Coding a new website is an awful lot of work and fortunately there's an easier route. I suggest we hijack another band's fan site and take it over! Hey, we're not Monkees fans or Neil Diamond fans. We're STONES fans. We piss anywhere, man.

I'm trying to forsee a future in that part of Bjorn's message. Better thinking to it aloud, rather avoiding the issue.


There are plenty of high end Forum solutions available as cloud services. They cost a lot, but I am sure there are ways to find them, either by donations or by advertisements. The task would be to find a list of such systems, based on requirements, then to choose the right one.

Donations and advertisements? But with commercial ads, there is tax issues, so one needs an accoutant, and the country where the site is based has its importance regarding to any revenue...

Subscriber Model like Substack, people currently pay to access a message board about WWE/AEW Wrestling & it pay's its way for two Fulltime employees & editors (Dave Meltzer) , this site has an equivalent per capita membership without promotion.

I urge B.V. to monetize the site & sell a portion if possible, it is an historic record & an evolving community, we will within the next two decades be without the Living Rolling Stones, yet this forum,it's vast trove of information, speculation, anticipation is a cultural record that requires archiving at a minimum

Proboards runs free forumsand is used by 2 private torrent sites that migrated to link sharing to reduce costs. Since they are private and invite only I won't post them publicly but I can get BV an invite to "look around" Not sure how the existing history can be integrated but a read-only instance of the history should be doable.

[www.proboards.com]

Quote
SKILLS
I urge B.V. to monetize the site & sell a portion if possible, it is an historic record & an evolving community, we will within the next two decades be without the Living Rolling Stones, yet this forum,it's vast trove of information, speculation, anticipation is a cultural record that requires archiving at a minimum

Haven't looked at it that way. So this forum captures a lot of Stones knowledge and archiving it sounds like a good idea.

I hope BV is ok. A captain never leaves his ship. No matter what.

Bjornulf, this must be a tough decision for you to make, since IORR is so much part of your life. We all are so grateful for all your dedication to share your honest non commercial Stones communication with so many of us on this forum.

I think it's a wise decision to try to spend more time with your family, your grand children and yourself. I wish you lots of joy and happiness with that.

Marco

Dear Bjornulf,

What a tough decision! Thnx for all your hard work all these years!! I can imagine that you will stop with the site. Hopefully you will find the right people who can run this site which is almost a day job to monitor everything.
Thank you very much for what you did over all these years!!!

Marnix

Dear Bjornulf, thank you for all the time you spend with the IORR page, it enriched my life a lot. I hope, you will find a follower, but I can't imagine, it will be the same again,
Sister

What I would really appreciate is that that people stopped posting clickbait threads, trying to register meaningless usernames with offending or simply misleading statements, and all sorts of other out of the line threads. I would of course use the "ban posting" option starting very soon. It takes just seconds, while cleaning up takes a lot more time.

Bjornulf

Thanks to everyone for responing in this matter, both by posting, and by e-mail. I have many many e-mail to handle, and I will respond as soon as I can.

Bjornulf

I have been a Stones fan since I swiped my brother's Get Yer Ya Ya's Out 8 track fifty years ago. For the last 14 years this site has been a source of information and insight to me without equal. I have learned about Lucky Dip drops and planned overseas ticket purchases and trips. I have been both cheered and mocked on it. Without a doubt, IORR has been an invaluable adjunct to my love and enjoyment of the greatest rock n roll band in the world. Thank you so much Bjormulf for everything that you've done.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-01-07 21:10 by rubyeveryday.

bv, thanks for everyting.

Untold thanks. You have the respect and love of all the worlds Stones fans.

Thank you BV.

Thanks B.V for the work and love you have put into this site.

Much appreciated

I suspect most people who use this site on a regular basis would pay a subscribing fee going forward.

I know I certainly would and prob use the overall site a fraction of some others, but the news, info, community, discussions etc, make it all so worthwhile

Perhaps BV should do a poll to see how much interest there is in subscriptions - either a one off or a regular annual thing for example.

I would even contribute to some kind of crowd funding to kick it all off. Again, i think there would be many people on iorr who would do same.

We cant expect a platform like this to be free forever.

Sorry bv.. didn't intend to mislead. Will be clearer when posting.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2024-01-08 16:14 by MrTurner.

BV = SIMPLY THE BEST
Thanks for everything

Thank you, BV - since I discovered IORR circa 2005 it has been THE place for Stones fans to hang out online and that is all down to your tremendous hard work. Thank you so much!

Wow - that's an amazing commitment you've made to keep the fan flame alive for us insatiable Rolling Stones' fans across the world.

Thank you for your time and dedication as I don't know many people that would have given up so much free time and, even more so, invaluable family time, to keep a project of this magnitude going for so long.

So I'd like to thank you for creating a great network of Stones maniacs, many of whom have become friends, not only in cyberspace, but in real life and who now meet up when the Stones are on tour.

Through the site I've also assembled an incredible collection of Stones rarities, from live recording and outtakes - stuff I never knew existed or dreamed I would one day get hold of.

I've also managed to get tickets for shows that were sold out, including Lucky Dip tickets that turned into Pit Tickets. That in itself is worth the price of admission. But of course there is no price - it has all been accomplished through your fantastic work and generosity.

IORR is easily the best music fan site in the world. Long may it survive and keep the flame burning for The Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band In The World.

Thank you

Silver Dagger (Mike)

Your dedication is amazing. I am not a heavy poster here but check in on new virtually every day. I have considered this site the "go to" place for anything Stones related for many many years.

all I have to offer you is a sincere Thank You from Tim in Wisconsin/

Thank you for the many years you've maintained IORR. I came to IORR at the same time as Stones People Magazine on the recommendation of Bill German. I am fortunate to have enjoyed the dependable lifeline that IORR provided as an online continuation of Bill German's publications. IORR increased my knowledge, gave me many personal friends, and provided much joy and laughter. You have given greatly and selflessly. All I can say is a sincere thank you and wish you and your family all the best.

Thank you very much Björnulf!

Thanks, bv. I appreciate everything you have done to make my life a little easier and a lot more interesting over the years. Without IORR, I do not know whether I would have gotten to see the Stones in the places I have been. The information on this site has meant so much to me, and although your post made me a little sad, I really enjoyed reading about your journeys as a Stones fan, a family member, and a business owner. Thank you for sharing that. Kelly

We really lucked out that an IT guy was also a dedicated fan at the right time to build this. The magic stars aligned.

I see people suggesting charging subscription fee or selling ads on the future site. You might consider a one time donation fundraising like Gofundme to build an account that could pay for the service for a number of years to bank that and maybe need for one time migration/integration development charges?. Many of us would happily donate $50 to $200 and more for that and those with lesser means would happily provide $20. I know it isn't your typical approach but it is pretty common in the US so few would be surprised by that approach.


And 1000% agree it's gotta be cloud SaaS and mobile enabled for every country and every device with opt in/opt out and privacy compliance in every country which means a reputable somewhat mature company to provide that as part of the platform and of course ongoing security, law changes. B2B tech marketing person here ergg - even seeing the acronym GDPR written still makes me shudder. I am not surprised it is a full time job to maintain this site - content, moderating, editing, news reporting and research and then an entire IT platform to maintain, secure, backup and keep response time and performance up for. And there is probably way more. And travel for the Stones.

Bravo to you. It was an amazingly selfless thing you have done and while you enjoyed it we benefited from the amazing info and friends handed to us with the click of a mouse and we are addicted to it.

Thanks Bjornulf.

I am more thankful that you'll ever know...happy to have crossed you many times on many different places, even some weird ones like Bundy.

Quote
dnewton99
We really lucked out that an IT guy was also a dedicated fan at the right time to build this. The magic stars aligned.

I see people suggesting charging subscription fee or selling ads on the future site. You might consider a one time donation fundraising like Gofundme to build an account that could pay for the service for a number of years to bank that and maybe need for one time migration/integration development charges?. Many of us would happily donate $50 to $200 and more for that and those with lesser means would happily provide $20. I know it isn't your typical approach but it is pretty common in the US so few would be surprised by that approach.


And 1000% agree it's gotta be cloud SaaS and mobile enabled for every country and every device with opt in/opt out and privacy compliance in every country which means a reputable somewhat mature company to provide that as part of the platform and of course ongoing security, law changes. B2B tech marketing person here ergg - even seeing the acronym GDPR written still makes me shudder. I am not surprised it is a full time job to maintain this site - content, moderating, editing, news reporting and research and then an entire IT platform to maintain, secure, backup and keep response time and performance up for. And there is probably way more. And travel for the Stones.

Bravo to you. It was an amazingly selfless thing you have done and while you enjoyed it we benefited from the amazing info and friends handed to us with the click of a mouse and we are addicted to it.

i'm not a man of means by any stretch of the imagination

but i could forgo my copy of the wiltern show and throw fifty bucks towards the cause of keeping iorr going

i also wouldn't mind ads too if they weren't to intrusive

Thank you BV, this site has been part of my life for many years, a great community and so much incredible information and experiences shared.

I rarely post, but I would really like to thank BV for all his work and passion.

Concering the future: I think Steve Hoffmann has a great forum. They do crowdfunding/recommend donations from time to time. And there are several moderators (called "gorts") that keep the forum going. Perhaps this might be a future modell for iorr.