Quote:
Originally Posted by King Bait Co.
Spike the reason for the question was me and my friend are looking to start a forum type site for are kids that are pre teens. It is going to be about fishing the kids do and they have a safe place to chat about fishing,show off their pictures of the fish they caught and lures they made that kind of stuff..........
We don't let them ask questions here because people get mad when a question has been asked before and leave a negative response or just say use the search.
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Free advice:
I'll recommend you research that idea as much as possible.
You'll want to know straight off, that offering ANY forum for children under 13 (preteens) will require you to file physically signed paperwork from each child's legal guardian, as mandated by the federal COPPA Act. It is a federal offense for you to offer an account without it.
We conform to this mandate as required by law.
To say "
people get mad when a question has been asked before and leave a negative response" You should join a few other boards that carry a member base our size if you haven't yet & see the troublemakers who freely troll those boards. TU members are among the most generous, helpful & positive minded folks in the fishing community & the volunteer staff here is instrumental in keeping it that way.
Not trying to criticize your plan, it's a novel idea. If you want to start any online community, just be prepared to maintain it constantly, security flaws popup every few weeks (Ask Del or Erik Moore over at Tacklemaking.com what it's like to get hacked.) requiring software patches, software upgrades, daily moderation, probably HOURLY moderation for a kids site (they are the most vulnerable type of member, spammers & others love to prey on innocence, they'll click anything). All that will need to be tested on an exact duplicate of your live site (essentially doubling your webspace) so you don't screw up & break your live site.
Be prepared to possibly quit your hobby/luremaking job, because the site can take all that time away, including any fishing time you had. If you're like me hopefully you can offset those losses by enjoying the reward of watching your members advance, evolve their craft, startup businesses or just catch nice fish, as that's all I have to account for my involvement here over the years. I've said it before in here, my hobby was luremaking, that's why I started TU. My "hobby" has now, inadvertently become making sure YOU further your luremaking hobby or business. I never intended to to run this site as a business. I personally relate & enjoy doing everything discussed here.
You asked what it costs to run a site like this, All I care to tell you is that it's taken @ 6 years for the advertising revenue to cover the software licensing & webhosting. The revenue is so small that Google doesn't even 1099 me. I could make more money at a day at the dog track.
I personally hate obtrusive ads, but if you guys suggesting the site support itself some other way, we can do that, just be prepared to close a pop-up or pop-under ad every time you navigate, just like on BFHP or a few other luremaking boards.
