Are Popular Forums worth a lot of money?

[wildstar]

I just remembered a posting about 2 years ago - a person being naive and obnoxious started posting his knowledge and started bickering with everyone. They he started to say things like he was rich and could buy this forum and so on and so on.

I know many forums are owned by corporations such as Honda car forums, Betty Crocker cooking etc. but how about these independent ones. Do popular forums ever get asked to be sold to other individuals or corporations? Just a thought.

 

[gajinoz]

I suppose it's theoretically possible that somebody could offer Spark a truckload of money for Bladeforums and he could take it but I doubt he would. In any case, if he did I suspect a large number of regulars would move on and/or the whole tone of the place would change.

I really couldn't see it happening though, what money is there to be made from a forum like this? I very much doubt that spark buys himself a new Lear jet every year from the membership fees!

 

[Quiet Storm]

I don't think knife companies would spend money on BFC, simply because this is not a manufacturer-specific forum.

If, for example, Cold Steel bought this place, they certainly wouldn't be happy to read lots of complaints about their products and praise for, say, Spyderco.
Under these circumstances, few people (including myself) would continue to post here. I'm sure the companies can figure that out as well.

 

[severtecher]

Gajinoz, you are quite correct. Sparks has asked me to check out a 2000 model Learjet here in Tucson , times being tough here on the Forums.

 

[Walking Man]

a person being naive and obnoxious started posting his knowledge and started bickering with everyone. They he started to say things like he was rich and could buy this forum and so on and so on.

God forbid. There's already one forum that's run this exact way, and if you disagree with anyone you get banned. BF is the place to be!!! You're actually allowed to have an opinion here. THANKS, SPARK!

 

[gajinoz]

God forbid. There's already one forum that's run this exact way, and if you disagree with anyone you get banned. BF is the place to be!!! You're actually allowed to have an opinion here. THANKS, SPARK!

Yes but your opinion is wrong, mine is the only correct one!

 

[Gollnick]

Are Popular Forums worth a lot of money?

Absolutely.

Bladeforums is one of the biggest and most active forum sites on the internet. In fact, according to www.big-boards.com, bladeforums is the 325th most active discussion forum on the internet. That is absolutely incredible when you think about what an esoteric site this is.

The fact is that lots of folks would pay big money to advertise on this site, not just knife companies.

Most of the top 500 or so big boards have banner advertising. bf.c does not.

Know this and know it well: Spark is giving up a gold mine so that we can have this forum free of banner and pop-up ads.

Do popular forums ever get asked to be sold to other individuals or corporations?

Yes, very often. It's rare to find a forum site as big as this one owned by an individual. Spark probably gets offers on this place several times per year.

 

[Quiet Storm]

In fact, according to www.big-boards.com, bladeforums is the 325th most active discussion forum on the internet.

The 325th biggest forum of the ones they keep track of.

They constantly accept new entries and I'm sure that most of the biggest boards are there, but I don't know if they feature all of the biggest forums on the 'net.

 

[Walking Man]

Yes but your opinion is wrong, mine is the only correct one!

Thank goodness you're allowed to express that. And thank goodness you won't be banned for that. Hallelujah!

 

[dsvirsky]

Bladeforums is one of the biggest and most active forum sites on the internet. In fact, according to www.big-boards.com, bladeforums is the 325th most active discussion forum on the internet.

Well, that probably explains how BFC got on the list of banned Internet sites (categorization: "chat") at work, since none of the other knife-related forums are blocked.

 

[TFin04]

Wow, crazy. According to big-boards.com Pbnation.com is the 20th most active forum on the net. Thats a paintball message board that I've been at since the start of it (actually helped launch it). I also used to be a supermod there. Crazy...

I do know that they get a lot of money from advertising, as they do use banner ads. Their ads aren't pop ups and they aren't really annoying, but they do use them.

 

[Quiet Storm]

I did a little reasearch and found out that the biggest discussion boards are Japanese, with the biggest of them being about twice as active as the largest board that is listed on www.big-boards.com. So I guess it's safe to say that there are dozens, if not hundreds of forums that would rank higher than BFC if anyone kept track of their stats.