BRFCS Subscribers - competitions & giveaways

[wilsdenrover]

3 minutes ago, goozburger said:

BRFCS could downgrade from IP.Board to a tinpot piece of 1990s software. It could be put on a potato for a server. But I think there has always been a subconscious effort to have a high quality forum.

That doesn't come for free.

I don't want to get into detail, but under the previous regime, I'm aware of a certain member (now long gone) who was a big patron. It was a little controversial because he was allowed a certain leniency and, wrongly, always had the moderators over a barrel. I think the plan had always been to move away from that reliance and generate more revenue from adverts.

That's what you're seeing now. It can't, and shouldn't, go back to a single source of income in my view. And I think this was going to happen anyway, @Eddie.

Admittedly, I haven't signed up to premium, but I'd better do it now after what I'm about to say! 😄 Perhaps one way to think of it is, if it was taken away from you, would you turn back time and pay the £3-£4 per month?

This place probably gets all our backs up from time to time (those pesky folk with wrong opinions, and how DARE that moderator hide my precious post!), but it would be hard to imagine life without BRFCS to discuss Rovers. It's one of the best forums around if you step out of the box and see what dumpster fires are out there.

Support the site in kind or by signing up to premium, if it's something you can afford. If not, then it's basically paid for with your as views. That's all.

Pay for preferential treatment? - that sounds like a money spinner 😁

[Silas]

5 hours ago, wilsdenrover said:

Perhaps you need an ed-blocker 😁

I know there's a more serious conversation going on, but feel like this is an underrated post.

On topic, the only thing I'll say is how much excessive ads on things like YouTube piss me off. I can, for example, watch three different 1 hour podcasts- one will have no adverts, one will have two or three, and one of them will have adverts every bloody 5 mins. 🤬🤬

Which angers me even more when I know the person doing the podcast is already a multimillionaire. Just excessive greed.

I would have thought the fact that BRFCS is a non-profit organisation would have resulted in this conversation going a little differently. 

But hey ho. Now, has anyone got hold of JB on the jetski in Barbados to let him know this is still rumbling on. 🤔

[Eddie]

21 minutes ago, goozburger said:

BRFCS could downgrade from IP.Board to a tinpot piece of 1990s software. It could be put on a potato for a server. But I think there has always been a subconscious effort to have a high quality forum.

That doesn't come for free.

I don't want to get into detail, but under the previous regime, I'm aware of a certain member (now long gone) who was a big patron. It was a little controversial because he was allowed a certain leniency and, wrongly, always had the moderators over a barrel. I think the plan had always been to move away from that reliance and generate more revenue from adverts.

That's what you're seeing now. It can't, and shouldn't, go back to a single source of income in my view. And I think this (more adverts) was going to happen anyway, @Eddie.

Admittedly, I haven't signed up to premium, but I'd better do it now after what I'm about to say! 😄 Perhaps one way to think of BRFCS is, if it was taken away from you, would you turn back time and pay the £3-£4 per month?

This place probably gets all our backs up from time to time (those pesky folk with wrong opinions, and how DARE that moderator hide my precious post!), but it would be hard to imagine life without BRFCS to discuss Rovers. I've seen the other places, and they're not pretty. BRFCS is one of the best forums around if you step out of the box and see what dumpster fires are out there.

Support the site in kind or by signing up to premium, if it's something you can afford. If not, then it's basically paid for with your as views. That's all.

Some very valid points within that and a good post within a number of replies from mods and admins who should know better (or give up their titles and responsibilities if they want to be snide pricks - I'll take the ban). I'm not implying that the messageboard shouldn't run ads to generate revenue.

I just don't feel that the ads need to be quite as intrusive as they are. Then again, I don't know the full cost of running the site at the moment and my estimates might be miles off.

  

[goozburger]

8 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I just don't feel that the ads need to be quite as intrusive as they are. Then again, I don't know the full cost of running the site at the moment and my estimates might be miles off.

I believe that is the point, Eddie. It's a non-profit organisation, and clearly the costs outweigh the income from adverts that were being generated previously (and perhaps even now). I don't think it's being don't to pigeon-hole you into paying for Premium. Someone like YouTube does that for greedy reasons, but BRFCS has literally no reason to be greedy. It's a necessity to get income from the adverts, otherwise I'm sure they wouldn't do it in this way. It couldn't have carried on as-is, and that's based on what I know from previous times.

Anyway, let's lower the tone a bit. You've contributed in the past, and the current admin team are obviously contributing now. There's no reason to be at each other's throats. Maybe draw a line under it because, let's face it, like taxes and death, BRFCS isn't going to go away from your life. 😄

[goozburger]

@Silas NewPipe is your new YouTube friend on mobile devices. 🤓

[Silas]

34 minutes ago, goozburger said:

@Silas NewPipe is your new YouTube friend on mobile devices. 🤓

Ta, will give it a try.

I put them on in shower sometimes and have to do a pathetic naked twist dance trying to tap the ad skip button without covering the floor in water.

Will it stop that?

Tmi? 

[goozburger]

4 hours ago, Silas said:

Ta, will give it a try.

I put them on in shower sometimes and have to do a pathetic naked twist dance trying to tap the ad skip button without covering the floor in water.

Will it stop that?

Tmi? 

You can put videos on repeat, and in the background (audio will continue to play when phone is locked etc.).

Also, it's not on the Play Store. You'll need to get it from F-Droid. I'm not sure if it's available for iOS.

Edited June 27, 2023 by goozburger

[Mike E]

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

Some very valid points within that and a good post within a number of replies from mods and admins who should know better (or give up their titles and responsibilities if they want to be snide pricks - I'll take the ban). I'm not implying that the messageboard shouldn't run ads to generate revenue.

I just don't feel that the ads need to be quite as intrusive as they are. Then again, I don't know the full cost of running the site at the moment and my estimates might be miles off.  

Sorry for my reaction last night and earlier today, I get very touchy about this place 😅 Hopefully the following is a bit more measured and might explain (not excuse) my reaction:

I also completely agree with gooz’s post, but imo your agreement with it doesn’t really mesh with the part of your original post with which I took umbrage:

On 26/06/2023 at 11:09, Eddie said:

I don't have a problem with the ads, but I do have a problem with the number of ads and the number of popups. I think it massively impacts the experience on the website and at times makes it almost unvisitable.

Now, you might say that I could just sign up and get rid of them, but I actually feel less inclined to subscribe when the user experience is being placed after revenue.

This feels like stepping back into a website from the early 2000s and it's a real shame.

When asked several times by different members for your suggestions to improve the experience in a different way, you offered nothing but ‘I’ll put a free adblocker on’, which I found to both mean you didn’t want to help the site, nor did you actually mean your original post. It felt to me as if you were antagonising an admin team that works bloody hard, even more so than us mods.

I apologise for getting as wound up as I did and replying to you how I did, but my feelings were genuine when I posted, rightly or wrongly.

[andyh]

Can I sign up for a year without auto renewal?

[J*B]

1 hour ago, andyh said:

Can I sign up for a year without auto renewal?

I don’t think it auto renews, only the monthly does? 

[goozburger]

5 hours ago, J*B said:

I don’t think it auto renews, only the monthly does? 

When I signed up yesterday for annual, it asked me to save my card details for auto-renewal.

[Upside Down]

13 hours ago, Silas said:

I know there's a more serious conversation going on, but feel like this is an underrated post.

On topic, the only thing I'll say is how much excessive ads on things like YouTube piss me off. I can, for example, watch three different 1 hour podcasts- one will have no adverts, one will have two or three, and one of them will have adverts every bloody 5 mins. 🤬🤬

Which angers me even more when I know the person doing the podcast is already a multimillionaire. Just excessive greed.

I would have thought the fact that BRFCS is a non-profit organisation would have resulted in this conversation going a little differently. 

But hey ho. Now, has anyone got hold of JB on the jetski in Barbados to let him know this is still rumbling on. 🤔

It's nice to see he's reigned the spending in a bit.

[Herbie6590]

8 hours ago, andyh said:

Can I sign up for a year without auto renewal?

We did some testing before we launched & I *thought* that it was possible to cancel auto-renewal during the subscription but it was a while ago I may be mistaken…

 

Here’s my pledge to you - sign up, then once the sub is live, try to cancel auto-renewal - if you can’t & subsequently decide you don’t want it (before renewal date) PM me on here & I’ll see what we can do behind the scenes to either cancel the mandate or failing that, refund you on renewal 👍🏻

[wilsdenrover]

18 hours ago, Silas said:

I know there's a more serious conversation going on, but feel like this is an underrated post.

On topic, the only thing I'll say is how much excessive ads on things like YouTube piss me off. I can, for example, watch three different 1 hour podcasts- one will have no adverts, one will have two or three, and one of them will have adverts every bloody 5 mins. 🤬🤬

Which angers me even more when I know the person doing the podcast is already a multimillionaire. Just excessive greed.

I would have thought the fact that BRFCS is a non-profit organisation would have resulted in this conversation going a little differently. 

But hey ho. Now, has anyone got hold of JB on the jetski in Barbados to let him know this is still rumbling on. 🤔

Surely you should be subscribing to YouTube Premium… 😁 

[andyh]

Thanks for the follow up. It turned out that canceling the auto renewal after subscribing was easy.

[Silas]

3 hours ago, wilsdenrover said:

Surely you should be subscribing to YouTube Premium… 😁 

I don't wear a top with a YouTube logo on.

And I don’t get surly and moody every weekend because of them. 

And I certainly don't waste hours reading and discussing whether two of their employees are better or worse at handling and distribution. 🤷‍♂️

[wilsdenrover]

29 minutes ago, Silas said:

I don't wear a top with a YouTube logo on.

And I don’t get surly and moody every weekend because of them. 

And I certainly don't waste hours reading and discussing whether two of their employees are better or worse at handling and distribution. 🤷‍♂️

It was said entirely in jest 😀

[Herbie6590]

SUBSCRIBER-ONLY COMPETITION*

As a thank you to all of our subscribers we’d like to give you a chance to win a Tony Parkes Retro Shirt for Christmas.

If not for you, perhaps it would make a lovely present for the Rovers-supporting member of your family or a friend?

We have shirts available with the attached sizes/sleeve lengths.

If you would like to enter the draw to win one, simply reply to this post with the variant you’d like from those available - by midnight on Saturday 16th December - & you will go into the draw which will be made on Sunday 17th December. 

 

GOOD LUCK! 🤍💙

 

*Only subscribers as at 10th December 2023 are eligible to join the draw.

[oldjamfan1]

Medium long sleeved please 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻💙🤍

[Gav]

Medium long sleeved also please 👍

[Mike E]

Medium long or short please (surprise me)

[jodrell]

XL long sleeve please 

[Displaced Rover]

Medium - short please!

[Polky]

XXL, short sleeved please 😀

[Tom]

Any medium would be lovely