Good point, but how many people are active posters on both site? And how many of those people want this offer? Doubt there's many of them. I'm sure there's a few though, so it's a good question.

But about the joke about the uber computer thing...maybe we could have a credit raffle or something? 10 or more credits for a ticket, and maybe have a set number of tickets a person may buy [if more than one, so nobody can overpower the raffle by much], then the winner after a week or a month or something gets a prize...maybe not an uber computer, but computer parts maybe, or hosting-related things, or something along those lines. Even better would be a selection of equally-priced items. I'm sure it would encourage at least a small boost in posting, if not a huge amount. Maybe OpaQue could offer some of his Indian food!

Hopefully it's possible for OpaQue to code something like that. I think it shouldn't be too hard... I know I'd be a regular raffler, for sure!

To summarize, plus addons:
Raffle system
-largely automated, possibly with a form for buying tickets in the hosting centre
-weekly and/or monthly and/or yearly drawings
-some sort of winner/deadline announcement feature, maybe near the shoutbox or in the credits box on the forum index, or even in the hosting centre.
--possible subscription feature to have announcements and/or deadlines sent to your inbox/email address
-10+ credits per ticket
-maximum number of credits allowed per drawing
-prizes dependent on entry time period [weekly would be worth less than monthly]
-prizes may include computers, computer parts, hosting-related things, etc. [things that almost anyone on the forum could enjoy]
-there may be a selection of prizes of equal value, as not everyone may like one particular prize
-some sort of quick info page or topic listing all the rules, guidelines, benefits, current deadlines/rewards, past winners, etc.

Possible pros:
-increase in posting on T17 [possibly enormous amounts], and the benefits thereof for the members and the company
-another way to be rewarded on T17, which creates a better webhost overall

Possible cons:
-spamming?

What do the rest of you think?

[I was going to post this as a reply to the Free Domain Name topic, but I think it's worth a topic of it's own.]

Now i do like the idea but i wonder, where will the money for buying the prizes come from? As the forums are now ad-free i dont see where the revenue would come from that would allow the buying of said prizes. If that could be over come it would be a fantastic idea, the only other problem is shipping etc if these prizes are in the form of physical objects.

An alternative would be to offer "cyber" prizes along the lines of the web and such like, maybe a free domain name or something but then that raises the question of how many people would participate?

I think the idea is fantastic but like i have said i think that getting prizes to give away might be a bit of a problem and then transport of those prizes.

Oh, I thought we still had ads on the forums...I have pretty much every ad ever blocked on my home computer, so I didn't notice.

Part of the plan for this was that it would [dramatically?] increase forum activity, and hence ad revenue...but I guess that won't quite work now.

Hm...I'd assume increased forum activity would generate some sort of revenue...T17 has to sustain itself somehow...but if there are no ads, then...how? o_O

[EDIT: If need be, we could simply use the credits from raffle ticket purchases as the prize. Not as lucrative, obviously, but potentially very rewarding. I'm sure quite a few members with extra credits would still be entering.]

[EDIT 2: Maybe ComputingHost is single-handedly supporting itself and T17 [and possibly AH?]]

Gotta love ad blockers! When i read your first post i thought the same as you, that ad revenue would be increased then i remembered the announcement a while back of no ads on here any more. Though you're right, there must be revenue coming from somewhere, otherwise T17 wouldn't be here, im sure there was a post discussing the revenues somewhere, Ill search and post my findings in an edit because i think you're right, it would increase forum activity and with the spam patrol, mods, and the help of all the members here spamming shouldn't be a problem.

EDIT: The only thing i could find was in the announcement of the removal of the ads where opaque hinted that computing host was doing well enough to support T17, maybe he can enlighten us further?!

This post has been edited by shadowx: Apr 3 2007, 10:14 PM

Last year opa bought another hosting company and added in their clients and thus the added revenue and the remove of all ad's except for the one before you log in thats up top.

But on to the raffle system, interesting idea I do believe back in the 2.0.x days of IBP forum their was an actual a raffle system mod. I would have to check to see if it still there.

But the programming to create a raffle system by scratch to fit the credit system would be insane, it would be a combination of javascript and php.

I would say the winner of the raffle would win the credits that where spent in purchasing the tickets. Like 100 were sold that be like 1000 credits that person would win.

I spend my winnings on a new car

Why would it be insane? And I don't know javascript, and very little of php, but why would it require both? Maybe you're thinking javascript for picking the winners at random, but I assumed an admin could just pick the winners from a randomized list of entries [there are online randomizers, if need be]. But if there was an old raffle system for IPB, it shouldn't be too hard to build one around the hosting credit system...

And if we really had that many entries, we could probably split it into the first 3 picks... 1st gets 500, 2nd gets 300, 3rd gets 200. of course, it would depend on the number of entries, but we could figure out a ratio for that. That one would be like 50:30:20 percent. Either way, even 3rd place would get a ton of credits.

If that causes problems [say the winners are applying for free domain hosting after each drawing, which I think costs us money], we could split it between the top 10, or just take a percentage off the top, to keep the individual gains from being too high.

http://mods.invisionize.com/db/index.php/f/5933

This the raffle mod for 2.1.x, so just completed the insanity of this, all you would have to do is see how it works and code in the credit system. But yeah the random number would be on the javascript part, but I do believe php could do it as well, if you think about how random images work you could base the coding for that.

But yeah if that amount of credits is being thrown in then you would have to do a top 3 winners or even top 5, just depends on how many people enter will determine how the prizes are distributed, that how we do it when I play poker at my brothers house.

This is what the mod consists of



This post has been edited by Saint_Michael: Apr 4 2007, 12:49 AM