Question: What improvements would you like? And software update

[Brian]

Happy holidays everyone! I hope we are all enjoying a safe albeit subdued holiday this year and wishing everyone the best in 2020!

As an FYI, we just bought the vB 5.0 software as the 4.0 version that we use is no longer supported. We plan on updating this in the coming days.

Questions for the community:

1) What changes would you like to see to the site?
2) Any ideas on methods we could use to generate a bit of money to pay the server bills? What do you think would be most likely to succeed in this area?
3) Any nominations on mods to help keep an eye on the day to day?

Thank you, I look forward to your feedback!

Happy New Year!

[GayGuy04]

Hi Brian have a nice holiday yourself too I've only been a member on this site for a year and it's seems cool nice to see other guys. If you had mods who could help out I think that would be good to clear up stuff and keep up to date

[Brian]

Thanks!


Also, one idea I had is:

Is there a company/product or service that many of the members here already subscribe to or would be interested in? We could get an affiliate relationship and ask as a method of supporting us, to sign p for whichever service using our referral link as a way to support the site.

Especially if this is a service that many already are using or would be interested in. Hope that makes sense!

[Jazminedress]

Thanks!


Also, one idea I had is:

Is there a company/product or service that many of the members here already subscribe to or would be interested in? We could get an affiliate relationship and ask as a method of supporting us, to sign p for whichever service using our referral link as a way to support the site.

Especially if this is a service that many already are using or would be interested in. Hope that makes sense!

One way to generate income, and I am trying to be careful on how to word this. There are many people like me who have I think its called a Patreon added to their instagram. From my understanding people pay a nominal fee to be able to see it ($5 a month) and this is where more of the "Priavate" adult items go, would there be any reason you couldn't set that up where the site gets a percentage ?

Since you have the groups that can be created, would there be a way to monetize "Private" groups ? Allow people to have their own private groups to chat on

Funny thing we just had a thread discussing similar things. A few moderators would be good, especially if they have the ability to delete the group pages that haven't had any activity in a year, just to clear them out for new people

I think Csreef and long duc would be excellent moderators along with kdaddy

more monetary operations, as , lets be real it costs money even if you get some advertisement clicks to other site.

work a discount for members and a referral fee to the site with some of the cross dressing stores, as this site does attract some of us

janets closet
glamour boutique
dress tech etc etc etc

Other connections would be dating sites.

A tiered membership system

$2 a month forum access with limitations like it has now
$5 with higher threshold limitations and maybe one free private group
$10 a month unlimited picture viewing, 2 free private groups, and a a site email address

If there is a way to allow maybe quarterly payments,and a full year all at once

I only mention because some people, for one reason or another in their private life have to constantly delete their search history, and be careful about email and such, so a private one on the site might be a benefit for them

Lastly, as stated, that three pillows thing has been on top as long as I can remember, maybe some other advertising that changes up that you can get referral money from ?

There are many great people on this site, and many who have been a resource as I personally go through different things coming to understand who I am, so thank you for keeping it open

[dan.woodlawn]

Really good questions and it dovetails into Jazz thread the other day about the clients and the way the site is being USED...I joined for social and allies, but its more sexual than I initially believed, and I am not complaining.

Here are my thoughts to your questions
1) What changes would you like to see to the site?
In my opinion, the site speaks to 2 core personalities, and people blend between them at different times in the year.
In the SOCIAL half of the site, people are looking for emotional support and rational knowledge about things (calendars of local events, coming out support material, explaining your Bi to your wife, religious doctoring conversation material, local groups, friendly banter, etc. This content would need more routine content managers, finding good contacts to material, posting it, keeping it current, etc, reminding people of the other half and whats appropriate posting in both.
In the PHYSICAL half of the site, people are swapping materials (images, locations, stories, jerk material, etc) and they have a completely different “need” than the social. The site seems to have more clients like this, than social now. This needs shallower moderation.
Splitting the world would allow us to have better expectations and allow the site owners to have a clear understanding of the audience and their “needs”.
Therefore, with that in mind, I propose that VB is not the ideal tool to manage the complexities of human opinion over the long haul. Yes, a migration might be horrible, but you might find it is more lucrative on the other side of “something new”. And it is in this vein, I suggest:
Be able to manage Social Media audits….what are people reading, and looking past the individual posts. This would allow goal setting and ultimately advertising because you have eyeballs and you know what they are looking at.
True social media tools: Stories, chat, live modes, and truly grow into the full on social media site that seems to be the target.
Changing from VB allows us move from dead drop responses on posts, to real time interaction and engagement in community. Sure, sometimes that’s just to suck on a meat whistle, but other times its to help a husband in the closet, or someone with strong desires to leave a marriage over transient feelings. There are algorithms now that can put material in front of people based on what they just typed or browsed in the last 20 minutes, or based on what’s in their google search bar from the last 24 hours.

2) Any ideas on methods we could use to generate a bit of money to pay the server bills? What do you think would be most likely to succeed in this area?
With the evolution of a split site, the advertising can be split. Physical running ads for Squirt or other, while Social running different ads. We can also entertain tiered subscriptions. You would need innocuous billing for those now out to their spouses...something that wont alert them to the reason for billing but also take on payments from other methods like FB, google pay, and not standard credit cards.

3) Any nominations on mods to help keep an eye on the day to day?
I would like to mod if the opportunity arose. I am in daily, manage people, try not to light things on fire with my comments, I have forwarded a bunch of things over that require mod attention and they always end up getting removed.
I also have access to offshore development teams and testing teams, as well as write business requirements, work through the development lifecycle. If you end up creating a user group, I would be happy to join that.

[void()]

I think Csreef and long duc would be excellent moderators along with kdaddy.
...

A tiered membership system

$2 a month forum access with limitations like it has now
$5 with higher threshold limitations and maybe one free private group
$10 a month unlimited picture viewing, 2 free private groups, and a a site email address

If there is a way to allow maybe quarterly payments,and a full year all at once
...

I only mention because some people, for one reason or another in their private life have to constantly delete their search history, and be careful about email and such, so a private one on the site might be a benefit for them.



Yay! You didn't volunteer me. Whew! I am so glad you didn't too. :) Not that I couldn't mind, just I rather not. Yes, can own up to some laziness.
...

A minor disagreement from me here. Leave the free access tier alone. Do not start charging for as is with free access. That would I'm afraid see a lot of membership loss. In fact I know I would not justify the as is being valued enough to pay. Sorry, just my view on that.

There's already the "Fan Club" idea which well I've not paid for membership to. All that it offers is unlimited picture views for user profiles & access to creating your own private chats via the site. For one thing if I so desired I could script up something to allow access to unlimited picture views and cost nothing, the same for accessing the chat. Again, I'm too lazy. you'll find *cough* hackers *cough* are like that, too lazy but capable.

(And factually, I could probably search for about ten minutes & locate pre-written scripts, "side load" those and hack a bash script to scrape the pics. Hm, ten minutes searching, five side loading, five hacking the shell script. It might take thirty minutes really to implement. Might take a bit to down the pics. Give me a few hours.

Say ten minutes to side load a script and shell in to the site for a chat. Although Not sure, seem to recall the site having IRC (Internet Relay Chat) ports closed. Not that they couldn't be opened and accessed. It would just take a bit longer. And well just f*ck java access, not going to try that as the java chat is handled via another site.

That would entail coding up some C at the least and nope, not worth the time. Eh, maybe use some python, grab the chat client & toss it unto the local server. But nah, still not worth the time.)

*Ahem* Ultimately, though it isn't laziness keeping me from it. Rather, I'm an ethical person. The site here itself has done me no injustice. I've got no qualms with any associated with the site. Ergo, it's unethical I would bother. BTW, I've not revealed any "tricks" or "secrets" here. I just offered a skimming of "it could be done".

Besides there's ways this site can be made to run for near dirt cheap to free. I've already discussed (https://www.bisexual.com/forum/entry.php?3560-About-Bisexual(dot)com) this years ago. It's just a matter of locating resources which doesn't take long. Knowing it can be done for dirt cheap to no cost and then asking members to pay, well, it just kind of didn't settle well for me and others. And yes, a lot of others did leave when the "Fan Club" option "rolled out".
...

I can agree that a site like this warrants a degree of privacy. Yes, securing a site like this does incur a cost. I could understand and possibly value paying a site like this for explicit privacy. Here's the rub though, ... I've been around the web since oh, ... about 1985.

Yep, back when DARPA was first working out the bugs. At age 13 I wrote a BASIC program that halted a network and sent it over a modem from a school's Apple II E. The network was brought back up gradually fifteen minutes later. My instructor knew the people running it, called ahead, they took a break.

From having that long of time in knowing the Internet/Web, I can say there's no way to genuinely guarantee "explicit privacy" on the internet/web. The only way? Keep your sh*t offline. That noted, I do also know there can be a high level of security used. Yes, I could see paying for that. That has value. Trouble being someone could also pay for a VPN and/or relays, use TAILS (https://tails.boum.org/) distribution. They then, don't have need to pay any site for security.

Apologies if it seems I'm being contrary out of hand. Assure you I'm not though. Merely expressing a point of view and offering insight to why that p.o.v exists and has merit.You have some good ideas and I'm not meaning to discourage you, hon. I sincerely am not. I just don't think this site needs to become yet another cash whore.

And yes, I know my opinion is naught but less than a speck of cosmic dust. Not my site, not running it. Seems we got asked for input though, so ...:2cents:

[Jazminedress]

Yay! You didn't volunteer me. Whew! I am so glad you didn't too. :) Not that I couldn't mind, just I rather not. Yes, can own up to some laziness.
...

A minor disagreement from me here. Leave the free access tier alone. Do not start charging for as is with free access. That would I'm afraid see a lot of membership loss. In fact I know I would not justify the as is being valued enough to pay. Sorry, just my view on that.

There's already the "Fan Club" idea which well I've not paid for membership to. All that it offers is unlimited picture views for user profiles & access to creating your own private chats via the site. For one thing if I so desired I could script up something to allow access to unlimited picture views and cost nothing, the same for accessing the chat. Again, I'm too lazy. you'll find *cough* hackers *cough* are like that, too lazy but capable.

(And factually, I could probably search for about ten minutes & locate pre-written scripts, "side load" those and hack a bash script to scrape the pics. Hm, ten minutes searching, five side loading, five hacking the shell script. It might take thirty minutes really to implement. Might take a bit to down the pics. Give me a few hours.

Say ten minutes to side load a script and shell in to the site for a chat. Although Not sure, seem to recall the site having IRC (Internet Relay Chat) ports closed. Not that they couldn't be opened and accessed. It would just take a bit longer. And well just f*ck java access, not going to try that as the java chat is handled via another site.

That would entail coding up some C at the least and nope, not worth the time. Eh, maybe use some python, grab the chat client & toss it unto the local server. But nah, still not worth the time.)

*Ahem* Ultimately, though it isn't laziness keeping me from it. Rather, I'm an ethical person. The site here itself has done me no injustice. I've got no qualms with any associated with the site. Ergo, it's unethical I would bother. BTW, I've not revealed any "tricks" or "secrets" here. I just offered a skimming of "it could be done".

Besides there's ways this site can be made to run for near dirt cheap to free. I've already discussed (https://www.bisexual.com/forum/entry.php?3560-About-Bisexual(dot)com) this years ago. It's just a matter of locating resources which doesn't take long. Knowing it can be done for dirt cheap to no cost and then asking members to pay, well, it just kind of didn't settle well for me and others. And yes, a lot of others did leave when the "Fan Club" option "rolled out".
...

I can agree that a site like this warrants a degree of privacy. Yes, securing a site like this does incur a cost. I could understand and possibly value paying a site like this for explicit privacy. Here's the rub though, ... I've been around the web since oh, ... about 1985.

Yep, back when DARPA was first working out the bugs. At age 13 I wrote a BASIC program that halted a network and sent it over a modem from a school's Apple II E. The network was brought back up gradually fifteen minutes later. My instructor knew the people running it, called ahead, they took a break.

From having that long of time in knowing the Internet/Web, I can say there's no way to genuinely guarantee "explicit privacy" on the internet/web. The only way? Keep your sh*t offline. That noted, I do also know there can be a high level of security used. Yes, I could see paying for that. That has value. Trouble being someone could also pay for a VPN and/or relays, use TAILS (https://tails.boum.org/) distribution. They then, don't have need to pay any site for security.

Apologies if it seems I'm being contrary out of hand. Assure you I'm not though. Merely expressing a point of view and offering insight to why that p.o.v exists and has merit.You have some good ideas and I'm not meaning to discourage you, hon. I sincerely am not. I just don't think this site needs to become yet another cash whore.

And yes, I know my opinion is naught but less than a speck of cosmic dust. Not my site, not running it. Seems we got asked for input though, so ...:2cents:


all that hacking, your name isnt secretly Edward Snowden is it ?

lol

[Bifriends4me]

Bring back the chat feature.

[void()]

all that hacking, your name isnt secretly Edward Snowden is it ?

lol

*dons innocent looking face* I can neither confirm or deny. LOL

No and it's not Richard Stallman or Kevin Mitnick either. Though Stallman once commented on some of my coding with the phrasing, "good hack".

Then, again there's days I get lost over dots. *chuckles* "Does this dot go here, there, do I need it, erm did I forget one over there?" I've never had any real formal training, only that two week course in jr. high. The rest I've picked up as just "general working knowledge". I know many far better.

[Long Duck Dong]

One thing that members loved was a stable and consistent chat system...

if I remember correctly VB v5 only has messenger rather than a chat system.....and any chat system would have to be an addon mod......not sure if using a flash chat would be a more stable system but it would require a portal set up

the advantages of flash chat is the ability to create a user private room for cyber sex or private chat.... the disadvantage is that if its not correctly secured a person can back door access the admin CP panel and take over chat, also troublesome and abusive members can be ip banned but they will remain in chat until they refresh the chat or exit it......

An affiliate program with other companies would be nice, as jazmine indicated, such as input a code when placing a order and receive a discount, that would be good in terms of sex toys, clothing, adult items etc etc.....I remember drew saying that 3 pillows was a seperate site to bisexual.com but bisexual.com was like a forum that acted as a portal to 3 pillows
However a list of sites of interest such as adult shops and clothing as a pinned thread may be of benefit to members, that are discreet but looking for sites to sate their desires.. and with members like Jazmine and others who have a good knowledge of those sites, they would be able to suggest sites to be linked to and maybe a affiliate program looked into

http://www.patreon.com/ that does offer a subscription service, of 3 tiers but its more of a personal thing rather than a site option but for members it would allow them to * entertain * members that are drawn to them so it may not tie into the site.......and using a structure like fans only, a person could pay bisexual.com for the ability to host personal videos and pics of themselves for other members on a subscription basis with bisexual.com collecting payment and then forwarding part to the member.....
the problem there is that bisexual.com moderators or admin would need to review all content posted in site to ensure that its all legal content but they would be limited to what is hosting or linked to, in site only.......

the problem with using subscription service payment options for this site, is simply that FB tends to be money hungry, they will want as much as 1/3 of subscription fees paid to them and credit cards can be charged back, costing money and other services can cost an arm and a leg just to provide a payment service ..... so something like paypal is a safer option...

however I do find myself agreeing with jazmine about a in site email system as that would be beneficial to a number of members and is a option for a minimal fee...

so money making options are really limited to member access to things like private groups, email, pics and videos and maybe chat.....however chat is considered a * free to use * basic option by many and I am not sure how many would pay for a basic chat option and if they would pay for a bundled option, just to have chat access.......


the members have talked in the past about a reduction in visible porn related and sex threads because they tend to dominate the main forum, the trouble is that there is little to replace them by way of non sexual discussion... and with VB bulletin, its very simple and easy to create seperate forums such as sex related and general discussion.......
even creating a seperate forum such as general at the top and sex related under that, is going to see the majority of threads moved and very little on the general forum......which is why it may not be a good idea to create multiple sections such as males only, females only etc etc as it further splinters the forum and while it may make things of interest easier to find, it can also give the impression that there is a lack of active female posters which can cause other females to join and not be active themselves........




Brian what is your vision for the site ? to keep it the same as drew had it or change it to a more dynamic site.........social media is evolving and bisexual.com has not which is not a bad thing, too much change is bad, as is not enough........
keeping the site as a discussion site with the option to meet other people and make a connection is something that is a main stay of the site

Don't change the rules...... they are fine the way they are.... the moment you change the rules, you either have to add more or define the rules down more and more..... we are adults, we know when things cross the line... and when you add more rules you create conflict, with arguments over what is * acceptable * according to some members.......
I actually used the rules as a template when I was running online gaming companies because they were simple, effective and allowed for discussion with respect......

moderation? lol there is no such thing as a impartial and unbiased moderator, its impossible... but good, mature and intelligent moderators know how to steer a discussion so no action is needed.... and only have to deal with spam, advertising and threads that do cross the line.........I used to manage and run online gaming companies and dealing with customer support and forums was one of my roles as the moderators I had, often avoided the forums so I used to check the forums multiple times a day and always had the opinion that discussion with people was more important than removing threads, posts and restricting posting rights as they should be last resorts, unless its spam or offensive / illegal posts.....
I retired from doing that a few years ago after close to 30 years......

Not sure if VB 5 still has the setting for posts and threads have to be approved by a mod before they can be seen by other people but that was used by myself and my staff at times with troublesome people......

[csreef]

Some things I'd like to see for this site would be:

1) Bring back chat. It was a very unifying point to this site.

2) Could you do a collaboration with Fetlife.com ? There are a lot of Bisexuals in the Kink community.

3) Are you going to sell advertising space on this site ? I'm sure there are a few Sex Toy companies who would like this site.

4) I'd just like to know why this site kicks me off after 2 minutes. I've PM'd and emailed, and no one responded.

[Long Duck Dong]

.

4) I'd just like to know why this site kicks me off after 2 minutes. I've PM'd and emailed, and no one responded.

Have not seen that problem for a number of years but it may be to do with a corrupted browser profile and settings where the persistent connection setting is messed up and so the website does not get told that you are * still active *

in VB bulletin forums like this, there is a * log out when inactive for x minutes * setting and the chances that an update to the forum has actually messed with individual accounts is very unlikely but it is possible in rare occasions

the trouble is finding out where the issue is happening with your account so lets break it down

1) is it on any browser or just one
2) what extensions and addons do you use such as private browsing, VPN or hiding your online ID.....
3) when the the issue start?
4) what message do you get..... just the standard you are logged out, please log in again ???

[tenni]

Hi Brian,
Happy New Year Brian. Thanks for all your hard work.

I would like to see the rules updated and rule 3 is the main area of concern. I would suggest rule 3 be updated to make reference to posts being positive supporters of bisexuals as well as other LGBTQ two spirit people. This gives grounds to discourage troll attacks and grounds for reasons to remove the troll poster.

It is my understanding that this site is to support bisexuals and bisexual issues that this be referred to in rules. The issue of graphic pornographic images should be discouraged to distinguish this site from porn sites is needed. Some new members do seem to post porn images as they have no rule to suggest otherwise. Cheeky illustrations were permitted for a profile image but not graphic sexual photos.

So far there is very little swearing and that is a good thing. I don't see the need to ban the odd swear word at this time.

Sexual freedom in words was encourage by Drew but not visual porn of spread vaginas, erections or cum shots etc. as with sexual hook up sites. i.e. Squirt. This may help create an atmosphere that bisexual women would be comfortable point on. The site did support bisexual transexuals and some bisexual trans did participate in the forum. Personally, I don't understand bisexual CD's but that is just me. Fetishes were discussed but not graphic imagery of the fetish (i.e. strap ons etc).

Supporter Membership category Previously, Drew had a category for memberships that financially contributed to the site to help with upgrades and maintenance. I recall a special image modification to indicate the member was a financial supporter. I don’t recall how much the donation was open to. It may have remained open (over $20 for sure) I know that I had a supporter membership. I believe that if a member uses VISA to pay that a VISA fee would be deducted so some thought about the amount(s) should be looked into. Electronic payment would be more discreet but some are not confident with electronic payments recently.

[tenni]

Another point in connection with blogs. They were originally intended for members who want to post longer than the maximum for forum posts. This includes short stories, expressing viewpoints about bisexual rights etc. It seems that presently they may be a software glitch as people seem to have to use as many as six longer post to post their ideas. Is there a site glitch in the maximum words for blogs ?

[Robtiti]

A "LIKE" button.

[Jazminedress]

A "LIKE" button.

hell yes

[GregMars]

Oxballs is a great product line for men if you could get them to add a link ... you might be able to generate some cash. Also any chatroom plans?

[Bimiself48]

A "LIKE" button.

This is a good idea

[GayGuy04]

A "LIKE" button.

Yea thats a good idea too

[GayGuy04]

Just a thought maybe have the forum have different threads for different sections like these and if anything else you think of

Hot Topic (talk about anything)
Game section
Stories
Introduction which you already have but make into its own thread

[CurEUs_Male]

So when you browse around other sex and sexuality sites, there seems to be a lot of paywalls, and typically you end up with a load of free accounts that are rather stagnant, and a few diehards that are paying or got a 'lifetime' membership. If you are looking to restrict access for paying members, consider what you are rebuilding here - is it a money machine, or an open community site? The latter is what I found when I first discovered this site, and it was very important to me. Since then I have watched a lot of challenges across this site and others, such as trolls, and continued posting of explicit material. Not that there's anything wrong with explicit, but it's rolled into the general forum, and imagine some younger person looking for real information, and finding only links and screen shots from porn... not the community aspect. Create some categories so we can have some G/PG discussions in one area, leaving the R andMC-17/X in a separate area.

I remember we used to have a better mix of genders, that was some time ago - I have no idea how or if you could ever get more non-male gendered folks here, that ship may have sailed, but there is definitely an interest for mixed company in a bi web site.

Dating options, which may well be suited for a fee based system, is grossly under supported in the bi+ community. If you can find a plugin for this system with the upgrade, that allows matching based on interests, and locality, I think that may be worth a couple dollars a month.

I think your best bet for getting the bills paid is to get an advertising sidebar. Please don't overwhelm the page with ads - those sites are the first one's I would block. A couple adds to the side are fine, and I actually will click on some when I am on Fetlife, because they are relevant or strike some curiosity.

Feature wise, chat was a big draw. We are seeing a lot of changes this end/beginning of a new year as Flash is no longer supported and will cease to work in a couple weeks, so a solid HTML 5 chat tool would be best. Allowing cameras, private chat, and easy creation of rooms (perhaps the ability to create a room could be a premium member option). There are a slew of challenges with chat, though, so I can see where this may take a bit of time.

Happy to chat some more if there was a planned brainstorming session on ideas...

[by~his~side]

So when you browse around other sex and sexuality sites, there seems to be a lot of paywalls, and typically you end up with a load of free accounts that are rather stagnant, and a few diehards that are paying or got a 'lifetime' membership. If you are looking to restrict access for paying members, consider what you are rebuilding here - is it a money machine, or an open community site? The latter is what I found when I first discovered this site, and it was very important to me. Since then I have watched a lot of challenges across this site and others, such as trolls, and continued posting of explicit material. Not that there's anything wrong with explicit, but it's rolled into the general forum, and imagine some younger person looking for real information, and finding only links and screen shots from porn... not the community aspect. Create some categories so we can have some G/PG discussions in one area, leaving the R andMC-17/X in a separate area.

I remember we used to have a better mix of genders, that was some time ago - I have no idea how or if you could ever get more non-male gendered folks here, that ship may have sailed, but there is definitely an interest for mixed company in a bi web site.

Dating options, which may well be suited for a fee based system, is grossly under supported in the bi+ community. If you can find a plugin for this system with the upgrade, that allows matching based on interests, and locality, I think that may be worth a couple dollars a month.

I think your best bet for getting the bills paid is to get an advertising sidebar. Please don't overwhelm the page with ads - those sites are the first one's I would block. A couple adds to the side are fine, and I actually will click on some when I am on Fetlife, because they are relevant or strike some curiosity.

Feature wise, chat was a big draw. We are seeing a lot of changes this end/beginning of a new year as Flash is no longer supported and will cease to work in a couple weeks, so a solid HTML 5 chat tool would be best. Allowing cameras, private chat, and easy creation of rooms (perhaps the ability to create a room could be a premium member option). There are a slew of challenges with chat, though, so I can see where this may take a bit of time.

Happy to chat some more if there was a planned brainstorming session on ideas...

I say what he said! Word for word!
Definitely bring chat back, please.
I'm not a techie but I've heard this suggested in the past -- When "cooling off" or "banning" doesn't work for the community troll(s) could you possibly ban the IP address? Too many times the offensive troll just comes back with a new name.
Hubby and I love this site. Membership fees wouldn't chase us away.
Thank you for considering the site worth your time and effort, Brian 👍🏻

[michael95404]

It seems the search profiles feature isn't working. I most want to contact people in my area. And if I'm not finding them, they're not finding me. After just a couple of days, I'm already about to call it quits. I *really* want to meet people.

[michael95404]

Regarding revenue, I'm brand new and wouldn't want to pay for something I'm not familiar with. And I've never paid via credit card for "sex" sites. Whether it's unreasonable or not, I'm really, really leery of doing that. To that end, a small amount of advertising would seem okay. But if you're mostly concerned concerned about the bill to the content provider, I wonder whether there's a way to make donation directly toward your payment account? I dunno.

[monaohio]

bring the chat rooms back

[tenni]

Regarding revenue, I'm brand new and wouldn't want to pay for something I'm not familiar with. And I've never paid via credit card for "sex" sites. Whether it's unreasonable or not, I'm really, really leery of doing that. To that end, a small amount of advertising would seem okay. But if you're mostly concerned concerned about the bill to the content provider, I wonder whether there's a way to make donation directly toward your payment account? I dunno.

Michael
You bring up an important factor. Many bisexuals prefer to be very private about their identity and your comment about being leery will be in several /many members who may be willing to donate but want their identity private. Brian's receiving account would show on your withdrawal section in your bank book and so bi.com as an account would not work. (if you use e-transfering)

You use your own email and send to an vague email address that will not show as specifically bisexual in your bank withdrawal section.

I don't know about other countries but in Canada, the receiver(Brian) is asked to answer a question made up by the sender (you).

The receiver answers the question to get the e-transfer to work.

Brian would make up the question/answer and let it be known on the site what the question/answer is. One issue is identifying the member to add a symbol badge identifying that this member is a sponsor Some how Brian needs to know your user name to make up the symbol badge. (my post maybe a bit confusing but something like this may work?)

Does anyone recall what Drew did with the donations as far as what we used to pay/donate?

[Long Duck Dong]

Regarding revenue, I'm brand new and wouldn't want to pay for something I'm not familiar with. And I've never paid via credit card for "sex" sites. Whether it's unreasonable or not, I'm really, really leery of doing that. To that end, a small amount of advertising would seem okay. But if you're mostly concerned concerned about the bill to the content provider, I wonder whether there's a way to make donation directly toward your payment account? I dunno.

Paypal, bank transfer, debit card ( a good way to do it as the only money that can be withdrawn is the money in the account, unlike a credit card that can be maxed out )...and bisexual.com is a website, not a bank account name.

Brian can set a name to appear on a bank record or statement so it appears like a business transaction, if I remember rightly drew used the same thing and there was no record of any money going to bisexual.com as he used a separate account that handled transactions for a number of sites

I have the option to state what I want to appear on the other persons account record if I make an bank payment so say I was donating for bisexual.com member, I would make the payment and the details to appear on the account would be my member name, the only people that would actually know the account it came from would be the bank at brians end......

when I was doing online gaming, the money actually went to a account that was managed by our bank, not to our company, when players made payments so we actually had no record of players banking details, only how the payment was made..... but some players did insist that we had all their details and information cos they recharged on our game host sites and no amount of explaining to them would convince them otherwise........

as for not specific donations, thats up to brian......

honestly online payments are actually a lot safer and easier than people realise, because of modern technology and options but the average person has no idea how secure it is and they hear the stories about how people are scammed and ripped off but in a lot of cases is actually the person themselves giving out their details to other people and I mean full bank details

[Jazminedress]

you can also go to a a store and buy a Visa gift card, there are plenty of reloadable visa/debit cards, I use one exclusively for online purposes that I reload for any payments

[void()]

honestly online payments are actually a lot safer and easier than people realise, because of modern technology and options but the average person has no idea how secure it is and they hear the stories about how people are scammed and ripped off but in a lot of cases is actually the person themselves giving out their details to other people and I mean full bank details

Then you got crazy dogs like me. Psst Duck, here's all my full details and you can release them to anyone for any purpose. "Yada yada, blah blah ..."

:)

You can especially give that @Jazminedress the location of my house, remember it's after the birch stump left of the boulder but not past the creek. She can come by and we can go howling at the moon up in the hills. ;) Promise I'll be perfect gentleman.

[SlowNEZ]

As a crossdresser, I have become a fan of Glamour Boutique --- very helpful with my questions, nice outfits and a very helpful FAQ section on their website.

[csreef]

Here is another 2 cents. . . Could this site have an online store and Bisexual.com merchandise? I.e. Coffee mugs, Tee shirts, Mouse pads. key chains, Beach towels, ect...

[dan.woodlawn]

Here is another 2 cents. . . Could this site have an online store and Bisexual.com merchandise? I.e. Coffee mugs, Tee shirts, Mouse pads. key chains, Beach towels, ect...

neat idea...even if the site doesnt sponsor it...its intriguing to look at, and maybe the store runs advertising on it. It could be the leading advertiser. cool concept.

[Jazminedress]

:)

. ;) Promise I'll be perfect gentleman.

wheres the fun in that ?

Did I hear you say a tree stump ? you know what stump busting is right ?

[void()]

wheres the fun in that ?

Did I hear you say a tree stump ? you know what stump busting is right ?


Well then, maybe not such a perfect one. :)

Having grown up a country boy yes, I know about busting actual tree stumps. Having an erotic mind I can imagine some innuendo about busting other stumps. Do believe I might need one or two busted. Might like to bust one or two myself.

Can hear it in your thoughts, "horny much?"

Nah, not me. Not really. :) *donning blank innocent face*

[njfresh]

Update the UI.
Improve search.
Moderation of first-time posters.

[Brian]

New software upgrad should help with the UI, search and anti-spam built in.

It is a bit of work since we have customized the old software, so we may need to re-do the personal ads, blogging, etc modifications to work with the new version. Getting live chat back up should be easy enough though. Just the software upgrade is taking some time to work through without affecting things too much.

[cfr50s]

Years ago before we migrated to this site, Drew had I believe five of us beta test this site. At that time he seemed to have the intentions to get the questionable chat stable and slowly improve from there. Different, basically inexpensive membership was one option he instituted. At that time there was a greater cross section of male, female members which now seems to be more male, trans etc. Many of us shied away from the site as it went through that transition, visiting rarely. The moderation is a good idea for times when things start to get out of control. I would think advertising would be an option as opposed to a member fee right now. First of all we have a world wide pandemic that is strapping many in terms of spare money to afford something they are attempting to hide to begin with. Also trying to generate more interest in this site in terms of new members would be beneficial in the long run for when a modest fee is more readily acceptable. Possibly even altering the name to be more LGBTQ friendly would generate more interest. The site has been pretty flat since Drew hasn't been here. Sorry to say that but fact is fact.

[Jazminedress]

Well then, maybe not such a perfect one. :)

Having grown up a country boy yes, I know about busting actual tree stumps. Having an erotic mind I can imagine some innuendo about busting other stumps. Do believe I might need one or two busted. Might like to bust one or two myself.

Can hear it in your thoughts, "horny much?"

Nah, not me. Not really. :) *donning blank innocent face*

hahahahahaha

[GayGuy04]

New software upgrad should help with the UI, search and anti-spam built in.

It is a bit of work since we have customized the old software, so we may need to re-do the personal ads, blogging, etc modifications to work with the new version. Getting live chat back up should be easy enough though. Just the software upgrade is taking some time to work through without affecting things too much.

Good luck with that and can't wait to some changes on here

[csreef]

Is there a timeline for when these improvements are to take place?

[Brian]

Software improvements should be in the next week or two.

Moving over the blogging / galleries / personal aspect without losing a bunch of data is the tough part. The software version we use now is out of date and should be upgraded but the new version of the software doesn't automatically accept these features. So it is a bit of a manual process trying to rebuild those features and move over as much data within those features as possible.

[Jazminedress]

Software improvements should be in the next week or two.

Moving over the blogging / galleries / personal aspect without losing a bunch of data is the tough part. The software version we use now is out of date and should be upgraded but the new version of the software doesn't automatically accept these features. So it is a bit of a manual process trying to rebuild those features and move over as much data within those features as possible.

Just in case we forget, thank you for what you do to improve the site, it is appreciated

[csreef]

Just in case we forget, thank you for what you do to improve the site, it is appreciated

Indeed! Brian, Thank you for your efforts in improving this site, I'm sure it is not an easy task.

[DD788Snipe]

A "LIKE" button.
I agree, that would be great.
Thanks Brian. It can be a daunting task up grading and trying to integrate the old with the new.

[Jozyxt]

I'd like to see the forum look better on mobile. It very hard to use on the old android that I use to keep this separate from my regular computer stuff.