of more little things to add as time goes on.&nbsp;The second idea is the reason for this thread - I have been chatting with the mods, and we all figure it would be cool to &quot;sell&quot; hosted forums here at EN World to anyone who wants one.&nbsp; Eric, for example, thought it would be cool to have a private forum for his gaming group.&nbsp; There are probably a million other uses you can think of for a hosted forum.&nbsp;Looking at the vBulletin options, it seems that it is fairly easy to set up forums, either public or private; I could sell them via RPGNow in the same way that I sell ad space and community supporter accounts at present, probably on a yearly &quot;rental&quot; basis&quot;. &nbsp;So here are our (very vague!) thoughts at present:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">The &quot;owner&quot; of the forum would be given moderator-ship of that forum; he/she could appoint other mods if necessary.&nbsp; </li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Public/Private?&nbsp; Options to have it password protected or open to anyone.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">We were figuring that people could use the forums for anything they wanted (even covering forbidden topics here at EN World), but if the forum was outside EN World's usual messageboard guidelines, it would have to be a private forum, not a public one.&nbsp; Of course, illegal stuff wouldn't be allowed.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sub-forums: Allowed?&nbsp; Extra charge? Do you want a single forum or a &quot;suite&quot; of forums (like, for example, the Creature Catalog or T13K have here at present).</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Themes: Customisable?&nbsp; With/without EN World ad banners?</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Terms/Conditions:&nbsp; Any suggested rules, guidelines?&nbsp; There are some things we don't want the forums used for (for example, a private forum used by a small clique to coordinate trolls on the main boards would be just mean)</li>
</ul>Anyway, those are just some of the thoughts at present.&nbsp; We also realise that you can get your own free boards elsewhere fairly easily, but I don't htink that's too much of a problem - these hosted forums would be for a very niche selection of people who saw it as useful/desirable to have their forum here rather than at, say, EZBoard. &nbsp;Those are our thoughts.&nbsp; What are your thoughts?&nbsp; Can you imagine being interested in something like that?&nbsp; Have you any observations on how it could be handled?&nbsp; Bear in mind that we're just &quot;brainstorming&quot; here right now.&nbsp; Consider it a useless intellectual excercise. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Morrus, post: 1439831, member: 1"] I'm just fishing for opinions here... As you know, part of my post-donation plan is to ensure that EN World remains financially stable in the years to come. Donations are all well and good, but they are not a viable long-term business plan (even so, I'll still hold a yearly fundraiser, but it won't be an "emergency" fundraiser like last year!) Anyway, as part of the long-term plan, I'm playing with revenue-generating ideas. I have a few, but there are two which I wanted to discuss. The first, you can see in another thread - that's the move towards making community supporter accounts a little more attractive by including personal ad banners in the package. I may well think of more little things to add as time goes on. The second idea is the reason for this thread - I have been chatting with the mods, and we all figure it would be cool to "sell" hosted forums here at EN World to anyone who wants one. Eric, for example, thought it would be cool to have a private forum for his gaming group. There are probably a million other uses you can think of for a hosted forum. Looking at the vBulletin options, it seems that it is fairly easy to set up forums, either public or private; I could sell them via RPGNow in the same way that I sell ad space and community supporter accounts at present, probably on a yearly "rental" basis". So here are our (very vague!) thoughts at present: [list] [*]The "owner" of the forum would be given moderator-ship of that forum; he/she could appoint other mods if necessary. [*]Public/Private? Options to have it password protected or open to anyone. [*]We were figuring that people could use the forums for anything they wanted (even covering forbidden topics here at EN World), but if the forum was outside EN World's usual messageboard guidelines, it would have to be a private forum, not a public one. Of course, illegal stuff wouldn't be allowed. [*]Sub-forums: Allowed? Extra charge? Do you want a single forum or a "suite" of forums (like, for example, the Creature Catalog or T13K have here at present). [*]Themes: Customisable? With/without EN World ad banners? [*]Terms/Conditions: Any suggested rules, guidelines? There are some things we don't want the forums used for (for example, a private forum used by a small clique to coordinate trolls on the main boards would be just mean) [/list]Anyway, those are just some of the thoughts at present. We also realise that you can get your own free boards elsewhere fairly easily, but I don't htink that's too much of a problem - these hosted forums would be for a very niche selection of people who saw it as useful/desirable to have their forum here rather than at, say, EZBoard. Those are our thoughts. What are your thoughts? Can you imagine being interested in something like that? Have you any observations on how it could be handled? Bear in mind that we're just "brainstorming" here right now. Consider it a useless intellectual excercise. :) [/QUOTE]

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