www.rafcommands.com For Sale

[Richard]

4. But I do wonder if members will keep posting at the same pace should a change of ownership happen?

Thanks to Ross for running such an excellent site for so long. Best wishes to Jagan for considering purchasing the site - I can only answer for myself (as a newcomer) but I will support new management as best I can and be grateful for the hard work that goes into making the site a success.

Richard

[phill jones]

I too am Saddened to hear that Ross has Put the Site up for sale , but i fully understand his Reasons , Thank you Ross for all your hard work for making available such a brilliant site , I truly hope the site will continue to grow under new Owners and not go into Archive status if not Sold which would be Tragic .

I will continue to support the forum for as long as it Continues and my Sincere Hope is that it does !

Phill Jones.

to add to the above , i too would be happy to Contribute Financially to see the Forum Cont

[malcolm_raf]

I echo the comments of other but would be willing to discuss a joint undertaking as suggested by David to see the continuation of the forum.

Malcolm

[Lyffe]

I think, Jagen, there is a wish amongst members for rafcommands to continue largely as it is as a source of information and advice. To me one of its most remarkable features is the way a thread appears to run its course, then, years later, blossoms into life when a relative of an airman finds it and either asks for further advice, or is able to make a significant contribution to what actually happened.

So far as support is concerned I'd be happy to contribute financially.

Brian

[Ross_McNeill]

To answer a few questions being posed on line and by PM.

The forum software is a commercial product that was purchased outright rather than leased. Although it has no annual costs to run it also has no automatic free upgrades to new Vbulletin versions but these could be re-established by the new operator for a fee from Vbulletin.

My personal opinion on this is that the new version would not be one that I would purchase as there are better deals from competitors. I've been working on the assumption that the forum software will be good for another 3 to 5 years before needing replacement.

The forum can support multiple Admin accounts and mod accounts. These can be limited to certain sub-forums or applied globally and tailored in ability/action by means of an extensive tick box list.

Photo hosting, HTML code, RSS feeds, private forums etc are all features it currently has but are not used.

The forum could be run by a group or individual but the Domain registration demands the name and contact details of an individual so this would need to taken into consideration by a group effort.

I have not taken any steps towards improving the Alexa and other traffic reports as I did not intend to add ads to the site during my custodianship so all these are ready for immediate improvement with a bit of attention/tweaking.

Initially I used my sponsorship as the funding stream feeding in the TNA files commerce to take up expansion costs. I believe the way forward for maintain the site at current levels and projected growth is for either expanded ecommerce or inclusion of ad banners.

Another immediate method of reducing costs is to prune the storage requirements and return to basic hosting costs in Nov 2014 when the current situation is up for renewal.

As to reasons for making the for sale announcement.
I have been working on another project for a few years now in parallel with forum duties. This project has a projected web hosting requirement that will shortly duplicate and surpass the web hosting currently occupied by rafcommands.com. A deadline has been imposed which will mean devotion of all my time to met it, thus why I will not have any longterm ability to continue admin of the board.

The duplicate web hosting costs are ones which I need to cut.

Simply put it's time that the forum moved to new ownership/direction if it is to continue. I want to pay only one set of hosting costs and that will be for the new project. Selling the forum and domain meets my criteria on time and costs but if not sold at a rate that recognises it's value as an existing asset I will close to new posts , meeting my time needs and then as the new project needs the storage/web hosting recover the archive space for reuse.

Regards
Ross

[Resmoroh]

I thoroughly endorse what Brian has said. The beauty of this site is that its members can be experts in very, very, small parts of a problem. Occasionally that small part can unlock, or explain, much larger chunks of any problem.
I, too, will be prepared to contribute financially!
HTH
Peter Davies

[Scott McIntosh]

I would also like to contribute financially and as a moderator etc but am of no use technically. I guess in time I could learn but I know nothing of running a forum.

The RAF Commands forum must continue running so as no to let the good work of Ross and other form members go to waste. Whether that be as Ross is saying with the new owner/s taking on ads or by meeting annual cost by subscription on a volunteer basis.

A forum owned and run by members would be complicated but very possible and would keep the forum running until a better solution could be found. I do not want to see this forum reduced to an archive as there are some very good people on here who help a lot of us and all of the people who are looking for info on uncle johnny the fighter/bomber pilot.

To lay out a simple guide for a member owned payment scheme a basic model would be thus.

Intial buy over based on 20 members outlaying £50 each with say £20 a year additional for hosting fees.

I think there would be 20 members here that would like to take part in that kind of offer.

Essentially I would think that the members would be looking to source an income on the forum so that it could pay for itself. How that would happen in the real world would need to be discussed.

What is needed is 20 plus members who would be willing to part with that sort of cash. Each could reach an agreement on payment etc etc and take on moderation duties etc.

But what is defiantely needed is 1 person to be named the man or woman who takes ownership of the forum in name and the same person to take technical control of the forum. Either that or an additional technical person.

Hopefully the forum could have several technical people who could take it in turn to ensure the smooth running of the forum but that is in an ideal world realistically we might not even get 1 person willing to do the technical side.

Lets hear everyones thoughts.

First of all we need financial support. Who would be willing to part with some cash.

[Galgos]

Like many others, the help that I've received from many members over the years has enabled my research to progress way beyond my expectations, so the demise of this site would be an immense loss to me and I suspect many other researchers. I sincerely hope it will continue, I too am prepared to chip in if needs be in order to ensure this.

[malcolm_raf]

Count me in

Malcolm

[Scott McIntosh]

I count 7 people so far who have offered finiancial support already before and after my post above so far.

Another 13 depending on the level of financial support given and we could still have a forum.