Maybe it's just me, but I don't see this as a "competition."
Todd, I see where you're coming from, I really do.
But I've also found that quite a bit of life is about competition. And if you question me, look at how churches advertise for members. Should religion be a competition? I sure don't think so, but Church A really wants your weekly offering in their collection plate, rather than in Church B's.
I think I've linked to this forum from three other forums before... I guess I shouldn't have done that?
Certainly not if the owners of those sites frown on it.
Why are we "competing" for clicks?
I guess it all does boil down to the dollar after all.
Why bother getting up to go to work each morning? The government isn't going to let us starve. Or do we want something better for our lives than a blanket on the floor of a homeless mission after standing in a soup line?
Next thing you know, you're competing with other applicants to get a job. Then you're competing with other shoppers to get a better deal on groceries, housing, vehicles and need I go on? And before you know it, the guy next door has a jet ski or a snowmobile and guess what you've got a yearning to buy?
Nope, no denial from me about how it all boils down to the dollar.
This used to be fun. When did that change?
When it became more of a life commitment than an extension of a hobby? Then again, maybe it really hasn't changed after all.
It is my (unpaid) job to drive as much traffic to this site as I possibly can. The sponsors of this site exchange dollars for exposure of their ads. No exposure means no dollars. Less traffic means fewer donations. Less income means we cannot afford the server we're operating on. Fewer server resources means fewer forum functions.
So perhaps I need to move the forum to an open software source that costs nothing and offers just as much security? And move the site back to a shared hosting package from a host that offers unlimited disk space and unlimited transfer for $4.95/month. And when the forum gets cracked or we're crawling at a snail's pace, we can all clap each other on the back and talk about how much fun we're having.
My job would be fun if I didn't need to show up each day. My bank accounts would be fun if I didn't have to pay the bills each month. The housework would be fun if someone else was doing it. Driving my truck would be fun if I didn't have to pay for registration, insurance, fuel and maintenance. Grocery shopping would be more fun if there wasn't that row of cash registers between the goods and the doors.
Heck, forums would be fun if I were not responsible for keeping them running for zero compensation, mind you. Ooops, we're back to the dollar again, aren't we? OK, the forums would be fun if there were no licenses to be renewed or hosting space to purchase. Damn! There's the dollars, one more time.
See? I really do agree with you. Life used to be a lot more fun, before all these pesky obligations got in the way. :hoist:
And I've not even touched base on how sponsors are spending $50/month for those ads you'll see at the top of the page and then someone comes along and feels they can insert an ad that was nearly as large for no cost at all.
To anyone that wants to try building a better mousetrap, I'll tell you the same thing I told the individual in question. Best of luck to you. I hope it works out for you. And don't get discouraged as you try to build your own search engine ranking and your own link 'juice'. It only takes hours and hours and hours and hours of your time. Time that no one else ever sees or knows anything about. And when you finally start to realize your goal, let me know and I will be right over to spam your site up for you, with links leading back to this site.
uch:
