Telly Tubbies

[Barry]

What is the rent on this site?

I don't know, but I can run a website like this with my current host for <£100 per annum. Not that I want to.

When I took over, Barry asked me me not to have adverts on the site, which I honoured. Barry doesn't seem to be around anymore, is anyone really bothered about that now?

Barry is still looking in every day. I wasn't too bothered about adverts because money was not an issue. I was happy to host the forum at about £80 a year, as it is a cheap hobby. Try Ham Radio that costs a lot more!

Also, I have tried adverts on other sites and Google are happy to exploit your kindness in letting them in, but they absolutely pay in peanuts, so it is more trouble than it is worth.

Historically speaking, I think I joined Steve C Taylor's politicspoliticalforum website in about 2008 and he gave notice of closing it down in 2019, and Cromwell, Deppity Dawg and myself worked to prevent losing every member so in October 2019 I started http://politicalforums.uk/ (now defunct) to try to keep all the active members. We were quite successful in doing that, then Nick converted my database to SMF and opened up this forum, keeping all the members and posts in June 2020. That took some doing and well done Nick for being technically better than my amateur offerings.

So this forum and its predecessors span 15 years+, which is not bad.
I'd like to thank everyone for all their posting contributions and if you have not joined yet, see you over at https://pol-tics.com/

[Nick]

There's probably no guarantees, but opening up the forum to non-registered viewers should encourage even more activity than your announcement of impending closure.

Here's hoping so...

All it did last time was stop people from logging in as they could see everything without doing so. 

[patman post]

It always used to be, I closed it for a reason but can't remember why now. Anyway it's back open now.

There's probably no guarantees, but opening up the forum to non-registered viewers should encourage even more activity than your announcement of impending closure.

Here's hoping so...

[Unlucky4Sum]

It always used to be, I closed it for a reason but can't remember why now. Anyway it's back open now.

Thanks Nick

[Nick]

Nick please make this forum visible to non members, give it a chance

It always used to be, I closed it for a reason but can't remember why now. Anyway it's back open now. 

[Unlucky4Sum]

Yes making the forum invisible to non members is a strange move unless the plan was to wind it down

Nick please make this forum visible to non members, give it a chance

[Unlucky4Sum]

Blackiswhite I believe

See we can agree 

[Borchester]

I don't mind adverts per se but so many of them drain memory and processing power which I hate (but then I'm sad enough to often have 40 or more tabs active)

Barry (judging by avatar and content) appears to post over at UKpoliticsdebate under a different name

Blackiswhite I believe

[Unlucky4Sum]

When I took over, Barry asked me me not to have adverts on the site, which I honoured. Barry doesn't seem to be around anymore, is anyone really bothered about that now?

I don't mind adverts per se but so many of them drain memory and processing power which I hate (but then I'm sad enough to often have 40 or more tabs active)

Barry (judging by avatar and content) appears to post over at UKpoliticsdebate under a different name

[Borchester]

No , I dont think anyone was bothered much about it then either

I like adverts. Sometimes they are more interesting than the posts.

So, back to the earlier question, how much is the rent?

[Streetwalker]

When I took over, Barry asked me me not to have adverts on the site, which I honoured. Barry doesn't seem to be around anymore, is anyone really bothered about that now?

No , I dont think anyone was bothered much about it then either 

[Nick]

Whatever it is, couldn't the effect be lessened by opening up to be read with advertising to non-registered viewers?

It's not just renting host site — you'd probably need someone like John O to keep an eye on the technicals...

https://www.hostingadvice.com/best/forum-hosting/

When I took over, Barry asked me me not to have adverts on the site, which I honoured. Barry doesn't seem to be around anymore, is anyone really bothered about that now?

[johnofgwent]

Whatever it is, couldn't the effect be lessened by opening up to be read with advertising to non-registered viewers?

It's not just renting host site — you'd probably need someone like John O to keep an eye on the technicals...

https://www.hostingadvice.com/best/forum-hosting/

I've played this game, both on the 'free' forums Nick points outbthe disadvantages if, and on a 'site' i have total control of. The original UK Debate Site created by a guy calked Paul Marsh if i recall correctly was a desktop PC at the end of an ADSL line in a garage in Hereford, and ironically used tve great grand daddy of the forum software here...

[patman post]

What is the rent on this site?

Whatever it is, couldn't the effect be lessened by opening up to be read with advertising to non-registered viewers?

It's not just renting host site — you'd probably need someone like John O to keep an eye on the technicals...

https://www.hostingadvice.com/best/forum-hosting/

[Borchester]

Yes making the forum invisible to non members is a strange move unless the plan was to wind it down

What is the rent on this site?