Huge price hike on ad removal

Hi

I created the site 606v2.com 6 months ago and immediately paid for the removal of the site adverts for the benefit of the members, it cost 1000 credits to have them removed for 6 months for everyone including guests.

I've just gone to pay for another 6 months and it now is 11962 credits to do the same.

Why has it increased so much?

http://www.diigo.com/item/t/2597811_81870578_4076383
Works fine for me... Can you take a ScreenShot of your problem?

The amount of credits varies depending upon the number of activity your forum has. Nothing can be done about it.

What is it based upon?
Messages, total number of members etc.
As I have quite a number of members that joined but never posted so if they're costing me I could remove them to knock the price down.

Well, i can't say for sure whether its due to members or the number of posts.

It'd help to know!
Could you find someone who does know as I might to look at other options than forumotion for the site otherwise.

I don't think policy details are given out. When Typlo was the admin, he just mentioned it depends on the activity of the forums.

If I'm expected to pay over 10x what I paid for a site only 6 months previously I surely am allowed to know what the breakdown is for this level of increase?
If not then I'm sure a number of companies would be interested in our members moving to an alternative provider.

Since I posted the above picture the cost for a year has gone up another 100 credits as well!

The only thing i could do is to bring this to the attention of The Godfather. I am not sure if he will reply or not. But, such policy decisions are not ever been made public as far as i know. Lets wait to hear from him.

Moving companies is your personal choice.

I'm more than happy for him to contact me via pm if he prefers.

I have already provided him with a link to this thread. He will now reply here if he wishes to.

You should be a lot more clearer on these costs when signing up to the site, things such as costs should be set out within terms and conditions and as a customer we should be entitled to know what and why we are paying for them.
Nowhere can I find any of this information.

Do you get information on a product you buy for 10 bucks today. Do any of the companies give information on what the price will be a few months from now??

Also, no one is forcing you to buy the credits. You are doing it at your will.

However, as i said its a company policy. Its beyond my control. Just wait to see if The Godfather replies.

The cost of ad removal is based on the amount of revenue those ads are generating. That means the more successful you are in bringing members AND GUESTS to view your forum, the more expensive it will be to remove the ads.

I agree that this is not explained when you create a forum. Other free forum providers do a much better job of explaining the "hidden costs" before you start a forum, and all of them except forumotion/forumactif provide documentation for the actual costs of their premium (non-free) services. I'm sure this is a big reason why forumotion/forumactif is marketed to 14-21 year olds...those who have been in the real world for any length of time would know you can't get something for nothing, and they would do a little digging to find those "hidden costs".

But even though forumotion/forumactif is more than a little deceptive in its free forum advertising, this still falls in your lap. It is, in my opinion, naive to believe that one could create an extremely-active forum and forever pay at or near the base level for ad removal.

Caveat Emptor.

(admin of the forum in question here)
So im assuming that no matter which host we go to, because we are getting that many hits, these costs for add removal will always be an issue.

Y I Man wrote:(admin of the forum in question here)
So im assuming that no matter which host we go to, because we are getting that many hits, these costs for add removal will always be an issue.

It depends on the host. You just have to read the documentation well, and ask the support team any questions before moving or making new forum.

Y I Man wrote:(admin of the forum in question here)
So im assuming that no matter which host we go to, because we are getting that many hits, these costs for add removal will always be an issue.

If you have a semi-successful forum - forumotion is not for you.

The costs are high.
The support is vastly inferior to a proper company (no offence to the forum members here, you guys are great).
You don't have access to the database.
You don't have full rights over what you do.
You don't own the forum.
Heck they are even pissy about transfering YOUR domain name to you.

A decent hosting company with phpbb3 preloaded, will be around £3-£5 per month depending on levels of support. You can get this cheaper if you can load it yourself.

The difference between forumotion and other hosting sites, is you do need to know a little more - but you do get much more help.

Forumotion is great for tiny amounts of traffic, and something you need to set up quickly. It is not a business option, nor can it ever be.

Based on the credits required for ad removal, I'd also suggest that the OP look to paid hosting. One can easily find a high-bandwidth phpBB3 board for the US$20/month it would cost to remove the ads. And there are ways to transfer the databases to a new phpBB3 board. forumotion/forumactif is targeted to teens -- it is NOT a business solution.

And yes, in the past, the support here was not very good. However, I believe the poor support here was due to the parent company, eToxic, only caring about their French and Arabic customers. Recently things have been changing for the better here, in no small part due to the new administrator, who speaks English as his primary language -- I believe the first-ever admin on this board to do so.

You see, we say that but there has been some pretty succesful forums on forumotion right?

There has been that massive facebook forum or something?

And we all know that you pick forumotion and then your forums get too busy and well known to turn back and make it from a proper web host. I wish i started out properly, but its too late to go back.

We didnt expect our site to take off in the way it has.
It was just a little forum for a few guys to stay together after BBC 606 forum closed.

But it has evolved into a business oportunity. We have close to 3,000 members and only launched in January. Twitter accounts being followed by hundreds of people and partnerships and link ups with other web-sites.

It looks as though we have outgrown forumotion.

A question for the forumotion Admin Team.
You have our database, and I know you wont release it.
But would you release our database to us if we paid you?
How much would it cost?

Congrats on the success of your forum
Just out of curiosity do you own your domain name or does forumotion own it? And is $20 a month to much to pay to remove the ads? I figured a successful forum could potentially be worth billions.