Other Our own Bit-Tech with blackjack and hookers!

Or in the case of Amazon, a $300,000 loan from his parents (Around $570k in today's money)

 

So in a garage then

Sarcasm aside (or not), that means we only need to raise a seven figure seed fund and we're in! On the basis we can use my garage, of course. The mortgage does still need paying, so if you guys whip up the 1700, I'll do the admin.

And some reviews.

 

The blackjack and hookers may be the way forward. Is Sealand still hosting shady server farms? You could set up some kind of Uber-style prostitution ring for funding... or is Uber halfway there already?

 

So, time for a quick update.

First the good news...Alessandro has agreed to join the team! He'll be heading up the Modding section alongside Andy who'll be taking care of the Tech section.
That leaves a requirement for someone to manage the Gaming section and an additional section, Making. The new section seems like an obvious addition as it overlaps with all the other sections to varying degrees but is a discipline in itself.

The bad news is that having spoken to David, we were unable to secure the "bit-tech" name. We still haven't landed on a name, so if anyone has any suggestions drop them in the thread (bearing in mind that in addition to a domain, it needs to be available on social platforms)

On the code side of things, development is underway. Rather than sellotape a CMS to a forum I've opted to build up a monorepo from scratch - Why? Because the magazine paradigm is losing ground to video, and to keep it relevant in the 2020's I want to add a bunch of related side-services, for example, a clan management site, or a UI to take the pain out of spinning up dedicated servers in the cloud are both under consideration. Essentially, we need to find ways of keeping the userbase engaged with the site, and with each other.

Another open question is exactly how we're going to monetize it to cover costs. Another pressure on magazines has been the advent of Ad Blockers, which destroy the established value chain. Affiliate programs are another option but provide only a trickle of revenue. There's the possibility of video sponsorship, but that's a whole ethical dilemma in itself given the main advertisers in that space - Be it the predatory business plan of free-to-play games, or business practices of companies like HelloFresh. Patreon is another option - Only profitable at a huge scale but could help us pay the bills initially while we figure out how to generate revenue from the side services mentioned earlier. However, I'm not sure if it would be palatable to the bit-tech crowd given that bit-tech has always been "free" in the sense it has been ad-supported. Do you guys have any thoughts about these options?

 

I don't think it would kill us to have a few ads on the forum pages. -Just don't go the photobucket route and have 20-30 ad loads per page click WITH multiple video ads. I'd swear they invested heavily in adblock and wanted to help it gain users.

 

With regards to names, the only (vaguely sensible) one I've been able to come up with is "404 Tech", but I have a nagging feeling that it's been used before...?

As for advertising, all the above are good suggesions - but nobody's mentioned skimlinks yet for some reason

I'd love to throw my hat into the ring for the gaming section, but I'm not sure what I'd be able to offer at the moment

 

X404 is the name of Saspro's original offshoot from back when Dennis killed the CPC/PC Pro forums.

 

bit404tech.net

The troll game is strong.

 

All I'll say is that bit-tech.rip and bit-tech.memorial are both available.

 

This is the core of it. The vast majority of activity is from long-time members. I guess all the guest browsers bump up ad revenue a fair bit, but how many of those are bots, crawlers, or regular users who haven't bothered to log in? The essence of the site is a loyal community which has stuck around in spite of bumps, tumbles and creeping irrelevance (I assume it's inoffensive to say this now that mgmt have openly called it so). They'll stick around for whatever is built next, I'm sure. If two decades and a global paradigm shift from ATX towers to gaming smartphones and subscription consoles can't kill their enthusiasm for modding and hardware, nothing can.

I was waiting for this. It's like another Godwin's law: as a discussion about the future of an ailing team/project/community/business continues, the probability that Sealand will be mentioned approaches 1.

Sadly I can't contribute much, no relevant skills to offer. Most of the guys on here know their tech, modding, coding, etc. better than I do. But I guess if you need a proof-reader anywhere in the pipeline (on scripts, articles, etc.), I'd be happy to do that? I don't have a relevant CV but I am proud of my written form and literacy.