1/4 of overclockers visitors visit forums

~>Dg<~ · 9 Apr 2008 at 10:54

i honestly believe that if it didnt make em money or bring them buisness in it wouldnt be up.it is the greatest forums on the planet though

[TR]SweetSpotOz · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:07

tres · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:14

that seems stupidly high, even for the site as well?

p4radox · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:18

The forums surely must amount to a net profit for the company. I don't know a lot about hosting, but if it costs a few grand a year to keep the forum running, that cost will be easily surpassed by the increased revenue from sales. I mean, every time a new system is specced in GH it probably generates £500 or so.

Sagalout · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:20

markyp23 said:
I remember someone saying that the bandwidth costs are ~£25k a year. Whether there is any truth in that or not I have no idea but would be doubtful.

I don't believe that - not when there are hosting companies offering dedicated servers with unlimited bandwidth for about £100 a month for a decent spec. Unless the Mods are paid, but I didn't think they were?

Even if it were £25K, thats still a bargain for a huge captive and participative audience - blue chips would pay at least 10 times that to develop a site with similar success.

Sarduk · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:22

N9ne said:
The forums can't cost that much to run surely. Perhaps £500/month but in the grand scheme of things, £6000 a year isn't going to hurt them too heavily.

This forum could run on one web server, costing much less than £200 a month, assuming 10TB of bandwidth p/m. If they allowed search engines to crawl the amazing content here, floods of people would find Overclockers.co.uk (searching Google for overclocking questions, hardware questions, even motor questions!)

I would take what whoever said about the forums amounting to a nett loss with a pinch of salt

[TR]SweetSpotOz · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:49

icey_haj · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:49

G|mp said:
I used to point people to OcUK when i worked for the purple shirts

bit harsh on the purple shirts though, dont you think?

krooton · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:55

markyp23 said:
I remember someone saying that the bandwidth costs are ~£25k a year. Whether there is any truth in that or not I have no idea but would be doubtful.

No way is it that high!

Tranceaddict is ranked 10,682, OCUK is only 16,082, and I know for a fact TA spends no where near that much cash a year, heck, the site is owned by one guy and it isn't a full scale business.

Spyhop · 9 Apr 2008 at 11:58

I have a very hard time believing that the forums result in a net loss

tres · 9 Apr 2008 at 12:01

it could be hosted on a dedicated dual xeon jobby i reckon
with a 10mb pipe

or they could use one of those UnLiMiTeD bAnDwIdTh AnD uNlImItEd SpAcE fOr OnLy $10/month!

semi-pro waster · 9 Apr 2008 at 12:37

trescodrucey said:
it could be hosted on a dedicated dual xeon jobby i reckon
with a 10mb pipe

or they could use one of those UnLiMiTeD bAnDwIdTh AnD uNlImItEd SpAcE fOr OnLy $10/month!

I could be wrong on this but from various threads I think that the server(s?) these forums run on belong to OcUK and to get a UK based host plus guaranteed uptime with callout etc won't be quite so cheap.

I don't know whether it does or doesn't cost £25k p/a but I'm not sure I see the point in lying about it. If it costs £10 and a Mars bar then why not say so?

Hyper · 9 Apr 2008 at 12:59

I would like to see Spie's thoughts on this.

Samtheman1k · 9 Apr 2008 at 13:04

BillytheImpaler said:
Spie has said on many past occasions that the forums amount to a net loss for the company.

That's a ridiculous thing to say, that's like saying the floor space in a shop is loss, which of course it is, but it facilitates purchases.

Voltar · 9 Apr 2008 at 13:07

I always point people to OcUK if they want PC stuff tbh.
Doubt the forums actually makes the business lose money, but if so it shows something very special (in a good way) about the business

cheets64 · 9 Apr 2008 at 13:07

They most bring in some profit, what about the "hi there threads" from gibbo of offers on.

I joined this forum so ask about certain hardware parts and it influenced my being them.

Dave M · 9 Apr 2008 at 13:09

semi-pro waster said:
I don't know whether it does or doesn't cost £25k p/a but I'm not sure I see the point in lying about it. If it costs £10 and a Mars bar then why not say so?

It does, I've seen the bill

Hardware rental, bandwidth, and completely managed - it's not the cheapest but it works.

I'd imagine as a marketting asset an advertising type person would value it at more than that though - in reality who knows, I'd guess it brings in business but I know no more than any of you

G|mp · 9 Apr 2008 at 13:17

cheets64 said:
They most bring in some profit, what about the "hi there threads" from gibbo of offers on.

I joined this forum so ask about certain hardware parts and it influenced my being them.

Are you dyslexic?

Angilion · 9 Apr 2008 at 13:25

Samtheman1k said:
That's a ridiculous thing to say, that's like saying the floor space in a shop is loss, which of course it is, but it facilitates purchases.

I now have a rather bizarre image in my head:

The OcUK shop, without a floor. Just a chasm of infinite depth.

Customers swing across from the doorway to the counter, a la Tarzan...swing...drop a list of items to be bought...swing, push a card in...oops, missed...swing...push a card in...swing...enter PIN...etc.

Angilion · 9 Apr 2008 at 13:29

cheets64 said:
They most bring in some profit, what about the "hi there threads" from gibbo of offers on.

I joined this forum so ask about certain hardware parts and it influenced my being them.

Brilliant typo! "being" instead of "buying" makes the post much funnier.

"I want to be a tree."

"Yeah, well, I'm a Core 2 Q6600."