Why this forum was born...
 

We were getting way off topic in that other thread, so I moved my reply to this one.

Quite honestly, I was getting sick of weeding through all the crap on RGP, and all the forums I've seen out there have something I don't like about them... they are either annoying to navigate, don't have enough features (little things like that), or they are poorly organized, with 100 different sections I need to read to stay on top of things.

I figured, why not try to set up a forum right? Put all the poker talk in one section, and move the stuff that tends to annoy people to different sections. It's still allowed, of course, but it needs to be in the right place.

If this place gets so big that we need to break down limit vs NL, tourneys vs cash games, so be it.... but I think it can get a LOT bigger before that needs to happen.

As for the Pay to Post thing, I don't know. I wanted to give people a reason to come here and help get things started... a reason for them to give this place a chance. It's a marketing expense. And hopefully, as this place grows, loyal posters will help me get some of my money back by using my affiliate links to try out new sites :)


-Mark

What about advertising as a way to recoup expenses/make a profit? Most forums I visit have plenty of banner ads that generate revenue and they don't clutter the place up that much.

Yea, I wouldn't have a problem with banner ads. (but popups would suck)

Banner ads are fine, but they only work when people click on them and then buy something (or in this case, sign up for a new poker account). I could clutter up the forums with them, but I have them all on this page instead:


It's not like anyone pays per impression or that sort of thing these days. It's all about sales...

i think if you make all of these different sections now, it will help prove to newcomers that this is a serious place that has a lot of potential. instead of waiting for a lot of people to come here to improve the forum, you should do it now so that we can get started the right way (if that makes any sense)

-jB

I have a suggestion for you talking poker. You have quite a bit of content accesible from your main page only (as far as I have seen so far). This includes the site reviews, links that will help you recoup costs by our using them to sign up for new sites. Personally, I have a link on my desktop, favorites list that takes me to the forums directly. I would suggest you find a way to have a simple list of the content links somewhere on the forum page, or maybe a scrolling marquee that reminds us what is there, and what you have added to it. You have pointed out links to these pages in response to posts, yet for frequent posters that will rarely be seen.

To everyone else, does this apply with you as well?? I would be supprised if people that check in three times daily (and more) would go to the homepage, THEN the forums every time.

Or maybe as a parallel effort to get people to click through your links, have a sticky topic in the spam forum titled Talking Poker's Affiliate links. Since you are being so kind to pay s to try this out, I think most would click there first :D . You will have your job cut out for you competing with the SPAM crew, though.

In your shoes, I would think this is a good place for some repetition...>$$$$$

Good ideas. I'm not sure how to get my links into the main page of the forum, but I do like the idea of giving myself a Sticky SPAM link. I deserve it! ;)

I understand what you are saying, but I disagree. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to have less sections to open up to look for new posts. I'd rather have 50 new posts to look at in one forum than 18 in one, 12 in another, 10 in another, 5 in another, 3 in another, 1 in another and 1 in another.

As an extreme example, RGP effectively has 1 section. Well, I decided to go with almost that model, but separate out the stuff that definitely needs to be separated (Spam, backer posts, OT, etc). That way, people looking to Talk Poker can do so in just one place - or only a very few places, anyway.

either way would work fine this early on in the forum's life, i would just prefer the forum to be more organized earlier on.

btw the forum's been great so far, keep up the good work

-jB

Yes alot of the other poker forums are full of people selling something or trying to get affiliate's. Rec needs to be moderated so much. The only other poker forum worth using is the Hendon Mobs in England, where all the top Euro players post on, very little spam. On a side note there website has the biggest poker db around, world ranking, top money winners etc. give it a look.